Midday Roundup: Congress agrees on debt relief for Puerto Rico

Too big to fail? Congress is striking a deal with the White House to rescue Puerto Rico from $70 billion in debt. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have each expressed support for a bill introduced this week that would set up a control board to manage Puerto Rico’s debt and oversee restructuring. Ryan said the bill’s plan avoids setting precedents that would affect bond markets and won’t involve taxpayer money. Pelosi called it a bipartisan compromise. Members of Congress hope to pass the bill before Puerto Rico defaults on a $2 billion debt payment due July 1, after missing several smaller payments earlier this year.

Illegal amnesty. An Iraqi-born American immigration lawyer who worked as an activist to deliver thousands of Christians from persecution in the Middle East could spend decades behind bars. Prosecutors claim Robert DeKelaita encouraged his clients to lie about their safety when applying for asylum in the United States. He was convicted earlier this month of helping clients falsify applications and now faces up to 35 years in prison. But supporters insist he’s being targeted for speaking out about how the federal government has ignored Christian persecution. DeKelaita is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

Changing of the guard. Taiwan’s first female president, inaugurated today, gave a delicately worded address that omitted any mention of her country being a part of or independent from China. Though China claims the self-governing island as a territory, many in Taiwan support independence, including the party of newly inaugurated President Tsai Ing-wen. She said her administration would “work to maintain peace and stability” in relations between the sides. But she added Taiwan’s democratic system and the will of its 23 million people must be respected.

Freezer fears. A recall of listeria-tainted frozen food affects grocers in all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico. Eight people have gotten sick from the food and two have died, though listeria was not the primary cause of death. The recall covers more than 400 products from CRF Frozen Foods in Pasco, Wash., sold at retailers like Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway. New technology for sequencing the genome of food-containing bacteria helped the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention link illnesses around the country back to the CRF facility.

WORLD Radio’s Christina Darnell and Mary Reichard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.