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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on Trump's comments on California wildfires (all times local):

The Australian government said it will consider resettlement for a Saudi woman whose plea to seek asylum while escaping her family went viral.

Los Angeles county school teachers are striking after failed negotiations to get smaller class sizes, higher pay, and increased funding.

A 25-year-old Chicago woman with a concealed carry license shot and killed a man who tried to rob her.

Syria's Kurds on Wednesday said they had captured eight alleged foreign jihadists including an American teenager in fighting against the Islamic State group. The eight, detained on Sunday and Monday, include a 16-year-old American as well as a German and a Russian, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement. Two are from Uzbekistan.

On Tuesday, portions of a court filing by lawyers for convicted former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort were inadvertently made public. Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Representative Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee's new Democratic chairman, noted that Schiff had described the revelation as "stunning" to the Washington Post and told Reuters that Schiff planned to dig into questions the court filing had raised. The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged Manafort and Kilimnik in its investigation of Russian interference in the election and whether Trump campaign members coordinated with Moscow officials.

The premier has five working days to overcome political opposition to the exit agreement she’s negotiated with the European Union before the deal is put to a vote in Parliament on Jan. 15. If the House of Commons defeats her plan, May says Britain will be facing an economically damaging no-deal Brexit in March. The prime minister is stepping up preparations for leaving the EU without an agreement, amid warnings that such an outcome could crash the pound by 25 percent and hit house prices by as much as 30 percent, risking a recession.

China's annual passenger car sales fell last year for the first time in more than 20 years as the trade war with the US rocked consumer confidence and Beijing reined in car financing channels. Passenger car sales fell to 22.4 million vehicles in 2018, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Wednesday. In December sales plummeted 19.2 percent from a year earlier, the CPCA said.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Turkey will not refrain from military action to protect its borders from what he describes as threats posed by Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Capital murder charges were filed against a second black man in the drive-by shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, authorities in Houston said Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being called out for photoshopping his shoes, in what some are now calling #shoegate.

On Jan. 9, 2018, the Southern California town of Montecito became overwhelmed with destructive mudslides after a potent storm prowled through the area.

A British charity helping whistleblowers around the world on Thursday launched a legal aid fund for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, warning his expulsion from Ecuador's embassy in London "may be imminent". The Courage Foundation said Assange's position in the embassy, where he has been living since seeking refuge there in 2012, was "under increasingly serious threat". Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno last month said that "the way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty".

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled a planned visit later this month to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, signaling he was prepared for the political showdown over the partial federal government shutdown to stretch into late January. Trump and congressional Democrats are in a battle over funding for the government and Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "Because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation, I am respectfully cancelling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum," Trump wrote on Twitter.

More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they had either "no confidence" or "not too much confidence" in Facebook developing A.I., a report from the Center for the Governance of AI, part of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said. The public was significantly more skeptical about Facebook than other tech companies working on cutting-edge A.I. research, according to the survey. Among technology companies, Microsoft Corp. was the most trusted, with 44 percent of people saying they had either "a great deal of confidence" or "a fair amount of confidence" in its ability to create A.I. that wouldn’t pose risks, the survey found.

The property includes a main farmhouse, a separate cottage for staff, and a converted barn extension

Canadian diplomats in China on Thursday held their second meeting with one of two citizens who were detained last month after the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Vancouver, the Canadian foreign ministry said. "Today, Canadian consular officials in China visited with Michael Kovrig," the ministry said in a statement that provided no further details. Officials met Michael Spavor, the other man, on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with a business associate accused of having ties to Russian intelligence, and prosecutors say he lied to them about it, according to a court filing .

Target's sales increased 5.7 percent during the holiday season in stores and on its websites operating for at least 12 months, the company said Thursday.

