AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST
Sanders faces attacks in Democrats' debate-stage clash
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Bernie Sanders faced a torrent of attacks Tuesday night during a raucous debate that tested the Democratic front-runner's strength in what could be several candidates' final prime-time opportunity to change the direction of the 2020 nomination fight.
Mike Bloomberg seized on reports that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election to help Sanders. Joe Biden attacked Sanders for considering launching a primary challenge against former President Barack Obama. And Even Sanders' ideological ally, Elizabeth Warren, said she’d be a better president than the Vermont senator.
They all predicted that Sanders would lose to President Donald Trump this fall.
Sanders, who has risen to be the Democrats' clear front-runner, responded: “I’m hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. I wonder why?”
The new wave of infighting came as Democrats met for the party's 10th — and perhaps most consequential — debate of the 2020 primary season. Tuesday's forum came just four days before South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary and one week before more than a dozen states vote on Super Tuesday.
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The Latest: Buttigieg pans Sanders' resistance to filibuster
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 Democratic primary contest (all times local):
9 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is taking on rival Bernie Sanders for his resistance to ending the Senate procedural rule that requires more than a simple majority to pass most major legislation.
Sanders has stopped short of endorsing an elimination of the Senate rule known as the filibuster, which requires 60 out of 100 senators to approve most major bills. Despite that fact, the Democratic presidential front-runner is pitching an array of sweeping policy changes that are highly likely to fall short in Congress with the filibuster still in place.
“How are we going to lead a revolution if you can’t support a rules change?” Buttigieg challenged Sanders.
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As world scrambles, experts warn virus spread in US certain
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials warned Tuesday that the burgeoning coronavirus is certain to spread more widely in the country at some point, even as their counterparts in Europe and Asia scrambled to contain new outbreaks of the illness.
“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a call with reporters.
The CDC's call for Americans to be prepared added new urgency to response efforts that, until this week, focused on a disease largely confined to China, where it apparently originated, and neighboring countries.
In other developments Tuesday:
— New clusters of the illness popped up far from China, causing increased concerns for officials in some of the wealthiest nations in Europe and Asia, as well as in countries with far fewer resources. But many remained uncertain about how best to contain it.
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Stocks sink, bonds soar on fears virus will stunt economy
Stocks fell sharply again on Wall Street Tuesday, piling on losses a day after the market's biggest drop in two years as fears spread that the growing virus outbreak will put the brakes on the global economy.
Nervous investors snapped up low-risk U.S. government bonds, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to a record low.
The S&P 500 has lost 7.6% in the last four days since hitting a record high last Wednesday. That's the benchmark index's worst such stretch since the end of 2018, resulting in $2.14 trillion in losses, according to S&P Global. Tuesday also marked the first back-to-back 3% losses for the index since the summer of 2015.
The latest wave of selling came as more companies, including United Airlines and Mastercard, warned that the outbreak will hurt their finances, and more cases were reported in Europe and the Middle East, far outside the epicenter in China. Meanwhile, U.S. health officials called on Americans to be prepared for the disease to spread in the United States, where there are currently just a few dozen cases.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 879 points, for a two-day loss of 1,911 points. Travel-related stocks took another drubbing, bringing the two-day loss for American Airlines to 16.9%. The large publicly traded cruise operators have also suffered double-digit losses.
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While India seems to love Trump, the reality isn't so simple
Looking out over the world’s largest cricket stadium, the seats jammed with more than 100,000 people, India’s prime minister heaped praise on his American visitor.
“The leadership of President Trump has served humanity,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday, highlighting Trump’s fight against terrorism and calling his 36-hour visit to India a watershed in India-U.S. relations.
The crowds cheered. Trump beamed.
“The ties between India and the U.S. are no longer just any other partnership,” Modi said. “It is a far greater and closer relationship.”
India, it seems, loves Donald Trump. It seemed obvious from the thousands who turned out to wave as his motorcade snaked through the city of Ahmedabad, and from the tens of thousands who filled the city’s new stadium. It seemed obvious from the hug that Modi gave Trump after he descended from Air Force One, and from the hundreds of billboards proclaiming Trump’s visit.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger steps down in surprise announcement
NEW YORK (AP) — Disney CEO Bob Iger, who steered the company's absorption of Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel and Fox's entertainment businesses and the launch of a Netflix challenger, is stepping down immediately, the company said in a surprise announcement Tuesday.
