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

Trump directed Ukraine quid pro quo, key witness says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ambassador Gordon Sondland declared to impeachment investigators Wednesday that President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani explicitly sought a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine, leveraging an Oval Office visit for political investigations of Democrats. But he also came to believe the trade involved much more.

Besides the U.S. offer of a coveted meeting at the White House, Sondland testified it was his understanding the president was holding up nearly $400 million in military aid, which Ukraine badly needed with an aggressive Russia on its border, in exchange for the country’s announcement of the investigations.

Sondland conceded that Trump never told him directly the security assistance was blocked for the probes, a gap in his account that Republicans and the White House seized on as evidence the president did nothing wrong. But the ambassador said his dealings with Giuliani, as well as administration officials, left him with the clear understanding of what was at stake.

“Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’” Sondland asked. “With regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

The rest, he said, was obvious: “Two plus two equals four.”

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Impeachment hearings takeaways: `Everyone was in the loop’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gordon Sondland, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, bolstered Democrats’ impeachment narrative Wednesday as he repeatedly talked of a “quid pro quo” involving Ukraine.

He said “everyone was in the loop” about President Donald Trump’s push for Ukraine to announce investigations into a Ukraine gas company and the 2016 U.S. election.

Sondland was one of the most anticipated witnesses as Democrats are holding an rigorous week of hearings into whether Trump’s dealings with Ukraine are grounds for impeachment.

Sondland told lawmakers that he worked with Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine at Trump’s direction and that he eventually came to believe that military aid for the country was dependent on Ukraine launching the investigations.

Separately, in a second evening hearing, a Defence official provided new details about when Ukrainians learned that the aid was being held up — a key question in determining whether the aid and investigations were linked.

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Democrats revive ‘Medicare for All’ fight at Atlanta debate

ATLANTA (AP) — The top Democratic presidential candidates spent large chunks of prime-time television clashing over “Medicare for All” — again.

Like a string of previous debates, Wednesday’s prominently featured squabbles over a program that could alienate general-election swing voters who may be wary of fully government-run, universal health care and that will be extraordinarily difficult to get through Congress — even if Democrats take the White House and make significant 2020 congressional gains.

The latest faceoff, in Atlanta, came against the backdrop of impeachment consuming Washington, President Donald Trump making major foreign policy moves and well-known Democrats having left — or recently joined — the race. But the White House hopefuls just couldn’t stop debating Medicare for All, in part because it represents an important ideological divide between progressive candidates and moderates but also because the party sees health care as a winning issue — especially after it helped Democrats win the House last year.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the race’s strongest progressive voices, staunchly defended Medicare for All.

“The American people understand that the current health care system is not only cruel, it is dysfunctional,” Sanders said.

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AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s dubious claim about Sondland

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sought to defend against accusations that he pushed Ukraine’s president for a political “favour” by making a dubious claim that he had little involvement with the U.S. ambassador who testified in House impeachment hearings.

Trump distanced himself Wednesday from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who had direct conversations with the president and other top Trump advisers about U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

Some of the remarks on Day 4 of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry by the House intelligence committee and the White House response to it:

TRUMP: “I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. He seems like a nice guy, though. But I don’t know him well.” — remarks to reporters.

PAM BONDI, White House adviser: “The president doesn’t know him very well.” — remarks to reporters.

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Phoney `fact check’ account on Twitter raises new concerns

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The deception was easy to pull off and came with barely any consequences.

Britain’s Conservative Party changed the name of its press office’s Twitter account to “factcheckUK” during a televised election debate between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn this week.

The renaming made the account look like a neutral fact-checker, raising new concerns about all the creative ways groups and individuals can use social media to deceive voters.

The party hardly even got a slap on the wrist, as Twitter pledged to take “decisive corrective action” only if the Conservatives try to mislead people again.

The incident occurred after years of promises, new rules and millions of dollars spent by social media companies to prevent election interference following Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

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Pope Francis calls for action to safeguard women, children

BANGKOK (AP) — Pope Francis called for migrants to be welcomed and for women and children to be protected from exploitation, abuse and enslavement as he began a busy two days of activities in Thailand on Thursday.

Francis pleaded for action against one of the region’s greatest scourges, human trafficking to fuel the forced labour and sex trade industries, as he began a weeklong visit to Asia.

