Giuliani plays down idea of Trump self-pardon

WASHINGTON (AP) — An attorney for President Donald Trump stressed Sunday that the president's legal team would contest any effort to force the president to testify in front of a grand jury during the special counsel's Russia probe but downplayed the idea that Trump could pardon himself.

Rudy Giuliani, in a series of television interviews, emphasized one of the main arguments in a newly unveiled letter sent by Trump's lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller back in January: that a president can't be given a grand jury subpoena as part of the investigation into foreign meddling in the 2016 election.

But he distanced himself from one of their bolder arguments in the letter, which was first reported Saturday by The New York Times, that a president could not have committed obstruction of justice because he has authority to "if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon."

"Pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment," Giuliani told NBC's "Meet the Press." ''And he has no need to do it, he's done nothing wrong."

The former New York City mayor, who was not on the legal team when the letter was written, added that Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself, an assertion challenged by legal scholars, but says the president's legal team hasn't discussed that option, which many observers believe could plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis.

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Guatemala volcano eruption kills at least 7, rescue hampered

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Rescuers struggled to reach rural residents cut off by a volcanic eruption that killed at least seven people and injured 20 near Guatemala's capital, and authorities feared the death toll could rise with an undetermined number of people unaccounted for.

The Volcan de Fuego, Spanish for "volcano of fire," exploded in a hail of ash and molten rock shortly before noon Sunday, blanketing nearby villages in heavy ash. Then it began sending lava flows down the mountain's flank and across homes and roads around 4 p.m.

Eddy Sanchez, director of the country's seismology and volcanology institute, said the flows reached temperatures of about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 Celsius).

Dramatic video showed a fast-moving lahar, or flow of pyroclastic material and slurry, slamming into and partly destroying a bridge on a highway between Sacatepequez and Escuintla.

Sacatepezuez television published images of a charred landscape where the lava came into contact with homes. Three bodies lay partially buried in ash-colored debris from the volcano, which lies about 27 miles (44 kilometers) from Guatemala City.

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Officer wounds self during pursuit near San Diego marathon

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg Sunday while pursuing a hit-and-run suspect who pointed a weapon at officers and was eventually arrested on the roof of a parking structure near the finish line of an annual marathon, authorities said.

Officers fired at the woman but missed after she brandished the weapon at the parking facility at the edge of a downtown plaza shared by City Hall, police Chief David Nisleit told reporters.

The suspect, identified by police as 58-year-old Mona Elease Williams, threw the weapon from the top of the structure to the street below before being taken into custody, Nisleit said. It was unclear what type of weapon it was, but investigators were looking into whether it was a pellet gun that resembles the real thing, the chief said.

She was booked on a charge of felony resisting arrest, police said. It was not immediately known if Williams had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

Police said they initially suspected the woman might have been linked to a kidnapping investigation in Chula Vista, but later Sunday a department spokesman said the two incidents appeared to be unrelated.

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Fallon to Parkland students: 'Don't let anything stop you'

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Graduating seniors at the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people in February received diplomas Sunday and heard from surprise commencement speaker Jimmy Fallon, who urged them to move forward and "don't let anything stop you."

Four families received diplomas on behalf of loved ones slain in the attack that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control. Principal Ty Thompson underscored the honors for the dead students in a tweet.

"Remember those not with us, and celebrate all the successes the Class of 2018 has brought to the community and the world!" Thompson tweeted.

The "Tonight Show" host offered similar praise, saying, "You are not just the future — you are the present. Keep changing the world. Keep making us proud."

In a video of his address, Fallon joked that the students "won't be classmates any more. You'll be adults who will Facebook search each other at 2 in the morning for the next 10 years."

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China says trade deals are off if US raises tariffs

BEIJING (AP) — China has balked at stepping up its purchases of American products, raising the odds of a trade war, if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to tax billions of dollars' worth of Chinese imports.

The warning from Beijing came after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China's top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, wrapped up talks on Beijing's pledge to narrow its trade surplus. White House advisers were insisting on fundamental changes in ties between the world's two biggest economic powers.

At the outset of the event Ross said the two sides had discussed specific American exports China might purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.

"Both sides appear to have hardened their negotiating stances and are waiting for the other side to blink," said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. "Despite the potential negative repercussions for both economies, the risk of a full-blown China-U.S. trade war, with tariffs and other trade sanctions being imposed by both sides, has risen significantly."

Asked specifically on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" if the U.S. is willing to throw away its relationship with China by proceeding with threatened tariff hikes, Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, pointed in part to an unfair relationship involving a multi-billion dollar trade deficit, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' warning of China's activities in the South China Sea and the threat of China stealing U.S. intellectual property.

