AP News in Brief 07-26-19

N. Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to S. Korea

TOKYO — North Korea says its latest missile test that included a new type of a tactical guided weapon was meant as a “solemn warning” to South Korea over its weapons development and plans to hold military exercises with the United States.

The message Friday was carried on state media and released in the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

It was directed to “South Korean military warmongers” and comes as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up working-level talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and President Donald Trump seemed to provide a breakthrough in stalled nuclear negotiations.

North Korea is infuriated over U.S.-South Korean plans for drills that the North says are invasion rehearsals and proof of the allies’ hostility to Pyongyang.

16 Marines arrested in migrant smuggling investigation

SAN DIEGO — An investigation into Marines accused of helping smuggle migrants into the United States led to the arrest Thursday of 16 of their fellow Marines at California’s Camp Pendleton, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a dramatic move aimed at sending a message, authorities made the arrests as the Marines gathered in formation with their battalion.

None of the 16 Marines were involved in helping enforce border security, the Marine Corps said in a news release. They are accused of crimes ranging from migrant smuggling to drug-related offenses.

Officials could not immediately be reached for additional details.

The arrests came weeks after two Marines were arrested by a Border Patrol agent on suspicion of transporting three Mexicans on the promise of money after they crossed illegally into the United States.

Puerto Ricans savor governor’s resignation, chart new course

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — After weeks of flag-waving, cowbell-clanging protests in the streets, Puerto Ricans on Thursday celebrated the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, even as they debated where the movement should go from here and how to root out the corruption and other chronic problems that fueled the unrest.

Some protesters immediately set their sights next on driving out Rosselló’s designated successor as governor, Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez.

The governor’s unprecedented resignation, which came at nearly midnight on Wednesday after a series of huge demonstrations, was a big victory for the tens of thousands who took to the streets. To some, it seemed to open an endless array of possibilities on this U.S. island territory of 3.2 million people.

“It’s a new world,” said political expert Mario Negrón Portillo. “This can bring about change and consequences that we’ve never seen before.”

Rosselló was driven from office after a leak of vulgar and offensive chat messages between him and his close aides infuriated Puerto Ricans already tired of deep-seated corruption and mismanagement that have sent the island into a 13-year recession, a $70 billion debt crisis and the equivalent of bankruptcy.

Rapper A$AP Rocky charged with assault over fight in Sweden

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish prosecutor on Thursday charged rapper A$AP Rocky with assault over a fight in Stockholm last month, in a case that has drawn the attention of fellow recording artists as well as U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump responded with two sharply-worded tweets, calling on Sweden to “Treat Americans fairly!” and criticizing Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, whom he had personally lobbied, “for being unable to act.”

“Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM,” Trump added. “We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem! #FreeRocky.”

Mikael Lindstrom, a spokesman for Lofven, responded to Trump by emphasizing the independence of the Swedish judicial system. “In Sweden everyone is equal before the law,” Lindstrom said. “The Government is not allowed, and will not attempt, to influence the legal proceedings, which are now ongoing.”

Rocky, a platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated artist whose real name is Rakim Mayers, has been in custody since July 3 as authorities investigate a fight he was allegedly involved in on June 30 before appearing at a music festival. The case has drawn the attention of a long list of U.S. celebrities, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian West.

From wire sources

US government will execute inmates for first time since 2003

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday the federal government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium even as the nation sees a broad shift away from capital punishment.

Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions starting in December for five men, all accused of murdering children. Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the federal level are rare.

“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said.

The move is likely to stir up fresh interest in an issue that has largely lain dormant in recent years, adding a new front to the culture battles that President Donald Trump already is waging on matters such as abortion and immigration in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

Most Democrats oppose capital punishment. Vice President Joe Biden this week shifted to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it.

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House passes bipartisan budget bill with Trump support

WASHINGTON — Observing a rare cease-fire in their battles with President Donald Trump, the Democratic-controlled House on Thursday easily passed bipartisan debt and budget legislation to permit the Treasury to issue bonds to pay the government’s bills and lock in place recent budget gains for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies.

The measure, passed by a 284-149 vote, would head off another politically dangerous government shutdown and add a measure of stability to action this fall on a $1.37 trillion slate of annual appropriations bills. The Senate is scheduled to approve the bill next week.

