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

Democrats’ divisions test Biden’s front-runner strength

DETROIT (AP) — The ideological divisions gripping the Democratic Party intensified on Wednesday as presidential candidates waged an acrimonious battle over health care, immigration and race that tested the strength of early front-runner Joe Biden’s candidacy.

The former vice-president was repeatedly forced to defend his decades-old political record against pointed attacks from his younger, diverse rivals, who charged that Biden’s eight-year relationship with President Barack Obama was not reason enough to earn the Democratic nomination.

The attacks on Biden in the second presidential debate were most vivid coming from California Sen. Kamala Harris, who declared that his willingness to work with segregationists in the U.S. Senate during the 1970s could have had dramatic consequences on the surge of minority candidates in political office. And, she said, it could have prevented her and fellow presidential candidate Cory Booker, both of whom are black, from becoming senators.

“Had those segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate, Cory Booker would not be a member of the United States Senate, and Barack Obama would not have been in a position to nominate” Biden to become vice-president, she said.

When pressed, Biden repeatedly leaned on his relationship with Obama.

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AP FACT CHECK: Democratic debate rhetoric under scrutiny

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten more Democrats jousted on a Detroit stage Wednesday in what was probably the last of the traffic-jammed, double-barrelled presidential debates.

A look at the veracity of their rhetoric as the contenders fought not only to stand out to primary voters but to stay in contention for the winnowed-down debates to come:

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CORY BOOKER, senator from New Jersey, on decriminalizing illegal entry at the border: “Doing it through the civil courts means you won’t need these awful detention centres that I’ve been to.”

THE FACTS: Not exactly. It’s true that there could be reduced immigration detention at the border if there were no criminal charge for illegal entry. But border officers would still need to process people coming over the border and that could lead to temporary holding, such as the so-called cages that Democrats call inhumane.

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Advocates: ‘Horrible deja vu’ in continued family separation

NEW YORK (AP) — In the first couple of months after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration last year to stop separating most parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of children sent to New York fell.

Then, advocates say, the children started coming again in a steady stream, many too young to understand their circumstances or how to find their parents.

“It’s just been this horrible sense of deja vu,” said Anthony Enriquez, director of the unaccompanied minors program for the Archdiocese of New York’s Catholic Charities Community Services. The organization is among the advocacy agencies around the country that have joined in a filing from the American Civil Liberties Union that says more than 900 children were taken from parents in the year after the judge issued the injunction.

It’s “the same problem that we had over a year ago prior to the injunction that we hoped against hope would be stayed by the court,” he said. “But the government seems to not care about the court’s order, frankly.”

The 911 children were separated from 844 parents between the court order issued on June 26, 2018, and June 29 of this year, according to the ACLU’s analysis of government records it received under the judge’s supervision. The Justice Department declined to comment.

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North Korea says it tested crucial new rocket launch system

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday leader Kim Jong Un supervised test firings of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance its ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there.

The report by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday differed from the assessment by South Korea’s military, which had concluded Wednesday’s launches were of two short-range ballistic missiles.

The launches from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan were North Korea’s second weapons test in less than a week and were seen as a move to keep up pressure on Washington and Seoul amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. Pyongyang has also expressed anger over planned U.S.-South Korea military drills.

KCNA said Kim expressed satisfaction over the test firings and said the newly developed rocket system would soon serve a “main role” in his military’s land combat operations and create an “inescapable distress to the forces becoming a fat target of the weapon.” The report didn’t directly mention the United States or South Korea, but experts say the rocket system, along with new short-range missiles the North tested in recent weeks, could potentially pose a serious threat to South Korea’s defence.

The agency provided no specific descriptions of how the “large-calibre multiple launch guided rocket system” performed during the launches, but said the tests confirmed the system’s technical characteristics and “combat effectiveness.” North Korea’s state media didn’t immediately release images of the tests.

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US to set up plan allowing prescription meds from Canada

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday it will create a way for Americans to legally and safely import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada for the first time, reversing years of refusals by health authorities amid a public outcry over high prices for life-sustaining medications.

The move is a step toward fulfilling a 2016 campaign promise by President Donald Trump. It weakens an import ban that has stood as a symbol of the political clout of the pharmaceutical industry.

But it’s unclear how soon consumers will see benefits, as the plan has to go through time-consuming regulatory approval and later could face court challenges from drugmakers. And there’s no telling how Canada will react to becoming the drugstore for its much bigger neighbour, with potential consequences for policymakers and consumers there.

