AP News in Brief 07-01-19

NYC pride parade is one of largest in movement’s history

NEW YORK — Exuberant crowds carrying rainbow colors filled New York City streets Sunday for one of the largest pride parades in the history of the gay-rights movement, a dazzling celebration of the 50th anniversary of the infamous police raid on the Stonewall Inn.

Marchers and onlookers took over much of midtown Manhattan with a procession that lasted hours and paid tribute to the uprising that began at the tavern when patrons resisted officers on June 28, 1969. The parade in New York and others like it across the nation concluded a month of events marking the anniversary.

Eraina Clay, 63, of suburban New Rochelle, came to celebrate a half-century of fighting for equality.

“I think that we should be able to say we’ve been here for so long, and so many people are gay that everybody should be able to have the chance to enjoy their lives and be who they are,” Clay said. “I have a family. I raised kids. I’m just like everybody else.”

Official: 10 dead in Dallas-area small plane crash

DALLAS — Ten people were killed when a small airplane crashed into a hangar as it was taking off from a Dallas-area airport Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for the town of Addison, Texas, said.

Mary Rosenbleeth said no one aboard the twin-engine plane survived at the Addison Municipal Airport, about 20 miles north of Dallas.

The Beechcraft BE-350 King Air hit an unoccupied hangar soon after 9 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency said that the blaze destroyed the plane but could not confirm how many people were aboard Sunday evening. Video showed black smoke billowing from the building and a gaping hole in the hangar.

Officials have not released the identities of the people who died. Rosenbleeth said the Dallas County medical examiner’s office confirmed the fatalities to the town and that authorities are still working to notify the families of the victims.

An official with the medical examiner’s office told The Associated Press they could not release any information on the crash Sunday evening.

From wire souces

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Navy SEAL trial exposes divide in normally secretive force

SAN DIEGO (AP) — It was called the “The Sewing Circle,” an unlikely name for a secret subsect of Navy SEALs. Its purpose was even more improbable: A chat forum to discuss alleged war crimes they said their chief, a decorated sniper and medic, committed on a recent tour of duty in Iraq.

The WhatsApp group would eventually lead to formal allegations that Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher fatally stabbed a wounded Islamic State captive in his care and shot civilians in Iraq in 2017.

Gallagher, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A jury of mostly combat Marines will ultimately decide the fate of the 19-year-veteran and Bronze Star recipient charged with murder, attempted murder and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline for posing with the corpse for photographs.

No matter the outcome, the court-martial at Naval Base San Diego has provided a rare view into the insular Navy SEAL community and likely will have a long-term impact on one of the military’s most secretive and revered forces. It has pitted veterans against each other both inside the courtroom and out in a fierce debate over brotherhood, morality and loyalty.

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Drowned migrants return to El Salvador for burial

LA HACHADURA, El Salvador (AP) — The bodies of the father and daughter who drowned together last week while trying to cross the Rio Grande to the U.S. returned to El Salvador on Sunday for burial.

Photographs of Valeria, face down with her little arm wrapped around the neck of her father, Oscar Alberto Martínez, broke hearts around the world and underscored the dangers that migrants undertake in trying to reach the U.S.

The father and daughter were swept away by the current in the river between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas.

Their remains entered the Central American country by land and were expected to be buried in a private ceremony in the capital Monday.

Martínez, 25, and his wife, Tania Vanessa Ávalos, 21, had been living with his mother and apparently felt that their salaries working at a pizza parlor and as a restaurant cashier would never be enough to purchase a modest home in their suburb of San Salvador.

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Facebook to make jobs, credit ads searchable

BOSTON (AP) — Facebook says it will make advertisements for jobs, loans and credit card offers searchable for all U.S. users following a legal settlement designed to eliminate discrimination on its platform.

The plan disclosed in an internal report Sunday voluntarily expands on a commitment the social medial giant made in March when it agreed to make its U.S. housing ads searchable by location and advertiser.

Ads were only delivered selectively to Facebook users based on such data as what they earn, their education level and where they shop.

The audit’s leader, former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy, was hired by Facebook in May 2018 to assess its performance on vital social issues.

Murphy has consulted with dozens of civil rights groups on the subject as part of her year-long audit, assisted by lawyers from the firm Relman, Dane &Colfax. Sunday’s 26-page report , which also deals with content moderation and enforcement and efforts to prevent meddling in the 2020 U.S. elections and census, was her second update.

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At least 7 dead as Sudanese stage protests against army rule

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Sudan’s capital and elsewhere in the country Sunday calling for civilian rule nearly three months after the army forced out long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

A government official said at least seven people had been killed and nearly 200 injured during the demonstrations.

The protests came amid a weekslong standoff between the ruling military council and protest leaders. Talks between the two sides over a power-sharing agreement collapsed earlier this month when security forces violently broke up a protest camp in Khartoum.

The ensuing clampdown resulted in at least 128 people killed across Sudan, according to protest organizers. Authorities put the death toll at 61, including three security forces.

Soliman Abdel-Gabar, acting undersecretary of health, reported Sunday night that at least seven people died during the day’s disturbances. He said 181 people were injured, including 27 with bullet wounds.

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At DMZ, step into history for Trump as he offers hand to Kim

PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea.

What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations. It marked a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Significant doubts remain, though, about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons .

The border encounter was a made-for television moment. The men strode toward one another from opposite sides of the Joint Security Area and shook hands over the raised patch of concrete at the Military Demarcation Line as cameras clicked and photographers jostled to capture the scene.

After asking if Kim wanted him to cross, Trump took 10 steps into the North with Kim at his side, then escorted Kim back to the South for talks at Freedom House, where they agreed to revive the stalled negotiations.

The spectacle marked the latest milestone in two years of roller-coaster diplomacy between the two nations. Personal taunts of “Little Rocket Man” (by Trump) and “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” (by Kim) and threats to destroy one other have given way to on-again, off-again talks, professions of love and flowery letters.

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Hong Kong protesters block roads before handover ceremony

HONG KONG (AP) — Protesters in Hong Kong pushed barriers and dumpsters into the streets early Monday morning in an apparent bid to block access to a symbolically important ceremony marking the anniversary of the return of the former British colony to China.

Police in riot gear faced them in loose formation about 20 meters (60 feet) down the road. The area around Golden Bauhinia Square, where the ceremony takes place, has been shut down since Saturday.

Senior Hong Kong officials, including leader Carrie Lam, and representatives of mainland China are due to attend the annual flag-raising on the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997.

A protest march has been called for later Monday, the third in three weeks. The annual march is expected to be larger than usual because of widespread opposition to a government proposal that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China to face charges. Organizers estimated that more than a million people took to the streets in the two previous marches in June.

The proposal has awakened broader fears that China is eroding the freedoms and rights that Hong Kong was guaranteed for 50 years after the handover under a “one country, two systems” framework.

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Kevin Durant to sign with Brooklyn Nets

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Durant is headed to the Brooklyn Nets, leaving the Golden State Warriors after three seasons.

His decision was announced Sunday at the start of the NBA free agency period on the Instagram page for The Boardroom, an online series looking at sports business produced by Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman.

Durant won titles with Golden State in 2017 and ‘18 then was injured for much of the postseason this year as the team lost the NBA Finals in six games to the Toronto Raptors.

A ruptured right Achilles tendon could keep him out the entire next season, and whenever he returns it will be in the Brooklyn black.

ESPN first reported Durant’s decision, saying he had agreed to a four-year deal worth $164 million. Durant could have gotten five years and about $221 million to remain with the Warriors.