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

Alberto it is: First named tropical system chugs toward Gulf

MIAMI (AP) — A storm moving slowly through the Caribbean Sea is threatening to bring heavy rainfall, mudslides, and flash floods to parts of Mexico, Cuba, Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast this weekend.

Subtropical Storm Alberto — the first named storm of the 2018 hurricane season — was roiling parts of coastal Mexico and Cuba with rip currents and dangerous surf on Friday. Both countries issued tropical storm watches for portions of their coastlines, with rain totals in some isolated areas of up to 25 inches.

U.S. forecasters followed suit by issuing a tropical storm watch for parts of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle southwest of Tallahassee to the New Orleans metropolitan area.

At 11 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Alberto was centred about 110 miles (177 kilometres) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. Its top sustained winds were 40 mph (65 kph). A gradual strengthening was expected through the weekend as it moves north.

The U.S. was expected to start feeling Alberto’s effects Saturday. The hurricane centre said up to 12 inches of rain was possible across the Florida Keys and southern and southwestern Florida. Residents in the storm’s expected path were advised to monitor the storm’s progress.

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Giuliani: White House wants briefing on classified info

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s legal team wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and may take it to the Justice Department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, told The Associated Press on Friday that the White House hopes to get a readout of the information next week, particularly about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of Trump’s campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election. Trump has made unproven claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the asset as “a spy.”

“If the spying was inappropriate, that means we may have an entirely illegitimate investigation,” Giuliani said of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. He then invoked the material compiled by former FBI Director James Comey before he was fired.

“Coupled with Comey’s illegally leaked memos, this means the whole thing was a mistake and should never have happened,” Giuliani said. “We’d urge the Justice Department to re-evaluate, to acknowledge they made a mistake. It’s a waste of $20 million of the taxpayers’ money. The whole thing is already a waste of money.”

Comey has said he had the authority as a private citizen to ask a friend to share details from one of his memos with the news media, and has said he did nothing wrong. The Justice Department official who would be the one to receive any complaints from Giuliani would presumably be Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller last year in the wake of Comey’s firing and was present for Thursday’s briefings.

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Handcuffed Weinstein faces rape charge in #MeToo reckoning

NEW YORK (AP) — It was the moment the #MeToo movement had been waiting for: Harvey Weinstein in handcuffs.

His face pulled in a strained smile and his hands locked behind his back, the once-powerful Hollywood figure emerged from a police station Friday facing rape and criminal sex act charges, a searing reckoning for the man who became a symbol of a worldwide outcry over sexual misconduct.

“This defendant used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually,” Manhattan Assistant Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said later, in words that brought raised eyebrows from the otherwise stony-faced Weinstein.

The charges stem from encounters with two of the dozens of women — some famous, some not — who have accused him of sexual misdeeds. The rape charge involves a woman who has not come forward publicly; the other is a onetime aspiring actress who was among his first accusers.

Weinstein has consistently denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex.

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USC president agrees to step down amid gynecologist scandal

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The president of the University of Southern California has agreed to step down amid a raging sex scandal involving a university gynecologist who is accused of conducting inappropriate exams for decades, the chairman of the school’s board of trustees said Friday.

The university’s board has “agreed to begin an orderly transition and commence the process of selecting a new president,” Rick J. Caruso, the board’s chairman, said in a letter to students and faculty members.

The letter did not say when C.L. Max Nikias would leave his post.

“We have heard the message that something is broken and that urgent and profound actions are needed,” Caruso said.

The announcement came days after hundreds of students, professors and alumni demanded Nikias’ ouster, alleging that USC failed to respond to complaints of misconduct involving Dr. George Tyndall, a gynecologist who worked at a university clinic for 30 years.

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Emails show co-operation among EPA, climate-change deniers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly released emails show senior Environmental Protection Agency officials working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming, counter negative news coverage and tout Administrator Scott Pruitt’s stewardship of the agency.

John Konkus, EPA’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs, repeatedly reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute, according to the emails.

“If you send a list, we will make sure an invitation is sent,” Konkus wrote to then-Heartland president Joseph Bast in May 2017, seeking suggestions on scientists and economists the EPA could invite to an annual EPA public hearing on the agency’s science standards.

Follow-up emails show Konkus and the Heartland Institute mustering scores of potential invitees known for rejecting scientific warnings of man-made climate-change, including from groups like Plants Need CO2, The Right Climate Stuff, and Junk Science.

