Fiery Democratic debate: Race, age, health care and Trump

MIAMI (AP) — Democratic divisions over race, age and ideology surged into public view Thursday night as the party’s leading presidential contenders faced off in a fiery debate over who is best positioned to take on President Donald Trump.

The Democratic Party’s early front-runner, 76-year-old former Vice-President Joe Biden, was forced to defend his record on race in the face of tough questions from California Sen. Kamala Harris, the only African American on stage. That was only after he defended his age after jabs from one of two millennial candidates in the prime-time clash.

“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris said, though she described Biden’s record of working with Republican segregationist senators on non-race issues as “hurtful.”

Clearly on defence, Biden called the Harris attack “a complete mischaracterization of my record.” He declared, “I ran because of civil rights.”

The debate marked an abrupt turning point in a Democratic primary in which candidates have largely tiptoed around each other, focusing instead on their shared desire to beat Trump. But the debate revealed just how deep the fissures are within the Democratic Party eight months before primary voting begins.

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AP FACT CHECK: Claims from Dem debate opener, Night 2

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten Democrats seeking the presidency sparred on a Miami stage Thursday in the second night of the opening round of 2020 campaign debates.

Here’s a look at some of their statements and how they compare with the facts.

KAMALA HARRIS: “Vice-President Biden, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America, then?”

JOE BIDEN: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.”

THE FACTS: That’s hairsplitting.

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In Japan, Trump pushes allies on trade before meeting Putin

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — With an eye on the race back home to challenge him, President Donald Trump opened his most consequential trip of the year Friday by pushing allies on trade and defence spending at an international summit.

Trump opened the G20 summit in Japan by meeting with the host, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, followed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He sounded optimistic about inking trade deals with all three and praised alliances he has strained in the past.

With an array of world issues on the agenda, Trump could not resist weighing in on events at home: As he held meetings with these world leaders, 10 Democrats stood on a stage in Miami as part of the first debates of the 2020 presidential race.

“I just passed a television set on the way here. I saw that health care and maximum health care was given to 100% of the illegal immigrants coming into our country by the Democrats,” Trump said, turning to Merkel. “I don’t know if you saw it, it wasn’t very exciting, I can tell you… So I look forward to spending time with you rather than watching.”

Trump was also set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, their first sit-down since the special counsel found extensive evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

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Cold, cramped, filthy: Migrants describe border centres

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — At night, the teenage girl from Honduras wraps a thin foil blanket around herself and her infant son as they lie on a floor mat in the cold. The lights are glaring and sleepless children are crying. It’s so crowded inside the caged area that there isn’t space for her baby boy to crawl.

This is the 17-year-old’s account, one of dozens filed in federal court this week by advocates for children locked away in the immigration system.

Every five days, she is given a shower and can brush her teeth. Her baby boy already had a fever and cough but she didn’t dare ask to see a doctor, for fear it would prolong their detention at the Ursula facility in McAllen, Texas. She said she has been there nearly three weeks.

“He feels frozen to the touch,” the girl said. “We are all so sad to be held in a place like this.”

Her declaration was filed with a court in Los Angeles that oversees a long-standing settlement agreement over custody conditions for migrant children caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Teens and children, detained days or weeks by U.S. border authorities, described frigid cells where flu-stricken youngsters in dirty clothes ran fevers, vomited and cried with no idea when they would be getting out.

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Clash between liberal, authoritarian values at G20 summit

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — World leaders attending a Group of 20 summit in Japan are clashing over the values that have served for decades as the foundation of their co-operation.

European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for suggesting in an interview with the newspaper Financial Times that liberalism was “obsolete.”

In a statement to reporters, Tusk said, “We are here as Europeans also to firmly and unequivocally defend and promote liberal democracy.”

He said, “What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”

As President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Putin and other leaders met on the sidelines of the summit, Tusk told reporters such comments suggest a belief that “freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete.”

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House sends Trump $4.6B border bill, yielding to Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House voted Thursday to send President Donald Trump a bipartisan, Senate-drafted, $4.6 billion measure to care for migrant refugees detained at the southern border, capping a Washington skirmish in which die-hard liberals came out on the losing end in a battle with the White House, the GOP-held Senate and Democratic moderates.

