WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has learned that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Manafort wrote a 2005 strategy plan that he said “can greatly benefit the Putin Government.” At the time, U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush were growing worse.

Manafort’s arrangement was with Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally. Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006 and maintained a business relationship until at least 2009. The work was described in interviews with people familiar with it and confidential business records obtained by the AP.

Manafort confirmed to the AP that he worked for Deripaska but said the work was being unfairly cast as inappropriate.

NEW YORK — As the indignities of modern air travel go, the latest ban on laptops and tablets on some international flights falls somewhere between having to take off your ratty shoes at the security checkpoint and having your baby food and milk tested for bomb residue.

It’s yet another inconvenience in the name of security for weary travelers, especially those from or passing through the 10 mostly Middle Eastern and North African countries covered by new U.S. and British policies. While it’s not quite as disruptive as an outright ban on smartphones — much less a travel ban based on nationality — the laptop limitation loomed large for some people as they prepared to travel.

“Why are only Middle Eastern airlines subject to this ban?” asked Kelsey Norman, a doctoral student who plans to fly home Friday to Los Angeles from Beirut — and expects to have to check her laptop, a Kindle tablet and her DSLR camera. “Overall this policy is inconvenient, discriminatory, and continues to hurt America’s rapidly deteriorating reputation globally.”

BAN LOGIC

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security rules forbid laptop computers, tablets, Kindles, some gaming devices, cameras and other electronics larger than a smartphone in carry-on baggage. The U.S. government cited unspecified threats as the reason for the ban. The U.K. government instituted a similar ban; neither government’s restrictions affect U.S.-based airlines.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and House leaders are revving up pressure on balky conservatives and other Republican lawmakers as crunch time approaches on the party’s health care overhaul bill, a drive GOP leaders concede they can’t afford to lose.

A day before the House planned votes on the measure, Trump was expected to continue hunting support for what would be a significant achievement for his young presidency. But underscoring the bill’s uncertain fate, a senior administration official said that 20 to 25 House Republicans remained opposed or undecided. That’s a grave figure since united Democratic opposition means the measure crashes if 22 GOP lawmakers vote “no.”

“If we keep our promise, people will reward us,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Tuesday of GOP vows to demolish former President Barack Obama’s health care law that the GOP has assailed since its enactment in 2010. “If we don’t keep our promise, it will be very hard to manage this,” the speaker said.

“Honestly, a loss is not acceptable, folks,” Trump told lawmakers at a closed-door Capitol meeting with House Republicans. He warned they’d face widespread defeats in next year’s elections and possible loss of control of the chamber if the measure failed.

Trump’s remarks and the White House nose count of votes were each described by Republicans who provided inside information on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch enters the third day of his nomination hearings largely unscathed by Democratic attacks, as Republicans confidently predict he will win confirmation despite liberal opposition.

A growing number of Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are calling for Gorsuch’s confirmation to be delayed because of the FBI investigation of ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. But Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa dismissed that demand as “ridiculous,” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told The Associated Press: “Gorsuch will be confirmed. I just can’t tell you exactly how that will happen yet.”

Even with Democrats divided over how hard to fight Gorsuch’s nomination, the political intensity accompanying his confirmation process seemed at times palpable during the second day of hearings Tuesday, as the questioning stretched beyond 11 hours. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut announced he would be asking Gorsuch about the “elephant in the room” — Trump — and tried to draw him out over Trump’s attacks on judges, including those who halted his immigration travel ban.

“When anyone criticizes the honesty and integrity or the motives of a federal judge, I find that disheartening, I find that demoralizing,” Gorsuch said.

“Including the president?” Blumenthal said.

NEW YORK — Sears, once the monolith of American retail, says that there is “substantial doubt” that it will be able to keep its doors open.

Company shares, which hit an all-time low last month, tumbled more than 12 percent today.

Sears has been a member of the retail dead pool for years, but until this week the company had not openly acknowledged its tenuous existence, said Ken Perkins, who heads the research firm Retail Metrics LLC.

Sears has long maintained that by balancing the sale of key assets while at the same time enticing customers with loyalty programs, it would eventually turn the corner.

Yet industry analysts have placed the staggering sums of money that Sears is losing beside the limited number of assets it has left to sell, and concluded that the storied retailer may have reached the point of no return.

The company has lost $10.4 billion since 2011, the last year that it made a profit. Excluding charges that can be listed as one-time events, the loss is $4.57 billion, Perkins says, but how the losses are stacked no longer seem to matter.

“They’re past the tipping point,” Perkins said. “This is a symbolic acknowledgment of the end of Sears of what we know it to be.”

For Sears to survive, Perkins believes it would need to do so as a company running maybe 200 stores. It now operates 1,430, a figure that has been vastly reduced in recent years.

NEW YORK — Chuck Barris, whose game show empire included “The Dating Game,” ‘’The Newlywed Game” and that infamous factory of cheese, “The Gong Show,” died at 87.

Barris died of natural causes Tuesday afternoon at his home in Palisades, New York, according to publicist Paul Shefrin, who announced the death on behalf of Barris’ family.

