AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT
Not just Ukraine, Trump now calls for China to probe Bidens
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Thursday publicly encouraged China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, snubbing his nose at an impeachment inquiry into whether a similar, private appeal to another foreign government violated his oath of office.
Trump declared at the White House, "China should start an investigation into the Bidens." He said he hadn´t previously asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate the former vice president and his son Hunter, but it´s "certainly something we could start thinking about."
By publicly egging on China, Trump was amplifying the message he´d delivered in private to the president of Ukraine. That message, revealed by a government whistleblower, has spawned the impeachment investigation by the House. Trump, who has defended his contact with Ukraine as "perfect," went further in expanding his request to China, a communist world power that has much at stake in its relationship with the United States in an ongoing trade war.
The boldness of Trump´s call Thursday also suggests he will continue to act as though requests for other countries to investigate potential opponents in the 2020 election are normal, even in the face of broad condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans. It´s a tactic Trump has used successfully before, pushing questionable secret conversations into the open, helping to inoculate him against charges that he is engaged in nefarious action, cover-ups or obstruction of justice.
Vice President Mike Pence stepped in to defend Trump on Thursday, saying Americans have a right to know about the wrongdoing the president alleges, despite no evidence to support wrongdoing by Biden, a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
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Diplomat at center of Trump inquiry says he warned Ukraine
WASHINGTON (AP) - The former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine told lawmakers Thursday that he wasn´t personally involved in President Donald Trump´s effort to have that country´s leaders investigate Joe Biden´s family and said he warned Ukrainians to steer clear of American politics.
Kurt Volker, who has become a central figure in the House´s impeachment inquiry and testified for nearly 10 hours, also informed investigators that he was told that a meeting between Trump and the newly elected Ukrainian president was not happening and was being put on ice, according to one person familiar with the private meeting who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a member of the intelligence panel, said after the meeting that Volker told them that "multiple people" in the State Department were worried about ties between military aid that was being withheld from Ukraine and the administration´s urging for an investigation.
Republicans leaving the meeting said Volker´s testimony helped show there was no quid pro quo when the officials asked for a probe. But Swalwell disputed that. He described a text from one senior department official that read: "It´s crazy if we are trying to leverage US dollars in security assistance for help in a political campaign."
The daylong appearance by Volker is the first in what is expected to be a series of interviews with officials inside and outside the State Department. House investigators want to understand if they played any role in or have more information about for damaging information about the former vice president, who is now a Democratic presidential contender and top Trump rival.
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Private sector seeks to profit by detaining migrant kids
SAN BENITO, Texas (AP) - On a recent day in a remodeled brick church in the Rio Grande Valley, a caregiver tried to soothe a toddler, offering him a sippy cup. The adult knew next to nothing about the little 3-year-old whose few baby words appeared to be Portuguese. Shelter staff had tried desperately to find his family, calling the Brazilian consulate and searching Facebook.
Nearby, infants in strollers were rolled through the building, pushed by workers in bright blue shirts lettered "CHS," short for Comprehensive Health Services Inc., the private, for-profit company paid by the U.S. government to hold some of the smallest migrant children.
Sheltering migrant children has become a growing business for the Florida-based government contractor, as the number of minors in government custody has swollen to record levels over the past two years. More than 50 babies, toddlers and teens were closely watched on this day inside the clean, well-lit shelter surrounded by chain link fences.
The children, many in matching black pants and gray sweatshirts, are officially under the custody of the federal government. But a joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has found that the Trump administration has started shifting some of the caretaking of migrant children toward the private sector and contractors instead of the largely religious-based nonprofit grantees that have long cared for the kids.
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AP Exclusive: Colleges got millions from opioid maker owners
BOSTON (AP) - Prestigious universities around the world have accepted at least $60 million over the past five years from the family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records show.
Some of the donations arrived before recent lawsuits blaming Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis. But at least nine schools accepted gifts in 2018 or later, when states and counties across the country began efforts to hold members of the family accountable for Purdue´s actions. The largest gifts in that span went to Imperial College London, the University of Sussex and Yale University.
Major beneficiaries of Sackler family foundations also included the University of Oxford in England and Rockefeller, Cornell and Columbia universities in New York, according to tax and charity records reviewed by The Associated Press.
In total, at least two dozen universities have received gifts from the family since 2013, ranging from $25,000 to more than $10 million, the records show.
Some skeptics see the donations as an attempt to salvage the family´s reputation.
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North Korea says underwater-launched missile test succeeded
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Thursday it has carried out its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test in three years, in an apparent bid to dial up pressure on the United States ahead of a weekend resumption of their nuclear diplomacy.
North Korea said Wednesday´s test was a Pukguksong-3 missile, which it described as a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
The Pentagon, however, rejected North Korea´s claim, saying Thursday the short-to-medium range missile was not launched from a submarine.
