News

10 Things to Know for Today

Posted May 12, 2017 7:00 am

By The Associated Press

A pilgrim sits in the front row at the Fatima Sanctuary in Fatima, Portugal, on Thursday, May 11, 2017, more than 24 hours ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis. Pope Francis is visiting the Fatima shrine on May 12 and 13 to canonize two Portuguese shepherd children whose "visions" of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago turned the sleepy farming town of Fatima into a major Catholic pilgrimage site. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte) The Associated Press

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

1. SHIFTING WHITE HOUSE EXPLANATIONS FOR FBI DIRECTOR'S FIRING

President Donald Trump is now declaring he had planned to fire that "showboat" all along.

2. A HIGH-STAKES INTERNATIONAL GATHERING FOR CHINA'S PRESIDENT

The "Belt and Road Forum" opening Sunday will showcase Xi Jingping's signature foreign policy effort envisioning a future world order in which all roads lead to Beijing.

3. JORDAN SENDING THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES BACK TO SYRIA

Entire Syrian families have been sent back for the first time, including large numbers of children, which a rights groups says is a violation of international norms.

4. POPE FRANCIS VISITS FATIMA TO HONOR CHILDREN WHO CHANGED CHURCH

Pilgrims from around the world are flocking to the shrine town in Portugal to honor two illiterate shepherd children whose visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago marked one of the most important events of the 20th-century Catholic Church.

5. WORLD'S TOP FINANCE OFFICIALS TO HEAR ABOUT TRUMP'S TAX AND TRADE PLANS

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is due at the gathering in Italy to explain the president's push for what he considers more balanced trading relationships.

6. ARGENTINA'S FEDERAL POLICE WELCOMES BACK TRANSGENDER OFFICER

Analia Pasantino served in Argentina's federal police as a man for 20 years before being forced to resign when she came out as a transgender woman.

7. NEW TV AD AIMS TO RECRUIT MORE WOMEN FOR US MARINES

The smallest military service has the lowest percentage of women, and wants at least 10 percent representation by 2019.

8. WHO IS FACING PRISON TIME FOR OBSTRUCING AN FBI INVESTIGATION

Former Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca is relying on a lifetime of public service, letters of support and his diagnosis of Alzheimer's in a bid for probation at his sentencing hearing.

9. WHY NEW ZEALAND WANTS TO GET RID OF ALL OF ITS RATS

The plan is part of an ambitious - some say impossible - goal of ridding the entire nation of non-native predators to save its birds.

10. NEW YORK COUPLE TO WED AFTER LOSING ALMOST 600 POUNDS TOGETHER

Ronnie Brower was on a four-year fitness journey when he met Andrea Masella at his gym where she was similarly trying to lose a lot of weight.

Analia Pasantino smiles during an interview with The Associated Press in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 11, 2017. Pasantino says she was forced to take a leave of absence at the police department when she came out as a transgender woman in 2008. Every three months, she would present a psychiatric evaluation hoping to rejoin the force. But a committee reviewing her case kept on extending her leave. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) The Associated Press

In this March 22, 2017 photo, a kaka perches on a tree branch in Zealandia in Wellington, New Zealand. People across New Zealand are embracing an environmental goal so ambitious itâs been compared to putting a man on the moon: ridding the entire nation of every last rat, opossum and stoat. The idea is to give a second chance to the unusual birds that ruled this South Pacific nation before humans arrived 800 years ago. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) The Associated Press

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