Ukraine’s president said Tuesday that no one explained to him why millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to his country was delayed, shrugging off suggestions that President Donald Trump froze the funding to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is struggling to distance himself from U.S. politics, and to contain the damage to Ukraine and his own reputation from a July phone call between him and Trump that unleashed a congressional impeachment inquiry.

“It is impossible to put pressure on me,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Many people try to influence me,” he said, but “I am the president of independent Ukraine.”

Zelenskiy said that in discussions with Trump, he repeatedly stressed the importance of the U.S. military aid to help Ukraine battle Russian-backed separatists. In the July call, he thanked Trump for his “great support in the area of defense” and said Ukraine was ready to “cooperate for the next steps,” according to a rough transcript released by the White House. Zelenskiy didn’t say Tuesday whether the issue was raised in other discussions or when they took place.

The Pentagon in June announced plans to send $250 million in aid to Ukraine, but its delivery was delayed. A defense official said the Trump administration was analyzing the extent to which Ukrainian was addressing long-standing U.S. concerns about corruption.

The funding was then released in September.

“It wasn’t explained to me” why the money didn’t come through earlier, Zelenskiy said.

Zelenskiy also said he has never met or spoken with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has been pushing for Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

Zelenskiy is facing a dilemma over how to handle Trump’s request in the July call for Ukraine to “look into” the Bidens.

If Ukraine opens an investigation into the case, that helps Trump and the Republicans. If it doesn’t, that helps the Democrats. And what Ukraine’s current leadership really wants is continued U.S. support, no matter who wins next year’s U.S. elections.

A former Ukrainian security chief argued Tuesday that the best way to show that Ukraine is serious about fighting endemic, crippling corruption is to open new investigations into Burisma.

“The whole world is talking about Ukraine and the whole world wants to know what happened” at Burisma, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told The Associated Press.

Nalyvaichenko, a parliament member who twice headed Ukraine’s National Security Service, or SBU, said he will initiate a parliamentary inquiry into Burisma.

He insisted he is not trying to do Trump’s bidding. “We have no way to know whether any crimes were committed if we don’t lead a comprehensive, transparent investigation inside Ukraine,” he said.

A previous probe was closed in 2016.

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A strike by the United Auto Workers union has caused a parts shortage, forcing General Motors to shut down its pickup truck and transmission factories in Silao, Mexico.

Spokesman Dan Flores confirmed that production at the factories ended Tuesday morning, affecting 6,000 workers.

The plant shutdown means that GM has lost any new supplies of its light-duty Chevrolet Silverado, the company’s top-selling U.S. vehicle. Earlier GM had to close a Mexican engine plant and an assembly plant in Canada due to the strike.

The strike by over 49,000 union workers is now in its third week, and both sides are feeling the impact. Workers are having to get by on $250 per week in strike pay instead of their normal base pay of about $1,200 per week.

The 16-day strike has cost GM just over $1 billion, JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman estimated Tuesday in a note to investors.

The losses are mounting each week the strike continues, costing GM about $480 million in the first week and another $575 million in the second, Brinkman wrote. The company is losing $82 million per day.

GM books revenue from building vehicles as soon as they change hands from the factory to the company that ships them to dealers. So revenue has been counted already for nearly all vehicles that are in dealer hands. Many dealers stocked up before the strike and report having plenty of inventory.

Brinkman wrote that GM could recover some of its lost profits by increasing production in the fourth quarter once the strike comes to an end. But the company likely will be limited to add production of vehicles that already are in high demand or where new models are being launched, such as GM’s heavy-duty Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra pickup trucks, Brinkman wrote.

GM’s pickup truck and large SUV plants already were working six or seven days per week to meet demand before the strike, so increasing production will be difficult.

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Melania Trump will promote U.S. national parks and her youth initiative later this week in Wyoming.

The White House says the first lady will visit national parks and landmarks Thursday and spread the child well-being message that’s a big component of her year-old “Be Best” initiative.
 
Last month, Mrs. Trump and fourth-grade students from the District of Columbia participated in the ceremonial reopening of the Washington Monument. She helped hand out National Park Service passes that grant fourth-graders free access to hundreds of national parks, lands and waters.
 
The White House says Thursday’s visit will be about encouraging fourth-graders to get a pass from the National Park Service so they can spend more time outdoors.

Wyoming is home to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
 

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Ugandan’s pop star and presidential hopeful Bobi Wine has denounced the government’s banning of civilian use of red berets, a symbol of his “People Power” movement that he hopes to use to oust longtime President Yoweri Museveni.

The government this month gazetted the red beret and other pieces of military wear as “property of the state.” It warned people who wear or sell them that they would be prosecuted under military law, which can lead to a life sentence.

“This beret ban is a sham. It is a blatant attempt to suffocate a successful threat to the autocratic status quo,” Wine, 37, said in a statement.

“But People Power is more than a red beret, we are bigger than our symbol. We are a booming political movement fighting for the future of Uganda and we will continue our struggle for democracy,” the statement said.

Since he became a legislator in 2017, Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has rattled Ugandan authorities who see him as a formidable threat to end Museveni’s more than three decades in power.

Wine has amassed a large support base, especially among young Ugandans who have been wooed by his bold criticism of Museveni, sometimes delivered in his lyrics.

Authorities have responded by clamping down on his supporters, jailing some. Wine’s rallies have been broken up with tear gas and live rounds.

Last year he was beaten as he campaigned in a parliamentary by-election and had to seek treatment in the United States.

Uganda’s next presidential elections are due to be held early 2021. Museveni, president since 1986, is widely expected to stand. While Museveni has not officially declared his intention to run for re-election, top organs of his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have endorsed him as their flagbearer.
 

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U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Australia’s prime minister to help discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the New York Times is reporting.

The Times reported Monday that during a recent telephone call, Trump asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help U.S. Attorney General William Barr collect information for a Justice Department probe into Mueller’s investigation. 

The paper said its sources were two U.S. officials with knowledge of the call.

The Times also reported that the White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to only a small group of officials, a move that is similar to the handling of Trump’s July phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

That call sparked a whistleblower complaint that led House Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump. The whistleblower alleges that Trump sought Zelensky’s help in digging up incriminating information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that would hurt Biden’s prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination. 

The White House last week released a rough transcript of the call.

The Times said that during his recent call with Morrison, Trump wanted the Australian government to investigate that country’s role in the origins of the Mueller probe. The paper said the FBI’s investigations into Russian interference began as a result of information given to the FBI by Australian officials. 

Barr recently began a review of the Russian investigation. 

Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation found that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russia to affect the outcome of the race. However, he reached no conclusion on whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice for instances in which he may have tried to sidetrack Mueller’s probe.
 

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Police in China used drones to track down a fugitive human trafficker who had been on the lam for 17 years. 

Song Jiang, 63, escaped from a prison camp in 2002 and had successfully evaded capture since then. 

Police in Yongshan, in southwestern Yunnan province, received a tip on their WeChat social media page which led them to the mountains near Song’s hometown. 

After unsuccessfully searching the rough terrain, police decided to deploy drones in the hunt. 

During the aerial search, drones spotted a blue metal roof on the side of a steep cliff. A closer look revealed trash and proof of a human presence. 

A team of officers climbed up to find  “an unkempt old man” living in a small cave. They said Song had trouble communicating after having lived alone for so long. 

He used plastic bottles to fetch water from a nearby river and cooked over small open fires, police said. 

Song was returned to jail to complete his sentence for trafficking women and children.
 

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