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Many breast cancer patients can skip chemo, big study finds

CHICAGO (AP) — Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient's risk.

The study is the largest ever done of breast cancer treatment, and the results are expected to spare up to 70,000 patients a year in the United States and many more elsewhere the ordeal and expense of these drugs.

"The impact is tremendous," said the study leader, Dr. Joseph Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Most women in this situation don't need treatment beyond surgery and hormone therapy, he said.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, some foundations and proceeds from the U.S. breast cancer postage stamp. Results were discussed Sunday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Some study leaders consult for breast cancer drugmakers or for the company that makes the gene test.

MOVING AWAY FROM CHEMO

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Team studies bones to identify the disappeared in Mexico

CIUDAD CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico (AP) — A pair of rubber-gloved hands carefully separates the red "Evidence" tape from a paper bag and empties the contents onto a table. Hundreds of burnt bone fragments spill out.

The fragments look like bits of volcanic pumice. Yet for the hands that gently smooth them out over the table top, each one bears a name and holds a piece of a story that nobody knows, but that someone, somewhere is desperate to hear.

The fragments laid out by investigators for the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team are among the remains of tens of thousands of people who have simply disappeared in Mexico's long and bloody drug war. These particular bones come from one of three isolated ranches in the city of Cuauhtemoc in the northern border state of Chihuahua, where bodies of victims were dissolved or burned in drums. Nearby stand boxes and bags of other evidence bearing the names of the places and conditions in which they were found, such as "Dolores Ranch" and "(Bone) Fragments stained with diesel."

As President Enrique Pena Nieto prepares to leave office later this year, another administration has come and gone with little progress in solving one of Mexico's biggest problems: the disappeared. Distrust of Mexican authorities runs deep, and many families see the Argentine experts as the only ones to offer any answers to suffering that has stretched on for a decade or more.

In January, Mexico passed a "very important" law that introduces good methods for conducting searches and classifying crimes, said Ariel Dulitzky, director of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. But the law still needs funding and political will for enforcement, and it will only work together with a crackdown on corruption, he said.

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Mrs. Trump skipping G7, North Korea summits

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump isn't joining her husband at the G7 summit in Quebec this week or planning to accompany him to the expected meeting with North Korea's leader in Singapore the week after, spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said Sunday.

Mrs. Trump's decision not to go to Quebec is a departure from last year, when she made an international summit debut at the G7 meeting in Italy and followed up at the forum of G20 industrialized and developing nations in Germany. Spouses typically get together at events of their own during the meetings of world leaders.

The first lady stayed behind Friday when President Donald Trump, his daughters, eldest son and son-in-law went to the Camp David retreat for the weekend. She hasn't made a public appearance since before her five-day hospital stay in mid-May for treatment of a kidney condition the White House only described as benign.

Grisham said earlier that the first lady has been meeting with staff and working on projects. Mrs. Trump is scheduled to join the president Monday in hosting a reception, closed to the press, for Gold Star families.

"She will not attend the G7 and there are no plans for her to travel to Singapore at this time," Grisham told AP.

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US expects fallout from Snowden leaks for years to come

WASHINGTON (AP) — Whistleblower or traitor, leaker or public hero?

National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off U.S. government surveillance methods five years ago, but intelligence chiefs complain that revelations from the trove of classified documents he disclosed are still trickling out.

That includes recent reporting on a mass surveillance program run by close U.S. ally Japan and on how the NSA targeted bitcoin users to gather intelligence to combat narcotics and money laundering. The Intercept, an investigative publication with access to Snowden documents, published stories on both subjects.

The top U.S. counterintelligence official said journalists have released only about 1 percent taken by the 34-year-old American, now living in exile in Russia, "so we don't see this issue ending anytime soon."

"This past year, we had more international, Snowden-related documents and breaches than ever," Bill Evanina, who directs the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at a recent conference. "Since 2013, when Snowden left, there have been thousands of articles around the world with really sensitive stuff that's been leaked."

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Lawyer fights for Harvey Weinstein, in court and out

NEW YORK (AP) — A powerful public figure is accused of sexual assault in a Manhattan hotel room. There's media frenzy. Enter go-to defense attorney Ben Brafman.

Brafman, 69, was on the winning end of that scenario in 2011 when he helped former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn beat an attempted rape charge.

Seven years later, Brafman has an even bigger challenge: defending Harvey Weinstein against sex crime charges.

"I'm trying my best to save him in somewhat of an impossible situation he finds himself in," Brafman told The Associated Press.

Saving unpopular clients in impossible situations is something of a specialty for Brafman, whose list of past clients includes professional athletes, celebrities and wealthy businessmen in trouble, some so vilified many lawyers would shy away from them.