AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT

Pelosi orders impeachment probe: ‘No one is above the law’

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, yielding to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an election-year clash between Congress and the commander in chief.

The probe focuses partly on whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government to undermine Democratic foe Joe Biden and help his own reelection. Pelosi said such actions would mark a “betrayal of his oath of office” and declared, “No one is above the law.”

The impeachment inquiry, after months of investigations by House Democrats of the Trump administration, sets up the party’s most direct and consequential confrontation with the president, injects deep uncertainty into the 2020 election campaign and tests anew the nation’s constitutional system of checks and balances.

Trump, who thrives on combat, has all but dared Democrats to take this step, confident that the spectre of impeachment led by the opposition party will bolster rather than diminish his political support.

Meeting with world leaders at the United Nations, he previewed his defence in an all-caps tweet: “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”

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Trump greets impeachment inquiry with confidence, irritation

NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty-eight floors above Manhattan, President Donald Trump watched his legacy change and his political future grow more uncertain.

The president, back in his hometown of New York for the U.N. General Assembly, was taking “executive time” at his Trump Tower penthouse late Tuesday afternoon when Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was launching a formal impeachment inquiry against him. Pelosi’s move increases the odds that Trump will become the third U.S. president to be impeached.

It was a step more than 2 1/2 years in the making, and one that moves the president further down the path of self-styled political martyrdom.

The product of Trump’s norm-breaking presidency and Democrats’ lingering anger over the outcome of the 2016 election, the impeachment inquiry has largely been welcomed by the president’s advisers, who believe it could backfire against Democrats. The president himself said the move could help his electoral chances, but he reacted in the moment with a cascade of angry tweets that accused Democrats of engaging in “a witch hunt” and “presidential harassment.”

A short time earlier, as word of Pelosi’s decision first emerged, an agitated Trump sized up the politics of the moment and the developments that have quickly enveloped his presidency since it was revealed that a whistleblower complaint accused him of pressuring the leader of Ukraine to dig up damaging material about political foe Joe Biden’s family.

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Domingo withdraws from Met Opera after harassment reports

NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera announced Tuesday that Plácido Domingo had agreed to withdraw from his slate of scheduled performances at the opera house following allegations of sexual harassment made by multiple women in two Associated Press stories. The opera legend indicated that he would never again perform at the Met.

Domingo had been scheduled to sing the title role in the season premiere of Verdi’s “Macbeth” on Wednesday night, which would have been his first performance in the United States since the AP reported that numerous women had accused him of inappropriate behaviour, including one soprano who said he grabbed her bare breast.

The Met had been under increasing pressure to cancel Domingo’s appearances, but general manager Peter Gelb reiterated to performers after a dress rehearsal Saturday that the opera house was awaiting results of investigations by the LA Opera, where Domingo has been general director since 2003, and the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union that represents various opera staff.

Domingo, who had sung in rehearsals, issued a statement saying his Met career was over after what the company said was 706 performances as a singer, plus 169 as a conductor.

“I made my debut at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of 27 and have sung at this magnificent theatre for 51 consecutive, glorious years,” the star said. “While I strongly dispute recent allegations made about me, and I am concerned about a climate in which people are condemned without due process, upon reflection, I believe that my appearance in this production of ‘Macbeth’ would distract from the hard work of my colleagues both on stage and behind the scenes.

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Johnson: ‘Terrifying limbless chickens’ but little Brexit

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Things the beleaguered British prime minister said in his astonishing speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday night: “Pink-eyed Terminators from the future.” ”Terrifying limbless chickens.” ”Your fridge will beep for more cheese.”

Things Boris Johnson didn’t address with any substance: Brexit (though he mentioned it in a quip). The British court ruling earlier in the day that said he acted illegally by dissolving Parliament. The take-no-prisoners politics that some say are threatening his premiership and undermining his influence as Britain’s leader.

Many didn’t know what to expect Tuesday after the court ruling came down hours before Johnson’s inaugural U.N. General Assembly speech as prime minister.

But it’s safe to say few anticipated what he dramatically and energetically delivered: a caffeinated screed about the damage that technology can do if misused — and the glories it can hand humanity if it is delivered properly.

In his notably energetic speech, which ended after 10 p.m. as more than 12 hours of U.N. speeches were inching to their end, Johnson said he was optimistic about technology’s future — if humanity finds “the right balance between freedom and control.”

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UN chief warns of a world divided between US and China

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned global leaders Tuesday of the looming risk of the world splitting in two, with the United States and China creating rival internets, currency, trade, financial rules “and their own zero sum geopolitical and military strategies.”

In his annual “state of the world address” to the General Assembly’s gathering of heads of state and government, Guterres said the risk “may not yet be large, but it is real.”

