USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — For some time now, President Donald Trump has been encouraging people to think of Mexico as a portal for international terrorists who “pour” into the U.S. Except, he says, for 10 who were recently caught by the U.S.: “These are very serious people.”

These 10 do not exist, except as a federal statistic that Trump and his vice president put through a rhetorical grinder in service of describing emigrants from Mexico as a menace.

NEW YORK (AP) — The sentencing of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, brought a perilous investigation into the president’s campaign one step closer to the Oval Office.

Though Cohen broke down during his sentencing hearing Wednesday, Trump remained uncharacteristically quiet, his Twitter feed still while he ignored shouted questions about his former attorney at a White House event. But Trump has been far from silent during the monthslong Cohen saga, with the president’s explanations frequently shifting as his legal exposure grew.

11 Dec 2018; AFP: Two Catholic school nuns in California have admitted to embezzling about $500,000, and using the funds over the years for travel and gambling in Las Vegas, their order said on Monday.

Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, who are said to be best friends, took the money from tuition, fees and donations at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, south of Los Angeles.

12 Dec 2018; AFP: China has agreed to cut tariffs on autos imported from the United States, and resume soybean purchases, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Wednesday, confirming the reports that delighted investors.

Ross told CNBC the moves by Beijing will "prove that President (Donald) Trump was right when he announced his summary of the talks" held recently with China's President Xi Jinping.

12 Dec 2018; AFP: US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen delivered a blistering attack on his ex-boss as he was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for multiple crimes including making hush payments to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

"I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds," Cohen said as he pleaded for leniency before US District Judge William H. Pauley III in a packed Manhattan courtroom.

WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed House leaders on Wednesday on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the Senate prepared for a possible vote on two resolutions that would rebuke Saudi Arabia for its role in the slaying.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders on Wednesday were digging in for a fight over government funding, a day after a combative White House meeting with President Donald Trump that seemed to raise the likelihood of a partial government shutdown.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was holding parts of the government “hostage to a petty campaign pledge” to build a border wall with Mexico in order to “fire up” his political base.

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s once-devoted lawyer and all-around fixer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison after telling a federal judge that his “blind loyalty” to Trump led him to cover up the president’s “dirty deeds.”

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The assertion that “truth isn’t truth,” made by a personal attorney for President Donald Trump, tops a Yale Law School librarian’s list of the most notable quotes of 2018.

Rudy Giuliani’s statement came in an August interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he told host Chuck Todd that Trump might “get trapped into perjury” if he were interviewed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is disputing news reports that he’s having a hard time finding a new White House chief of staff.

In a tweet Tuesday disparaging the reports as “fake,” Trump says many people, “over ten, are vying for and wanting the White House Chief of Staff position.”

He asks: “Why wouldn’t someone want one of the truly great and meaningful jobs in Washington?”