AP Top News at 11:26 p.m. EDT

Trump exhorts Senate anew to rid US of Obamacare

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lecturing fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump summoned GOP senators to the White House Wednesday and told them face-to-face they must not leave town for their August recess without sending him an "Obamacare" repeal bill to sign. Senators responded by vowing to revive legislative efforts left for dead twice already this week. Success was far from assured, but Trump declared "I'm ready to act," putting the responsibility on Republican lawmakers, not himself. During last year's presidential campaign he had declared repeatedly it would be "so easy" to get rid of the Obama law. The developments Wednesday came just a day after the latest GOP health care plan collapsed in the Senate, leading Trump himself to say it was time to simply let President Barack Obama's health care law fail.

Doctors: Sen. John McCain has brain tumor

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee with a well-known maverick streak that often vexes his GOP colleagues, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, his office said in a statement Wednesday. The 80-year-old lawmaker has glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye last Friday. "Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot," his office said in a statement. According to the American Brain Tumor Association, more than 12,000 people a year are diagnosed with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of tumor.

Trump rages at Sessions in New York Times interview

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told The New York Times in an interview Wednesday that he never would have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. In an extraordinary denouncement of one of his earliest backers in Washington, Trump said Sessions' decision to recuse himself from all matters related to Russia was "very unfair to the president." "Sessions should have never recused himself," Trump told the paper, "and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else." Sessions' recusal, announced following revelations that he had failed to disclose meetings with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., effectively paved the way for the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.

10 Things to Know for Thursday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday: 1. JOHN MCCAIN DIAGNOSED WITH BRAIN TUMOR The Arizona senator's tumor, associated with a blood clot that was removed last week, is a glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, doctors say. 2. WHO'S LATEST TARGET OF TRUMP'S IRE The president tells the New York Times that he never would have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. 3. TRUMP TO LAWMAKERS: STAY PUT The president tells GOP senators they must not leave town for their August recess without sending him an "Obamacare" repeal bill to sign.

Trump's embrace of Russia making top advisers wary

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's persistent overtures toward Russia are placing him increasingly at odds with his national security and foreign policy advisers, who have long urged a more cautious approach to dealing with the foreign adversary. The uneasy dynamic between the president and top aides has been exacerbated by the revelation this week of an extended dinner conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recent summit in Germany. The previously undisclosed conversation, which occurred a few hours after their official bilateral meeting, raised red flags with advisers already concerned by the president's tendency to shun protocol and press ahead with outreach toward Russia, according to two U.S.

McCain's brain tumor is particularly aggressive type

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain's tumor is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, and his family and doctors are deliberating next treatment options. The senator had undergone surgery last week to have a blood clot removed from above his left eye, and that clot turned out to be a sign that a tumor called a glioblastoma had begun growing. Here are some things to know: AGGRESSIVE CANCER McCain's doctors at the Mayo Clinic said they managed to remove all the tumor that was visible on brain scans. But this kind of tumor, formally known as a glioblastoma multiforme, is aggressive and sneaky.

House panel approves budget with hopes for tax reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House panel on Wednesday approved a Republican fiscal plan that probably won't deliver on its promises to balance the budget, but would begin to clear a path for a GOP effort to overhaul the tax code this fall. The Budget Committee approved the measure by a party-line 22-14 vote. The plan proposes deep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps and reprises a controversial Medicare plan strongly opposed by President Donald Trump — though Republicans only want to deliver on a small fraction of the cuts. Instead, to most Republicans on Capitol Hill, the most important element of the plan is the procedural pathway it would clear to allow Republicans to pass their top priority — an overhaul of the tax code — later this year without fear of a blockade by Senate Democrats.

Remains found likely is 10th victim of Arizona flash flood

PHOENIX (AP) — Remains found Wednesday in a water- and debris-filled canyon in central Arizona are believed to be those of a missing 27-year-old man who's the 10th and final victim of last weekend's flash flood, authorities said. Gila County Sheriff's officials said at a hastily called news conference that identification of the body will be subject to DNA analysis by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But they believe the body is that of Hector Miguel Garnica and have notified his relatives. Last Saturday's flash flood at a popular swimming hole along the river in the Tonto National Forest killed nine of Garnica's extended family including his wife and three young children.

Trump campaign inner circle called before Senate committees

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the Trump campaign's inner circle, including his eldest son and son-in-law, are being called before Senate committees next week to talk about the 2016 election. The week has the potential to deliver the most high-profile congressional testimony involving the Russian meddling probes since former FBI Director James Comey appeared in June. Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to appear July 26 before the Senate Judiciary Committee along with former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to a witness list released by the panel Wednesday. Also, a lawyer for Trump's powerful son-in-law and adviser said Jared Kushner will speak to the Senate intelligence committee Monday.

Report: Trump ends covert plan to arm Syrian rebels

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has decided to halt the CIA's years-long covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the regime of the nation's president Bashar al-Assad. Russia had long pushed the United States to end the program. The phasing out of the secret program was reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday. Officials told the newspaper that ending the operation reflects Trump's interest in finding ways to work with Russia. The program was a key component begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to relinquish power. But even its supporters have questioned its usefulness since Moscow sent forces in Syria two years later.