Nation and World briefs for April 5

Chemical attack kills dozens in Syria, US blames Assad

BEIRUT (AP) — A chemical weapons attack in an opposition-held town in northern Syria killed dozens of people on Tuesday, leaving residents gasping for breath and convulsing in the streets and overcrowded hospitals. The Trump administration blamed the Syrian government for the attack, one of the deadliest in years, and said Syria’s patrons, Russia and Iran, bore “great moral responsibility” for the deaths.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 58 people died, including 11 children, in the early morning attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which witnesses said was carried out by Sukhoi jets operated by the Russian and Syrian governments.

Videos from the scene showed volunteer medics using fire hoses to wash the chemicals from victims’ bodies. Haunting images of lifeless children piled in heaps reflected the magnitude of the attack, which was reminiscent of a 2013 chemical assault that left hundreds dead and was the worst in the country’s ruinous six-year civil war.

Tuesday’s attack drew swift condemnation from world leaders, including President Donald Trump, who denounced it as a “heinous” act that “cannot be ignored by the civilized world.” The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday in response to the strike, which came on the eve of a major international donors’ conference in Brussels on the future of Syria and the region.

In a statement, Trump also blamed former President Barack Obama for “weakness” in failing to respond aggressively after the 2013 attack.

McConnell claims votes to bust Supreme Court filibuster

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed the votes Tuesday to bust a planned Democratic filibuster of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee as a showdown neared that could change the Senate, and the court, for generations.

“They seem determined to head into the abyss,” the Kentucky Republican said of Democrats as debate began over Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination. “They need to reconsider.”

Democrats made clear they had no plans to do so, and blamed Republicans for pushing them to attempt a nearly unheard of filibuster of a well-qualified Supreme Court pick. Forty-four Democrats intend to vote against proceeding to final confirmation on Gorsuch, which would be enough to block him under the Senate’s filibuster rules that require 60 votes to proceed.

But McConnell intends to act unilaterally with the rest of his 52-member GOP conference and change the rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold and require just a simple majority on Gorsuch and all future Supreme Court nominees. Asked if he has the votes to do that, given misgivings voiced by many Republicans, McConnell answered simply “yes.”

Democrats tried mightily to keep the focus on Republicans’ plans to change Senate rules, rather than on their own plans to obstruct a nominee who would likely have gotten onto the court easily with no filibuster in earlier and less contentious political times.

Immigration arrests at Mexican border continue to plummet

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arrests of people caught trying to sneak into the United States across the Mexican border plummeted in March to the lowest monthly figure in more than 17 years, the head of the Department of Homeland Security reported.

That’s a likely sign that fewer immigrants are trying to make the trek into the United States.

Secretary John Kelly said the steep decline in arrests is “no accident” and credited President Donald Trump’s approach to illegal immigration.

Kelly reported the figures in written testimony submitted to a Senate committee ahead of an appearance Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of his testimony.

Though the Trump administration has not yet changed how the border is patrolled, the president’s tough talk on immigration — including plans to build a border wall — and his stepped-up arrests of immigrants living in the country illegally have likely acted as deterrents.

Russian police hunt possible accomplices of suicide bomber

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Investigators searched for possible accomplices of a 22-year-old native of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan identified as the suicide bomber in the St. Petersburg subway, as residents came to grips Tuesday with the first major terrorist attack in Russia’s second-largest city since the Soviet collapse.

The bomber, Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, had lived in St. Petersburg for several years, working as a car repairman and later at a sushi bar. Pages on his social media networks reflected his interest in radical Islam and boxing, but those who met Dzhalilov described him as a calm and friendly man.

Russia’s health minister raised the death toll to 14, including the bomber. About 50 others remained hospitalized, some in grave condition. Many were students heading home Monday after classes on one of the city’s busy north-south lines.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which came as President Vladimir Putin was visiting his hometown, raising speculation it could have been timed for his trip. The attack follows a long string of bombings of Russian planes, trains and transportation facilities. Many of the attacks were linked to radical Islamists.

Before Dzhalilov traveled to St. Petersburg where he eventually got Russian citizenship, his ethnic Uzbek family lived in Osh, the city in southern Kyrgyzstan that saw more than 400 people killed and thousands injured in clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in 2010.

Civil rights groups alarmed over retreat on police reforms

(AP) Civil rights groups reacted with alarm Tuesday while law enforcement organizations expressed relief after the Trump administration signaled it might back out of federal agreements that compel several police departments around the U.S. to curb racial bias and excessive force.

In a memo made public this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of all Justice Department “consent decrees” that force police departments to overhaul their practices, saying, “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies.”