The roof of the car was caved in

It's only been about a week since NASA successfully inserted its OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe into orbit around the large space rock known as Bennu, after initially arriving in early December. The diamond-shaped object will quickly become one of the most closely-studied asteroids ever, but for now NASA wants to learn as much about Bennu's surface as possible, and that means observing it from every angle. In a new video animation that has been stitched together from numerous still shots we get one of our best looks yet at the asteroid. As the probe circles the rock, its powerful lens has captured Bennu from just about every angle, making for a neat little movie. "During the month of December, the spacecraft performed a preliminary survey of Bennu, conducting three flyovers of the asteroid's north pole and one each of its equator and south pole," NASA's OSIRIS-REx team explains. "The data gathered during these flybys allowed the mission team to more precisely estimate Bennu's mass so that the spacecraft could go into orbit around the asteroid." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29O8dUhFgY OSIRIS-REx has a fairly long road ahead of it before NASA declares the mission a complete success. The spacecraft will remain in orbit around Bennu for at least the next year or so, closely studying it and delivering even more images of its messy surface. During that time, NASA will decide on a spot from which to collect a material sample, eventually touching down on Bennu and retrieving some of its surface material before flying back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is expected to arrive back on Earth sometime in 2023, at which point eager scientists will have an opportunity to study the sample in great detail. If everything goes according to plan, the mission should teach scientists a great deal about asteroid formation and perhaps even give us a window into the earliest days of our Solar System.

Police are looking for the man accused of luring and raping a 12-year-old girl in the Bronx.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in to a second term on Thursday in a ceremony shunned by most of the international community amid a devastating economic crisis.  A dozen Latin American governments and Canada in a coalition have rejected the legitimacy of Maduro's next term, and Washington has sanctioned top officials in his government. Paraguay's president, Mario Abdo Benitez, said on Thursday that he was severing diplomatic relations with Venezuela and closing the country's embassy.  But Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Bolivian President Evo Morales and President Anatoli Bibilov of a breakaway province of Georgia were among the foreign leaders who attended the ceremony at the country's Supreme Court. Maduro said 94 countries had sent representatives to the inauguration. Residents of Caracas awoke Thursday to unusually quiet streets but with a noticeably increased security presence and armed checkpoints. Bolivia's President Evo Morales arrives for the swearing-in ceremony Credit: Reuters State TV showed Maduro arriving at the Supreme Court where he is took the oath of office from Chief Justice Maikel Moreno. Hundreds of officials gathered inside the court's chambers cheered Maduro. Maduro's second term extends Venezuela's socialist revolution amid widespread complaints that he has stripped Venezuela of its last vestiges of democracy. Maduro denies that he's a dictator and often blames President Donald Trump of leading an economic war against Venezuela that's destroying the country. “Not before, not now, nor will there ever be a dictatorship in Venezuela,” Maduro said in a Wednesday news conference. Oil-rich Venezuela was once among Latin America's wealthiest nations. It produced 3.5 million barrels of crude daily when Chavez took power. Output now has plummeted to less than a third of that. Critics blame years of rampant corruption and mismanagement of the state-run oil firm PDVSA. The economic collapse has left the nation of roughly 30 million in the throes of a historic crisis. An estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled their nation's hyperinflation, food and medical shortages over the last two years, according to the United Nations. Those remaining live on a monthly minimum wage equal to less than $5 and falling daily. Venezuela's splintered opposition movement has failed to counter the socialist party's dominance. Maduro's government has jailed or driven into exile its most popular leaders. Anti-government politicians successfully rallied thousands to the streets across Venezuela for four months of demonstrations in 2017, when clashes with government forces left more than 120 protesters dead and thousands injured. Maduro remained squarely in power. In May, he declared victory in presidential election that his political opponents and many foreign nations consider illegitimate because popular opponents were banned from running and the largest anti-government parties boycotted the race.

A Saudi teen's live-tweeted asylum plea has cast a renewed spotlight on women's rights just months after women won the right to drive, and sparked rare criticism of restrictive "guardianship" laws -- from men. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, arrived in Thailand at the weekend after fleeing what she called an abusive family in the deeply conservative kingdom and staved off deportation after her tweets drew global attention. Qunun's impassioned cry for help set off a media frenzy, prompting angry denunciations and death threats from many in a kingdom where guardianship laws are still widely supported.

Karan Bhatia, who joined in June, is reassessing the roles of existing staff, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. This may hasten the departure of Google’s longtime Washington director, former Representative Susan Molinari, according to one of the people. Molinari, a Republican who joined Alphabet Inc.’s Google in 2012, was slated to transition to an advisory role this month, opening up her position as head of policy for the Americas.

Says Unifor boss after meeting company leaders: 'I'm furious right now.'

Did the U.S. military make the wrong choices?

Toyota announced the recall of 1.7 million North American vehicles, a part of the ongoing recall involving potentially deadly passenger airbags.

