AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Not just Ukraine: Trump now calls for China to probe Bidens

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday publicly encouraged China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, snubbing his nose at an impeachment inquiry into whether a similar, private appeal to another foreign government violated his oath of office.

Trump declared at the White House, “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.” He said he hadn’t previously asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate the former vice-president and his son Hunter, but it’s “certainly something we could start thinking about.”

By publicly egging on China, Trump was amplifying the message he’d delivered in private to the president of Ukraine. That message, revealed by a government whistleblower, has spawned the impeachment investigation by the House. Trump, who has defended his contact with Ukraine as “perfect,” went further in expanding his request to China, a communist world power that has much at stake in its relationship with the United States in an ongoing trade war.

The boldness of Trump’s call Thursday also suggests he will continue to act as though requests for other countries to investigate potential opponents in the 2020 election are normal, even in the face of broad condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans. It’s a tactic Trump has used successfully before, pushing questionable secret conversations into the open, helping to inoculate him against charges that he is engaged in nefarious action, coverups or obstruction of justice.

Trump doubled down on his comments later Thursday, saying in a tweet: “As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!”

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Diplomat testifies to Ukraine turmoil within administration

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine testified Thursday of turmoil within the State Department over President Donald Trump’s push to investigate Joe Biden and his family, placing Rudy Giuliani at the centre of the effort.

Kurt Volker, a central figure in the House’s impeachment inquiry, appeared for nearly 10 hours behind closed doors. He told lawmakers he was never pressured by Trump or others around the administration to have Ukraine conduct the investigation of the Democratic rival, and in fact said he had warned Ukrainians to steer clear of American politics.

Yet Volker also recalled being told that plans for a meeting between Trump and the new Ukrainian president elected in the spring were being put on ice, according to one person familiar with the private meeting who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.

The appearance by Volker is the first in what is expected to be a series of interviews with officials inside and outside the State Department. House investigators want to understand more about the Trump team’s search for damaging information about the former vice-president, who is now a Democratic presidential contender and top Trump rival.

Republicans leaving the interview with Volker claimed it helped show there was no quid pro quo when the officials asked for a probe. But Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a member of the House intelligence panel, disputed that. He described a text from one senior department official that read, “It’s crazy if we are trying to leverage US dollars in security assistance for help in a political campaign.”

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AP Exclusive: Colleges got millions from opioid maker owners

BOSTON (AP) — Prestigious universities around the world have accepted at least $60 million over the past five years from the family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records show.

Some of the donations arrived before recent lawsuits blaming Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis. But at least nine schools accepted gifts in 2018 or later, when states and counties across the country began efforts to hold members of the family accountable for Purdue’s actions. The largest gifts in that span went to Imperial College London, the University of Sussex and Yale University.

Major beneficiaries of Sackler family foundations also included the University of Oxford in England and Rockefeller, Cornell and Columbia universities in New York, according to tax and charity records reviewed by The Associated Press.

In total, at least two dozen universities have received gifts from the family since 2013, ranging from $25,000 to more than $10 million, the records show.

Some skeptics see the donations as an attempt to salvage the family’s reputation.

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1 killed in shooting at Washington state apartment building

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A man opened fire Thursday in the lobby of a building for senior residents, killing a man and wounding two women and then barricading himself inside his apartment before surrendering, police said.

The injuries of the wounded people were critical and they were taken to a hospital, fire department officials said.

The shooter was identified by police Thursday evening as 80-year-old Robert E. Breck, a resident of the 15-story Smith Tower building. Vancouver Police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said he surrendered.

Breck was booked into Clark County Jail on suspicion of murder and attempted murder charges. It wasn’t known if he has a lawyer.

Some parts of the building had been evacuated during the standoff and other residents were told to stay inside their apartments. All were allowed back into their residences Thursday evening, police said.

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Jury convicts man in killing of Chicago boy lured into alley

CHICAGO (AP) — A jury convicted a man of first-degree murder Thursday night in the shooting death of a 9-year-old Chicago boy who was lured into an alley with the promise of a juice box.

Prosecutors contended that Dwright Boone-Doty and fellow gang member Corey Morgan planned the November 2015 killing of Tyshawn Lee before Boone-Doty took a gun Morgan gave him and shot the boy.

The Cook County jury that found Boone-Doty guilty deliberated for a little more than two hours after a long day of closing arguments. A separate jury will decide Morgan’s fate, and the judge ordered those jurors sequestered for the night after they didn’t reach a verdict. They will resume deliberations Friday.

