AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Ship's anchor among possible causes of California oil spill
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Officials investigating one of California's largest oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude into coastal waters and fouling beaches, authorities said Monday.
The head of the company that operates the pipeline said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of pipe and are focusing on 'œone area of significant interest.'ť
An anchor striking the pipeline is 'œone of the distinct possibilities'ť behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference.
Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said.
'œWe're looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that's in the assessment phase right now,'ť Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.
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Biden tells GOP to 'get out of the way' on debt limit
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden on Monday urged Republican senators to 'œget out of the way'ť and let Democrats suspend the nation's debt limit, hoping to keep the U.S. government from bumping dangerously close to a credit default as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to lend his party's help.
Biden's criticism came with Congress facing an Oct 18 deadline to allow for more borrowing to keep the government operating after having accrued a total public debt of $28.4 trillion. The House has passed a measure to suspend the debt limit, but McConnell is forcing Senate Democrats into a cumbersome process that could drag on and approach the deadline with little margin for error.
Both Biden and McConnell have promised that the country will avoid default, yet the public fight and political posturing risks an economic meltdown. The global economy relies on the stability of U.S. Treasury notes, and unpaid debt could crush financial markets and hurl America into recession. Biden noted that the debt limit applies to borrowing that has already occurred, including under former President Donald Trump, and said Republicans are hurting the country by blocking the limit's suspension.
'œThey need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy,'ť Biden said at the White House. 'œRepublicans just have to let us do our job. Just get out of the way. If you don't want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don't destroy it.'ť
Unmoved, McConnell said Republicans had given the Democrats a roadmap for dealing with the debt ceiling with months of warning.
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Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage
Facebook along with its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms suffered a worldwide outage Monday that has extended more than three hours. Facebook's internal systems used by employees also went down. Service has not yet been restored.
The company did not say what might be causing the outage, which began around 11:40 a.m. ET. Websites and apps often suffer outages of varying size and duration, but hourslong global disruptions are rare.
'œThis is epic,'ť said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik Inc, a network monitoring and intelligence company. The last major internet outage, which knocked many of the world's top websites offline in June, lasted less than an hour. The stricken content-delivery company in that case, Fastly, blamed it on a software bug triggered by a customer who changed a setting.
Facebook's only public comment so far was a tweet in which it acknowledged that 'œsome people are having trouble accessing (the) Facebook app'ť and that it was working on restoring access. Regarding the internal failures, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted that it feels like a 'œsnow day.'ť
But the impact was far worse for multitudes of Facebook's nearly 3 billion users, showing just how much the world has come to rely on it and its properties - to run businesses, connect with communities of affinity, log on to multiple other websites and even to order food.
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Biden lifts abortion referral ban on family planning clinics
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Biden administration on Monday reversed a ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics, lifting a Trump-era restriction as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper from Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Department of Health and Human Services said its new regulation will restore the federal family planning program to the way it ran under the Obama administration, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider. The goal is to 'œstrengthen and restore'ť services, said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Groups representing the clinics said they hope the Biden administration action will lead some 1,300 local facilities that left in protest over Trump's policies to return, helping to stabilize a longstanding program shaken by the coronavirus pandemic on top of ideological battles.
'œI have heard that almost everywhere in the country people have made the decision that conditions will be good for them to return to the program,'ť Clare Coleman, president of the umbrella group National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said in an interview. 'œMy sense is that people have been waiting for the rule.'ť
Planned Parenthood, the biggest service provider, said on Twitter its health centers look forward to returning. But the group criticized part of the Biden administration rule that allows individual clinicians who object to abortion not to provide referrals. The administration said that's 'œin accordance with applicable federal law.'ť
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Missouri governor denies clemency to death row inmate
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday declined to grant clemency to death row inmate Ernest Johnson, despite requests for mercy from the pope, two federal lawmakers and thousands of petition signers.
Johnson, 61, was convicted of killing three convenience store workers during a closing-time robbery in 1994. He is scheduled to die by injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of St. Louis.
'œThe state is prepared to deliver justice and carry out the lawful sentence Mr. Johnson received in accordance with the Missouri Supreme Court's order,'ť Parson, a Republican, said in a statement about his decision not to reduce the sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jeremy Weis, Johnson's lawyer, said he was 'œvery disappointed'ť by the decision.
'œWe believe we made a compelling case to him that it was the right moral decision and I guess he disagreed,'ť Weis said.
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'Pandora Papers' bring renewed calls for tax haven scrutiny
WASHINGTON (AP) - Calls grew Monday for an end to the financial secrecy that has allowed many of the world's richest and most powerful people to hide their wealth from tax collectors.
The outcry came after a report revealed the way that world leaders, billionaires and others have used shell companies and offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars out of government treasuries over the past quarter-century, limiting the resources for helping the poor or combating climate change.
The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought promises of tax reform and demands for resignations and investigations, as well as explanations and denials from those targeted.
The investigation, dubbed the Pandora Papers, was published Sunday and involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.
Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have used shell companies or other tactics to hide their wealth and investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.
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Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation
The COVID-19 patient's health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor's diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn't think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.
Dr. Matthew Trunsky didn't hold back in his response: 'œYou are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,''ť he said.
Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.
The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.
They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that it's not a safe coronavirus treatment. People routinely cite falsehoods spread on social media, like an Illinois doctor who has people tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over people's DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.
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Henrietta Lacks estate sues company using her 'stolen' cells
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of 'œa racially unjust medical system."
Tissue taken from the woman's tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.
Lacks' cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for her family say Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.
'œIt is outrageous that this company would think that they have intellectual rights property to their grandmother's cells. Why is it they have intellectual rights to her cells and can benefit billions of dollars when her family, her flesh and blood, her Black children, get nothing?'ť one of the family's attorneys, Ben Crump, said Monday at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them. Crump said these distributors have made billions from the genetic material 'œstolen'ť from Lacks' body.
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Taliban appointments add to all-male Afghan government team
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban doubled down on their hard-line trajectory Monday in a third round of Afghanistan government appointments that encompassed a host of men named to deputy positions, a spokesman said.
None of the 38 new appointments announced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid included women. They were comprised of members drawn entirely from the Taliban with little representation of minority groups.
Also included were postings to humanitarian organizations.
The appointments are the latest indication the Taliban government has no intention of heeding conditions from the international community that formal recognition of their rule would depend on their treatment of women and minority groups.
Still, the Taliban seek international support as they grapple with the daunting challenges of an economy on the brink of collapse, drought and a growing security threat from the Islamic State group.
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Milestone for Bubba Wallace as he earns 1st NASCAR victory
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) - Bubba Wallace became just the second Black driver to win at NASCAR's top Cup Series level when rain stopped Monday's playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Wallace had driven through a crash and to the front of the field five laps before the second rain stoppage of the race. NASCAR tried to dry the track for nearly 45 minutes, but called things off as sunset approached and the rain showed no sign of ceasing.
Wallace had been waiting atop his pit stand and celebrated wildly with his crew when the race was called. Wallace is in his first season driving for 23X1 Racing, a team owned by both Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.
Wallace broke down in tears after he returned to his parked No. 23 Toyota. The car number was picked for co-owner Jordan, who wore 23 in the NBA.
'œThis is for all the kids out there that want to have an opportunity and whatever they want to achieve, and be the best at what they want to do,'ť Wallace said as he choked back tears. 'œYou're going to go through a lot of (BS). But you always got to stick true to your path and not let the nonsense get to you.