Soul of Southwest

After a Lifetime docu-series reignited interest in the singer's behavior

WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement forces in Venezuela have detained and tortured military personnel accused of plotting against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, according to two prominent human rights organizations.

Two Ukrainian oligarchs were the intended recipients of US polling data President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman admitted to sharing with a Russian during the 2016 presidential race, a CNN report said Wednesday, citing a source close to the matter. Pro-Russia Ukrainians Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov had paid Paul Manafort millions of dollars over the years for lobbying work. The revenue seemingly dried up in 2015 -- but Manafort wrote to his accountant in August 2016 saying he expected $2.4 million for Ukraine-based work, according to court documents.

The report may provide important clues about the level of solidarity among officials at the Dec. 18-19 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, when policy makers raised interest rates and forecast further increases despite plunging stocks and pressure from President Donald Trump for a halt. “These minutes will still be relevant because they’re going to give us a sense of the debate within the FOMC,” said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Corp. Rate moves are “still a committee decision, and understanding the division of views on the committee is important,” she added.

GANG VIOLENCE: Authorities found 21 bodies by seven burned-out vehicles near the border town of Miguel Aleman.

Trouble with diesel, China — and once again, Brexit's a big problem.

A newly-opened highway into Jerusalem divides Israeli and Palestinian drivers into separate lanes with a wall, leading Palestinians to label it an "apartheid road". Route 4370, which winds for several kilometres (miles) northeast of Jerusalem, consists of two separate two-way roads divided by a wall topped with fencing. Israeli officials say the road will ease heavy traffic in the Jerusalem area for residents of settlements in the West Bank, occupied by Israel for more than 50 years.

Nissan is set to offer a long-range version of the Leaf in a long-awaited move that places it in competition with the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt.

Canada's Carbon Engineering has been scrubbing air in British Columbia

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A coalition of liberal-leaning groups filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to void laws passed by Wisconsin Republicans that reduced the powers of the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general.

Some viewers jokingly compared the Democratic leadership to disappointed parents

Fiat Chrysler has agreed to a $515 million US settlement on charges it installed "defeat devices" on cars to evade emissions tests, the US Justice Department announced Thursday. The auto giant will recall and repair more than 100,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States at a cost of about $185 million. The remaining funds will go to civil fines and mitigation payments to the United States and the state of California.

How about sitting back and flying at just under Mach 1?

If you're the type of person who needs lots of caffeine ASAP after waking up, you're not alone.  Skip the line at the coffee shop and save some money by investing in a good coffeemaker. The Cuisinart Brew Central is on sale today for $64.04, which is more than $100 off its listed price at Walmart. SEE ALSO: Best single-serve coffeemakers we're loving right now This programmable coffeemaker will have its 12-cup carafe ready for you so you can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed within minutes of dragging yourself out of bed. The Cuisinart has 24-hour brew programming and an automatic shut-off.  If you forget to set your coffeemaker, don't fret. The Cuisinart Brew Central gets going quickly and has a Brew Pause feature, so you don't have to wait to get your hands around a hot cup of joe.  Check out this video for more details on the Brew Central's specs: This coffeemaker is high quality for a decent price. It's a good option without breaking the bank if you're not trying to dish out a couple hundred dollars for a brand like Nespresso. Plus, Walmart has the best deal on the Cuisinart Brew Central today: Cuisinart's official site lists it for $89.95 and Best Buy has it for $89.99. Image: CUISINART Get the Cuisinart Brew Central for $64.04 See Details

Apple on Wednesday said it stood by Cook's comments. The two companies are disputing comments their respective CEOs have made over settlement talks. Apple's chief on Tuesday said any talks ended in September 2018.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been offered a "green card", China said Thursday, a privilege enjoyed by an elite group of foreigners, including several Nobel laureates and a former NBA star. Musk was in China for the ground-breaking of Tesla's first overseas factory, which will allow it to sell vehicles directly in the world's largest market for electric vehicles. The high-profile entrepreneur met with Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday in Beijing, where they discussed Tesla's China ambitions, said the State Council -- the country's cabinet.

The 2020 RC F Track Edition is coming soon with a big wing and plenty of performance tweaks.

