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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats argued that President Donald Trump sought a phony investigation of a political rival and pursued a discredited conspiracy theory about Ukraine, while restless senators played with a new toy Thursday during Trump's impeachment trial. Democrats said there was no evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden did anything improper in dealings with Ukraine. Republicans outside the chamber challenged Democrats' argument and pledged to find out more about Biden and his son’s dealings in Ukraine. Meanwhile, senators found a new outlet to focus their attention: fidget spinners handed out by North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.
BEIJING (AP) — China has moved to lock down at least three big cities in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds of people and spread to other parts of the world. The open-ended lockdowns are unmatched in size, and their potential for success is uncertain. China's National Health Commission confirmed 830 cases of the new coronavirus with 25 deaths. The first death has also been confirmed outside the central province of Hubei. The health commission in Hebei, a northern province bordering Beijing, said an 80-year-old man died after returning from a stay in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
SYDNEY (AP) — The three American firefighters who were killed when the aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling wildfires in Australia have been identified by their employer. Canada-based Coulson Aviation says the men who died Thursday in the crash of the C-130 Hercules were Capt. Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana; First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona; and Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Florida. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the deaths in the state's Snowy Monaro region, which came as Australia grapples with an unprecedented fire season that has left a large swath of destruction.
BOSTON (AP) — The founder of an Arizona pharmaceutical company has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for his role in a bribery and kickback scheme that prosecutors said helped fuel the opioid crisis. John Kapoor, the 76-year-old former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Boston. Kapoor and others were accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to doctors across the nation to prescribe the company’s highly addictive fentanyl spray, known as Subsys. The case is considered the first that sought to hold an opioid maker criminally liable for the drug crisis, which has claimed nearly 400,000 lives over the last two decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit challenging a federal regulation that could allow blueprints for making guns on 3D printers to be posted on the internet. New York Attorney General Tish James is helping to lead the coalition. She says posting the blueprints would allow anyone to go online and use the downloadable files to create unregistered and untraceable assault-style weapons that could be difficult to detect. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.
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