AP News in Brief 08-15-19

Gunman wounds at least 6 Philadelphia police; 2 others freed

PHILADELPHIA — At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a drug warrant in Philadelphia, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the night, authorities said.

Two other officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out but were freed by a SWAT team well after darkness fell on the residential neighborhood.

None of the officers sustained life-threatening injuries and they’ve been released from the hospital, Philadelphia police Sgt. Eric Gripp said.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle that we don’t have multiple officers killed today,” said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross as officers continued their standoff with the gunman.

The shooting began around 4:30 p.m. as officers went to a home in a north Philadelphia neighborhood of brick and stone rowhomes to serve a narcotics warrant in an operation “that went awry almost immediately,” Ross said.

Flights resume at Hong Kong airport

HONG KONG — Flights resumed Wednesday at Hong Kong’s airport after two days of disruptions that descended into clashes with police, highlighting the hardening positions of pro-democracy protesters and the authorities in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. After nightfall, a new protest outside a police station in the city was dispersed as officers fired tear gas.

There was soul-searching in the protest movement, including the three dozen demonstrators who remained camped at the airport arrivals area. They asked travelers and the general public for forgiveness after their blockade turned into chaotic and frenzied violence.

While the movement’s supporters still have street protests planned, it’s unclear what their next move is or whether they will be able to find new rallying sites to keep the pressure on authorities.

Protesters spread pamphlets and posters on the floor in one section of the terminal but were not impeding travelers. Online, they also circulated letters and promotional materials apologizing for the inconveniences during the past five days of the airport occupation.

“It is not our intention to cause delays to your travels and we do not want to cause inconvenience to you,” said an emailed statement from a group of protesters. “We ask for your understanding and forgiveness as young people in Hong Kong continue to fight for freedom and democracy.”

Chinese armored vehicles near Hong Kong

BEIJING — Satellite photos show what appear to be armored personnel carriers and other vehicles belonging to the China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police parked in a sports complex in the city of Shenzhen, in what some have interpreted as a threat from Beijing to use increased force against pro-democracy protesters across the border in Hong Kong.

The pictures collected on Monday by Maxar’s WorldView show 500 or more vehicles sitting on and around the soccer stadium at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center just across the harbor from the Asian financial hub that has been rocked by more than two months of near-daily street demonstrations.

Flights at Hong Kong’s airport, one of the world’s busiest, were disrupted on Monday and Tuesday by a mass demonstration and occasional violence inside its terminal.

Chinese state media have said only that the Shenzhen exercises had been planned before hand and were not directly related to the unrest in Hong Kong, although they came shortly after the central government in Beijing said the protests were beginning to show the “sprouts of terrorism.”

President Donald Trump tweeted that U.S. intelligence believes that the Chinese government is moving troops to its border with Hong Kong and that, “Everyone should be calm and safe!”

From wire sources

Trump suggests trade deal can wait for Hong Kong resolution

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that trade talks with China can wait until tensions in Hong Kong have eased, tweeting: “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!”

Trump also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “great leader” and saying he could quickly resolve the unrest in Hong Kong if he wanted to. “I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?” Trump tweeted.

Trump has previously said little about the protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, except to make it clear he believes that Hong Kong and China need to “deal with that themselves.” He has urged the two sides to exercise caution and voiced hopes that the situation will be resolved peacefully.

His more extensive comments Wednesday came as U.S. stock markets tumbled, in part because of uncertainty over Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing. Investors have also been rattled about the widespread protests in Hong Kong. Flights resumed at Hong Kong’s airport after two days of disruptions that descended into clashes with police.

While Trump has been reticent to take sides, some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have voiced their support for the protesters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, issued a statement last week saying that “dreams of freedom, justice and democracy can never be extinguished by injustice and intimidation.”

Is the US economy nearing a recession?

WASHINGTON — Financial markets are flashing a key warning sign of a recession, and the global economy is weakening as the U.S.-China trade war intensifies.

All of which is heightening fear about the U.S. economy and about whether the 10-year expansion, the longest on record, is nearing an end.

On Wednesday, a rare realignment in interest rates intensified those worries: The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note briefly fell below the yield on the 2-year Treasury for the first time since 2007.