The hard-won agreement between the administration and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lifts the limit on the government’s $22 trillion debt for two years and averts the risk of the Pentagon and domestic agencies from being hit with $125 billion in automatic spending cuts that are all that’s left of a failed 2011 budget pact. It is a welcome detente for lawmakers seeking to avoid political and economic turmoil over the possibility of a government shutdown or first federal default.

Trump took to Twitter to give the legislation his strongest endorsement yet: “House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets.” He added in a note of encouragement, “I am totally with you!”

Democrats rallied behind the legislation, which protects domestic programs some of them have fought to protect for decades through extended stretches of GOP control of Congress. Pelosi held the vote open to make sure the tally of Democratic votes topped the 218 required to pass the measure with Democratic support alone, a demonstration of strength.

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Remains ID’d as those of Colorado girl missing 34 years

GREELEY, Colo. — The disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews shortly after singing “Jingle Bells” with classmates at a 1984 Christmas concert stunned this rural town in northern Colorado. Her case attracted the attention of the White House, and came at a time when the faces of missing children across the nation were being placed on milk cartons.

On Thursday, police announced that human remains found by construction workers earlier this week were that of the little girl who would have been 47 now, answering one question that has haunted police and others for decades but reigniting a gnawing mystery of what exactly led to her demise.

Jonelle, a member of the Franklin Middle School Honor Choir, stood on a garland-adorned staircase during the concert, sporting short, thick dark hair and smiling slightly, perhaps shyly. She was a 7th grader, active at the Sunny View Church of the Nazarene.

After the concert, Jonelle was taken home by a friend and the friend’s father.

She was last seen at 8 p.m. on Dec. 20, entering her family’s simple ranch-style home with a detached garage, the front yard blanketed by snow. No one was ever arrested. Jonelle lived with her father, Jim, her mother, Gloria, and a sister, Jennifer.

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Juul exec: Never intended electronic cigarette for teens

WASHINGTON — A top executive for Juul Labs said that his company never intended its electronic cigarettes to be adopted by underage teenagers, as House lawmakers on Thursday accused the company of fueling the vaping craze among high schoolers.

Co-founder James Monsees testified that Juul developed its blockbuster vaping device and flavor pods for adult smokers who want to stop. He acknowledged statistics showing “a significant number of underage Americans are using e-cigarettes, including Juul products.”

“Juul Labs isn’t big tobacco,” Monsees told members of a House subcommittee, adding that “combating underage use” is the company’s highest priority.

Thursday’s hearing marks the first time Juul has been called before Congress, despite growing scrutiny from parents, politicians and public health advocates. Federal law bans the sale of e-cigarettes to those under 18.

Drawing from some 180,000 documents collected from the company, House Democrats peppered Monsees with questions about the early ads and marketing that they contend led to the current wave of underage vaping by U.S. teens.

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Migrants sent back by US dumped in Mexico’s Monterrey

MONTERREY, Mexico — The bus carrying dozens of Central Americans from the Texas border arrived in this northern Mexican city late at night and pulled up next to the station. Men and women disembarked with children in their arms or staggering sleepily by their sides, looked around fearfully and wondered what to do.

They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school. Instead they found themselves in a bustling metropolis of over 4 million, dropped off on a street across from sleazy nightclubs and cabarets with signs advertising for “dancers.”

The Associated Press witnessed several such busloads in recent days carrying at least 450 Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans from Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey, where they are left to fend for themselves with no support on housing, work or schooling for children, who appear to make up about half the group.

Mexico has received some 20,000 asylum seekers returned to await U.S. immigration court dates under the program colloquially known as “remain in Mexico.” But there had been no sign of such large-scale moving of people away from the border before now, after the program expanded to Nuevo Laredo in violence- and cartel-plagued Tamaulipas, a state where the U.S. State Department warns against all travel due to kidnappings and other crime.

In response to a request for comment, the National Immigration Institute, or INM for its initials in Spanish, said in a two-paragraph statement that the agency cooperates with consular authorities and all levels of government to attend to returnees. It said Mexico abides by international law and is working to upgrade shelters and immigration facilities “to improve the conditions in which migrants await their processes in national territory.” The INM did not address specific questions about the AP’s findings.

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