The coffee giant's decision was made to solve an issue that could expose its workers to hazardous health concerns including HIV and hepatitis, a Starbucks spokesperson told USA TODAY.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on Trump's comments on California wildfires (all times local):

The Australian government said it will consider resettlement for a Saudi woman whose plea to seek asylum while escaping her family went viral.

Los Angeles county school teachers are striking after failed negotiations to get smaller class sizes, higher pay, and increased funding.

A 25-year-old Chicago woman with a concealed carry license shot and killed a man who tried to rob her.

Syria's Kurds on Wednesday said they had captured eight alleged foreign jihadists including an American teenager in fighting against the Islamic State group. The eight, detained on Sunday and Monday, include a 16-year-old American as well as a German and a Russian, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement. Two are from Uzbekistan.

On Tuesday, portions of a court filing by lawyers for convicted former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort were inadvertently made public. Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Representative Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee's new Democratic chairman, noted that Schiff had described the revelation as "stunning" to the Washington Post and told Reuters that Schiff planned to dig into questions the court filing had raised. The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged Manafort and Kilimnik in its investigation of Russian interference in the election and whether Trump campaign members coordinated with Moscow officials.

The premier has five working days to overcome political opposition to the exit agreement she’s negotiated with the European Union before the deal is put to a vote in Parliament on Jan. 15. If the House of Commons defeats her plan, May says Britain will be facing an economically damaging no-deal Brexit in March. The prime minister is stepping up preparations for leaving the EU without an agreement, amid warnings that such an outcome could crash the pound by 25 percent and hit house prices by as much as 30 percent, risking a recession.

China's annual passenger car sales fell last year for the first time in more than 20 years as the trade war with the US rocked consumer confidence and Beijing reined in car financing channels. Passenger car sales fell to 22.4 million vehicles in 2018, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Wednesday. In December sales plummeted 19.2 percent from a year earlier, the CPCA said.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Turkey will not refrain from military action to protect its borders from what he describes as threats posed by Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Capital murder charges were filed against a second black man in the drive-by shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, authorities in Houston said Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being called out for photoshopping his shoes, in what some are now calling #shoegate.

On Jan. 9, 2018, the Southern California town of Montecito became overwhelmed with destructive mudslides after a potent storm prowled through the area.

A British charity helping whistleblowers around the world on Thursday launched a legal aid fund for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, warning his expulsion from Ecuador's embassy in London "may be imminent". The Courage Foundation said Assange's position in the embassy, where he has been living since seeking refuge there in 2012, was "under increasingly serious threat". Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno last month said that "the way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty".

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled a planned visit later this month to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, signaling he was prepared for the political showdown over the partial federal government shutdown to stretch into late January. Trump and congressional Democrats are in a battle over funding for the government and Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "Because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation, I am respectfully cancelling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum," Trump wrote on Twitter.

More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they had either "no confidence" or "not too much confidence" in Facebook developing A.I., a report from the Center for the Governance of AI, part of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said. The public was significantly more skeptical about Facebook than other tech companies working on cutting-edge A.I. research, according to the survey. Among technology companies, Microsoft Corp. was the most trusted, with 44 percent of people saying they had either "a great deal of confidence" or "a fair amount of confidence" in its ability to create A.I. that wouldn’t pose risks, the survey found.

The property includes a main farmhouse, a separate cottage for staff, and a converted barn extension

Canadian diplomats in China on Thursday held their second meeting with one of two citizens who were detained last month after the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Vancouver, the Canadian foreign ministry said. "Today, Canadian consular officials in China visited with Michael Kovrig," the ministry said in a statement that provided no further details. Officials met Michael Spavor, the other man, on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with a business associate accused of having ties to Russian intelligence, and prosecutors say he lied to them about it, according to a court filing .

Target's sales increased 5.7 percent during the holiday season in stores and on its websites operating for at least 12 months, the company said Thursday.

