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

By The Associated Press

Charges, insults fly after Trump aide assails congresswoman

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Friday rushed to defend chief of staff John Kelly after he mischaracterized the remarks of a Democratic congresswoman and called her an “empty barrel” making noise. A Trump spokeswoman said it was “inappropriate” to question Kelly in light of his stature as a retired four-star general.

The administration also insisted it’s long past time to end the political squabbling and insult trading over President Donald Trump’s compassion for America’s war dead, even as it lobbed fresh vilification at Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson.

She kept the barbed exchanges going, adding a new element by suggesting a racial context.

Taking cues from a president who hates to back down, the administration staunchly defended Kelly, who a day before had denounced Wilson’s criticism of Trump — and added his condemnation of past remarks she had made at a Miami event.

Kelly said she delivered a 2015 speech at an FBI field office dedication in which she “talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building,” rather than keeping the focus on the fallen agents for which it was named. Video of the speech contradicted his recollection.

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Judge tosses $417M award against Johnson & Johnson

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Friday tossed out a $417 million jury award to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer by using Johnson & Johnson talc-based baby powder for feminine hygiene.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson granted the company’s request for a new trial, saying there were errors and jury misconduct in the previous trial that ended with the award two months ago.

Nelson also ruled that there wasn’t convincing evidence that Johnson & Johnson acted with malice and the award for damages was excessive.

The decision will be appealed even though Eva Echeverria has died, said her attorney, Mark Robinson Jr.

“We will continue to fight on behalf of all women who have been impacted by this dangerous product,” he said in a statement.

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Q&A on the GOP effort to overhaul the nation’s tax system

WASHINGTON (AP) — Divided Republicans in Congress are tackling an ambitious overhaul of the nation’s tax system that would deeply cut levies for corporations and double the standard deduction used by most average Americans.

Despite controlling Congress and the White House, Republicans failed to carry out their years-long promise to dismantle and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law. They say the nearly $6 trillion tax plan, to bring the first major revamp in three decades, is their once-in-a-generation opportunity. President Donald Trump sets it as his highest legislative priority.

But can they deliver? What are the next steps for Congress? How would the changes affect the average taxpayer? Some questions and answers:

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WHAT DOES THE TAX PLAN DO? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

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Vegas shooting doesn’t change opinions on guns: AP-NORC poll

ATLANTA (AP) — The slaying of five dozen people in Las Vegas did little to change Americans’ opinions about gun laws.

The nation is closely divided on whether restricting firearms would reduce such mass shootings or homicides, though a majority favour tighter laws as they have for several years, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The massive divide on stricter limits remains firmly in place.

The survey was conducted from Oct. 12-16, about two weeks after 64-year-old Stephen Paddock fired on a crowded musical festival taking place on across the street from his hotel room, killing 58 and wounding more than 540 before killing himself. It’s the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

In this latest survey, 61 per cent said the country’s gun laws should be tougher, while 27 per cent would rather see them remain the same and 11 per cent want them to be less strict. That’s similar to the results of an AP-GfK poll in July 2016.

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Experts say Chile poet did not die of cancer, deepen mystery

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A team of international scientists said Friday that Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda did not die of cancer or malnutrition, rejecting the official cause of death but not laying to rest one of the great mysteries of post-coup Chile.

While saying what the poet and Communist Party politician did not die of, the forensic experts didn’t say what he did die of or end the debate over whether he was murdered by agents of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship shortly after the country’s 1973 military takeover.

Panel members said they will continue to identify pathogenic bacteria that might have caused Neruda’s death to determine if a third party was involved.

The poet, who was 69 years old and suffering from prostate cancer, died in Chile’s post-coup chaos. The official version was that he died of cachexia, or weakness and wasting of the body due to chronic illness — in this case cancer.

“The fundamental conclusions are the invalidity of the death certificate when it comes to cachexia as a cause of death,” said Aurelio Luna, one of the panel’s experts. “We still can’t exclude nor affirm the natural or violent cause of Pablo Neruda’s death.”

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Google parent turns on internet balloons in Puerto Rico

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria.

Two of the search giant’s “Project Loon” balloons are already over the country enabling texts, emails and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network.

The balloons — called HBAL199 and HBAL237 — are more than 60,000 feet (18,000 metres) above land, according to FlightRadar24.com . They navigate using an algorithm that puts them in the best position to deliver signal by rising and falling to ride wind currents. They are also solar-powered and only provide signal during the day

Several more balloons are on their way from Nevada, and Alphabet has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to send up to 30 balloons to serve the hard-hit area, according to Libby Leahy, spokeswoman for Alphabet’s X, its division for futuristic technologies.

Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is “still an experimental technology and we’re not quite sure how well it will work,” though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there.

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Chinese power over North Korea? It’s more myth than reality

BEIJING (AP) — At first glance, it seems the perfect solution to the world’s most dangerous standoff: Find a way to get China to use its enormous influence to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear bombs.

The countries, after all, share a long, porous border, several millennia of history and deep ideological roots. Tens, and possibly hundreds, of thousands of Chinese soldiers, including Mao Zedong’s son, died to save North Korea from obliteration during the Korean War, and China is essentially Pyongyang’s economic lifeline, responsible for most of its trade and oil.

The notion of Chinese power over the North — that the countries are as “close as lips and teeth,” according to a cliche recorded in the 3rd century — is so tantalizing that Donald Trump has spent a good part of his young presidency playing it up.

The reality, however, is that the complicated, often exasperating, relationship is less about friendship or political bonds than a deep and mutually uneasy dependency. Nominally allies, the neighbours operate in a near constant state of tension, a mix of ancient distrust and dislike and the grating knowledge that they are inextricably tangled up with each other, however much they might chafe against it.

This matters because if China is not the solution to the nuclear crisis, then outsiders long sold on the idea must recalibrate their efforts as the North approaches a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, something the CIA chief this week estimated as only a matter of months away.

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Japan votes: Incumbent PM Abe appears headed to victory

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s leader may have made the right call after all, if not for his country then for himself.

Media polls indicate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition will handily win a general election Sunday, possibly even retaining its two-thirds majority in the more powerful lower house of parliament.

Japanese voters may not love Abe, but they appear to want to stick with what they know, rather than hand the reins to an opposition with little or no track record. Uncertainly over North Korea and its growing missile and nuclear arsenal may be heightening that underlying conservatism.

“I buy into Prime Minister Abe’s ability to handle diplomacy,” said Naomi Mochida, a 51-year-old woman listening to Abe campaign earlier this week in Saitama prefecture, outside of Tokyo. “I think the most serious threat we face now is the North Korea situation. I feel Prime Minister Abe has been showing the best tactics to handle the situation, compared to other politicians including past prime ministers.”

Abe dissolved the lower house a little more than three weeks ago on the day it convened for a special session, forcing the snap election. The timing seemed ripe for his ruling Liberal-Democratic Party, or at least better than waiting.

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TV Academy could boot Weinstein; new allegation revealed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another influential entertainment organization said Friday it would consider booting disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein as another woman accused the Oscar winner of sexual abuse.

The Television Academy, which bestows Emmy awards, said a disciplinary hearing set for November could lead to termination of his membership.

Weinstein, accused of sexually harassing and abusing numerous women over decades, has been fired from The Weinstein Co., a TV and movie film production company he co-founded with his brother Bob. He has been expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

He now faces criminal inquiries in three cities after an Italian actress told Los Angeles detectives that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 2013.

Attorney David Ring, who represents the 38-year-old actress, said Friday that she provided graphic details to police about the incident that occurred while she was in the city for the Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest.

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New Battle of the Alamo is brewing over Texas shrine revamp

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Remember the Alamo? A new Texas battle is brewing over how best to do so.

Land Commissioner George P. Bush is overseeing a 7-year revamp of the shrine where 189 Texas independence fighters were killed by Mexican Gen. Santa Anna’s troops in 1836. The site’s size would quadruple after excavation and restoration of historical structures, the closing of nearby streets and the building of a more than 100,000-square foot museum to house artifacts and guide visitors through the Alamo’s history.

The project has raised the ire of some conservatives, who worry that the Battle of the Alamo will be sanitized by “political correctness” at a time when Confederate monuments are being removed across the country. Even though the Alamo battle was well before the Civil War, some of the participants were slaveholders.

A flashpoint has been the fate of the Cenotaph, a 60-foot (18.29-meter) granite monument near the Alamo completed in 1940 and engraved with the names of those killed during the battle. The city of San Antonio wants to move it to a site somewhat farther away. But critics fear the Cenotaph will suffer the fate of some Confederate monuments and be banished.

Hundreds of protesters showed up at the Alamo last weekend, some wearing colonial costumes and holding signs reading “Leave the Alamo Alone.”

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