Your daily 6: Frigid iguanas fall from Florida trees, Trump slams book and 'Sloppy Steve,' 104-year old woman owes it all to Diet Coke

Trump slams book, 'Sloppy Steve'; author responds

President Trump on Thursday night tweeted that the new tell-all book about his administration is "phony," insisting he never gave its author reporting access to the White House.

"I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book!" Trump wrote in a tweet. "I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. Look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!"

Michael Wolff, the author of "Fire and Fury," sat down for an interview on the Today Show on Friday morning. 

Iguanas falling from frigid Florida trees. Please don't pick them up.

On Thursday morning, Frank Cerabino, a columnist for the Palm Beach Post, woke up to a 40-degree weather and was greeted by a "frozen iguana"  lounging by his pool in Boca Raton, Florida.

He responded as many people probably would: he shared a photo on social media. Then he pondered, "What do you do?" he told the New York Times.

One of the strongest winter storms on the East Coast in modern history has pummeled cities with snow and sleet, forcing schools and businesses to close while grounding thousands of flights.

And in South Florida, it is "raining iguanas."

Green iguanas, like all reptiles, are coldblooded animals, so when the temperature falls to a certain level iguanas become immobile, saidKristen Sommers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Under 50 degrees Fahrenheit, they become sluggish. Under 40 degrees, their blood stops moving as much, Sommers said.

They like to sit in trees,and "it's become cold enough that they fall out."

This is not a new phenomenon - there were similar reports in 2008 and 2010 - though it is not typical.

"The reality is South Florida doesn't get that cold very often or long enough that you see this frequently," Sommers said.

But what should one do with a fallen iguana?

Cerabino told the New York Times that he prodded the iguana with a pool skimmer.

"He didn't move," Cerabino said. "But he's probably still alive. My experience is that they take a while to die."

Maxine Bentzel, a reporter at CBS12 News, suggested that "iguanas have a good chance of thawing out if you move them into the sun."

The experts would prefer you didn't.

Sommers said the reptiles could become frightened as they warm.

"Like any wild animal it will try to defend itself," she said.

And there are cautionary tales.

Ron Magill of the Miami Zoo told WPLG TV in 2010 about a man who collected sleeping iguanas and threw them into the back of his station wagon. Then they awoke.

"All of a sudden these things are coming alive, crawling on his back and almost caused a wreck."

AP source: Trump had lawyer urge Sessions not to recuse self

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Department's investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The conversation between Don McGahn, the president's White House counsel, and Sessions took place on the president's orders and occurred just before the attorney general announced that he would step aside from the ongoing inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to a person with knowledge of the interaction. Two other people confirmed details of the conversation between McGahn and Sessions.

All three people spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to avoid publicly discussing an ongoing investigation.

The episode is known to special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and is likely of interest to them as they look into whether Trump's actions as president, including the May firing of FBI Director James Comey, amount to improper efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation. Investigators recently concluded a round of interviews with current and former White House officials, including McGahn and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

The New York Times first reported that Trump had McGahn lobby Sessions against a recusal.

Reached Thursday evening, Trump personal attorney John Dowd said, "I know nothing about that," and hung up. Jay Sekulow, another of the president's personal lawyers, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sessions announced on March 2 that he would recuse himself from the Russia probe. He said at the time that he should not oversee any investigation into a campaign for which he was an active and vocal supporter, though the recusal also followed the revelation that he had had two previously undisclosed interactions during the 2016 campaign with the Russian ambassador to the United States. At his Jan. 10 confirmation hearing, he had said he had no meetings with Russians.

But soon before the announcement, with White House officials anticipating that Sessions might be poised to step aside, McGahn spoke to Sessions by phone and urged him against recusing himself from the investigation.

During the conversation, according to people familiar with the matter, McGahn argued to Sessions that there was no reason or basis at that time for him to recuse. One person said McGahn also told him that recusal would do nothing to resolve concerns over whether Sessions had given a misleading answer at his confirmation hearing.

Sessions ultimately declined the urging, and McGahn ultimately accepted the conclusion of officials who believed that Sessions should recuse.

Sessions' recusal left Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of the Russia investigation. But once Trump fired Comey two months later, Rosenstein appointed Mueller, the former FBI director, to run the investigation and to report to him.

Four people, including Trump's former campaign chairman and national security adviser, have been charged so far in the investigation.

The Sessions recusal has been a sore spot for Trump for months, with the president publicly deriding the decision and lamenting his selection of the former Alabama senator as his attorney general.

In a July interview with The Times, Trump said, "Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else."

'Jeopardy' host Trebek has surgery for blood clots on brain

Longtime "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek had surgery for blood clots on the brain, but assured fans he'd be back reading clues to contestants soon.

Trebek appeared in a video on the "Jeopardy" Facebook page Thursday to announce that he'd had the surgery during the show's holiday break.

Wearing a "Jeopardy" baseball cap and using the same tone he employs to explain difficult subjects on the show, Trebek says "I had a slight medical problem, subdural hematoma, blood clots on the brain caused by a fall I endured about two months ago."

"Surgery was performed," he continues, "after two days in the hospital I came home and started recovery. The prognosis is excellent, and I expect to be back in the studio taping more 'Jeopardy' programs very, very soon."

