AP News in Brief 05-30-19

Israel heads to election as Netanyahu fails to form govt

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament voted to dissolve itself early Thursday, sending the country to an unprecedented second snap election this year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition before a midnight deadline.

The dramatic vote, less than two months after parliamentary elections, marked a setback for Netanyahu and sent the longtime leader’s future into turmoil.

Netanyahu, who has led Israel for the past decade, had appeared to capture a fourth consecutive term in the April 9 election. But infighting among his allies, and disagreements over proposed bills to protect Netanyahu from prosecution stymied his efforts to put together a majority coalition.

Rather than concede that task to one of his rivals, Netanyahu’s Likud party advanced a bill to dissolve parliament and send the country to the polls for a second time this year.

“I didn’t spare any effort to avoid unnecessary elections,” Netanyahu said after the vote, lashing out at an ally-turned-rival, Avigdor Lieberman, who refused the prime minister’s offers to join the government.

AP sources: White House wanted USS McCain moved for Trump

The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to keep a warship named for the late Sen. John McCain out of President Donald Trump’s view during his trip to Japan, three U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan “was not aware of the directive to move the USS John S McCain nor was he aware of the concern precipitating the directive,” his spokesman, Joe Buccino, said.

As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to Navy and Air Force officials about Trump’s arrival in Japan over Memorial Day weekend. It included instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparations for the USS Wasp, the ship on which the president was to speak.

The official then issued a third instruction: “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight,” according to the email, which was obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to The Associated Press.

The three U.S. officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence.

7 dead, 21 missing after sightseeing boat sinks in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Seven people were confirmed dead and 21 remained missing early Thursday after a sightseeing boat carrying 33 South Korean passengers and two crew members collided with another vessel and sank in the Danube River in downtown Budapest.

Rescue officials said seven bodies had been recovered. Pal Gyorfi, spokesman for the National Ambulance Service, said seven people were rescued and hospitalized in stable condition following the accident Wednesday night.

National police spokesman Kristof Gal said 33 South Koreans were on the boat, after early reports mentioned 32. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that 33 of its citizens were on the boat and said 19 were still missing.

The two crew members were identified as Hungarian.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in instructed officials to employ “all available resources” to support the rescue efforts in Hungary.

Body believed to be missing Utah girl is found

SALT LAKE CITY — A body believed to be a missing 5-year-old Utah girl was found Wednesday less than a block from her home, bringing a wide-ranging search to a grim close five days after the child was taken from her home and killed by her uncle, police said.

The body believed to be Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley was found hidden under trees and brush after 21-year-old Alex Whipple told his lawyer where he had hidden her, Logan Police Chief Gary Jensen said.

The discovery came hours after Whipple was charged with murder and other counts. He provided the map in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table, Jensen said.

Jensen said the discovery was disappointing but “nevertheless is closure and helps us be able to now deal with the investigation and help the family through their grief.”

From wire sources

In a statement read by a victim’s advocate, the girl’s mother Jessica Whipple said: “There are not words to express the sadness and heartbreak we feel today. This did not end the way we wanted to do but in the sadness we are comforted by the effort people put in to find Lizzy. We would never have expected this outpouring of love and support. It was beautiful.”

___

Pelosi slams Facebook for not removing altered video

SAN FRANCISCO — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Facebook on Wednesday for not removing a doctored video that has spread widely on the social network in which she appears to slur her words.

The altered video had been slowed down , giving the false appearance that Pelosi was drunk, ill or otherwise impaired. Facebook did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In an interview last week with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Facebook’s Head of Product Policy and Counterterrorism Monika Bickert defended the company’s decision , noting that users are being told that the video is false when they view or share it.

Pelosi said in San Francisco that she is no longer giving Facebook the benefit of doubt that it is “unwittingly” spreading false information. She said Facebook is serving an accomplice and enabler of false information and Russian elections interference.

Facebook does not prohibit false information from being shared on its service. Instead, the company says it “downranks” such material to make it less prominent in people’s news feeds and more difficult to find. It also employs outside fact-checkers, including The Associated Press, to determine the veracity of questionable material. It includes such fact checks around the disputed articles and videos but does not directly label them as false.

___

AP: Purdue foreign arm caught up in opioid probe in Europe

PARMA, Italy — The police huddled for hours each day, headphones on, eavesdropping on the doctor. They’d tapped his cellphone, bugged his office, planted a camera in a trattoria.

They heard him boast about his power to help Big Pharma make millions pushing painkillers, and about all the money they say he was paid in exchange.

Now Dr. Guido Fanelli is at the center of a sprawling corruption case alleging he took kickbacks from an alliance of pharmaceutical executives he nicknamed “The Pain League.” Its members, police say, included managers with Mundipharma — the international arm of Purdue Pharma, which is facing some 2,000 lawsuits in the United States over its role in the opioid crisis that has claimed 400,000 lives in two decades.

This is the first known case outside the U.S. where employees of the pharmaceutical empire owned by the Sackler family have been criminally implicated, more than a decade after Purdue executives were convicted over misleading the American public about the addictiveness of OxyContin.

Hundreds of pages of investigative files obtained by The Associated Press detail how Fanelli helped executives from Mundipharma’s Italian branch and other companies promote painkillers by writing papers, organizing conferences and working to counter government warnings that opioid consumption was spiking and that physicians should be cautious. The message trumpeted, the AP found, was that there is an epidemic of chronic pain, addiction fears are exaggerated and not prescribing opioids can amount to neglecting the suffering of patients.

___

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge offers new world at Disneyland

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is on the same land as Disneyland, but stepping into the new attraction shows an entirely different world.

The theme park offered media a glimpse into Galaxy’s Edge on Wednesday. The exclusive tour included a Star Wars-themed food tasting, a stroll through the Black Spire Outpost marketplace and four-minute ride on the Millennium Falcon.

A firsthand look took place a couple days before Galaxy’s Edge opens at the California theme park on Friday. That’s when guests with a pre-reservation can experience the largest single-themed land created in a Disney park.

Disney officials said it took more the five years to develop and finish the attraction.

“I’m very excited about being this close to inviting guests and our biggest fans to join us at the edge of the galaxy,” said Scott Trowbridge, portfolio creative executive and studio leader at Walt Disney Imagineering. He spoke in front of the First Order TIE echelon spaceship.

___

Girl believed to be tiniest newborn weighed as much as apple

SAN DIEGO — When she was born, the baby girl weighed about the same as an apple.

A San Diego hospital on Wednesday revealed the birth of the girl and said she is believed to be the world’s tiniest surviving micro-preemie, who weighed just 8.6 ounces (245 grams) when she was born in December.

The girl was born 23 weeks and three days into her mother’s 40-week pregnancy. Doctors told her father after the birth that he would have about an hour with his daughter before she died.

“But that hour turned into two hours, which turned into a day, which turned into a week,” the mother said in a video released by Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women &Newborns.

More than five months have passed, and she has gone home as a healthy infant, weighing 5 pounds (2 kilograms).