“We must do everything possible to avert the great fracture and maintain a universal system, a universal economy with universal respect for international law; a multipolar world with strong multilateral institutions,” he told presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers from the U.N.’s 193 member states.

Guterres painted a grim picture of a deeply divided and anxious planet facing a climate crisis, “the alarming possibility of armed conflict in the Gulf,” spreading terrorism, rising populism and “exploding” inequality.

His speech was followed by the traditional first speaker — Brazil, represented by its new president, Jair Bolsonaro — and the United States, represented by President Donald Trump.

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Whistleblower complaint could be headed to Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is reviewing a whistleblower’s complaint against President Donald Trump for possible release to Congress, signalling a potential breakthrough in a simmering power struggle that’s divided the White House and lawmakers for more than a week.

The document was being reviewed for classified material and could go to Congress by Thursday, according to a person familiar with the issue who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The review comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry and as Trump directed the release of the transcript of his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that forms the basis of part of the whistleblower complaint filed with the intelligence community inspector general.

The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, determined the complaint could not be forwarded to Congress, angering Democratic lawmakers who oversee the country’s intelligence community.

But a lawyer for the intelligence agency, Jason Klitenic, softened that perspective in a letter Tuesday to a lawyer for the anonymous whistleblower. Klitenic said the agency was consulting with other executive branch agencies on whether the complaint could be presented to Congress, and that he expected to provide “actionable guidance soon.”

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Hardy scientists trek to Venezuela’s last glacier amid chaos

MERIDA, Venezuela (AP) — Blackouts shut off the refrigerators where the scientists keep their lab samples. Gas shortages mean they sometimes have to work from home. They even reuse sheets of paper to record field data because fresh supplies are so scarce.

As their country falls apart, a hardy team of scientists in Venezuela is determined to transcend the political and economic turmoil to record what happens as the country’s last glacier vanishes.

Temperatures are warming faster at the Earth’s higher elevations than in lowlands, and scientists predict that the glacier — an ice sheet in the Andes Mountains — could be gone within two decades.

“If we left and came back in 20 years, we would have missed it,” says Luis Daniel Llambí, a mountain ecologist at the University of the Andes in Mérida.

Scientists say Venezuela will be the first country in South America to lose all its glaciers.

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Executive gets 4 months for bribing son’s way into USC

BOSTON (AP) — A Los Angeles business executive was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for paying $250,000 to get his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake water polo recruit.

Devin Sloane, 53, pleaded guilty in May to a single count of fraud and conspiracy. He is the second parent sentenced in a sweeping college admissions scandal that has ensnared dozens of wealthy mothers and fathers.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also ordered Sloane to perform 500 hours of community service over two years of supervised release and pay a fine of $95,000.

Authorities say Sloane helped fabricate documents depicting his son as an international water polo star even though he had never played the sport. He bought water polo gear online, investigators found, and staged action photos of his son in the family’s swimming pool.

Sloane is a graduate of USC and founder of the Los Angeles water systems company AquaTecture.

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Isolated and restricted, Iran uses UN gathering for outreach

NEW YORK (AP) — Iran’s delegates to the United Nations are confined to a roughly six-block radius of Manhattan, but that hasn’t limited their reach as they mount a diplomatic blitz at the U.N. General Assembly this week.

President Hassan Rouhani has used his time in New York to meet with the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Japan on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting. He also met with U.S. media leaders and gave a TV interview to Fox News.

Inside the U.N., talk of Iran has made it into speeches by world leaders as the crisis brewing in the Persian Gulf looms over the annual gathering. But all around, there’s been a diplomatic flurry of activity to address the rising tensions, in addition to demonstrations, conversations and interviews all focused on Iran.

It comes as movements of Iran’s delegation to the U.N. are far more restricted than in previous years, when Iranian representatives to the U.N. were allowed to travel within a 25-mile radius in midtown Manhattan.

The need for diplomacy and dialogue— both mainstays of the U.N.— seems to have taken on an added sense of urgency as officials from Europe and the Middle East stress the importance of avoiding escalations that could lead to war.

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Massachusetts temporarily banning sale of vaping products

BOSTON (AP) — The governor of Massachusetts declared a public health emergency Tuesday and ordered a four-month ban on the sale of vaping products in the state, apparently the first action of its kind in the nation.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s order was quickly approved by the state Public Health Council and applies to all vaping products and devices. The ban, though temporary, is broader than moves in at least two states, Michigan and New York, to ban only vape flavours.

His announcement came amid growing concern about the health effects of vaping products, including deaths.

The administration said that as of Tuesday, 61 cases of potential cases of lung disease related to the use of electronic cigarettes and vaping in Massachusetts had been reported to the state.

Three confirmed cases and two probable Massachusetts cases of vaping-associated pulmonary disease have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Associated Press