Consent decrees, which are enforceable by the courts, were put in place by the Obama Justice Department in such racially fraught cities as Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri. A decree worked out under the Obama administration is awaiting approval in Baltimore, which erupted in riots in 2015 over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. And an agreement is being negotiated in Chicago.

NAACP President Cornell Brooks called the move by the Trump Justice Department “somewhere between chilling and alarming.”

“Consent decrees are the means by which you provide a hedge of protection, civil rights and civil liberties,” Brooks said. “Why would our attorney general upend and undo that? This review and potential reversal represents a potentially catastrophic, life-or-death consequence for cities where citizens feel like they’re under siege.”

White House effort to revive health care bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House offensive to resurrect the moribund House Republican health care bill got an uneven reception Tuesday from GOP moderates and conservatives, leaving prospects shaky for the party to salvage one of its leading priorities.

Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials were offering to let states request federal exemptions from insurance coverage requirements imposed by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Top House conservatives and moderates planned to meet with Pence and GOP leaders late Tuesday in hopes of finding common ground, but the odds for success seemed long.

At the White House, Pence said he and President Donald Trump “remain confident that working with the Congress we will repeal and replace Obamacare,” while White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump wanted an agreement, if possible.

“I’m not going to raise expectations, but I think that there are more and more people coming to the table with more and more ideas about how to grow that vote,” Spicer said.

But there was no evidence that the proposal won over any GOP opponents who’d forced Trump and party leaders to beat an unceremonious retreat on their bill on March 24, when they canceled a House vote that was doomed to failure.

Poll: Most young people say gov’t should pay for health care

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most young Americans want any health care overhaul under President Donald Trump to look a lot like the Affordable Care Act signed into law by his predecessor, President Barack Obama.

But there’s one big exception: A majority of young Americans dislike “Obamacare’s” requirement that all Americans buy insurance or pay a fine.

A GenForward poll says a majority of people ages 18 to 30 think the federal government should be responsible for making sure Americans have health insurance. It suggests most young Americans won’t be content with a law offering “access” to coverage, as Trump and Republicans in Congress proposed in doomed legislation they dropped March 24. The Trump administration is talking this week of somehow reviving the legislation.

Conducted Feb. 16 through March 6, before the collapse of the GOP bill, the poll shows that 63 percent of young Americans approve of the Obama-era health care law. It did not measure reactions to the Republican proposal.

The most popular element of the law is allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, which is favored by 75 percent of 18-30 year olds. It’s not just that they personally benefit — an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in January found that provision was equally popular among all adults. That proposal was included in the failed GOP overhaul.

Obama aide denies using intel to spy on Trump advisers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s national security adviser and the latest target for Donald Trump’s embattled defenders, firmly denied on Tuesday that she or other Obama officials used secret intelligence reports to spy on Trump associates for political purposes.

“Absolutely false,” Rice declared.

The White House has seized on the idea that the Obama administration improperly surveilled the Republican during and after the November election — an accusation Democrats say is just another red herring thrown out to distract attention from investigations of Russian interference in the campaign on behalf of Trump.

Presidential spokesman Sean Spicer cast Rice’s handling of intelligence in the waning days of Obama’s term as suspicious, although he did not detail what he found to be inappropriate.

“The more we find out about this, the more we learn there was something there,” Spicer said.

Fox thrives despite scandals involving O’Reilly and Ailes

NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of Fox News Channel was forced out in a sexual harassment scandal last summer. The network’s No. 1 star, Bill O’Reilly, has been accused of crude and vindictive behavior toward women. Lawsuits depict a frat-house environment at the company’s New York headquarters.

And yet, by the most important yardstick for television executives, Fox is thriving as never before.

The network just finished the first three months of the year with the biggest quarterly audience a cable news network has ever had. It’s watched more than any other cable network, including the entertainment ones, and O’Reilly leads the way. Fox is the home for fans of President Donald Trump and Trump himself, who frequently tweets about its shows and reporting.

To some, that’s a disconnect that, so far, recalls Trump’s election as president weeks after an “Access Hollywood” tape revealed his vulgar remarks about women.

There’s been a drumbeat of embarrassing Fox News stories in just the past few days. A growing advertiser boycott is threatening O’Reilly as never before. The New York Times revealed over the weekend that O’Reilly and Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, paid settlements totaling $13 million to five women to keep quiet about supposed mistreatment by O’Reilly. A Fox contributor, Julie Roginsky, said in a lawsuit that her career stalled after she rebuffed former chief executive Roger Ailes’ advances. A third black woman came forward to claim racial abuse by a since-fired executive.