He gave no specific timetable for when he might return.

The 77-year-old Canadian has become an American institution in the decades since he started hosting "Jeopardy" in 1984, beloved for the way he calmly delivers tough trivia to the cognoscenti that make up the show's contestants.

104-year old woman owes it all to Diet Coke

Theresa Rowley of Grand Rapids, Michigan, celebrated her 104th birthday on January 1, 2018.  Her secret?  Downing copious amounts of Diet Coke.

"I drink it because I like it," said Rowley. "I have a bag full of empty Diet Coke cans that I need to return to buy more Diet Coke."

Rowley says she drinks at least one can of Diet Coke each day.

"When I was 100, I thought I'd never be 104; I thought I'd pass away by that time but it just didn't happen," said Rowley. "Then I turn 101, and nothing happens.

"Here I am 104, and still nothing happens."

We'll drink (a Diet Coke) to that.

Korea talks set for next week, with low expectations and lots of wariness

BEIJING - North and South Korea are due to hold their first official talks in more than two years next Tuesday, as both sides dial down tensions ahead of next month's Winter Olympics in the South, but experts warned not to expect too much from the fragile process.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in has been trying to thaw frozen ties with the North since he was elected back in May, with one eye on ensuring the success of the Olympics and another on opening the door to a wider dialogue.

But it took until this week for the North Korean leader to pick up the olive branch. In his New Year's Day speech, Kim Jong Un said he wanted to improve ties, "earnestly" wished the Olympics to be a success and suggested the two sides meet urgently to discuss his country's participation.

From there events moved quickly.

Seoul responded with an offer of talks in the border village of Panmunjom next Tuesday. On Wednesday, North Korea opened a dormant cross-border hotline to facilitate communications, and Washington and Seoul agreed Thursday not to hold military exercises until after the Games, and on Friday morning Seoul was able to announce that Pyongyang had formally agreed to the talks.

In Washington, President Trump and his administration signaled they wouldn't get in the way, with Trump even tweeting that talks are a "good thing."

John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, said events had unfolded "seamlessly" this week, and it was likely the two sides would be able to reach an agreement on sending a North Korean delegation to the Olympics.

But beyond such sports diplomacy, officials and experts from Washington to Tokyo remain very wary.

They are suspicious of Kim's motives, noting that he vowed to spend this year mass producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. Kim also called on Seoul not to join Washington in "its reckless moves for a north-targeted nuclear war," and called on it to discontinue joint military exercises with the United States.

There is, in other words, absolutely no sign he has the remotest interest on turning his back on his nuclear program, and his agreement to dialogue may simply be an effort to get some relief from international sanctions, drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul and buy time to develop his nuclear program further.

"I think what is important is to maintain a firm defense posture," Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, according to Reuters.

"North Korea goes through phases of apparent dialogue and provocation but either way, North Korea is continuing its nuclear and missile development. We have no intention of weakening our warning and surveillance."

Despite this caution, Trump and South Korea's Moon did agree to postpone their annual joint military exercises until after the Olympics, a gesture that should allow the games to take place against a slightly less fraught backdrop.

Further ahead, though, the dialogue process remains fragile and is likely to run into some very fundamental obstacles.

According to the White House, Trump and Moon agreed during a telephone conversation "to continue the campaign of maximum pressure against North Korea." But Kim will surely come into any dialogue process looking for financial rewards and relief from sanctions. experts say.

The idea of granting relief to Pyongyang will not go down at all well in Washington.

"There does seem to be evidence that the sanctions are beginning to really bite," said Paul Haenle, head of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing. With Kim feeling he may have achieved a "very minimal level of deterrence vis-à-vis the United States," he may now feel it is time for diplomacy.

"This also has the added benefit of driving a wedge between the United States, which is pressing hard for more and more pressure, and South Korea and China, whose preference is for finding a way to ratchet down tensions and shift to talks and diplomacy," he added.

In 2016, the Workers' Party of Korea held its 7th National Congress, vowing to pursue nuclear weapons alongside economic development. On Monday, Kim declared the successful accomplishment of "the great, historic cause of perfecting the national nuclear forces," and stressed his central aim this year to improve people's standard of living.

"Once the nuclear weapon is completed, it's time to focus on economic development," said Chinese military commentator Song Xiaojun. "This needs a relatively peaceful environment. Moon Jae-in's administration is different from (previous president) Park Geun-hye's. There's an opportunity just in time - the Winter Olympics."

North Korea is skilled at exploiting differences in the international coalition calling for it to denuclearize. There is also the risk of the process falling apart when the joint exercises between the United States and South Korea do eventually take place after the Olympics or if North Korea conducts another missile test, experts say.

"It's a good idea to talk to North Korea - it's the most dangerous country in the world and we should always be ready to talk to them," said Robert Kelly, a professor of international relations at Pusan National University in South Korea. "But process is not a goal in itself."

Kelly warned that North Korea will likely treat its participation in the Olympics as a concession for which it will expect to be rewarded. "But these are not real concessions, they are costless," he said. "Who do you think is going to pay for North Korean athletes to come here? North Korea will treat this as a shakedown racket."