WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s eldest son on Tuesday released e-mails showing he embraced Russia’s efforts to support his father’s presidential campaign, admitting he would “love” to get dirt from Moscow on Hillary R. Clinton.

Donald Trump, Jr. was told by an interlocutor that he could get “very high level and sensitive information” that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

The 39-year-old Donald Jr. — who now runs the family real estate business in his father’s stead — responded “if it’s what you say I love it” and set up a meeting with a “Russian government attorney,” according to the e-mails.

The e-mail chain, released in its entirety by Donald Jr. on his Twitter account, added fuel to the political firestorm swirling over allegations that Mr. Trump’s campaign team colluded with Moscow to influence the 2016 election.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a mass effort to tilt the election in Mr. Trump’s favor, including hacking and leaking embarrassing e-mails from Democrats.

The e-mail disclosure now thrusts the president’s son to the center of multiple US investigations by Congress and by the FBI as to whether Mr. Trump’s team was in the know.

In a statement accompanying the e-mails, Donald Jr. said he believed he was going to receive “political opposition research” on Ms. Clinton, and added that the Russian lawyer, “as she has said publicly, was not a government official.”

Mr. Trump jumped to his son’s defense, saying in a statement: “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”

INFO TO ‘INCRIMINATE HILLARY’
Donald Jr. had initially dismissed the meeting he arranged with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as having to do with adoptions, but then offered shifting explanations as more details emerged.

In the e-mails released Tuesday, Rob Goldstone — a publicist close to the Trumps — tells Donald Jr. that he has learned of a Russian offer of compromising material on Ms. Clinton from a pop singer he represented, Emin Agalarov.

“The Crown Prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” Mr. Goldstone wrote in a June 3, 2016 e-mail.

“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin,” he added.

Donald Jr. responded less than 20 minutes later, according to the chain of e-mails entitled “Russia-Clinton — private and confidential.”

“Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Ms. Veselnitskaya is referred to in the exchange as “the Russian government attorney.”

The e-mail exchange took place as Ms. Clinton had all but secured the Democratic nomination and Mr. Trump was casting one eye toward the general election campaign that would begin that summer.

In an interview with NBC News, Ms. Veselnitskaya said: “It’s possible that maybe they were looking for such information” about the Clinton campaign.

“They wanted it so badly,” she added.

‘POTENTIALLY TREASON’
Ms. Clinton’s vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine described the revelations as moving toward more serious charges of perjury and “potentially treason.”

“This should have set off alarm bells and red lights and instead, what it seemed to do is it activated their salivary glands,” Mr. Kaine said in a separate interview with MSNBC.

“They should have turned this over to law enforcement immediately.”

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden went even farther, saying the e-mails “show there is no longer a question of whether this campaign sought to collude with a hostile foreign power to subvert America’s democracy.”

“The question is how far the coordination goes,” Mr. Wyden added.

Vice-President Mike Pence’s office issued a statement saying he was unaware of the meeting, in what appeared to be a bid to distance himself from the matter.

The New York Times reported that Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, two of Mr. Trump’s most trusted campaign officials, also attended the meeting with Ms. Veselnitskaya and Donald Jr. last year.

The Kremlin has said it “did not know who” Ms. Veselnitskaya was.

“We can’t be aware of all the meetings Russian lawyers have abroad,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

A spokesman for Mr. Kushner did not respond to request for comment.

A senior White House official denied that there was anything inappropriate about the meeting with Ms. Veselnitskaya — and said Mr. Trump was under no obligation to have disclosed it earlier.

“He’s not a member of the administration,” Sebastian Gorka told CNN. — AFP

NEW YORK — Did Donald J. Trump’s eldest son break US law in meeting a Russian lawyer he hoped would dish compromising dirt on the woman standing between his father and the White House?

Could the 39-year-old real estate scion be charged with treason? This is what legal experts say about what is known so far of the June 2016 meeting in New York between Don Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya.

WHAT LAW MIGHT HE HAVE BROKEN?
The most incriminating revelation, say experts who spoke to AFP, are the e-mails that Mr. Trump Jr. dumped on his Twitter account: namely that he would “love” to hear what the Russian had to say about Hillary R. Clinton.