Air Force Col. Pat Ryder, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that the missile came from a sea-based platform, not from underwater. Other defense officials described it as a barge or floating platform. Ryder said the missile flew 280 miles into the Sea of Japan.
The test is seen as the North´s most high-profile weapons launch since it began diplomacy with the United States early last year. Some experts say North Korea wants to show the U.S. what would happen if diplomacy fails again.
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MGM Resorts commits up to $800M to victims of Vegas shooting
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Two years after a shooter rained gunfire on country music fans from a high-rise Las Vegas Strip hotel, MGM Resorts International has agreed to pay up to $800 million to families of the 58 people who died and hundreds of others who were injured, attorneys announced Thursday.
The out-of-court agreement will resolve lawsuits in at least 10 states seeking compensation from the hotel owner for physical and psychological injuries received in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Publicly traded MGM Resorts acknowledged no liability or guilt with the agreement that attorneys said was reached Monday and made public just two days after the second anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre at a country music concert.
No one wanted to upstage victim memorials with the settlement, said attorney Robert Eglet, who represents about 2,500 of the 4,400 people with claims against publicly traded MGM Resorts.
And no one wanted to go through protracted litigation, he said.
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AP EXPLAINS: Iraq unrest comes at critical moment in region
BAGHDAD (AP) - The young men and women coordinated on social media. Fed up with an Iraqi political elite they blame for their many grievances, they agreed on a mass demonstration on Oct. 1.
They were met with bullets, water cannons and tear gas, plunging the country into renewed instability just as it was starting to emerge from a bloody war against the Islamic State group.
The response to the unrest has triggered ongoing confrontations with protesters across the country and has claimed the lives of more than 30 people in three days. Hundreds have been injured.
The turmoil in Iraq, a country central to America´s Middle East policy, comes at a critical moment in the region amid soaring tensions between Iran and the United States _ both allies of the Iraqi government. Iraq hosts thousands of U.S. troops and also is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias. There were already concerns the country was turning into a proxy battlefield between the two sides.
A look at what happened this week:
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US authorities seek access to Facebook encrypted messaging
NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other U.S., U.K. and Australian officials are pressing Facebook to give authorities a way to read encrypted messages sent by ordinary users, re-igniting tensions between tech companies and law enforcement.
Facebook´s WhatsApp already uses so-called end-to-end encryption, which locks up messages so that even Facebook can´t read their contents. Facebook plans to extend that protection to Messenger and Instagram Direct.
But the officials will ask Facebook to hold off in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg . A copy of the letter, dated Friday, was obtained by The Associated Press.
"Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes," the officials wrote. The letter repeatedly emphasizes the dangers of child sexual exploitation to justify their stance.
Law enforcement has long sought a way to read encrypted messages that´s analogous to wiretaps for phone calls. Security experts, however, say giving police such access makes messaging insecure for everyone. Redesigning encryption to create "backdoors" for police also creates vulnerabilities that criminals or foreign spies can exploit, they say.
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Binge eating videos find big audience, even for weight loss
NEW YORK (AP) - While trying to lose weight, Becky Beach found assistance in an unlikely place: thousands of online videos featuring people binging on massive amounts of ramen, burgers, chicken wings and seafood boils brimming with crab and lobster.
The South Korea-rooted video trend is known as "mukbang," and it has spread to the U.S. and around the globe on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
"I watch one whenever I feel like eating sweets or bad foods," said Beach, a Dallas-based product designer for a Fortune 500 company. She has lost 10 pounds and views up to three mukbang videos a day. "It´s just satisfying to watch."
Ashley Cobb, a math teacher in Washington, D.C., is also a fan after one of her eighth-graders turned her on to the videos.
Cobb said it´s "fun and soothing" to watch people dip food in sauce and "eat with so much enjoyment." The footage transports her to "a different place" and "has a way of making you leave reality for a second, sort of like a good book."
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Home sweet volcano: Alaska fur seals thrive at unlikely spot
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska´s northern fur seal population for three decades has been classified as depleted, but the marine mammals are showing up in growing numbers at an unlikely location: a tiny island that forms the tip of an active undersea volcano.
Vents on Bogoslof Island continue to spew mud, steam and sulfurous gases two years after an eruption sent ash clouds into the path of jetliners passing over the Bering Sea. Still, northern fur seal moms find the remote island´s rocky beaches perfect for giving birth and mothering pups.
"The population growth of northern fur seals on Bogoslof has been extraordinary," said Tom Gelatt, who leads a NOAA Fisheries group that studies northern fur seals. Federal scientists visited the island in August.
Geographically speaking, the island is not a particularly unusual place for the seals known for their thick coats to hang out. Most of the world´s roughly 1.1 million northern fur seals breed in the eastern Bering Sea. The animals live in the ocean from November to June and head for land in summer to breed and nurse pups.
But why the seals chose volatile Bogoslof over the dozens of other uninhabited Aleutian Islands is unclear.
