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

Midnight shutdown creeps closer as Congress debates budget

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a midnight government shutdown creeping closer, both Republicans and Democrats grappled with internal party divisions as they tried to push through a massive budget deal Thursday night.

Frustrations mounted — and the risk of a shutdown increased — as GOP Sen. Rand Paul held up voting on the broad measure in hopes of obtaining recorded votes on reversing spending increases.

“I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama’s trillion-dollar deficits,” the Kentucky senator said. “Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can’t in all honesty look the other way.”

The No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said his side would support a brief, 24-hour stopgap spending bill to stave off a partial agency closure, but Republicans rejected the offer.

The Trump administration, which favoured approval of the broad budget measure, was preparing for a “lapse” in appropriations, an official with the Office of Management and Budget said, commenting only on condition of anonymity. That suggested a short shutdown, if any, less than a month after the three-day interruption last month.

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Asian shares fall after Wall Street plunge

BEIJING (AP) — China’s stock market benchmark plunged 5.5 per cent on Friday and other Asian markets were off sharply after the Dow Jones industrials on Wall Street plummeted more than 1,000 points, deepening a week-long sell-off.

Asian markets followed Wall Street down after the Dow entered “correction” territory for the first time in two years.

The Shanghai Composite Index dipped 5.5 per cent but recovered slightly to end morning trading down 4.1 per cent at 3,127.91. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was off 3.2 per cent at 21,180.28 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 4.2 per cent to 29,142.87. Benchmarks in Australia, South Korea and Southeast Asia also retreated.

Financial analysts regard corrections as a normal market event but say the latest plunge might have been triggered by a combination of events that rattled investors. Those include worries about a potential rise in U.S. inflation or interest rates and whether budget disputes in Washington might lead to another government shutdown.

“Markets are down again today, maybe unnerved by fears that the U.S. Senate will not pass a budget bill in time to avoid a U.S. government shutdown,” said Rob Carnell of ING in a report. “With financial markets vulnerable at the moment, this was not great timing for such political brinksmanship.”

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Used to scuffles, Rand Paul takes on Senate, risks shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last time Sen. Rand Paul was in the news for a scuffle, it involved a neighbour who allegedly tackled him in his yard over a lawn dispute. Thursday night, the Kentucky Republican took on the entire U.S. Senate — and rather than fisticuffs, his weapons of choice were obstinacy and the chamber’s weird rules.

With the clock ticking toward a midnight government shutdown, the 55-year-old lawmaker, ophthalmologist and veteran Senate pest made himself the sole obstacle to his chamber’s quick passage of legislation keeping federal agencies open.

The measure — which would shower the Pentagon and domestic programs with around $400 billion in new spending — was destined for overwhelming Senate approval, no matter what Paul did.

But the libertarian, failed 2016 GOP presidential contender and “wacko bird” — a moniker an angry Sen. John McCain gave him years ago — said “I object” when Senate leaders tried speeding a vote on the measure. Under the chamber’s rules, senators were looking at likely votes on the massive legislation beginning at 1 a.m. Friday.

“I didn’t come up here to be part of somebody’s club. I didn’t come up here to be liked,” said Paul, whose actions during a seven-year Senate career make it likely that many colleagues would silently answer, “Mission accomplished.”

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10 Things to Know for Friday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:

1. WHY WALL STREET IS FEELING QUEASY

Stocks plunge again, sending the Dow down 1,000 points, as investors continue to get out of the market after signs of rising inflation.

2. ‘RECKLESS AND IRRESPONSIBLE’

A bipartisan budget deal in the Republican-led Congress would send the annual federal deficit soaring beyond $1 trillion, souring some in the GOP who have been railing for years against government spending.

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Kelly in harsh spotlight after senior aide’s resignation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressure mounted on White House chief of staff John Kelly Thursday as questions swirled about his defence of a senior aide he fought to keep in a highly sensitive West Wing job despite accusations of spousal abuse from two ex-wives.

White House staff secretary Rob Porter, a member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle and arguably Kelly’s closest aide, cleaned out his desk on Thursday. But the aftershocks of his resignation reverberated amid concerns about his access to classified information.

Kelly himself faced criticism for initially defending his aide — only to later shift course after the publication of photos showing one of Porter’s ex-wives with a black eye.