The Walt Disney Co. named as his replacement Bob Chapek, most recently chairman of Disney's parks, experiences and products business.
"Did not see this coming -- Wowza," tweeted LightShed media analyst Rich Greenfield.
Iger will remain executive chairman through the end of his contract on Dec. 31, 2021. Besides leading the board, Iger said he will spend more time on Disney's creative endeavors, including the ESPN sports network, the newly acquired Fox studios and the Hulu and Disney Plus streaming services. He said he could not do that while running Disney on a day-to-day basis.
“It was not accelerated for any particular reason other than I felt the need was now to make this change," Iger said on a conference call with reporters and analysts.
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Hot Pockets heir gets 5 months in prison for college scam
BOSTON (AP) — An heir to the Hot Pockets fortune was sentenced to five months in prison Tuesday for trying to cheat and bribe her daughters' way into school as part of a nationwide college admissions scam.
Michelle Janavs, whose father and uncle invented the microwaveable Hot Pockets turnovers before selling their company, showed no emotion as the judge delivered his sentence after she apologized for abandoning her moral compass and hurting her family and friends.
“I am so very sorry that I tried to create an unfair advantage for my children,” she said.
The judge told Janavs that prison time was needed to deter others who might have the gall to use their wealth to break the law and dismissed her argument that her actions were motivated by a love for her children.
The “vast majority of parents do not brazenly try to push their kids in the side door” of universities through bribery, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said. “They don’t love their children any less than you do. They just play by the rules of common decency and fair play.”
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'A world of hurt': 39 states to investigate Juul's marketing
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A coalition of 39 states will look into the marketing and sales of vaping products by Juul Labs, including whether the company targeted youths and made misleading claims about nicotine content in its devices, officials announced Tuesday.
Attorneys general from Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas said they will lead the multi-state investigation into San Francisco-based Juul, which also is facing lawsuits by teenagers and others who say they became addicted to the company's vaping products.
The state officials said they also will investigate the company's claims about the risk, safety and effectiveness of its vaping products as smoking cessation devices.
“I will not prejudge where this investigation will lead," Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement, “but we will follow every fact and are prepared to take strong action in conjunction with states across the nation to protect public health.”
Juul released a statement saying it has halted television, print and digital advertising and eliminated most flavors in response to concerns by government officials and others.
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East Africa's huge locust outbreak now spreads to Congo
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A small group of desert locusts has entered Congo, marking the first time the voracious insects have been seen in the Central African country since 1944, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency said Tuesday as U.N. agencies warned of a “major hunger threat” in East Africa from the flying pests.
Kenya, Somalia and Uganda have been battling the swarms in the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years. The U.N. said swarms have also been sighted in Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania and recently reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war.
A joint statement Tuesday from FAO director-general Qu Dongyu, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, and World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley called the swarms of locusts “a scourge of biblical proportions” and “a graphic and shocking reminder of this region’s vulnerability.”
The FAO said mature locusts, carried in part by the wind, arrived on the western shore of Lake Albert in eastern Congo on Friday near the town of Bunia. The country has not seen locusts for 75 years, it said.
“Needless to say the potential impact of locusts on a country still grappling with complex conflict, Ebola and measles outbreaks, high levels of displacement, and chronic food insecurity would be devastating,” the U.N. officials said in the joint statement.
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NTSB: Tesla Autopilot, distracted driver caused fatal crash
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tesla’s partially automated driving system steered an electric SUV into a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway because it was operating under conditions it couldn't handle and because the driver likely was distracted by playing a game on his smartphone, the National Transportation Safety Board has found.
The board made the determination Tuesday in the fatal crash, and provided nine new recommendations to prevent partially automated vehicle crashes in the future. Among the recommendations is for tech companies to design smartphones and other electronic devices so they don't operate if they are within a driver's reach, unless it's an emergency.
Chairman Robert Sumwalt said the problem of drivers distracted by smartphones will keep spreading if nothing is done.
“If we don't get on top of it, it's going to be a coronavirus,” he said in calling for government regulations and company policies prohibiting driver use of smartphones.
Much of the board's frustration was directed at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and to Tesla, which have not acted on recommendations the NTSB passed two years ago. The NTSB investigates crashes but only has authority to make recommendations. NHTSA can enforce the advice, and manufacturers also can act on it.