Testy tweeting free-for-all between Trump, GOP Sen. Corker

WASHINGTON (AP) — An enraged President Donald Trump and a prominent Republican senator who fears the country could be edging toward "chaos" engaged in an intense and vitriolic back-and-forth bashing on social media Sunday, a remarkable airing of their party's profound rifts.

In political discourse that might once have seemed inconceivable, the GOP's foreign policy expert in the Senate felt compelled to answer his president's barbs by tweeting: "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care centre. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

In an interview Sunday with The New York Times, Corker said Trump could set the U.S. "on the path to World War III" with threats toward other countries. Corker also said Trump acted as if he was on his old reality-TV show and that he concerned the senator, adding: "He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation."

Corker also said his concerns about Trump were shared by nearly every Senate Republican, the paper reported.

In a series of stinging tweets earlier in the day, Trump contended Corker:

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Film producer Harvey Weinstein ousted from Weinstein Co.

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein, the sharp-elbowed movie producer whose combative reign in Hollywood made him an Academy Awards regular, was fired from The Weinstein Company on Sunday following an expose that detailed decades of sexual harassment allegations made against Weinstein by actresses and employees.

In a statement, the company's board of directors announced his firing Sunday night, capping the swift downfall of one of Hollywood's most powerful producers and expelling him from the company he co-created.

"In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company — Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar — have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately," the company's board said in a statement on Sunday night.

Weinstein had previously taken an indefinite leave of absence following the revelation of at least eight allegations of sexual harassment uncovered in an expose Thursday by The New York Times. The board on Friday endorsed that decision and announced an investigation into the allegations, saying it would determine the co-chairman's future with the company.

But the Weinstein Co. board, which includes Weinstein's brother, went further on Sunday, firing the executive who has always been its primary operator, public face and studio chief. Under his leadership, the Weinstein Co. has been a dominant force at the Oscars, including the rare feat of winning back-to-back best picture Academy Awards with "The King's Speech" and "The Artist." In recent years, however, Weinstein's status has diminished because of money shortages, disappointing box-office returns and executive departures.

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FBI searches Las Vegas gunman's house again

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal investigators returned to search the home of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock on Sunday, while the officers who raided his hotel room door the night of the shooting gave a harrowing account of a barricaded door they had to bust through and the booby-traps they feared they'd find.

The search of Paddock's three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, was for "re-documenting and rechecking," said local police Chief Troy Tanner, who accompanied FBI agents as they served the search warrant.

"I don't think they are after anything specific," Tanner told The Associated Press. "They're going through everything and photographing everything again."

The home was first searched Monday by Las Vegas police, who said they found 19 guns and several pounds of potentially explosive materials at the house that Paddock bought in early 2015.

The search came exactly a week after Paddock opened fire on a country music crowd, killing 58 and injuring nearly 500.

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Trump links border wall, green-card overhaul to DACA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told congressional leaders on Sunday that his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Trump's list of demands included overhauling the country's green-card system, a crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country, and building his promised wall along the southern border.

Many were policies Democrats have said explicitly are off the table and threaten to derail ongoing negotiations over legislation protecting young immigrants known as "Dreamers." They had been given a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country under President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which Trump ended last month.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House, Trump said the priorities were the product of a "a bottom-up review of all immigration policies" that he had ordered "to determine what legislative reforms are essential for America's economic and national security.

"These findings outline reforms that must be included as part of any legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients," he wrote, adding that: "Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end."

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White House to order health care alternatives

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is finalizing an executive order that would expand health plans offered by associations to allow individuals to pool together and buy insurance outside their states, a unilateral move that follows failed efforts by Congress to overhaul the health care system.

President Donald Trump has long asserted that selling insurance across state lines would trigger competition that brings down premiums for people buying their own policies. Experts say that's not guaranteed, partly because health insurance reflects local medical costs, which vary widely around the country.

Moreover, White House actions may come too late to have much impact on premiums for 2018.

Trump was expected to sign the executive order next week, likely on Thursday, a senior administration official said Sunday.

Under the president's executive action, membership groups could sponsor insurance plans that cost less because — for example — they wouldn't have to offer the full menu of benefits required under the Affordable Care Act, also called "Obamacare." It's unclear how the White House plans to overcome opposition from state insurance regulators, who see that as an end-run to avoid standards.