The emergency legislation, required to ease overcrowded, often harsh conditions at U.S. holding facilities for migrants seeking asylum, mostly from Central American nations like Honduras and El Salvador, passed by a bipartisan 305-102 vote. Trump has indicated he’ll sign it into law.

“A great job done by all!” Trump tweeted from his overseas trip.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reluctantly brought the Senate bill to a vote by after her plan to further strengthen rules for treatment of migrant refugees ran into intractable opposition from Republican lawmakers and Vice-President Mike Pence. Many moderate Democrats split with Pelosi as well, undercutting her earlier efforts, which faded shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would swiftly reject them.

The legislation contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for unaccompanied migrant children who are turned over the Department of Health and Human Services. It rejects an administration request for additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds, however, and contains provisions designed to prevent federal immigration agents from going after immigrants living in the country illegally who seek to care for unaccompanied children.

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Court decision could set up fights over race gerrymandering

WASHINGTON (AP) — When North Carolina drew its most recent political maps, state leaders split a historically black university in Greensboro into two congressional districts that critics say diluted the voting power of African Americans on campus.

Lawmakers defended it as partisan gerrymandering — a tactic that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Thursday. But opponents cite it as a classic example where political gerrymandering can have racial consequences.

“It’s partisan, but it’s also based on race as well,” said Kylah Guion, a junior at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her university is one of the largest areas of black young voters in North Carolina.

Experts and advocates say the court’s decision to stay out of partisan gerrymandering decisions with its ruling on Thursday may make it more difficult to suss out and remedy illegal political line drawing meant to diminish the voting power of minorities.

Dividing voters by race is still illegal in the United States and can be banned by the federal courts. But the high court decided it could not rule on cases where lawmakers divvy up voters by party to give themselves advantages during elections.

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Sacramento police officer was ‘marble wrapped in velvet’

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — To her godfather, Sacramento Police Officer Tara O’Sullivan was “marble wrapped in velvet.”

The 26-year-old rookie officer killed last week while answering a domestic violence call was tough but compassionate, Gary Roush said at her funeral service Thursday. She loved her family, friends and police colleagues, enjoyed helping people and from an early age knew she wanted a career in law enforcement, he said.

“She made every person she knew believe they were her best friend,” Roush said. “I was moved by that way she dealt with others, by the importance of people to her.”

She came from an exceptionally tightknit family and was such a lover of dogs that Roush joked he sometimes wondered which species she cared about more — “people or pooches.”

The service brought hundreds of officers from dozens of departments. And it brought parts of Sacramento to a halt, if only for a moment.

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Fans elect historically young NL lineup for All-Star Game

NEW YORK (AP) — Surrounded by sweet-swinging sluggers Christian Yelich, Cody Bellinger and Ronald Acuña Jr., All-Star stalwart Nolan Arenado is set for a new role with the National League — elder statesman.

“It shows how good these young guys are,” Arenado said.

The five-time All-Star will be joined by a bumper crop of talent in one of the youngest All-Star Game lineups ever — a millennial-heavy NL group that could make history at the midsummer showcase in Cleveland on July 9.

Major League Baseball revealed the results from fan balloting for its All-Star starters Thursday, and the average age of the eight NL starters is 25.8 years old. Depending on who is chosen as the club’s designated hitter, the starting position players could be the youngest ever, surpassing the 1967 NL and 2017 AL clubs, which averaged 26.0 years old.

“I’ve never seen this much young talent in the game,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who will lead the NL. “There’s a lot of fun players to watch — talented and the personalities from some of these young players.”

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Politicians’ tweets could get slapped with warning labels

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Presidents and other world leaders and political figures who use Twitter to threaten or abuse others could find their tweets slapped with warning labels.

The new policy , announced by the company on Thursday, comes amid complaints from activists and others that President Donald Trump has gotten a free pass from Twitter to post hateful messages and attack his enemies in ways they say could lead to violence.

From now on, a tweet that Twitter deems to involve matters of public interest, but which violates the service’s rules, will be obscured by a warning explaining the violation.

Users will have to tap through the warning to see the underlying message, but the tweet won’t be removed, as Twitter might do with a regular person’s posts.

Twitter said the policy applies to all government officials, candidates and similar public figures with more than 100,000 followers. In addition to applying the label, Twitter won’t use its algorithms to “elevate” or otherwise promote such tweets.