Normally, investors earn higher interest on longer-term bonds than on short-term ones. Put another way, the government will usually pay more to investors who are willing to lend their money for longer periods.

So when that equation reverses itself — when longer-term Treasurys pay less than shorter-term ones — economists call it an “inverted yield curve .” An inverted curve suggests that bond investors expect growth to slow so much that the Federal Reserve will soon feel compelled to slash short-term rates to try to support the economy.

Biographer: Statue poem embraces migrants from ‘all places’

Long before a Trump administration official suggested the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty welcomed only people from Europe, the words captured America’s promise to newcomers at a time when the nation was also seeking to exclude many immigrants from landing on its shores.

A biographer of poet Emma Lazarus on Wednesday challenged the comment by the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, explaining that Lazarus’ words were her way of urging Americans “to embrace the poor and destitute of all places and origins.”

Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883, one year after Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned laborers from China. The poem is best known for its line about welcoming “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Beginning in the 1930s, supporters of immigration began using the poem to bolster their cause. Biographer Esther Schor said Lazarus was “deeply involved” in refugee causes.

Ken Cuccinelli suggested Tuesday in an interview with NPR that the line should be changed to “give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

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Rep. King suggests rapes, incest helped populate the world

DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Rep. Steve King on Wednesday defended his call for a ban on all abortions by questioning whether there would be “any population of the world left” if not for births due to rape and incest.

Speaking before a conservative group in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, the Iowa congressman reviewed legislation he has sought that would outlaw abortions without exceptions for rape and incest. King justified the lack of exceptions by questioning how many people would be alive if not for those conceived through rapes and incest.

“What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?” King asked, according to video of the event, which was covered by The Des Moines Register. “Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that’s taken place … I know I can’t certify that I’m not a part of a product of that.”

He added: “It’s not the baby’s fault for the sin of the father, or of the mother.”

A King spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

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For inmates like Epstein, suicide watch is meant to be short

NEW YORK — Suicide is such a constant concern at federal jails that guards have ready access to “the stick,” a wooden pole with a sharpened blade at the end that’s used to cut down inmates if they try to hang themselves with bedsheets.

That’s believed to be exactly how Jeffrey Epstein took his life Saturday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s Special Housing Unit after a possible previous attempt, and less than two weeks after he had been taken off suicide watch, in which the lights are left on all night, inmates are not allowed bedsheets, and they are monitored round-the-clock by someone making notes every 15 minutes.

For all the talk from politicians and conspiracy theorists that Epstein should have remained under such scrutiny behind bars, prison experts say suicide watch is intended for only short periods because it puts too much stress on the staff and inmate alike.

“It’s just not humane to keep them on those restrictions indefinitely,” said Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized expert on inmate suicide prevention and a project director for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. “Many times, suicidal inmates will deny they’re suicidal so they can get their clothes and privileges back.”

The 66-year-old Epstein was awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls when he killed himself, taking his life amid a cascading series of breakdowns at the MCC’s Special Housing Unit, a chronically overcrowded, understaffed lockup-within-a-lockup that has held some of the world’s most notorious terrorists, drug lords, sex traffickers and swindlers. The SHU can hold several dozen inmates at once.

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Leaders say love will triumph over hate after El Paso attack

EL PASO, Texas — Leaders from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border told thousands of people gathered in a baseball stadium in El Paso Wednesday that love will triumph over hatred in the wake of a mass shooting by a man who authorities believe targeted Mexicans at a Walmart store in the Texas border city.

People lined up hours before the memorial and packed the stadium in downtown El Paso that could hold about 8,000.

Nine circles and 22 stars formed by luminarias — traditional lanterns made from paper bags, sand, and LED lights — adorned the field in honor of the nine people killed in the Dayton, Ohio, mass shooting and the 22 El Paso shooting victims.

The ceremony at Southwest University Park officially commemorated those killed in the largely Latino city by a gunman who police say confessed to driving from the Dallas area to stage the attack. Most of the dead had Hispanic last names, and eight were Mexican nationals. Nearly two dozen others were injured.

“Hate will never overcome our love. Hate will never overcome who we are,” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said.