Trump's jibe deepens feud with Tillerson; he was joking?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump challenged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to "compare IQ tests," delivering a sharp-edged ribbing that threw a bright spotlight on his seemingly shaky relationship with his top diplomat. The White House insisted the president was only joking.

Trump issued the challenge in an interview with Forbes magazine, when asked about reports that Tillerson called him a "moron" after a classified briefing this summer. The president responded that if the claim was true, the two should duke it out in a battle of brainpower.

"And I can tell you who is going to win," Trump said.

The White House and the State Department suggested Tuesday that the president was simply trying to make light of what they describe as inaccurate reports of tension. But coming amid increasingly public signs of strain between the president and Tillerson, the remark landed with a distinct hint of malice.

Trump's comments have threatened to undermine Tillerson's diplomatic initiatives and sow confusion among allies and foes over whether he speaks for the U.S. and has the support of the White House. That uncertainty could impact a number of foreign policy crises, including the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and the imminent decision to be made as to whether to continue the Iran nuclear pact.

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Could Vegas police have taken down the gunman sooner?

The revised timeline given by investigators for the Las Vegas massacre raises questions about whether better communication might have allowed police to respond more quickly and take out the gunman before he could kill and wound so many people.

On Monday, Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Stephen Paddock shot and wounded a Mandalay Bay hotel security guard outside his door and sprayed 200 bullets down the hall six minutes before he opened fire Oct. 1 from his high-rise suite on a crowd at a country music festival below.

That was a different account from the one police gave last week: that Paddock shot the unarmed guard, Jesus Campos, after unleashing his barrage of fire on the crowd, where 58 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Late Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Mandalay Bay questioned the latest timeline of events provided by police.

"We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that has been communicated publically (sic), and we believe what is currently being expressed may not be accurate," said Debra DeShong, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay hotel casino.

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10 Things to Know for Wednesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

1. N. CALIF. WILDFIRE INFERNO LEAVES 15 DEAD

The fast-moving blazes, many of which tore through Sonoma wine country, destroyed 2,000 homes and businesses.

2. WHAT MOST AMERICANS THINK ABOUT 'DREAMERS'

About 60 per cent of Americans favour allowing young immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally, a new AP-NORC Center poll shows.

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Wildfires leave chimneys, charred appliances in their wake

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — The flames that raced across California wine country left little more than smouldering ashes and eye-stinging smoke in their wake. House after house is gone, with only brick chimneys and charred laundry machines to mark sites that were once family homes.

The wildfires burned so hot that windows and tire rims melted off cars, leaving many vehicles resting on their steel axles. In one driveway, the glass backboard of a basketball hoop melted, dripped and solidified like a mangled icicle.

Newly homeless residents of Northern California took stock of their shattered lives Tuesday while the blazes that have killed at least 17 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes and businesses kept burning. Hundreds more firefighters joined the battle against the uncontained flames.

"This is just pure devastation, and it's going to take us a while to get out and comb through all of this," said Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He said the state had "several days of fire weather conditions to come."

The wildfires already rank among the five deadliest in California history, and officials expected the death toll to increase as the scope of destruction becomes clear. At least 185 people were injured during the blazes that started Sunday night. Nearly 200 people were reported missing in Sonoma County alone.

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Paltrow, Jolie join flood of allegations against Weinstein

NEW YORK (AP) — A flood of allegations poured in Tuesday against Harvey Weinstein in on-the-record reports that detailed claims of sexual abuse and included testimonies from Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, further intensifying the already explosive collapse of the disgraced movie mogul.

Three women accused Weinstein of raping them in a story published online by The New Yorker, including the Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento and a woman who was an aspiring actress in college when she caught Weinstein's eye. A representative for the mogul vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to the magazine.

In a follow-up to its earlier expose, The New York Times also reported Tuesday that many other actresses have in recent days added to the chorus of accusations surrounding Weinstein. Paltrow described Weinstein's attempt to lure her, then 22, into giving him a massage in a hotel room. The incident prompted her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt to angrily confront Weinstein at a film premiere.

Both reports significantly ratcheted up the unfolding scandal surrounding Weinstein, who was fired Sunday from the Weinstein Co. By the end of Tuesday, former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, an array of movie stars and Weinstein's own wife, Georgina Chapman, had issued statements condemning Weinstein's alleged conduct. Chapman told People magazine she was leaving her husband after 10 years of marriage, citing Weinstein's "unforgivable actions."