The roof of the car was caved in

It's only been about a week since NASA successfully inserted its OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe into orbit around the large space rock known as Bennu, after initially arriving in early December. The diamond-shaped object will quickly become one of the most closely-studied asteroids ever, but for now NASA wants to learn as much about Bennu's surface as possible, and that means observing it from every angle. In a new video animation that has been stitched together from numerous still shots we get one of our best looks yet at the asteroid. As the probe circles the rock, its powerful lens has captured Bennu from just about every angle, making for a neat little movie. "During the month of December, the spacecraft performed a preliminary survey of Bennu, conducting three flyovers of the asteroid's north pole and one each of its equator and south pole," NASA's OSIRIS-REx team explains. "The data gathered during these flybys allowed the mission team to more precisely estimate Bennu's mass so that the spacecraft could go into orbit around the asteroid." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29O8dUhFgY OSIRIS-REx has a fairly long road ahead of it before NASA declares the mission a complete success. The spacecraft will remain in orbit around Bennu for at least the next year or so, closely studying it and delivering even more images of its messy surface. During that time, NASA will decide on a spot from which to collect a material sample, eventually touching down on Bennu and retrieving some of its surface material before flying back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is expected to arrive back on Earth sometime in 2023, at which point eager scientists will have an opportunity to study the sample in great detail. If everything goes according to plan, the mission should teach scientists a great deal about asteroid formation and perhaps even give us a window into the earliest days of our Solar System.

Police are looking for the man accused of luring and raping a 12-year-old girl in the Bronx.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in to a second term on Thursday in a ceremony shunned by most of the international community amid a devastating economic crisis.  A dozen Latin American governments and Canada in a coalition have rejected the legitimacy of Maduro's next term, and Washington has sanctioned top officials in his government. Paraguay's president, Mario Abdo Benitez, said on Thursday that he was severing diplomatic relations with Venezuela and closing the country's embassy.  But Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Bolivian President Evo Morales and President Anatoli Bibilov of a breakaway province of Georgia were among the foreign leaders who attended the ceremony at the country's Supreme Court. Maduro said 94 countries had sent representatives to the inauguration. Residents of Caracas awoke Thursday to unusually quiet streets but with a noticeably increased security presence and armed checkpoints. Bolivia's President Evo Morales arrives for the swearing-in ceremony Credit: Reuters State TV showed Maduro arriving at the Supreme Court where he is took the oath of office from Chief Justice Maikel Moreno. Hundreds of officials gathered inside the court's chambers cheered Maduro. Maduro's second term extends Venezuela's socialist revolution amid widespread complaints that he has stripped Venezuela of its last vestiges of democracy. Maduro denies that he's a dictator and often blames President Donald Trump of leading an economic war against Venezuela that's destroying the country. “Not before, not now, nor will there ever be a dictatorship in Venezuela,” Maduro said in a Wednesday news conference. Oil-rich Venezuela was once among Latin America's wealthiest nations. It produced 3.5 million barrels of crude daily when Chavez took power. Output now has plummeted to less than a third of that. Critics blame years of rampant corruption and mismanagement of the state-run oil firm PDVSA. The economic collapse has left the nation of roughly 30 million in the throes of a historic crisis. An estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled their nation's hyperinflation, food and medical shortages over the last two years, according to the United Nations. Those remaining live on a monthly minimum wage equal to less than $5 and falling daily. Venezuela's splintered opposition movement has failed to counter the socialist party's dominance. Maduro's government has jailed or driven into exile its most popular leaders. Anti-government politicians successfully rallied thousands to the streets across Venezuela for four months of demonstrations in 2017, when clashes with government forces left more than 120 protesters dead and thousands injured. Maduro remained squarely in power. In May, he declared victory in presidential election that his political opponents and many foreign nations consider illegitimate because popular opponents were banned from running and the largest anti-government parties boycotted the race.

A Saudi teen's live-tweeted asylum plea has cast a renewed spotlight on women's rights just months after women won the right to drive, and sparked rare criticism of restrictive "guardianship" laws -- from men. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, arrived in Thailand at the weekend after fleeing what she called an abusive family in the deeply conservative kingdom and staved off deportation after her tweets drew global attention. Qunun's impassioned cry for help set off a media frenzy, prompting angry denunciations and death threats from many in a kingdom where guardianship laws are still widely supported.

Karan Bhatia, who joined in June, is reassessing the roles of existing staff, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. This may hasten the departure of Google’s longtime Washington director, former Representative Susan Molinari, according to one of the people. Molinari, a Republican who joined Alphabet Inc.’s Google in 2012, was slated to transition to an advisory role this month, opening up her position as head of policy for the Americas.

Says Unifor boss after meeting company leaders: 'I'm furious right now.'

Did the U.S. military make the wrong choices?

Toyota announced the recall of 1.7 million North American vehicles, a part of the ongoing recall involving potentially deadly passenger airbags.