He praised the Thai government’s efforts to fight human trafficking in a speech delivered at host Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s Government House offices. But he appealed for greater international commitment to protect women and children “who are violated and exposed to every form of exploitation, enslavement, violence and abuse.”

He called for ways to “uproot this evil and to provide ways to restore their dignity.”

“The future of our peoples is linked in large measure to the way we will ensure a dignified future to our children,” he said.

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UAW president steps down as GM sues rival over union bribery

DETROIT (AP) — United Auto Workers President Gary Jones abruptly resigned Wednesday, capping a tumultuous day that saw union leaders move to oust him, and General Motors accusing rival Fiat Chrysler in a lawsuit of bribing union officials to get more favourable contract terms from the UAW.

Jones has notified the union that he would retire, his attorney, Bruce Maffeo of New York, said in an email.

The news of Jones’ resignation came shortly after the UAW’s International Executive Board filed paperwork to expel him and Regional Director Vance Pearson from the union over allegations raised by a federal investigation into union corruption that has resulted in multiple arrests starting in 2017. The move to oust the two leaders would have brought union trials for both.

Pearson is facing criminal charges while Jones has not been charged but federal agents raided his suburban Detroit home in August.

In the email, Maffeo said Jones decided to step down before learning of the move to oust him.

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US schools try to diversify mainly white teaching ranks

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — It wasn’t until she became a high school senior that Kayla Ireland had another black person as a teacher in Waterbury, a former manufacturing hub where the students are mostly minorities and the educators are generally white.

The imbalance never troubled her much, except for some moments, like when a white teacher led a discussion of police brutality and racial profiling. But the absence of black teachers has been a frequent topic of discussion among Kayla’s classmates at Wilby High School, which has struggled with high numbers of disciplinary issues, including a mass suspension over dress-code violations.

“Sometimes people go through bad days. But because you don’t have that person that looks like you, a person that you can talk to that can relate to it, you don’t really know how to explain it,” said Kayla, 16. “So it feels good to have a teacher that you can go to, and you feel comfortable with, because you’re not going to be deemed the girl in class who doesn’t know anything.”

More than half of the students in American public schools are minorities, but the teaching force is still 80% white, according to statistics from the U.S. Education Department. As mounting research highlights the benefits minority teachers can bestow on students, the gap has received renewed attention, including from Democratic presidential candidates who have endorsed strategies to promote teacher diversity.

Sen. Kamala Harris, who spoke at a September debate about the importance of black teachers for black students, has proposed spending $2.5 billion for teacher-preparation programs at historically black colleges and universities. Other leading Democrats have also called for investment in those schools, as well as mentorship programs, assistance for teacher aides and new requirements to promote transparency around teacher hiring.

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Amid turmoil, Prince Andrew to step back from royal duties

LONDON (AP) — Following days of turmoil that have damaged the British royal family’s reputation, Prince Andrew announced Wednesday that he will step back from public duties “for the foreseeable future” because of his association with a notorious American sex offender.

The second son of Queen Elizabeth II said in a statement that his ties to Jeffrey Epstein had become a “major disruption” to the royal family’s charitable work. It was unclear whether the change was a temporary or permanent shift in his role.

Andrew said he had obtained the queen’s permission to step away. He also said he was willing to help any law enforcement agency with an investigation.

The scandal has rocked the royal family, particularly since a television interview on Saturday failed to ease the many questions about Andrew’s links to Epstein.

For a senior royal to step away from his duties is extremely unusual and reflects the degree to which charities and educational institutions had questioned their associations with him in recent days.

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Blackouts hit Northern California again during fire danger

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric turned off electricity Wednesday for about 120,000 people in Northern California to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires during a new bout of windy, warm weather.

However, favourable weather allowed the nation’s largest utility to drastically reduce the number of customers it originally had planned to black out — about 375,000 — and even to begin restoring electricity in some areas.

Higher-than-expected humidity, cloud cover and even some rain showers in the Sierra Nevada helped reduce the risk, said Scott Strenfel, PG&E’s principal meteorologist.

“All of these factors kind of broke in all of our favour,” he said.

Virtually all those who lost power were expected to get it back Thursday once a weather all-clear is declared and ground crews and helicopters check power lines to make sure any damage is repaired, officials said.