North America

DALLAS (AP) — A tornado tossed trees into homes, tore off storefronts and downed power lines but killed no one in a densely populated area of Dallas, leaving Mayor Eric Johnson to declare the city “very fortunate” to be assessing only property damage.

A meteorologist said Monday that people took shelter thanks to early alerts, and that it was fortunate the tornado struck Sunday evening, when many people were home.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The suspect in a torture killing in Alaska’s biggest city ended up leading police right to him, first by losing a digital memory card labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriott” that contained video of the dying woman.

Then came an even more innocuous blunder: He spoke on the tape in his distinctive, very un-Alaska accent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Behind closed doors, President Donald Trump has made his views on Ukraine clear: “They tried to take me down.”

The president, according to people familiar with testimony in the House impeachment investigation, sees the Eastern European ally, not Russia, as responsible for the interference in the 2016 election that was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out Monday at critics who prompted him to move next year’s Group of Seven summit from his golf club in Florida, saying “Democrats went crazy” with criticisms that he would have violated the “phony emoluments clause” of the Constitution.

“I was willing to do this for free,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Monday, comparing it to his decision not to take his $400,000 presidential salary. But now, he said, “It will cost a fortune for the country.”

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared set to win a second term in Canada’s parliamentary elections Monday, seemingly fending off a challenge from rival Conservatives despite having been weakened by a series of scandals.

Trudeau’s Liberal party was projected to win the most seats in the 338-seat Parliament, giving it the best chance to form the next government. However, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said it would be a minority government, forced to rely on an opposition party to stay in power.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadians are electing a new Parliament on Monday after a tight election campaign that has raised the threat of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being knocked from power after one term.

The 47-year-old Trudeau channeled the star power of his father, the liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when he won in 2015 but a combination of scandal and high expectations have damaged his prospects.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The shout of “2024!” from the crowd was unmistakable. It stopped Donald Trump Jr. cold.

President Donald Trump’s eldest son had been in the midst of a humor-laced screed in which he decried Joe Biden as too old and Elizabeth Warren as too liberal and insisted his father’s 2016 campaign was too disorganized to possibly collude with the Russians. As many in the crowd of several hundred laughed, Trump Jr. held a dramatic pause before exclaiming his response:

“Let’s worry about 2020 first!” he yelled.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three years of simmering frustration inside the State Department is boiling over on Capitol Hill as a parade of current and former diplomats testify to their concerns about the Trump administration’s unorthodox policy toward Ukraine.

Over White House objections, the diplomats are appearing before impeachment investigators looking into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and they’re recounting stories of possible impropriety, misconduct and mistreatment by their superiors.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) — Witnesses have gathered in a small city in upstate New York over the past three weeks to testify in the trial of a man accused of strangling a young nursing student. But there is no jury, no American judge and the man accused is seated next to his defense attorney 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) away — in Nicaragua.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thundering explosions toppled two cranes Sunday that had loomed precariously for days over a partially collapsed hotel in New Orleans, in what city officials hailed as a success and said efforts now would focus on retrieving two bodies still inside the ruined building.

The fiery afternoon explosions sent up massive clouds of dust and sent one crane crashing to the street while the second fell in a way that left much of it resting atop the hotel where officials said it was “stable” and could be removed piecemeal.