AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

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This article was published 09/05/2019 (2505 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

US hikes tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing vows retaliation

BEIJING (AP) — President Donald Trump’s latest tariff hike on Chinese goods took effect Friday and Beijing said it would retaliate, escalating a battle over China’s technology ambitions and other trade tensions.

The Trump administration raised duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25% from 10%. China’s Commerce Ministry said it would impose “necessary countermeasures” but gave no details.

The increase went ahead even after American and Chinese negotiators began more talks in Washington aimed at ending a dispute that has disrupted billions of dollars in trade and shaken global financial markets.

“The risk of a complete breakdown in trade talks has certainly increased,” said Michael Taylor of Moody’s Investors Service in a report.

American officials accuse Beijing of backtracking on commitments made in earlier rounds of negotiations.

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Crisis point? High stakes in Trump’s showdown with Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats call it a “constitutional crisis.” But is it?

Stunned by the extent of the White House’s blanket refusal to comply with oversight by Congress, the Democrats warn that the Trump administration is shattering historic norms and testing the nation’s system of checks and balances in new and alarming ways.

It’s not just the House’s fight with the Justice Department over the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The standoff involves President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to engage with dozens of Capitol Hill probes of his tax returns, potential business conflicts and the running of the administration — from security clearances for his family to actions he’s taken on his own on immigration.

It’s a confrontation that’s only expected to deepen now that Mueller’s work is finished and the investigation focus shifts to Capitol Hill.

Trump derides the probes as “presidential harassment.” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell tries to declare it all “case closed.” But Democrats warn that without the legislative branch staying on the case, keeping watch, any executive becomes more like a “monarchy” — or “tyranny” — that doesn’t have to answer to the representatives of all Americans.

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Experts see Russia fingerprints on North Korea’s new missile

TOKYO (AP) — The three new missiles North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has tested over the past week are eerily familiar to military experts: They look just like a controversial and widely copied missile the Russian military has deployed to Syria and has been actively trying to sell abroad for years.

Ending a pause in ballistic missile launches that began in late 2017, and alarming North Korea’s neighbours, Kim personally supervised the launch of the first missile from the country’s east coast on Saturday and two more from the west on Thursday. All splashed down in the Pacific.

The missiles were short-range and the launches do not mean Kim has decided to end his self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles that could reach the United States mainland. They do indicate, however, that Kim is methodically expanding the battle readiness of his missile forces and that could have a major impact on the safety of American allies and U.S. forces in the region.

The missiles bear a strong resemblance to the Russian-designed Iskander, a short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile that has been in the Russian arsenal for more than a decade.

“There are Russian technology fingerprints all over it,” said Marcus Schiller, a leading expert on North Korean missiles who is based in Germany.

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Q&A: Syria’s Assad sets sights on Idlib, the final showdown?

BEIRUT (AP) — After eight months of relative calm, Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib is once again a theatre for bloody military operations: heavy bombardment, airstrikes and waves of civilian displacement as Syrian government troops, backed by Russia, push their way into the rebel-held enclave in a widening offensive.

The violence of the past week threatens to completely unravel a crumbling cease-fire agreement reached between Turkey and Russia at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in September last year, which averted a potentially devastating assault by the Syrian government to retake the province.

“There are no good options when it comes to Idlib,” an analysis by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group concluded in March, explaining why the province has oscillated between stagnation and bursts of bloodshed for years.

The area is among the last in the war-shattered country outside President Bashar Assad’s control — and the last area still held by rebels. Confident in the support from Russia, Assad has pledged to recover the province and every other inch of Syrian territory lost during the war.

Here’s a look at the rebellious region, and the fighting taking place:

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US B-52 bombers land in Qatar over unspecified Iran threat

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — B-52 bombers ordered by the White House to deploy to the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified threats from Iran have arrived at a major American air base in Qatar, the U.S. Air Force acknowledged Friday.

Images released by the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command show B-52H Stratofortress bombers arriving at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Thursday night.

Others landed at an undisclosed location Wednesday in “southwest Asia,” the Air Force said. The U.S. military in the past has described its presence at both the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and Al Udeid as “southwest Asia.”

The Air Force identified the aircraft as coming from the 20th Bomb Squadron of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

On Sunday, the White House announced it would send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and the bombers into the Persian Gulf to counter Tehran. The Lincoln on Thursday passed through the Suez Canal on its way to the Persian Gulf.

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Why does Facebook fail to fix itself? It’s partly humans

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The question comes up over and over, with extremist material, hate speech, election meddling and privacy invasions. Why can’t Facebook just fix it?

It’s complicated, with reasons that include Facebook’s size, its business model and technical limitations, not to mention years of unchecked growth. Oh, and the element of human nature.