Soul of Southwest

After a Lifetime docu-series reignited interest in the singer's behavior

WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement forces in Venezuela have detained and tortured military personnel accused of plotting against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, according to two prominent human rights organizations.

Two Ukrainian oligarchs were the intended recipients of US polling data President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman admitted to sharing with a Russian during the 2016 presidential race, a CNN report said Wednesday, citing a source close to the matter. Pro-Russia Ukrainians Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov had paid Paul Manafort millions of dollars over the years for lobbying work. The revenue seemingly dried up in 2015 -- but Manafort wrote to his accountant in August 2016 saying he expected $2.4 million for Ukraine-based work, according to court documents.

The report may provide important clues about the level of solidarity among officials at the Dec. 18-19 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, when policy makers raised interest rates and forecast further increases despite plunging stocks and pressure from President Donald Trump for a halt. “These minutes will still be relevant because they’re going to give us a sense of the debate within the FOMC,” said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Corp. Rate moves are “still a committee decision, and understanding the division of views on the committee is important,” she added.

GANG VIOLENCE: Authorities found 21 bodies by seven burned-out vehicles near the border town of Miguel Aleman.

Trouble with diesel, China — and once again, Brexit's a big problem.

A newly-opened highway into Jerusalem divides Israeli and Palestinian drivers into separate lanes with a wall, leading Palestinians to label it an "apartheid road". Route 4370, which winds for several kilometres (miles) northeast of Jerusalem, consists of two separate two-way roads divided by a wall topped with fencing. Israeli officials say the road will ease heavy traffic in the Jerusalem area for residents of settlements in the West Bank, occupied by Israel for more than 50 years.

Nissan is set to offer a long-range version of the Leaf in a long-awaited move that places it in competition with the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt.

Canada's Carbon Engineering has been scrubbing air in British Columbia

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A coalition of liberal-leaning groups filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to void laws passed by Wisconsin Republicans that reduced the powers of the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general.

Some viewers jokingly compared the Democratic leadership to disappointed parents

Fiat Chrysler has agreed to a $515 million US settlement on charges it installed "defeat devices" on cars to evade emissions tests, the US Justice Department announced Thursday. The auto giant will recall and repair more than 100,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States at a cost of about $185 million. The remaining funds will go to civil fines and mitigation payments to the United States and the state of California.

How about sitting back and flying at just under Mach 1?

If you're the type of person who needs lots of caffeine ASAP after waking up, you're not alone.  Skip the line at the coffee shop and save some money by investing in a good coffeemaker. The Cuisinart Brew Central is on sale today for $64.04, which is more than $100 off its listed price at Walmart. SEE ALSO: Best single-serve coffeemakers we're loving right now This programmable coffeemaker will have its 12-cup carafe ready for you so you can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed within minutes of dragging yourself out of bed. The Cuisinart has 24-hour brew programming and an automatic shut-off.  If you forget to set your coffeemaker, don't fret. The Cuisinart Brew Central gets going quickly and has a Brew Pause feature, so you don't have to wait to get your hands around a hot cup of joe.  Check out this video for more details on the Brew Central's specs: This coffeemaker is high quality for a decent price. It's a good option without breaking the bank if you're not trying to dish out a couple hundred dollars for a brand like Nespresso. Plus, Walmart has the best deal on the Cuisinart Brew Central today: Cuisinart's official site lists it for $89.95 and Best Buy has it for $89.99. Image: CUISINART Get the Cuisinart Brew Central for $64.04 See Details

Apple on Wednesday said it stood by Cook's comments. The two companies are disputing comments their respective CEOs have made over settlement talks. Apple's chief on Tuesday said any talks ended in September 2018.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been offered a "green card", China said Thursday, a privilege enjoyed by an elite group of foreigners, including several Nobel laureates and a former NBA star. Musk was in China for the ground-breaking of Tesla's first overseas factory, which will allow it to sell vehicles directly in the world's largest market for electric vehicles. The high-profile entrepreneur met with Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday in Beijing, where they discussed Tesla's China ambitions, said the State Council -- the country's cabinet.

The 2020 RC F Track Edition is coming soon with a big wing and plenty of performance tweaks.

The coffee giant's decision was made to solve an issue that could expose its workers to hazardous health concerns including HIV and hepatitis, a Starbucks spokesperson told USA TODAY.