The emails underscore how Pruitt and senior agency officials have sought to surround themselves with people who share their vision of curbing environmental regulation and enforcement, leading to complaints from environmentalists that he is ignoring the conclusions of the majority of scientists in and out of his agency especially when it comes to climate-changing carbon emissions.

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2 N. Korean diplomats behind US summit back-and-forth

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An aging North Korean nuclear strategist involved in now-dormant disarmament deals. His former interpreter in international negotiations who is now North Korea’s highest-ranking female diplomat.

Kim Kye Gwan and Choe Son Hui are among the best-known North Korean officials after leader Kim Jong Un and his family members. They are in the news again now after their recent back-to-back comments about the United States were blamed for President Donald Trump’s abrupt cancellation on Thursday of a much-anticipated summit with Kim Jong Un. On Friday, Trump said the two sides were working to put the meeting back on track.

A look at who the officials are and how their comments led Trump to spike the summit planned for June 12 in Singapore:

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KIM KYE GWAN

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Exit polls suggest Irish voters have repealed abortion ban

DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland appeared to move away from its conservative Roman Catholic roots and embrace a more liberal viewpoint Friday as two major exit polls predicted voters had repealed a constitutional ban on abortion.

The RTE television and Irish Times exit polls are only predictions, with official tallies due Saturday afternoon, but both exit polls suggested an overwhelming victory for abortion rights activists seeking a “yes” vote to change the constitution.

Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the small Social Democrats party, said the polls strongly indicate “voters have taken on board the clear message that the constitutional ban harms women” and must be removed from the constitution.

If the exit poll numbers hold up, the victory will be of a larger magnitude than “yes” activists had believed possible. It would then fall to Parliament to establish new laws governing abortions.

Ireland’s referendum represented a battle for the very soul of a traditionally conservative nation that has seen a wave of liberalization in recent years.

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Teacher who confronted Indiana school shooter lauded as hero

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana middle school student armed with two handguns opened fire inside his science classroom Friday, authorities said, wounding a classmate and a teacher whose swift intervention was credited with saving lives.

The shooter, who had asked to be dismissed from the class before returning with the guns, was arrested “extremely quickly” after the incident around 9 a.m. at Noblesville West Middle School, police Chief Kevin Jowitt said. Authorities didn’t release his name or say whether he had been in trouble before but indicated he likely acted alone.

Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker said the student was acting suspiciously when he walked into the room while the class was taking a test. He said science teacher Jason Seaman likely averted a catastrophe.

“Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground,” Stonebraker said. “If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure.”

Stonebraker told ABC News that Seaman threw a basketball at the shooter and ran toward the bullets as screaming students sought cover behind a table.

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Volcanic ash swamps Hawaii school, turning tennis court grey

HONOLULU (AP) — Aina Akamu gave final exams to his students as they sat on bleachers or the floor of the basketball court in the gym in his small town on Hawaii’s Big Island.

He moved his class to the community of Pahala’s gym nearby after he and his students could no longer stand the volcanic ash covering his classroom floor, chairs and desks.

“I decided today I’m not going back to my classroom for the rest of the year,” he said Wednesday, a brief relocation before school ends next week.

Kau High and Pahala Elementary School is inundated with gritty, grey ash that has been spewing out of a volcano some 20 miles (32 kilometres) away. During intermittent explosions at Kilauea’s summit, including one late Thursday, ash shoots high into the sky and drifts down onto the small, rural campus and nearby areas.

No matter how often Akamu sweeps the floors or how many times custodians spray water on buildings, a dusting of ash leaves a normally green tennis court looking grey.

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AP Explains: What’s changing under new data privacy rules

Europe’s new data and privacy rules take effect Friday, clarifying individual rights to the personal data collected by companies around the world for targeted advertising and other purposes.

Years in the making, the rules are prompting companies to rewrite their privacy policies and in some cases, apply the European Union’s tougher standards even in the U.S. and other regions where privacy laws are weak. Although they take effect as Facebook faces an enormous privacy crisis , that timing is largely coincidental.

Not much will change for you, at least right away; companies will keep on collecting and analyzing personal data from your phone, the apps you use and the sites you visit. The big difference is that now, the companies will have to justify why they’re collecting and using that information. And they’re prevented from using data for a different purpose later.

So now companies have been flooding their users with notices that aim to better explain their practices and the privacy choices they offer. EU regulators have new powers to go after companies that get too grabby or that don’t tell you clearly what they’re doing with your data.

Here’s a look at what the rules say and what they mean for consumers in the EU and elsewhere.