AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Powerful, obscure law is basis for Trump 'order' on trade
BIARRITZ, France (AP) - President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted "order" to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a spiraling trade war between the two nations.
China's announcement Friday that it was raising tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports sent Trump into a rage and White House aides scrambling for a response.
Trump fired off on Twitter, declaring American companies "are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China." He later clarified that he was threatening to make use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in the trade war, raising questions about the wisdom and propriety of making the 1977 act used to target rogue regimes, terrorists and drug traffickers the newest weapon in the clash between the world's largest economies.
It would mark the latest grasp of authority by Trump, who has claimed widespread powers not sought by his predecessors despite his own past criticism of their use of executive powers.
"For all of the Fake News Reporters that don't have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977," Trump tweeted late Friday. "Case closed!"
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Brazilian troops deploy to fight Amazon fires
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Backed by military aircraft, Brazilian troops on Saturday were deploying in the Amazon to fight fires that have swept the region and prompted anti-government protests as well as an international outcry.
President Jair Bolsonaro also tried to temper global concern, saying previously deforested areas had burned and that intact rainforest was spared. Even so, the fires were likely to be urgently discussed at a summit of the Group of Seven leaders in France this weekend.
Some 44,000 troops will be available for "unprecedented" operations to put out the fires, and forces are heading to six Brazilian states that asked for federal help, Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo said. The states are Roraima, Rondonia, Tocantins, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso.
The military's first mission will be carried out by 700 troops around Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, Azevedo said. The military will use two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water on fires, he said.
An Associated Press journalist flying over the Porto Velho region Saturday morning reported hazy conditions and low visibility. On Friday, the reporter saw many already deforested areas that were burned, apparently by people clearing farmland, as well as a large column of smoke billowing from one fire.
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Even before photo op of G-7 allies, sharp elbows come out
BIARRITZ, France (AP) - The posturing by leaders of the G-7 rich democracies began well before they stood together for a summit photo.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the host, cornered Donald Trump at the American leader's hotel with an impromptu lunch invitation. It was something of a power move by Macron, who pushed the Amazon wildfires to the top of the agenda at a summit Trump hoped to use to persuade allies they can avoid economic disaster by following his low-tax, low-regulation mantra.
European Council President Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traded barbs over who would go down in history as "Mr. No Deal" and take the blame for a Brexit departure from the European Union that threatens to go off the rails.
And nearly everyone kept a trade threat close at hand.
Just before boarding Air Force One for France, Trump tweeted yet another threat of new tariffs on French wine in retaliation for France's digital services tax. Macron greeted him warmly as a "very special guest," but had already called for an end to the trade disputes that he said threatened global growth.
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Will the real Mr. No-Deal step forward please?
BIARRITZ, France (AP) - Deal or No Deal?
One might think the issue would be on the minds of two leaders at the vortex of the question of whether the UK will leave the European Union without a deal in October.
But as Britain and the European Union hurtle toward a no-deal Brexit, the contest Saturday seemed to be who is going to go down in history with the blame and the label: Mr. No-Deal.
As world leaders touched down in the French seaside resort of Biarritz for the Group of Seven summit, the long-running tensions over Britain's departure from the EU got a tad personal. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Council president Donald Tusk each suggested that the other is bent on scuttling the chances that the UK will break away from the single market of 500 million with an agreement.
Tusk went first. In a comment that laid bare his exasperation, he told reporters at the summit that Johnson would be the third British prime minister with whom he'd discussed the issue. The EU cooperated with David Cameron who wanted to remain, and with Theresa May, who wanted to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
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'Red flag laws' offer tool for preventing some gun violence
After a white supremacist discussed plans on Facebook for a mass shooting at a synagogue, police in Washington used a new law to quickly seize his 12 firearms, long before he was convicted of any crime.
But when a Tennessee father became alarmed about his son after receiving a suicidal text message, he said the police determined they could not take his son's guns away. A few months later, the man showed up at a church and shot seven worshippers one Sunday morning, killing one.
Family members and police routinely face agonizing decisions when otherwise lawful gun owners reveal an impulse to harm themselves or others, and more states are enacting laws that let authorities take away their weapons.
With bipartisan support in many cases, 17 states and Washington D.C. have now passed "red flag laws" that allow the court-ordered removal of guns from people who are considered to be dangerous. The back-to-back shootings that killed 31 people this month in Texas and Ohio have given new momentum to proposals pending in several other states and to a plan in Congress to provide grant money to states that adopt such measures.
In a rare victory for gun control advocates, the laws have spread since the February 2018 shooting that killed 17 students and staff members at a high school in Parkland, Florida. New York's new law took effect Saturday while New Jersey's begins Sept. 1. The proliferation of such laws comes despite opposition from gun rights activists and others who say the measures go too far.
