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

Soccer players speaking from Thai cave say they are healthy

MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — The soccer teammates stranded more than a week in a partly flooded cave say they are healthy on a new Thai navy video.

The boys and their coach introduce themselves individually with the camera turning to show a Thai navy SEAL with them. They smile at times and interact with the SEAL who asks questions.

Some appeared to be wearing a change of clothes since they were found late Monday and most were wrapped in foil warming blankets.

The video lasting about a minute was recorded sometime Tuesday and was posted on the navy SEAL Facebook page Wednesday morning.

The group had entered the cave in northern Thailand on June 23 before flooding cut off the main entrance. Rescuers are studying how to extract them safely.

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US to stop encouraging race as factor in school admissions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would not encourage schools to use race as a factor in the admissions process, rescinding Obama-era guidance meant to promote diversity among students.

The shift gives schools and colleges the federal government’s blessing to leave race out of admissions and enrolment decisions and underscores the contentious politics that for decades have surrounded affirmation action policies, which have repeatedly been challenged before the Supreme Court.

The Obama administration memos encouraging schools to take race into account were among 24 policy documents revoked by the Justice Department for being “unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the changes an effort to restore the “rule of law,” though civil rights groups decried the move and some universities said they intended to continue their diversity efforts as before.

The action comes amid a high-profile court fight over Harvard University admissions that has attracted the government’s attention, as well as Supreme Court turnover expected to produce a more critical eye toward schools’ race-conscious admissions policies.

The court’s most recent significant ruling on the subject endorsed colleges’ use of race among many factors in the admission process. But the opinion’s author, Justice Anthony Kennedy, announced his retirement last week, giving President Donald Trump a chance to replace him with a judge who may be more reliably skeptical of admissions programs that take race and ethnicity into account.

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Trump conducts more Supreme Court interviews, hears concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spoke with three more potential Supreme Court candidates on Tuesday as a key senator privately aired concerns about one of the contenders.

As Trump weighs his options, he has heard from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has expressed reservations about one top potential nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, according to a person familiar with the call but not authorized to publicly disclose details of it The activity around Kavanaugh was an early glimpse of the frenzied jockeying around the short list of candidates in the run-up to Trump’s July 9 announcement.

With a narrow 51-49 GOP majority in the Senate, losing any Republican senator could begin to doom a nominee. Paul’s objections echo those made by outside conservative groups over Kavanaugh, who is seen as a top contender for the vacancy but who activists warn is too much of an establishment-aligned choice.

Trump has said he’ll choose his nominee from a list of 25 candidates vetted by conservative groups. Top contenders include federal appeals judges Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge, Amul Thapar and Amy Coney Barrett — all of whom spoke with Trump on Monday.

“These are very talented people, brilliant people,” Trump said Tuesday during an appearance in West Virginia. “We’re going to give you a great one.”

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Social issues roiling US weigh heavy on Independence Day

BOSTON (AP) — In these complex times, a simple question about the quintessential American holiday of fireworks, cookouts and parades isn’t always so simple.

As Americans prepare to celebrate the nation’s 242nd birthday, some feel a deeper sense of patriotism. For others, the social issues roiling the country weigh heavy this Independence Day.

Standing in front of Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Tuesday, tour guide Cara McIntyre said she takes special pride this time of the year in recounting the courage of American colonists like Samuel Adams, who called for rebellion against the English crown in fiery speeches at the historic hall.

But she laments that Americans’ ability to respectfully debate the toughest issues of the day — to disagree without being disagreeable — seems hopelessly lost.

“This bitter divisiveness of the last decade, I think the Founding Fathers would be really sad about that,” said the 57-year-old Massachusetts native as she greeted passers-by in her floral-print, colonial-era dress. “Social media has made bullies of all of us. People say things there that they’d never say to someone’s face.”

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Trump praises service members during charity dinner in W.Va.

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump celebrated active-duty service members and veterans during a military tribute Tuesday on the eve of Independence Day.

Delivering remarks at a “Salute to Service” charity dinner at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Trump praised “Americans of every generation” who have served in the armed forces.

The event was held in conjunction with the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic, which has been rechristened as “A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier.” The venerable resort is owned by the state’s Republican governor, presidential ally Jim Justice.