Barris made game show history right off the bat, in 1966, with “The Dating Game,” hosted by Jim Lange. The gimmick: a young female questions three males, hidden from her view, to determine which would be the best date. Sometimes the process was switched, with a male questioning three females. But in all cases the questions were designed by the show’s writers to elicit sexy answers.

Celebrities and future celebrities who appeared as contestants included Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Martin and a pre-”Charlie’s Angels” Farrah Fawcett, introduced as “an accomplished artist and sculptress” with a dream to open her own gallery.

After the show became a hit on both daytime and nighttime TV, the Barris machine accelerated. New products included “The Newlywed Game,” ‘’The Parent Game,” ‘’The Family Game” and even “The Game Game.”

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s latest missile launch ended in failure today as the United States sent a supersonic bomber streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force against the North, officials said.

The reported launch failure comes as the North angrily reacts to ongoing annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. Earlier this month, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles that landed in waters off Japan, triggering strong protests from Seoul and Tokyo.

The American military detected what it assessed as a failed North Korean missile launch this morning, the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. It said the missile “appears to have exploded within seconds of launch.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it also believes the launch from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan ended in failure. It said it was analyzing what type of missile was launched.

The failure might mean that the missile is a newly developed one the North has not deployed, according to South Korean media. Last year, the country suffered a series of embarrassing failed launches of its new medium-range Musudan missile before it successfully test-fired one.

BEIRUT — Syrian activists say dozens of civilians are dead or still missing after an airstrike on a shelter for the displaced in an Islamic State-held village in northern Syria.

The activist-run Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently says a school sheltering some 50 families in Mansoura was leveled by airstrikes on Tuesday morning. Mansoura is 26 kilometers (16 miles) west of Raqqa, the de facto capital to the extremists’ so-called caliphate.

The activist group said this morning the families were still unaccounted for.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today that 33 bodies had been pulled from the rubble.

The two organizations rely on local contacts to smuggle news out of Islamic State-held territory.

BRUSSELS — Brussels International Airport, where 16 people died in two bomb attacks on March 22, 2016, looks shiny new. The Maelbeek subway station, where another 16 died from a backpack bomb, processes commuters much as it always has. And tourism is recovering, despite Donald Trump calling the Belgian capital a “hellhole” that should be avoided at all costs.

One year after the attacks, the city’s physical scars may have healed, but the pain is apparent beneath the surface. Still, the city’s residents and authorities are determined to find a way to forge ahead, without changing the character of one of the world’s most international cities.

“Killing innocent people was really dramatic for everyone, but we have also seen very positive signs of the human beings, the solidarity, people helping each other out,” said Arnaud Feist, Brussels Airport CEO, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Yet surveillance is up almost everywhere. The city and Belgium as a whole continue to live at the second-highest terror level, meaning there is a serious threat of an attack.

Even if the locals in Brussels are mostly oblivious to heavily armed paratroopers patrolling the city’s landmarks, visitors still stop in their tracks when they notice the camouflage dress and the machine guns.

GUATEMALA CITY — When firefighters entered the home for troubled youth, they discovered more than two dozen girls on the floor of a locked room, most of them dead.

A moan rose from one of the bodies, piled on top of each other. When firefighter Danial Perpuac turned the girl over, flames came out of her mouth — she was burning up inside.

“That is something you cannot forget,” Perpuac said helplessly. “I know I will have the smell of grilled meat and hair in my nose and throat for life.”

The fire on March 8 that killed 40 girls at the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home started when ringleaders took a match to a foam mattress to protest the abuse they had suffered there. Their hell at the government-run shelter began long before the inferno, as documented in several warnings from four different agencies. At least two orders for closure were ignored.

The Virgen de la Asunción home is on a hill 14 miles east of Guatemala City. The shelter, protected by high walls and barbed wire, is surrounded by an idyllic pine forest covered with mist every morning. The forest and ravines have offered hiding places for more than 100 children who have escaped what they consider a jail.

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. — On a sunny morning in Napa Valley, America’s most celebrated chef is reflecting on his career, the culinary empire it spawned and why he just spent $10 million to upgrade his famed restaurant, the French Laundry.

Thomas Keller describes himself as detail-oriented, a perfectionist and passionate about fine food and design. All of this is apparent in the chef’s gleaming new workspace, a 2,000-square-foot state-of-the-art kitchen, which feels more like a sleek, modern art gallery than a cramped, hectic kitchen.

At 61 years old, Keller entertains the thought of slowing down. Just not right now.

He’s got a new restaurant project underway at New York City’s Hudson Yards. He flew to Hollywood last week for a segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live. And he is clearly mindful of his legacy, which is part of the inspiration for remodeling the revered restaurant he opened in 1994.

Keller says he embarked on the French Laundry’s renovation to ensure it thrives for the next 20 years. Aside from the new kitchen, there’s a 16,000-bottle wine cellar, extensive solar paneling, a new office annex and 9,000 square feet of new landscape design. The renovation took more than two years and was not stress-free.