The U.S. drug industry is facing a crescendo of consumer complaints over prices, as well as legislation from both parties in Congress to rein in costs, not to mention proposals from the Democratic presidential contenders. Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump is feeling pressure to deliver on years of harsh rhetoric about pharmaceutical industry prices.

Making the announcement, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the administration recognizes that prescription drug manufacturing and distribution is now international.

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US fighter jet crashes in Death Valley, 7 park visitors hurt

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon, officials said.

The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family’s Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometres) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch.

“I just saw a black mushroom cloud go up,” Cassell told The Associated Press. “Typically you don’t see a mushroom cloud in the desert.”

A search was underway for the pilot of the single-seat F/A-18 Super Hornet that was on a routine training mission, said Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Bock, spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.

“The status of the pilot is unknown at this time,” Bock said about four hours after the crash.

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Fed cuts key rate for first time in more than a decade

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for the first time in a decade to try to counter the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade wars, stubbornly low inflation and global weakness.

It left open the possibility of future rate cuts, but perhaps not as many as Wall Street had been hoping for. During a news conference, Chairman Jerome Powell struggled to find just the right words to articulate the Fed’s strategy and what might prompt future rate cuts at a time when the risk of a recession in the United States seems relatively low.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled to finish down 333 points, or 1.2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.01% from 2.06% late Tuesday, a sharp drop.

The central bank reduced its benchmark rate — which affects many loans for households and businesses — by a quarter-point to a range of 2% to 2.25%. It’s the first rate cut since December 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession, when the Fed slashed its rate to a record low near zero and kept it there until 2015. The economy is far healthier now despite risks to what’s become the longest expansion on record.

But Powell stressed that the Fed is worried about the consequences of Trump’s trade war and sluggish economies overseas.

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Organizers finally cancel troubled Woodstock 50 festival

NEW YORK (AP) — Woodstock 50 is officially cancelled.

Organizers announced Wednesday that the troubled festival that hit a series of setbacks in the last four months won’t take place next month.

The three-day festival was originally scheduled for Aug. 16-18, but holdups included permit denials and the loss of a financial partner and a production company.

Last week Jay-Z, Dead & Company and John Fogerty announced that they wouldn’t perform at the event after organizers said it was moving to Maryland from New York.

“We are saddened that a series of unforeseen setbacks has made it impossible to put on the festival we imagined with the great lineup we had booked and the social engagement we were anticipating,” festival co-founder Michael Lang said in a statement Wednesday. “We released all the talent so any involvement on their part would be voluntary. Due to conflicting radius issues in the DC area many acts were unable to participate and others passed for their own reasons.”

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Astros ace Greinke deal; 2 dozen trades on deadline day

Out of nowhere, the Houston Astros got a huge head start on October.

On a dizzying day that featured two dozen trades, the Astros pulled off the biggest and most startling deal, adding ace Zack Greinke to an imposing rotation already loaded with All-Stars Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole.

Plenty of familiar names were on the go Wednesday — Shane Greene and Mark Melancon boosted the Braves’ bullpen, with Scooter Gennett, Jesús Aguilar, Mike Leake and Tanner Roark among those also moving.

But it was the Astros’ acquisition of Greinke from Arizona for four minor leaguers that quickly became the talk of baseball. The deal came right before the deadline for swapping players to still have them eligible for the post-season.

“We had him high on our list and we didn’t know this was even remotely possible and it really wasn’t until the last 48 hours and really the last 24 hours that we started to get traction on something,” Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow said.

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Power for Bauer: Indians get big bats Puig, Reyes from Reds

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Indians added some power — and a little punch — for their playoff push.

Still chasing the homer-happy Minnesota Twins in the AL Central, Cleveland traded temperamental starter Trevor Bauer to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday in a three-team deal that landed the Indians two big bats to fill their power void — Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes.

The Indians, who have cut first-place Minnesota’s lead from 11 1/2 games to three but haven’t had a legitimate cleanup hitter all season, dealt Bauer to the Reds for Puig and left-hander Scott Moss. The Indians also acquired the hard-hitting Reyes, lefty Logan Allen and infield prospect Victor Nova from San Diego. The Padres acquired outfielder Taylor Trammel from the Reds.

The three teams agreed to the seven-player swap Tuesday, but medical reports didn’t get approval until just hours before the trade deadline.

When it was done, the Indians felt good about their present and future.