AP News:普京以独立候选人身份参选

This is AP News Minute.

Supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin convened on Tuesday to formally nominate him for the presidency after he announced he would seek reelection as an independent candidate. The Kremlin says officials should review opposition leader Alexei Navalny's calls for an election boycott to see if they might be breaking the law.

President Donald Trump is predicting that democrats and republicans will "eventually come together" on a new health care plan for the country. Sending a Twitter post early Tuesday from his Florida resort, Trump said, "the very unfair and unpopular individual mandate has been terminated as part of our tax cut bill, which essentially repeals (over time) Obamacare."

The good news for many in the Northeast and Midwest was that it has been a white Christmas. The bad news was that a blizzard swept into part of New England, and bitter cold enveloped much of the Midwest. Even the usually rainy pacific northwest got the white stuff.

A "large portion" of a famed magnolia tree planted on the south grounds by President Andrew Jackson will be removed because it is weak and poses a safety risk, the White House said Tuesday.

Jackson added the magnolia to the White House grounds in 1835, according to the White House Historical Association.

Julian Stiles, AP News Minute.