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

Mexican church leader still its ‘apostle’ after rape arrest

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexico-based La Luz del Mundo church said Wednesday that its leader and “apostle” Naasón Joaquín García, who was arrested in California on charges of human trafficking and child rape, remains the spiritual leader of the group, which claims 5 million followers in 58 countries. It also strongly denied the charges.

“We believe these accusations are defamation and slander of our international director, the apostle of Jesus Christ,” said church spokesman Silem García, who is not related to Joaquín García. “His position as apostle of Jesus Christ was given to him by God, and for life, and he continues to lead the church.”

Joaquín García, 50, and a follower of the church, Susana Medina Oaxaca, 24, were arrested Monday after their chartered flight from Mexico landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

A third defendant, Alondra Ocampo, 36, was arrested in Los Angeles County and a fourth, Azalea Rangel Melendez, remains at large.

The group faces a 26-count felony complaint with allegations that range from human trafficking and production of child pornography to rape of a minor. The charges detail allegations involving three girls and one woman between 2015 and 2018 in Los Angeles County.

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Trump sees progress in Mexico talks but ‘not nearly enough’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Straining to stave off threatened U.S. tariffs, Mexican and American officials claimed progress in White House talks late Wednesday, but President Donald Trump declared it was “not nearly enough” to halt the import taxes he is holding out as a way to force Mexico to stanch the flow of Central American migrants flooding America’s southern border.

Talks continued into the night at the State Department and were to resume Thursday.

Underscoring the scope of the problem, the Department of Homeland Security announced separately that U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants illegally crossing the border hit the highest level in more than a decade in May: 132,887 apprehensions, including a record 84,542 adults and children travelling together and 11,507 children travelling alone.

The threatened tariffs carry enormous economic implications for both countries, and politically they underscore a major ideological split between Trump and his party. Trump has increasingly relied on tariffs as a bludgeon to try to force other nations to bend to his will, dismissing warnings, including from fellow Republicans, about the likely impacts on American manufacturers and consumers.

Renewing his threat Wednesday, Trump tweeted from Ireland that the Washington talks would continue “with the understanding that, if no agreement is reached, Tariffs at the 5% level will begin on Monday, with monthly increases as per schedule.”

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Trump halts fetal tissue research by government scientists

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday that it is ending medical research by government scientists that uses human fetal tissue,.

The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement that government-funded research by universities that involves fetal tissue can continue for now, subject to additional scrutiny — although it also ended one major university project that used the tissue to test HIV treatments. That school — University of California, San Francisco — called the decision “politically motivated.”

Administration officials said the federal policy changes will not affect privately funded research.

Ending the use of fetal tissue by the National Institutes of Health has been a priority for anti-abortion activists, a core element of President Donald Trump’s political base. A senior administration official said it was the president’s call. The official wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

But research using fetal tissue has led to lifesaving advances , including development of vaccines for rubella and rabies and drugs to treat HIV. Scientists around the country denounced the decision, saying that fetal tissue was critically needed for research on HIV vaccines, treatments that harness the body’s immune system to battle cancer, and other health threats, including some to fetuses themselves.

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Texas couple stands by story after US cardinal pushes back

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Texas couple that accused top U.S. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of mishandling a sexual misconduct case against his former deputy is denying his office’s claims that they fabricated quotes and demanded $10 million, saying they are being dismissed the way the church dismisses other victims.

George Pontikes, president and CEO of the Houston-based construction firm Satterfield & Pontikes, said Wednesday he stood by his comments reported to The Associated Press recounting meetings with DiNardo in 2016 and 2017. The diocese had said it “categorically rejects” the story as biased and one-sided — a response Pontikes called disappointing but not surprising.

“It is another example of a smoke screen designed to cover up wrongdoings,” he said.

His wife, Laura Pontikes, had approached DiNardo’s Galveston-Houston archdiocese in April 2016 to report that the then-vicar general had taken advantage of problems in her marriage and business to manipulate her into a sexual relationship. Emails turned over to the archdiocese and AP show that while the sexual relationship grew, Rossi heard her confessions, counselled her husband on their marriage and solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for the church.

Houston police are now investigating. Following inquiries by AP, Rossi’s new bishop placed him on leave Tuesday pending the outcome of the police investigation.

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French beaches at dawn set scene for solemn D-Day observance

OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — The five beaches are silent at dawn but forever haunted.

When the sun rises Thursday over the Normandy coastline where thousands of men bled and died 75 years ago, the diminishing number of World War II veterans who know firsthand of the sacrifices that were made to dismantle tyranny will remember D-Day and hope the world never forgets.

After Britain’s spirited anniversary tribute to the derring-do of the Allied forces that set off from England to defend democracy, the commemoration will be comparatively solemn in France, the country where so many young lives ended in sand and sea on June 6, 1944.

Leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France — and then-foe and now ally Germany — will once again laud the troops who stormed the fortified Normandy beaches to help turn the tide of the war and give birth to a new Europe, since at peace.

A ceremony at daybreak will mark the time when the first troops landed. Remembrances are taking place throughout the day at the military cemeteries where countries buried their fallen citizens.