“If it’s what you say I love it,” he wrote back within minutes of being told the lawyer had information that would “incriminate” Ms. Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Brandon Garrett, law professor at the University of Virginia, says since Watergate, federal law has forbidden any direct or indirect foreign contribution or promise of such to a US election.

The statute outlaws any donation “or other thing of value,” which Mr. Garrett said could potentially include information.

Another worry for Mr. Trump Jr. is that conspiracy law is sweeping.

“One does not have to have committed a crime, the attempt is enough,” said Mr. Garrett. “They could still be found guilty of conspiring,” he warned. In other words, the sole fact of going into a meeting to fish for information could be enough to establish intent.

But Daniel Tokaji, an electoral law expert at Ohio State University, sees “very serious free speech” concerns and “troubling implications” in interpreting information as a “contribution.”

He warned it “could prohibit a campaign from gathering information about a rival campaign.”

Susan Klein, law professor at the University of Texas and a Democrat, doesn’t believe Mr. Trump Jr. could be prosecuted just for talking either — “except perhaps if they paid for it or exchanged it for something.”

WHO DECIDES IF THERE’S A CASE?
The Federal Election Commission logically pursues election law violations, says Mr. Tokaji.

But split three-three between Democrats and Republicans, “it’s very unlikely that they would take action,” he added.

In theory the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, where the meeting took place, could also open a case.

More likely is that former FBI director Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor charged with investigating possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia, will determine if there’s a case, says Mr. Tokaji.

DID HE COMMIT TREASON?
Democratic Party lawmakers deployed the T word on Tuesday, but the experts who spoke to AFP doubted that would stick.

“Simply having a contact with a foreign country, even a foreign adversary — we are not at war — does not make it espionage or treason,” says Joshua Dressler, law professor at Ohio State University.

“To bring it within treason, you’d have to (show that) they intended to harm their own country… That’s an extreme argument to make,” he said. “It would probably have to be something less extreme.” — AFP

DOHA — Qatar and the United States signed a deal Tuesday to combat “terrorism” as visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pursued efforts to resolve the Gulf diplomatic crisis.

In Qatar as part of a series of Gulf meetings, Mr. Tillerson also said Doha had been “reasonable” in the dispute, which has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with the emirate over accusations it supports extremism.

Mr. Tillerson is spending much of this week in the Gulf seeking to mediate in the rift among crucial US allies, and will meet foreign ministers of the four countries isolating Qatar in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday.

After talks with senior officials in Doha on Tuesday, Mr. Tillerson and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani announced the deal targeting extremist financing.

“The memorandum lays out a series of steps the two countries will take over the coming months and years to interrupt and disable terror financing flows and intensify counter-terrorism activities globally,” Mr. Tillerson said at a joint press conference.

It also meant Qatar was “the first to respond” to US President Donald J. Trump’s call at a summit in Riyadh earlier this year “to stop the funding of terrorism” — suggesting such deals could be signed with the other Arab states as a step toward ending the crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed urged “the siege countries to join us in the future” by signing on to such deals.

But Tuesday’s initiative met a dismissive reaction from the Arab countries that imposed sanctions on Qatar last month.

“This step is insufficient,” said a joint statement published by Saudi state news agency SPA, adding that the four states would “carefully monitor the seriousness of Qatari authorities in combating all forms of financing, supporting and harboring terrorism.”

Commitments made by Qatari authorities “cannot be trusted,” the statement added, citing previous agreements that have allegedly not been honored.

While the State Department has warned the crisis could last months, Mr. Tillerson on Tuesday struck a moderately optimistic note.

“I’m hopeful we can make some progress to bring this to a point of resolution,” he said after meeting Qatar’s emir.

“Qatar has been quite clear in its positions and I think very reasonable and we want to talk now… (about) how do we take things forward.”

Mr. Tillerson flew back to Kuwait — the main mediator in the crisis and where he is based this week — after the talks in Qatar.

