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

Judge orders Texas to suspend new law banning most abortions

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., calling it an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right by banning most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state since September.

The order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges. In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers say the impact has been “exactly what we feared.”

In a 113-page opinion, Pitman took Texas to task over the law, saying Republican lawmakers had “contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme” by leaving enforcement solely in the hands of private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against abortion providers who violate the restrictions.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant.

“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” wrote Pitman, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

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Congress foresees short-term debt fix amid perilous standoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic leaders edged back Wednesday from a perilous standoff over lifting the nation’s borrowing cap, with Democratic senators signaling they were receptive to an offer from Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell that would allow an emergency extension into December.

McConnell made the offer shortly before Republicans were prepared to block legislation to suspend the debt limit until December of next year and as President Joe Biden and business leaders ramped up their concerns that an unprecedented federal default would disrupt government payments to millions of people and throw the nation into recession.

The emerging agreement sets the stage for a sequel of sorts in December, when Congress will again face pressing deadlines to fund the government and raise the debt limit before heading home for the holidays.

A procedural vote — on the longer extension the Republicans were going to block — was abruptly delayed late Wednesday and the Senate recessed so lawmakers could discuss next steps. Democrats emerged from their meeting more optimistic that a crisis would be averted.

“Basically, I’m glad that Mitch McConnell finally saw the light,” said Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont. The Republicans “have finally done the right thing and at least we now have another couple months in order to get a permanent solution.”

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While US summer surge is waning, more mandates in the works

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are coming down again, hospitalizations are dropping, and new cases per day are about to dip below 100,000 for the first time in two months — all signs that the summer surge is waning.

Not wanting to lose momentum, government leaders and employers are looking to strengthen and vaccine requirements.

Los Angeles enacted one of the nation’s strictest vaccine mandates Wednesday, a sweeping measure that would require the shots for everyone entering a bar, restaurant, nail salon, gym or Lakers game. New York City and San Francisco have similar rules.

Minnesota’s governor this week called for vaccine and testing requirements for teachers and long-term care workers. In New York, a statewide vaccination mandate for all hospital and nursing home workers will be expanded Thursday to home care and hospice employees.

Across the nation, deaths per day have dropped by nearly 15% since mid-September and are now averaging about 1,750. New cases have fallen to just over 103,000 per day on average, a 40% decline over the past three weeks.

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UN endorses world’s 1st malaria vaccine as ‘historic moment’

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it “a historic moment” after a meeting in which two of the U.N. health agency’s expert advisory groups recommended the step.

“Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent, which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease. And we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director.

WHO said its decision was based largely on results from ongoing research in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that tracked more than 800,000 children who have received the vaccine since 2019.

The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1987. While it’s the first to be authorized, it does face challenges: The vaccine is only about 30% effective, it requires up to four doses, and its protection fades after several months.

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Strong earthquake in southwest Pakistan kills at least 11

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful earthquake early Thursday shook a remote mountainous part of southwestern Pakistan dotted with coal mines and mud houses, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 200, an official said.

The death toll was expected to rise as officials search through the remote mountainous area, said Suhail Anwar Shaheen, the deputy commissioner of the area.

At least four of the dead were killed when the coal mine in which they were working collapsed, said Shaheen, citing reports from coal miners in the area.

The epicenter of the 5.7 magnitude quake was about 14 kilometers (8 miles) north-northeast of Harnai in Baluchistan province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck about 20 kilometers (12 miles) below the surface.

The area, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Quetta, the provincial capital, is dotted with coal mines, which has Shaheen worried the death toll could rise. It struck in the early morning while scores of miners were already at work, he said.

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Ban on negotiating Medicare drug prices under pressure

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donna Weiner looks at Medicare’s prescription drug program from two different points of view.

As a participant, she wants to pay less for her medicines, which cost her about $6,000 a year. As a retired accountant who spent 50 years handling the books for companies, she sees a way to get there.

“You know from working in a business that it makes no sense for an administrator of a plan or a company not to be involved in what they have to pay out,” said Weiner, who lives near Orlando, Florida. For Medicare “to negotiate those prices down would be thousands of dollars back in my pocket every year,” she said.