The latest revelation: Facebook is inadvertently creating celebratory videos using extremist content and auto-generating business pages for the likes of ISIS and Al Qaida. The company says it is working on solutions and the problems are getting better. That is true, but critics say better is not good enough when mass shootings are being live-streamed and online mobs are spreading rumours that lead to deadly violence.

“They have been frustratingly slow in dealing with everything from child sexual abuse to terrorism, white supremacy, bullying, nonconsensual porn” and things like allowing advertisers to target categories such as “Jew hater,” simply because some users had listed the term as an “interest,” said Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley.

As new problems crop up, Facebook’s formula has been to apologize and promise to make changes, sometimes also noting that it did not anticipate how malicious actors could so readily misuse its platform. More recently, the company has also emphasized just how much it is improving, both technically in its use of artificial intelligence to detect problems and in terms of focusing more money and effort on fixing them.

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Suspects in Colorado school shooting due back in court

DENVER (AP) — Both suspects in a suburban Denver school shooting are due back in court Friday as prosecutors file charges in the attack that killed a student and wounded eight others.

The district attorney’s office also is expected to decide whether the younger suspect will be charged as an adult in Tuesday’s shooting.

Kendrick Castillo, the 18-year-old senior killed during the shooting, and two classmates at the STEM School Highlands Ranch have been credited with helping thwart the attack by charging at one of the shooters when he entered a classroom. Authorities have said an armed private security guard restrained the second shooter.

Authorities have identified the suspects as 18-year-old Devon Erickson and 16-year-old Maya McKinney, whose attorney has said uses male pronouns and the name Alec. They have been in jail since Tuesday on suspicion of murder and attempted murder and made their first court appearances Wednesday.

District attorney George Brauchler plans to file formal charges and decide whether to charge McKinney as an adult by Friday’s hearings. Colorado law permits prosecutors to file adult charges of serious felonies against 16- and 17-year-olds without prior approval from a judge.

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Hungary stems migrant flow, but issue remains big in EU vote

ASOTTHALOM, Hungary (AP) — Hundreds of migrants a day streamed through the Hungarian village of Asotthalom on their way to Western Europe in 2015. Today there are almost none. So one might think the political discourse has moved on.

Think again.

In this month’s European Parliament election, no issue rings louder in Hungary than migration. Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party have campaigned almost exclusively on anti-immigration policies and it remains a hot topic in this formerly beleaguered village as well.

Asotthalom’s mayor has left the nationalist Jobbik party to form a new movement with an even harder anti-migrant stance.

“Migrants still get through, but they are caught in Asotthalom,” gloated Laszlo Toroczkai, the mayor who is also his party’s leading candidate in the European election. “This region, which suffered terribly from massive, uncontrolled immigration, has absolutely recovered its security and tranquility.”

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Uber to give its market value a lift in stock market debut

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber’s next stop is the stock market, where it hopes to pick up more investors willing to bet on a ride-hailing market brimming with potential and conspicuously lacking in profits.

The world’s largest ride-hailing service reached a major milestone Thursday when Uber priced its long-awaited initial public offering at $45 price per share to set the stage for its stock to begin trading Friday morning.

The IPO came in at the lower end of Uber’s targeted price range of $44 to $50 per share. The caution may have been driven by escalating doubts about the ability of ride-hailing services to make money since Uber’s main rival, Lyft, went public six weeks ago.

Even at the tamped-down price, Uber now has a market value of $82 billion — five times more than Lyft’s.

No matter how Uber’s stock swings Friday, the IPO has to be considered a triumph for the company most closely associated with an industry that has changed the way millions of people get around. That while also transforming the way millions of more people earn a living in the gig economy.

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Federal judges have a way to make investigations disappear

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fastest way for federal judges facing investigation by their peers to make an inquiry go away is to utter two words: “I quit.”

That’s how appellate judges Maryanne Trump Barry and Alex Kozinski ended investigations into complaints that Barry participated in fraudulent tax schemes and Kozinski sexually harassed women. Barry is the older sister of President Donald Trump.

And because they’re older than 65, and with more than 15 years as federal judges, Barry and Kozinski can collect their annual salary, roughly $220,000 when they retired, for the rest of their lives.

Panels of judges across the country have concluded that they have no authority to investigate a judge who has stepped down from the bench. Similar reasoning led judges to dismiss complaints against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh stemming from his confirmation hearing last year, while he was an appeals court judge. The complaints challenge the accuracy of his testimony, including his angry denial of an allegation he sexually assaulted a woman when they were teenagers. Supreme Court justices are not covered by the 1980 law governing judicial misconduct. The Kavanaugh dismissals are being appealed.

The dismissals have led to calls to change the law to bolster faith in the judiciary and provide a full accounting that would either show complaints to be valid or poke holes in them. Other lawyers believe that the law already allows investigations to continue and that judges are misreading it.