Egypt announced the meeting with Mr. Tillerson in Jeddah on Wednesday, saying it “reflects the four countries’ desire to enhance coordination and underscore their unity on ways to deal with Qatar in the future.” The diplomatic crisis is the worst to hit the region since the establishment of the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981. The United States and its Western allies have vast economic and political interests in the Gulf. — AFP

TAIPEI — Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early on Wednesday morning on its way back from Hong Kong and is being monitored, Taiwan’s defense ministry said, adding there was no cause for alarm.

The Liaoning left Hong Kong at noon on Tuesday, before entering Taiwan’s defense zone by traveling in a northerly direction via the western side of the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said.

Taiwan was monitoring the situation, had detected nothing unusual and people should not be alarmed, it added.

The Soviet-built Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, had been in Hong Kong for events marking the 20th anniversary of the territory’s return to Chinese rule from Britain.

It was the fourth time that the Liaoning has sailed near self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own, in recent months for what Beijing has said were routine drills.

Earlier this month Taiwan scrambled jets to shadow the carrier as it made its way to Hong Kong.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province, under its control. — Reuters

BEIRUT — Islamic State (IS) group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was reported dead on Tuesday, a day after Iraq declared it had driven the jihadists from their one-time top stronghold of Mosul.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, said it had heard from senior IS leaders that Baghdadi was dead.

If confirmed, his death would mark another devastating blow to the jihadist group after its loss of Mosul, which Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday declared had been retaken from IS after a grueling months-long campaign.

The Britain-based Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that “top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir Ezzor province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory.”

“We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how,” he said.

The report could not be independently verified. Baghdadi has been reported killed several times.

Deir Ezzor, in eastern Syria, remains largely under IS control but the group has rapidly lost territory elsewhere in Syria and in neighboring Iraq.

Abdel Rahman said Baghdadi “was present in eastern parts of Deir Ezzor province” in recent months, but it was unclear if he died there or elsewhere.

There was no official confirmation or denial of the news on IS-run social media outlets.

PERSISTENT RUMORS OF DEATH
The US-led coalition fighting the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq said it could not verify the Observatory’s information.

“I don’t have a clue” about Baghdadi’s status, said US Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who heads the coalition.

“Hope he’s deader than a doornail. And if he’s not, as soon as we find out where he is he will be,” he said in a video call from Baghdad.

Asked if the coalition was examining the claim, its spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said: “We have professionals who use all information at their disposal to verify reports before we would confirm any allegations.”

US President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tweeted “Big wins against ISIS!”

It was not immediately clear if that was a reference to Mosul’s recapture, Baghdadi’s reported death, or both.

There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi had died in recent months. Russia’s army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.

The US-led coalition said at the time it could not confirm whether the Russian strike had killed Baghdadi.

With a $25-million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but was rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in the area straddling Iraq and Syria.

The 46-year-old Iraqi has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as “caliph” in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul.

IS destroyed the highly symbolic site before Iraqi forces could reach it as they pushed the jihadist group from Mosul.

Iraqi forces launched their campaign in October to retake Iraq’s second city, which was seized by the jihadists during the mid — 2014 offensive that saw them take control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Mr. Abadi announced in Mosul on Monday that the campaign had ended with the defeat of IS in the city, hailing “a victory over darkness, a victory over brutality and terrorism”.

DEVASTATION IN MOSUL
The cost of victory has been enormous: much of Mosul lies in ruins, thousands are dead and wounded and nearly half the city’s residents have been forced from their homes.

In Mosul’s Old City, where buildings lie crumbling and burned — out cars and other debris choke the streets, security forces were still searching for remaining IS fighters.

“What we are doing today is just combing the area and clearing it of sleeper cells,” said Staff Lieutenant General Sami al — Aridhi, a senior commander in Iraq’s elite Counter — Terrorism Service.

“There are groups that are hiding in shelters,” but they surrender or are killed, Aridhi said.

Since the Mosul operation began in October, 920,000 people have fled their homes, only a fraction of whom have returned, according to the United Nations.

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Iraqi forces and the US — led coalition of exposing civilians to “relentless and unlawful attacks” in west Mosul.

“Pro — government forces launched barrages of indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks using explosive weapons unsuitable for such a densely populated urban area,” Amnesty said. — AFP