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A weakened Nate brings flooding, power outages to Gulf Coast

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Hurricane Nate brought a burst of flooding and power outages to the U.S. Gulf Coast before weakening rapidly Sunday, sparing the region the kind of catastrophic damage left by a series of hurricanes that hit the southern U.S. and Caribbean in recent weeks.

Nate — the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Katrina in 2005 — quickly lost strength, with its winds diminishing to a tropical depression as it pushed northward into Alabama and toward Georgia with heavy rain. It was a Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore outside Biloxi early Sunday, its second landfall after initially hitting southeastern Louisiana on Saturday evening.

The storm surge from the Mississippi Sound littered Biloxi's main beachfront highway with debris and flooded a casino's lobby and parking structure overnight.

By dawn, however, Nate's receding floodwaters didn't reveal any obvious signs of widespread damage in the city where Hurricane Katrina had levelled thousands of beachfront homes and businesses.

No storm-related deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

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Bystander rape-prevention programs face questions

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Training programs around the country are trying to teach bystanders to stop sexual assault, and now is when they have to be especially alert. Campus sexual assault reports are so common at the beginning of the fall semester, college administrators call this time of year the "red zone."

Penn State University sends campus-wide text alerts when someone has been sexually assaulted. During the last academic year, there were 29 campus text alerts about sexual assaults at the university's main campus, and half of them were issued in the first ten weeks of school.

"Maybe that's why you showed up today," said Katie Tenny, as she ran a rape-prevention training session at the school earlier this year. "Maybe you're tired of the text alerts, knowing that this is happening to people around you."

Tenny is the leader of a program that seeks to teach people to do or say something to prevent a potential attack. It's one of the hundreds of bystander intervention programs that have sprung up in recent years at universities, high schools and military bases, designed to involve whole communities in discouraging harassment and sexual assault.

Momentum for this good bystander movement has been building for several years, aided by some widely reported stories of heroic interventions. Though research is still evolving, studies so far suggest it is helping.

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VP Pence leaves NFL game after players protest during anthem

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Vice-President Mike Pence left the 49ers-Colts game after about a dozen San Francisco players took a knee during the national anthem Sunday, the latest move by President Donald Trump's administration to clash with NFL players over patriotism and public demonstrations.

The former Indiana governor flew in so he could watch Peyton Manning's jersey retirement ceremony. Pence didn't stick around long.

Right around kickoff, Pence wrote on Twitter: "I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem."

The White House also issued a statement from Pence, in which he said Americans should rally around the flag. Pence said: "I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem."

Trump has called on NFL owners to fire players who don't stand for the anthem and urged fans to boycott games in a series of tweets after he first criticized the demonstrations during a Sept. 22 rally in Alabama. White House officials have viewed it as a winning issue for the president, who has sought to remain closely connected to his working-class base of Midwestern voters who helped elect him.

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Tanaka, Judge save Yanks; Bird homers for 1-0 win in Game 3

NEW YORK (AP) — Masahiro Tanaka's seven-inning gem was saved when Aaron Judge prevented a home run in right field, and Greg Bird homered to give the New York Yankees a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 on Sunday night, extending their AL Division Series.

Aroldis Chapman got a five-out save as New York avoided a three-game sweep by the defending AL champions. With two on in the ninth, Chapman struck out cleanup hitter Jay Bruce, and Carlos Santana flied out to centre.

The Yankees got a splendid performance from Tanaka in an old-fashioned October pitching duel with Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco. Tanaka got a boost when Judge robbed Francisco Lindor of a two-run homer in the sixth.

Bird came through with the huge hit New York had to have when he connected against loser Andrew Miller in the seventh.

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Rodgers lifts Packers over Cowboys 35-31 in another thriller

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Aaron Rodgers had more magic in store for the Dallas Cowboys, who can't seem to find the mojo that carried them a year ago.

Rodgers threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams with 11 seconds remaining, lifting the Packers over Dallas 35-31 on Sunday in another thriller nine months after their divisional playoff win on the same field.

Rodgers capped a 75-yard drive in just 1:02, going toward the same end zone as in the playoff game. In that game, Rodgers' long completion to Jared Cook on third-and-20 in the final seconds set up Mason Crosby's winning field goal as time expired in a 34-31 win.

"It comes down to little things being executed perfectly," Rodgers said after the Packers' seventh win in eight games in the series. "It was important plays at the most important times by those guys."

Adams had been in the concussion protocol but was active 10 days after leaving the field on a stretcher on a helmet-to-helmet hit that resulted in a suspension for Chicago linebacker Danny Trevathan. He had seven catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017