“It’s fair to say we all could have done better over the last few hours or last few days in dealing with this situation,” said White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah, who faced a barrage of questions about Kelly during a press briefing.

Though the allegations against Porter became public this week, Kelly learned last fall that something was amiss with the staff secretary’s attempts to get a security clearance, according to an administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.

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Eagles, Philly fans get catharsis through Super Bowl parade

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s first Super Bowl parade provided catharsis Thursday for hundreds of thousands of Eagles fans, deliriously joyful after decades without a title and relishing the national spotlight on a team that few outside the city thought could win it all.

Fans clad in Eagles green jammed the streets from dawn near the stadium to an afternoon rally at the city’s famed “Rocky” steps, lining up 20 deep in spots to catch a glimpse of the champs. The Eagles rode in open-top double decker buses to the art museum that Sylvester Stallone made famous for a rally nearly 60 years in the making.

Centre Jason Kelce gave voice to every frustrated Philly fan with a remarkable, impassioned and profane speech that had him defending the general manager, the coach and a litany of players who supposedly weren’t smart enough, big enough or talented enough to win a championship.

“We were a bunch of underdogs,” shouted Kelce, channeling Rocky himself. “Bottom line is we wanted it more!”

And so did football-crazed Philly — desperately.

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Syrian forces capture 2 members of Islamic State ‘Beatles’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces captured two notorious British members of an Islamic State insurgent cell commonly dubbed “The Beatles” and known for beheading hostages, a U.S. military official said Thursday.

The official said that El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey were captured in early January in eastern Syria. The two men are among four members of the IS cell that captured, tortured and beheaded more than two dozen hostages including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and American aid worker Peter Kassig. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the Syrian capture.

The State Department has imposed sanctions on both men. They are believed to be linked to the British terrorist known as Jihadi John, the masked IS militant who appeared in several videos depicting the graphic beheadings of Western hostages.

Their capture was first reported by the New York Times.

According to the U.S., Elsheikh travelled to Syria in 2012 and first joined al-Qaida’s branch there, and then later joined IS. The State Department, in imposing sanctions on Kotey last year, said he likely engaged in executions and torture, including electronic shock and waterboarding, and recruited several British nationals to IS.

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Trump aims to reduce drug costs under Medicare

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will propose lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries by allowing them to share in rebates that drug companies pay to insurers and middlemen, an administration official said Thursday.

A senior administration official outlined the plan on condition of anonymity ahead of the release of Trump’s 2019 budget plan next week.

Pharmaceutical companies now pay rebates to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers to help their medications gain a bigger slice of the market.

Insurers apply savings from rebates to keep premiums more manageable.

Under Trump’s proposal, seniors covered by Medicare’s popular “Part D” prescription benefit would be able to share in the rebates for individual drugs that they purchase at the pharmacy.

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Low-key prosecutor escapes GOP fury as Trump winds whirl

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general last year for refusing to defend his controversial travel ban, Dana Boente stepped into the job.

When Trump abruptly ousted dozens of Obama-era federal prosecutors, Boente was tasked with letting them know.

And when Republicans released a politically explosive memo last week on the monitoring of a Trump campaign adviser, Boente was revealed as one of the officials who signed off on the surveillance.

The unassuming career federal prosecutor keeps finding himself in the middle of Trump’s political storms. But while some relatively obscure Justice Department veterans have sparked Republican rage for their roles in high-profile investigations, Boente has thus far emerged largely unscathed.

In fact, his profile continues to rise. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently chose him as general counsel, plunging him into the bureau’s inner machinations during an especially tumultuous time.

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Court rejects appeals by 47 Russians against Olympic bans

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — Sports’ highest court rejected appeals by all 45 Russian athletes plus two coaches who were banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics over doping concerns in a decision announced Friday less than nine hours before the opening ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee had refused to invite the group of Russians, saying it had evidence of alleged doping in Russian sports.

After two days of hearings, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IOC has the right to set its own standards for who is eligible.

CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb, reading from a statement and declining to take questions, said the IOC process “could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision.”

“The CAS panel found that the applicants did not demonstrate that the manner in which the two special commissions — the Invitation Review Panel and the Olympic Athlete from Russia Implementation Group — independently evaluated the applicants was carried out in a discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair manner. The Panel also concluded that there was no evidence the (commissions) improperly exercised their discretion.”