Negotiating Medicare drug prices is the linchpin of President Joe Biden’s ambitious health care agenda. Not only would consumers see lower costs, but savings would be plowed into other priorities such as dental coverage for retirees and lower premiums for people with plans under the Obama-era health law.

To do that, Congress would have to change an unusual arrangement that’s written into law.

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Ex-Facebook employee asks lawmakers to step in. Will they?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Camera lights glare. Outrage thunders from elected representatives. A brave industry whistleblower stands alone and takes the oath behind a table ringed by a photographers’ mosh pit.

The former Facebook product manager who has accused the social network giant of threatening children’s safety — and the integrity of democracy — is urging Congress to take action to rein in a largely unregulated company. The drama rings familiar, but will real change come out of it this time?

When Frances Haugen came before a Senate Commerce panel to lay out a far-reaching condemnation of Facebook, she had prescriptions for actions by Congress at the ready. Not a breakup of the tech giant as many lawmakers are calling for, but targeted legislative remedies.

They include new curbs on the long-standing legal protections for speech posted on social media platforms. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for stripping away some of the protections granted by a 25-year-old law — generally known as “Section 230” — that shields internet companies from liability for what users post.

Haugen’s idea would be to remove the protections in cases where dominant content driven by computer algorithms favors massive engagement by users over public safety.

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WHO working to get COVID-19 medical supplies to North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The World Health Organization is working to ship COVID-19 medical supplies into North Korea, a possible sign that the North is easing one of the world’s strictest pandemic border closures to receive outside help.

WHO said in a weekly monitoring report that it has started the shipment of essential COVID-19 medical supplies through the Chinese port of Dalian for “strategic stockpiling and further dispatch” to North Korea. WHO officials on Thursday didn’t immediately respond to requests for more details, including what those supplies were and whether they had yet reached North Korea.

Describing its anti-virus campaign was a matter of “national existence,” North Korea had severely restricted cross-border traffic and trade for the past two years despite the strain on its already crippled economy.

U.N. human rights investigators in August asked the North’s government to clarify allegations that it ordered troops to shoot on sight any trespassers who cross its borders in violation of its pandemic closing.

While North Korea has yet to report a single case of COVID-19, outside experts widely doubt it escaped the illness that had touched nearly every other place in the world.

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Biden, China’s Xi expected to meet virtually by year’s end

ZURICH (AP) — With tensions rising between the global powers, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to hold a virtual meeting before year’s end, according to the White House.

The agreement in principle for the talks was disclosed after White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met for six hours in Zurich.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the two sides are still working through what the virtual meeting “would look like.”

The presidential meeting was proposed after Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during their call last month that he would like to be able to see Xi again, according to a senior administration official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the talks between Sullivan and Yang and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic and is not expected to attend in person the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Rome and a U.N. climate conference in Scotland.

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Oil spill off California coast is dispersing, amount unclear

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Some of the crude oil that spilled from a pipeline into the waters off Southern California has been breaking up naturally in ocean currents, a Coast Guard official said Wednesday as authorities sought to determine the scope of the damage.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said some of the oil has been pushed to the south by currents. Storms earlier in the week may also have helped disperse the oil, which he said could make it more challenging to skim as it spreads out.

“Most of this oil is separating and starting to float further south,” he said while accompanying reporters aboard a boat to the scene of the spill. “The biggest problem is the uncertainty, the amount that leaked into the water. We are at this point unsure of the total amount that leaked out.”

How much oil leaked remains unclear. The pipeline operator, Amplify Energy Corp., has publicly pegged the maximum amount of the spill at 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude. But the company told federal investigators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that initial measurements put the total only around 29,400 gallons (111,291 liters).

The water and shoreline are still off limits in Huntington Beach and several other areas, but people are allowed on the sand. Beachgoers played volleyball on the Huntington Beach sand Wednesday morning as walkers and bikers passed near the city’s famed pier. A few globs of oil were visible along the shoreline but no smell remained.