CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela rejected President Donald Trump’s call to halt a rewriting of its constitution that is widely seen as a move to consolidate the government’s power, saying Tuesday that it is reviewing its relations with the United States in response to Trump’s threat to impose economic sanctions.

Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said on state television that the election of members of a constitutional assembly will take place as planned on July 30. He said President Nicolas Maduro has asked him to reconsider the country’s diplomatic relations with the U.S.

“The constitutional assembly is happening,” Moncada said, adding that Venezuela is “conducting a deep review of relations with the U.S. government because we don’t accept humiliation from anyone.”

On Monday, Trump threatened to take unspecified “economic actions” if Maduro goes ahead with the assembly. Maduro’s socialist supporters want the assembly to grant him more power over the few institutions still outside the control of his ruling party.

The U.S. is a major market for the oil exports that drive Venezuela’s economy. Trump has imposed travel bans and has frozen the assets of high-ranking officials in recent weeks, but refrained from broad sanctions against the country that could deepen its economic crisis.

The opposition said it would launch a plan it called “zero hour” on Wednesday that includes an agreement to form an alternate government and create 2,000 local committees that would function as street-level support for the opposition.

That would be followed Thursday by a nationwide strike, which could bring much of Venezuela’s already sputtering economy to a standstill.

Turkish court jails 6 human rights activists pending trial

ISTANBUL — A Turkish court Tuesday jailed Amnesty International’s Turkey director and five other human rights activists pending trial for allegedly aiding an armed terror group — making them the latest suspects in an extensive crackdown against perceived government opponents.

In a decision which Amnesty International called a “crushing blow for rights in Turkey,” the court in Istanbul also decided to release four other activists from custody pending the outcome of a trial, but they will also have to report regularly to police.

The 10 — Amnesty’s Turkey director Idil Eser, seven human rights defenders and their German and Swedish trainers — were detained in a July 5 police raid on a hotel where they were attending a digital security workshop.

Separatists proclaim a new state to replace all of Ukraine

MOSCOW — Separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of the country. But Russia, their chief backer, played down the announcement, saying it was part of public discussion.

The announcement in Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 cease-fire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine’s industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev’s fold while granting them wide autonomy. Some rebels said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

House approves delay of Obama-era smog reductions

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to pass a Republican-backed bill delaying implementation of Obama-era reductions in smog-causing air pollutants.

Lawmakers voted 229 to 199 to approve the Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2017. The measure delays by eight more years the implementation of 2015 air pollution standards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency under the prior administration.

The bill also makes key technical changes that environmentalists say will weaken the Clean Air Act, including switching the EPA's mandated review of air quality standards from every five years to every 10. Ground-level ozone can cause breathing problems among sensitive groups, causing thousands of premature deaths each year.

Vatican court says embezzlement case to proceed

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican tribunal rejected attempts by two former executives of the pope’s children’s hospital to dismiss an embezzlement case, asserting Tuesday it could prosecute them on charges they diverted about a half-million dollars in hospital donations to renovate a top cardinal’s penthouse.

Lawyers for former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina argued that the court had no jurisdiction to prosecute activities of a foundation located in Italy, not the Vatican.

But tribunal president Judge Paolo Papanti-Pelletier rejected the motion and set a new round of hearings for Sept. 7-9.

Profiti has said the funds he used to renovate Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment were an investment, since he intended to use the home for fundraising events for the hospital.

Earth’s trend stays intact: The heat was on in 1st half

WASHINGTON — The first half of 2017 was the second-warmest on record for Earth, only behind last year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday Earth’s average temperature from January to June was 57.9 degrees. That’s 1.6 degrees warmer than the 20th century average.

Natural El Ninos spike global temperatures. But NOAA climate scientist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo says it is remarkable that 2017 without an El Nino so far beats all but the super El Nino year of 2016.

She says that’s the world changing into an ever warming climate.

Record warmth was measured in much of Mexico, western Europe, eastern Russia, eastern Africa and eastern China. The U.S. had its second-warmest start.

Disgraced former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is far from putting his child-sex-abuse scandal behind him after being released from federal prison in Minnesota, where he served a little over a year for a related banking conviction, and transferred to a Chicago re-entry facility. He now must undergo sex-offender treatment.

There’s not enough evidence to pursue criminal civil rights charges against the Albuquerque, N.M., police officers involved in the 2014 fatal shooting of a homeless man, the Justice Department said. James Boyd, who had a history of mental illness, was shot and killed following an hourslong standoff with authorities.