USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s branding of American Jews who vote for Democrats as “disloyal” to their religion and Israel prompted alarms of anti-Semitism. But his ultimate aim appears to be dividing Democrats, peeling off Jewish support and shoring up his white evangelical Christian base.

Digging in Wednesday despite widespread criticism, Trump repeated his controversial assertion about Jews who support the Democratic Party.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to end an agreement limiting how long migrant children can be kept in detention, the president’s latest effort to curb immigration at the Mexican border.

A court fight is almost certain to follow, challenging the attempt to hold migrant families until asylum cases are decided.

A current settlement overseen by the federal courts now requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting and to release them as quickly as possible, generally after 20 days in detention.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Investigators believe a gunshot that wounded a deputy outside a Los Angeles County sheriff’s station on Wednesday was fired from a nearby building complex that provides housing to people with mental health issues, authorities said.

Deputy Angel Reinosa, 21, was hit while heading to his car in the employee parking lot of the Lancaster station shortly before 3 p.m., Capt. Todd Weber said.

“He is doing great, thankfully,” Weber said. “The wound was minor and he’s been treated and he’s doing well, in high spirits.” No surgery was needed, he added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal budget deficit is expected to balloon to more than $1 trillion in the next fiscal year under the first projections taking into account the big budget deal that President Donald Trump and Congress reached this summer, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday.

The return of $1 trillion annual deficits comes despite Trump’s vow when running for office that he would not just balance the budget but pay down the entire national debt.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The will that Jeffrey Epstein signed just two days before his jailhouse suicide puts more than $577 million in assets into a trust fund that could make it more difficult for his dozens of accusers to collect damages.

Estate lawyers and other experts say prying open the trust and dividing up the financier’s riches is not going to be easy and could take years.

“This is the last act of Epstein’s manipulation of the system, even in death,” said attorney Jennifer Freeman, who represents child sex abuse victims.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who made fighting climate change the central theme of his presidential campaign, announced Wednesday night that he is ending his bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Inslee said that he was confident that Democrats would select a nominee who would champion climate change issues but that it had become clear that he wouldn’t be the person selected. Inslee said he was not endorsing anyone but would support whoever is the nominee.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after considering cutting taxes to promote economic growth, President Donald Trump on Wednesday changed course and said he would abandon the idea because the nation already had “a strong economy.”

21 August 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a foretaste of his convention-wrecking diplomacy at next weekend's G7 by calling for Russia -- expelled from the group of democracies -- to be readmitted.

Coming four days before he arrives at the summit in the French seaside resort of Biarritz, Trump's support for President Vladimir Putin was likely to be only the first diplomatic hand grenade unleashed on what used to be a cozy club of rich, Western allies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military MQ-9 drone was shot down in Yemen’s Dhamar governate, southeast of the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the drone was shot down late on Tuesday.

A Houthi military spokesman had earlier been quoted by group’s Al-Masirah TV as saying that the Houthi movement’s air defenses had brought down a U.S. drone.

21 Aug 2019; MEMO: The UN has postponed a conference on torture that was set to take place in Cairo at the beginning of September after a wave of criticism from human rights activists who have documented the Egyptian government’s extensive use of torture against political opponents.