The published stories thoroughly document the systematic harassment, abuse and intimidation of women — almost always young actresses trying to succeed in movies.

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US out of World Cup contention with 2-1 loss at Trinidad

COUVA, Trinidad (AP) — Twenty-eight years after one of the United States' most important victories came in stunning fashion at Trinidad to end a four-decade World Cup absence, the Americans' chances for the 2018 tournament in Russia ended on this island nation off the coast of Venezuela.

The U.S. was eliminated from World Cup contention Tuesday night, a shocking 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago ending a run of seven straight American appearances at soccer's showcase.

The Soca Warriors scored a pair of first-half goals, getting one off U.S. defender Omar Gonzalez, and the United States made too many other mistakes to recover. The Americans are out of the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

"We let down an entire nation today," Gonzalez said.

Shocked American players slumped on the bench, and Matt Besler sat on the field after the final whistle as Panama's game ended and then Costa Rica's. At the end, dejected U.S. players filed into their locker rooms with blank looks.

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Teen detained after crossing border fights to have abortion

HOUSTON (AP) — Advocates for a pregnant 17-year-old girl held in a Texas facility for immigrant children who have crossed the border alone are asking a federal judge to allow her to get an abortion, over the opposition of U.S. and state officials.

A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on a request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which accuses the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of refusing to let the girl be taken for the procedure.

Rochelle Garza, a lawyer appointed to represent the girl's legal interests, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she may be up to 14 weeks' pregnant. Texas state law prohibits most abortions after 20 weeks.

Garza says the teen is from Central America, like most people caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without legal permission. She declined to give the girl's name or identify the specific country where she was from, citing the girl's privacy as a minor, but said that the girl wanted an abortion in part because she had seen her parents abuse another sibling who was pregnant.

With Garza's help, the girl obtained a judicial waiver under a Texas law requiring a minor seeking an abortion to get consent from a parent. But staff at the facility where she's being held refused to take her to her appointments with a doctor to seek an abortion, or let the attorney take her, even though private groups that support abortion rights have raised money for the procedure, Garza said.

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Trump health coverage alternatives may pose risk to the sick

The White House is working on a plan that could bring more health insurance choices and cheaper options to people buying individual and small business coverage. But the bill for this might be paid by the sick.

Senior administration officials have said President Donald Trump is expected sign an executive order this week to expand the use of health plans offered through associations. These groups already allow individuals or businesses to band together to buy coverage, and Trump's order could increase their use by making it easier to sell this coverage across state lines.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: "I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people — FAST."

Specifics of the order and any resulting regulation are still not clear. This coverage could wind up costing some shoppers less if the policies don't have to meet the coverage requirements of individual states or the Affordable Care Act.

But that's true largely for customers with good health.

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Smoke, ash from wildfires blanket California cities

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Millions of Californians on Tuesday saw their lawns covered in ash and air filled with smoke as firefighters battled ferocious wildfires in the northern and southern parts of the state.

The fast-moving blazes produced thick, grey clouds that hovered over densely-populated areas in Northern and Southern California, forcing many schools to keep students inside and air quality agencies to issue smoke advisories calling on residents to limit outdoor activity.

At Disneyland, visitors snapped photos of hazy, orange skies late Monday that gave an ominous glow to a theme park already decked out for Halloween. Ash fell like snow over seaside Southern California communities more than a dozen miles from the hillside neighbourhoods where the fire raged.

"My eyes tear and it's uncomfortable for me to breathe," said Yolanda Ramos, 66, who had driven to Santa Ana from her Los Angeles County home to visit her 91-year-old father. "I wanted to take my father out in the wheelchair, and they said no."

At least 15 people have been killed and as many as 2,000 homes and businesses destroyed in an onslaught of fires stretching across Northern California.

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AP Explains: Hot, dry Diablo Wind scorched wine country

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Notorious winds linked to many of California's worst wildfires are known by various names — Diablo, Santa Ana and Sundowner — but all share the common trait of being able to whip a spark into a deadly inferno that seems to come out of nowhere.

Here's a look at where and when these winds occur:

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DIABLO WIND

This wind fanned the deadly firestorms that turned swaths of Northern California wine country into an ashen moonscape on Monday.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017