Highlighting his efforts to boost spending for the military, Trump said, “As the golfers can tell you, the stronger we get, the less likely it is that we will have to use it.”

An avid golfer, Trump praised the “incredible athletes” in attendance.

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Men plead no contest in deadly California warehouse fire

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Two men charged in a California warehouse fire that killed 36 people agreed to a plea deal Tuesday during an emotional hearing where the judge read the name of each victim aloud, bringing tears from loved ones in the courtroom.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Derick Almena and Max Harris each pleaded no contest to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter involving the 2016 blaze at a dilapidated Oakland warehouse known as the “Ghost Ship” during an unlicensed concert.

Almena could be sentenced to nine years in prison and Harris could face a six-year term when a judge sentences them next month.

The men could have faced life in prison if convicted at a trial. Now, with good behaviour, they are only expected to serve half their sentences after spending a year in jail.

David Gregory, whose 20-year-old daughter, Michela Gregory, was among the victims, said hearing the defendants say no contest was “some small sense of justice.” Still, he was dissatisfied with the outcome.

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NATO allies defend military spending amid Trump criticism

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO allies are pushing back against U.S. criticism that they are not spending enough on defence as President Donald Trump ratchets up pressure ahead of a summit next week.

In the weeks leading up to NATO’s July 11-12 summit in Brussels, Trump sent letters to the governments of Norway, other European allies and Canada demanding that they boost their defence spending.

After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO allies agreed to stop cutting defence budgets, to start spending more as their economies grew and to move toward a goal of devoting 2 per cent of GDP to defence within a decade.

In an email Tuesday to The Associated Press, Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said “Norway stands by its decision of the NATO Summit in 2014 and is following up on this.”

Norway has spent “far beyond” NATO’s target on new military equipment, he added.

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Former Malaysia leader charged with breach of trust, graft

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was charged in court Wednesday with criminal breach of trust and corruption, two months after a multibillion dollar graft scandal at a state investment fund led to his shock election defeat.

Najib, wearing a suit and a red tie, appeared calm and smiled as he was escorted into the court complex packed with reporters.

He was arrested Tuesday by anti-graft officials over a suspicious transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.4 million) into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of the 1MDB state investment fund that U.S. investigators say was looted of billions by associates of Najib.

In a lower court, he was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of corruption. Each charge has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Whipping is also a penalty but Najib would be exempt because of his age.

The case against him will be transferred to the High Court where Najib is expected to make his plea Wednesday.

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Alan Diaz, AP photographer behind Elian image, dies at 71

MIAMI (AP) — Retired Associated Press photojournalist Alan Diaz , whose photo of a terrified 6-year-old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez earned him the Pulitzer Prize, has died. He was 71.

Diaz’s daughter, Aillette Rodriguez-Diaz, confirmed that he died Tuesday. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known.

“He was the king of the family,” Rodriguez-Diaz said. “He cared about all of his friends and colleagues. His life was photography and my mother.”

Diaz’s wife, Martha, died nearly two years ago.

Diaz’s iconic image shows an armed U.S. immigration agent confronting the boy in the Little Havana home where he lived with relatives after being found floating off the Florida coast.

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Why they fight: US and China brawl over high technology

WASHINGTON (AP) — To understand why the United States and China stand on the brink of a trade war, consider the near-death experience of American Superconductor Corp.

The company, known as AMSC and based in Massachusetts, was reeling after a Chinese partner stole its technology — the electronic brains that run wind turbines. The loss was devastating: AMSC’s stock shed $1 billion in value, and the company cut 700 jobs, more than half its workforce.

“Attempted corporate homicide” is what CEO Daniel McGahn called it. In January, its Chinese partner, Sinovel Wind Group, was convicted in a U.S. court of stealing AMSC’s trade secrets.

To the Trump administration, Sinovel’s predatory practices are hardly isolated. Beijing, it charges, is orchestrating a brass-knuckles campaign to supplant U.S. technological dominance and over the next few decades make Chinese companies global leaders in such fields as robotics and electric vehicles.

According to a report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Beijing’s tactics include coercing American companies to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market; forcing U.S. businesses to license technology in China on unfavourable terms; using state funds to buy up American technology; and sometimes outright theft.