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Feds: No more education, legal services for immigrant kids

PHOENIX (AP) — The federal government has stopped paying for English-language courses and legal services at facilities that hold immigrant children around the country, imposing budget cuts it says are necessary at a time when record numbers of unaccompanied children are arriving at the border.

The Health and Human Services department notified shelters around the country last week that it was not going to reimburse them for teachers’ pay or other costs such as legal services or recreational equipment. The move appears to violate a legal settlement known as the Flores agreement that requires the government to provide education and recreational activities to immigrant children in its care.

But the agency says it doesn’t have the funding to provide those services as it deals with a soaring number of children coming to the U.S., largely from Central America.

It’s now up to the various non-profit and private organizations run facilities for the children to cover the cost of teachers, supplies, legal services and even recreational activities and equipment — if they can, or choose to.

BCFS, a non-profit provider in several Texas cities, said in a statement that it would continue providing services because not doing so would violate state licensing standards. It said it will use emergency funding from its parent organization.

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Fiat Chrysler says French politics ended Renault merger

PARIS (AP) — Fiat Chrysler abruptly withdrew an offer to merge with French automaker Renault late Wednesday, a shocking reversal of a deal that could have reshaped the global auto industry.

The Italian-American automaker blamed its move on France’s government, saying that the country’s political climate would stop the tie-up from being successful. The government owns 15% of Renault and would have had to approve the merger.

“It has become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully,” Fiat Chrysler said in a statement. “FCA will continue to deliver on its commitments through the implementation of its independent strategy.”

Officials on each side blamed the other for making demands that caused the deal to fall apart with little hope of revival. The moves came on a tumultuous day in which FCA and the government reached a tentative deal on merger terms but it was scuttled later as Groupe Renault’s board met for six hours outside of Paris. The board postponed any action on the merger at the government’s request, Renault said.

Fiat Chrysler proposed the 50-50 merger in late May, saying it would save more than 5 billion euros ($5.62 billion) per year in purchasing expenses and costs developing autonomous and electric vehicles. The combined company would have produced some 8.7 million vehicles a year, more than General Motors and trailing only Volkswagen and Toyota. The merger would have created the world’s third-largest automaker worth almost $40 billion.

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Police thwarted by electronic doors during Virginia shooting

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Police responding to the deadly mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building were unable to confront the gunman at one point because they didn’t have the key cards needed to open doors on the second floor.

Over the radio, they desperately pleaded for the electronic cards and talked of bringing in a sledgehammer, an explosive charge or other means of breaking down the doors.

The killer was eventually gunned down, and whether the delay contributed to the toll of 12 victims dead and four wounded is unclear. But the episode last week illustrated how door-lock technology that is supposed to protect people from workplace violence can hamper police and rescue workers in an emergency.

“That’s definitely a blind spot that this particular shooting has shown,” said Gregory Shaffer, a retired FBI agent and former member of the bureau’s elite hostage rescue team. “We need to make sure that first responders have full access to the building.”

The attacker, 40-year-old city engineer DeWayne Craddock, went from floor to floor shooting his co-workers in the rampage last Friday before he was finally killed on the second floor in a gun battle with police.

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Sudan protesters say 40 bodies pulled from Nile in capital

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — More than 40 bodies of people slain by Sudanese security forces were pulled from the Nile River in the capital of Khartoum, organizers of pro-democracy demonstrations said Wednesday, and new clashes brought the death toll in three days of the ruling military’s crackdown to 108.

The Sudan Doctors Committee, one of the protest groups, reported eight more deaths by late Wednesday and said at least 509 people had been wounded.

Word about the retrieval of the bodies came as Sudan’s ruling general called for a resumption of negotiations with the protest leaders, which they promptly rejected. They said the generals cannot be serious about talks while troops keep killing protesters.

A spokesman for the protesters said that instead they would continue their demonstrations and strikes seeking to pressure the military into handing over power to a civilian authority.

The reported discovery of the bodies in the Nile suggested that Monday’s violent dispersal of the protest movement’s main sit-in camp, outside military headquarters, was even bloodier than initially believed. The attack on the camp was led by a notorious paramilitary unit called the Rapid Support Forces, along with other troops who waded into the camp, opening fire and beating protesters.

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Doctor accused of murder in 25 patient overdose deaths

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio doctor was charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths of 25 hospital patients who, authorities say, were killed with deliberate overdoses of painkillers, many of them administered by other medical workers on his orders.

In one of the biggest cases of its kind ever brought against an American health care professional, William Husel was accused of ordering outsize doses of the powerful painkiller fentanyl. Many of the patients who died were on ventilators and receiving palliative care. The deaths occurred between 2015 and 2018.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien compared Husel’s actions to extinguishing a dwindling candle.

“That candle, while there may be just a half an inch of wax left, if I blow that candle out, I’m causing that flame to go out sooner than it would naturally,” O’Brien said.

Husel, 43, pleaded not guilty after turning himself in earlier in the day. A judge set bail at $1 million.