Prosecutors said Tyshawn was killed because Boone-Doty and Morgan believed his father belonged to a rival gang they blamed for fatally shooting Morgan’s brother and wounding his mother. The fourth grader, still wearing his school uniform, had headed to a park to play basketball.

Boone-Doty befriended Tyshawn to gain his trust after the boy arrived at the park, prosecutors said. He picked up the basketball that boy had brought to the park, lured him into a nearby alley and shot him with a .40-calibre handgun multiple times at close range while Morgan watched from an SUV, they said.

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MGM Resorts commits up to $800M to victims of Vegas shooting

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two years after a shooter rained gunfire on country music fans from a high-rise Las Vegas Strip hotel, MGM Resorts International has agreed to pay up to $800 million to families of the 58 people who died and hundreds of others who were injured, attorneys announced Thursday.

The out-of-court agreement will resolve lawsuits in at least 10 states seeking compensation from the hotel owner for physical and psychological injuries received in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Publicly traded MGM Resorts acknowledged no liability or guilt with the agreement that attorneys said was reached Monday and made public just two days after the second anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre at a country music concert.

No one wanted to upstage victim memorials with the settlement, said attorney Robert Eglet, who represents about 2,500 of the 4,400 people with claims against publicly traded MGM Resorts.

And no one wanted to go through protracted litigation, he said.

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US authorities seek access to Facebook encrypted messaging

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other U.S., U.K. and Australian officials are pressing Facebook to give authorities a way to read encrypted messages sent by ordinary users, re-igniting tensions between tech companies and law enforcement.

Facebook’s WhatsApp already uses so-called end-to-end encryption, which locks up messages so that even Facebook can’t read their contents. Facebook plans to extend that protection to Messenger and Instagram Direct.

But the officials will ask Facebook to hold off in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg . A copy of the letter, dated Friday, was obtained by The Associated Press.

“Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes,” the officials wrote. The letter repeatedly emphasizes the dangers of child sexual exploitation to justify their stance.

Law enforcement has long sought a way to read encrypted messages that’s analogous to wiretaps for phone calls. Security experts, however, say giving police such access makes messaging insecure for everyone. Redesigning encryption to create “backdoors” for police also creates vulnerabilities that criminals or foreign spies can exploit, they say.

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Binge eating videos find big audience, even for weight loss

NEW YORK (AP) — While trying to lose weight, Becky Beach found assistance in an unlikely place: thousands of online videos featuring people binging on massive amounts of ramen, burgers, chicken wings and seafood boils brimming with crab and lobster.

The South Korea-rooted video trend is known as “mukbang,” and it has spread to the U.S. and around the globe on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

“I watch one whenever I feel like eating sweets or bad foods,” said Beach, a Dallas-based product designer for a Fortune 500 company. She has lost 10 pounds and views up to three mukbang videos a day. “It’s just satisfying to watch.”

Ashley Cobb, a math teacher in Washington, D.C., is also a fan after one of her eighth-graders turned her on to the videos.

Cobb said it’s “fun and soothing” to watch people dip food in sauce and “eat with so much enjoyment.” The footage transports her to “a different place” and “has a way of making you leave reality for a second, sort of like a good book.”

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James Franco’s ex-students sue alleging sexual impropriety

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two actresses sued James Franco and the acting and film school he founded Thursday, saying he intimidated his students into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations far beyond those acceptable on Hollywood film sets.

Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, former students at the actor’s now-closed Studio 4, said in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that Franco pushed his students into performing in increasingly explicit sex scenes on camera in an “orgy type setting.”

Franco “sought to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education,” the suit alleges.

The women say students were led to believe roles in Franco’s films would be available to those who went along.

The situations described in the suit arose during a master class in sex scenes that Franco taught at the school, which he opened in 2014 and closed in 2017.

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Cardinals score 4 in 9th, hold off Braves 7-6 in NLDS opener

ATLANTA (AP) — Back in the playoffs for the first time since 2015, the St. Louis Cardinals look as gritty as ever.

The Atlanta Braves also started down a familiar path.

Marcell Ozuna and Kolten Wong each hit two-run doubles in the ninth inning as the Cardinals overcame shaky defence and a wild finish to extend Atlanta’s post-season misery, holding off the Braves 7-6 in Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Thursday night.

The Cardinals fell behind 3-1 _ hurt by their normally reliable defence. But Paul Goldschmidt homered in the eighth, sparking a two-run outburst that tied it 3. In the ninth, the Cardinals blew it open against Braves closer Mark Melancon.

Dexter Fowler and Tommy Edman singled before Goldschmidt walked on four pitches to load the bases with one out. Melancon got ahead of Ozuna with two quick strikes, only to give up a liner just inside the third-base bag that put St. Louis ahead for the first time.