National security adviser says IS ‘growing’ remains a threat; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; House panel chief says Mueller should subpoena president; U.S.-backed fighters launch attack against IS holdouts; Fighting erupts in Yemen as U.S.-brokered cease-fire falters; Venezuela blackout cripples hospitals; deaths rise; 2020 Dem hopeful backs direct payouts for slavery

WASHINGTON - National security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that the Islamic State remains a threat and that it is "growing in other parts of the world."

The statement by Bolton in an interview on ABC News' "This Week" is at odds with statements by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence late last year that the militant group, which is also known as ISIS, has been defeated.

"The president has been, I think, as clear as clear can be, when he talks about the defeat of the ISIS territorial caliphate," Bolton said. "He has never said that the elimination of the territorial caliphate means the end of ISIS in total. We know that's not the case."

He added that IS fighters are "scattered still around Syria and Iraq, and that ISIS itself is growing in other parts of the world. The ISIS threat will remain."

The White House has delivered mixed messages on the matter.

In a December tweet, Trump announced the U.S. was withdrawing from Syria, declaring, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there ... ." Trump appeared to slightly shift course later that month, stating on Twitter that the extremist group is "mostly gone."

Pence, meanwhile, said in a speech at the State Department in January that "the caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated."

Bolton was responding to a statement by Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, who said at a House hearing last week that the fight against the Islamic State "is far from over."

House panel chief says Mueller should subpoena president

WASHINGTON - It would be a mistake for special counsel Robert Mueller not to subpoena President Donald Trump to appear before a grand jury in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday.

Mueller is constrained by time pressure to conclude his work and also faces a White House that would likely fight a subpoena, Schiff said. Even so, he shouldn't rely just on written answers, because lawyers help write them and there's no chance for follow-up questions, the California Democrat said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Probably the best way to get the truth would be to put the president under oath," Schiff said. "

Trump's lawyers have suggested the president won't meet with Mueller to answer questions.

U.S.-backed fighters launch attack against IS holdouts

BAGHOUZ, Syria - U.S.-backed Syrian fighters resumed their offensive on the last pocket held by Islamic State in eastern Syria on Sunday, lighting the skies over the besieged village as artillery shelling and heavy gunfire rang out in the distance.

Warplanes and drones circled over the besieged village of Baghouz. Explosions and fires illuminated columns of smoke over Baghouz as it came under intense artillery and rocket fire. On several occasions the village was struck with apparent cluster fire.

After sunset, amid thuds of artillery a large column of smoke rose up, illuminated by explosions, apparently after a strike by cluster fire.

The operation was launched around 6 p.m. after a deadline for IS gunmen to surrender expired.

Fighting erupts in Yemen as U.S.-brokered cease-fire falters

SANAA, Yemen - Fighting erupted in Yemen's key port city of Hodeida on Sunday, the first significant clashes since warring sides agreed to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in December, security officials and eyewitnesses said.

Fires burned on the main front lines in the city's east and south, while exchanges of artillery fire shook buildings in combat that broke out overnight, they said. Both the Shiite Houthi rebels who hold the city and the government-backed troops who oppose them have been seen erecting barricades and digging defensive trenches.

"All night long, we hear the loud roar of machine guns and artillery, which had been silent for the past two weeks," said resident Ahmed Nasser, adding that he was worried for relatives.

Venezuela blackout cripples hospitals; deaths rise

CARACAS, Venezuela - Opposition lawmakers and aid groups warned Sunday that an unprecedented nationwide blackout in Venezuela was causing a rising number of deaths, as citizens struggled for a fourth day to find food and water and hospitals were paralyzed.

At a news conference Sunday, proposition leader Juan Guaido said at least 17 deaths had occurred at hospitals as a result of the outages.

Meanwhile, a medical aid group, Codevida, said it had reports of 15 people who had died due to kidney failure linked to the lack of power.

It was not possible to independently confirm the reports. The Venezuelan government has released little information on the blackout, blaming it on sabotage by U.S. authorities. Trump administration officials have denied the accusation.

2020 Dem hopeful backs direct payouts for slavery

AUSTIN, Texas - Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro isn't ruling out direct payments to African-Americans for the legacy of slavery - a stand separating him from his 2020 rivals.

"If under the Constitution we compensate people because we take their property, why wouldn't you compensate people who actually were property," the former Obama-era housing secretary and ex-San Antonio mayor said Sunday.

Castro was among the last of a pack of 2020 candidates to speak at the South by Southwest Festival in Texas.

Amid Democrats' discussions of reparations, other candidates are discussing tax credits and other subsidies, rather than direct payments for the labor and legal oppression of slaves and their descendants.

In Pakistan: Two European mountain climbers who went missing on the Pakistani mountain Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-tallest, were confirmed dead Saturday by Italy's ambassador to Pakistan.

Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo tweeted that the search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard ended after a team confirmed that silhouettes spotted at a height of about 19,356 feet were the bodies of the two climbers missing since Feb 24.

Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Club, said Pakistani authorities had done all they could to find the climbers.

Haidri said that due to the altitude and the difficult conditions on the mountain, it would not be possible to bring the bodies down.

Caption: Tibetan protest: An exiled Tibetan activist stands handcuffed and in chains during a protest Sunday in New Delhi. Crowds gathered at the Dalai Lama's temple to mark 60 years since the failed uprising against China that drove the spiritual leader into exile.

SAJJAD HUSSAIN/Getty-AFP