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Wags and weeds: Invasive plants meet match in detection dogs
TUXEDO, N.Y. (AP) - In brushy terrain where a botanical interloper evades detection by the human eye, count on Dia to sniff it out.
Dia is a spunky Labrador retriever trained to track down a yellow-flowered shrub that's taking root in New York state parks. She's one of a new breed of detection dog assisting conservationists in the fight against invasive species.
With her handler, Joshua Beese, of the nonprofit New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, Dia began last fall to hunt for Scotch broom in Bear Mountain and Harriman state parks about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of New York City.
The shrub, which displaces native plants with thickets impenetrable to wildlife, is a widespread noxious weed in the Pacific Northwest but is fairly new to New York. Land managers hope to eradicate it before it becomes widespread.
"If we had to find all these plants ourselves, combing the grass for every tiny plant, it would take so much longer - and we'd still miss a lot," Beese said on a recent morning after Dia showed him hundreds of Scotch broom shoots hidden in a field of tall grass and sweetfern.
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75 years later, US World War II veterans say: Never forget
PARIS (AP) - Seventy-five years ago, they helped free Europe from the Nazis. This weekend, U.S. veterans are back in Paris to celebrate, and commemorate.
Now in their 90s, these men aren't afraid to cry about what they saw in World War II. And they want everyone to remember what happened back then, so that it doesn't happen again.
"The veterans, all the veterans of World War II, I think we saved the world," said Harold Angle, who came to France with the U.S. 28th Infantry Division in 1944, and recounted his experiences to The Associated Press in Paris. "To be under the domination of a dictatorship like the Hitler regime and some of the terrible, terrible things that they did.
"When you talk about taking little kids out on a firing range and shooting them for target practice...." Emotion choked his voice. "I can't imagine anybody doing things like that. So I think we really did save the world. The guy had to be stopped."
Now 96, he's among Allied veterans, French resistance fighters and others taking part in ceremonies Saturday and Sunday marking the 75th anniversary of the military operation that liberated Paris from Nazi occupation.
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Buttigieg making faith-based appeal to voters in 2020 bid
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - The question was about climate change. The answer soon turned to the Bible.
And Pete Buttigieg knew the verses.
"There's a lot about the stewardship of creation that is in Scripture that I don't see being honored by the administration right now, not to mention the stuff about loving your neighbor and taking care of the least among us and feeding the poor," the South Bend, Indiana, mayor said. The crowd of about 250 at a Mississippi River park in southeastern Iowa this month erupted with cheers.
Republicans for a half century have built a loyal following among white evangelical Christians. But Buttigieg, like no other Democrat seeking the 2020 presidential nomination, is trying to demonstrate that there's a strong religiosity among Democrats , too.
President Donald Trump's reelection fortunes are rooted deeply in the unshakable support among religious conservatives . But Buttigieg's regular references to his own Christian faith offer a counterweight that could be an influential asset in Iowa and beyond as Democrats parry the secular labels that Republicans have tried to apply to them.
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Hong Kong police and protesters clash, ending violence lull
HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong protesters threw bricks and gasoline bombs at police, who responded with tear gas, as chaotic scenes returned to the summer-long anti-government protests on Saturday for the first time in nearly two weeks.
Hundreds of black-clad protesters armed with bamboo poles and baseball bats fought with police officers wielding batons on a main road following a march against "smart lampposts" that was sparked by surveillance fears.
The chaotic scenes unfolded outside a police station and a nearby shopping mall as officers in riot gear faced off with protesters who set up makeshift street barricades.
The violence interrupted nearly two weeks of calm in Hong Kong, which has been gripped by a turbulent pro-democracy movement since June.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd after repeated warnings "went futile," the government said in a statement. By early evening, most of the protesters had dispersed, though clashes flared up in other neighborhoods.
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Iranian oil tanker pursued by US says it is going to Turkey
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - An Iranian-flagged oil tanker pursued by the U.S. amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington changed its listed destination to a port in Turkey early Saturday after Greece said it wouldn't risk its relations with America by aiding it.
Meanwhile, Iran sanctioned a prominent Washington-based think tank that led criticism of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers over its alleged "economic terrorism," something the organization described as a "badge of honor."
The crew of the oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, updated its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System to Mersin, Turkey, a port city in the country's south and home to an oil terminal.
However, mariners can input any destination into the AIS, so Turkey may not be its true destination. Mersin is some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of a refinery in Baniyas, Syria, where authorities alleged the Adrian Darya had been heading before being seized off Gibraltar in early July.
Iranian state media did not acknowledge the new reported destination of the Adrian Darya, which carries 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil worth some $130 million. Nor was there any immediate reaction from Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deals directly with Tehran and Russia over Syria's long war.
