Nation and World briefs for September 2

In Alaska wilderness, Obama stares down melting glacier to sound alarm on climate change

SEWARD, Alaska (AP) — President Barack Obama stared down a melting glacier in Alaska on Tuesday in a dramatic use of his presidential pulpit to sound the alarm on climate change.

From a distance, Exit Glacier appears as a river of white and blue flowing down through the mountains toward lower terrain. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The 2-mile-long chock of solid ice has been retreating at a faster and faster pace in recent years – more than 800 feet since 2008, satellite tracking shows.

“This is as good of a signpost for what we’re dealing with on climate change as just about anything,” Obama said, with the iconic glacier at his back.

Obama trekked up to the glacier with photographers in tow in a carefully choreographed excursion aimed at calling attention to the ways human activity is degrading cherished natural wonders. The visit to Kenai Fjords National Park, where the glacier is located, formed the apex of Obama’s three-day tour of Alaska, his most concerted campaign yet on climate change.

The president, dressed for the elements in a rugged coat and sunglasses, observed how signposts along the hike recorded where the glacier once stood and now only dry land remains.

US, global stocks fall sharply on more signs of weakness in China’s economy

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks plunged again Tuesday, continuing a rocky ride for Wall Street, after an economic report out of China rekindled fears that the world’s second-largest economy is slowing more than previously anticipated.

The sell-off adds to what has been a difficult few weeks for U.S. and international markets. U.S. stocks just closed out their worst month in more than three years. Tuesday’s drop also dashed hopes that, after some relatively calm trading Friday and Monday, the stock market’s wild swings were coming to an end.

“This market remains fragile,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. “There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the U.S. economy, but we are going through this correction process. We’ve got a rocky road ahead of us.”

Stocks started the day sharply lower and never recovered, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling as much as 548 points. No part of the market was spared. All 10 sectors of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell more than 2 percent. Just three stocks in the S&P 500 closed higher.

“Monday’s relatively peaceful markets are a distant memory as Chinese data and shares sparked another severe … reaction from the developed world,” said John Briggs, head of fixed income strategy at RBS.

Pope: Some women feel they had no other option in having abortion; stresses merciful approach

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is applying his vision of a merciful church to women who have had abortions, easing their path toward forgiveness and saying he realizes some felt they had no choice but to make “this agonizing and painful decision.”

In a letter published Tuesday by the Holy See, Francis said he was allowing all rank-and-file priests to grant absolution during the Holy Year of Mercy he has proclaimed, which runs Dec. 8, 2015 until Nov. 20, 2016.

The Roman Catholic Church views abortion as such a grave sin that it put the matter of granting forgiveness for an abortion in the hands of a bishop, who could either hear the woman’s confession himself or delegate that to a priest who is expert in such situations.

Now, Francis is making it possible for women to bypass this formalized process in the approaching special Year of Mercy while putting the stress on “contrite” hearts.

In a statement after the pope’s letter, the Vatican made clear that “forgiveness of the sin of abortion does not condone abortion nor minimize its grave effects. The newness is clearly Pope Francis’ pastoral approach.”

Hungary blocks migrants from trains in test for passport-free EU; smugglers wait in wings

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary stunned migrants and European partners Tuesday by blocking asylum-seekers from its westbound trains, a move that raised new challenges for the EU’s passport-free travel zone and could drive many into the reckless hands of cross-border smugglers.

Hungary’s right-wing nationalist government defended its U-turn — just days after it started permitting migrants on the trains without any coherent immigration controls at all — as necessary to send a get-tough signal. Cabinet ministers told lawmakers that the nation, struggling to cope with more than 150,000 arrivals this year, was determined to seal its borders to unwelcome travelers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Human rights activists criticized the action as futile and reckless, given that eastern European gangs have mobilized fleets of vehicles for illegally transporting migrants to Austria, Germany and elsewhere — but at steep prices and in often dangerous conditions. They warned that blocking public transportation would increase risks of a repeat of last week’s tragedy when the bodies of 71 people, apparently suffocated, were found in the back of an abandoned truck near Vienna, Austria.

“There is no logic behind what Hungary is doing: Yesterday they let migrants use the trains, and today they do not,” Gabor Gyulai, refugee program coordinator for a Budapest-based rights group called the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told The Associated Press. “By not allowing them to move onward into Europe in a regular manner by buying a ticket, it’s a certainty that this new policy will push them into the hands of smugglers. It is a terrible outcome.”

Confusion reigned at Budapest’s central Keleti train station as migrants arrived with tickets in hand, often costing 200 euros ($225) each or more, intending to take the morning service to Vienna and the southern German city of Munich. Barring their way were lines of maroon-capped Hungarian police, some of them in body armor.

Clinton, aides stressed need to protect sensitive State Department information in email

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides at the State Department were acutely aware of — and occasionally frustrated by — the need to protect sensitive information when discussing international affairs over email and other correspondence.

One example came in a February 2010 message, when an aide noted a draft of innocuous remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was on the State Department’s classified messaging system. Clinton replied: “It’s a public statement! Just email it.”

Sent a moment later, the statement merely said that U.S. and British officials would work together to promote peace. “Well that is certainly worthy of being top secret,” Clinton responded sarcastically.

The message was among roughly 7,121 pages of emails the State Department released Monday as part of a monthly court-ordered release, including 125 emails censored before their release because they contain information now deemed classified. The vast majority concerned mundane matters of daily life at any workplace: phone messages, relays of schedules and forwards of news articles.

In total, the State Department has now released 13,269 pages of Clinton’s emails, more than 25 percent of the total that she turned over from her private server, said State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner. Clinton provided the department some 30,000 emails she categorized as work-related late last year, while deleting a similar amount from her server because she said they were personal.

Man sentenced to life without parole for marijuana charge is freed in Missouri after 20 years

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man sentenced to life without parole on a marijuana-related charge was freed Tuesday from a Missouri prison after being behind bars for more than two decades — a period in which the nation’s attitudes toward pot steadily softened.

Family, friends, supporters and reporters flocked to meet Jeff Mizanskey as he stepped out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center into a sunny morning, wearing a new pair of white tennis shoes and a shirt that read “I’m Jeff & I’m free.”

“I spent a third of my life in prison,” said Mizanskey, now 62, who was greeted by his infant great-granddaughter. “It’s a shame.”

After a breakfast of steak and eggs with family, Mizanskey said, he planned to spend his post-prison life seeking a job and advocating for the legalization of marijuana. He criticized sentencing for some drug-related crimes as unfair and described his time behind bars as “hell.”

His release followed years of lobbying by relatives, lawmakers and others who argued that the sentence was too stiff and that marijuana should not be forbidden.

‘Cadillac tax,’ effective in 2018, seen as broad, complex and likely to snag middle class

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last major piece of President Barack Obama’s health care law could raise costs for thrifty consumers as well as large corporations and union members when it takes effect in 2018.

The so-called Cadillac tax was meant to discourage extravagant coverage. Critics say it’s a tax on essentials, not luxuries. It’s getting attention now because employers plan ahead for major costs like health care.

With time, an increasing number of companies will be exposed to the tax, according to a recent study. The risk is that middle-class workers could see their job-based benefits diminished.

First to go might be the “flexible spending accounts” offered by many companies. The accounts allow employees to set aside money tax-free for annual insurance deductibles and out-of-pocket health costs. That money comes out of employees’ paychecks, and they’re not able to use it for other expenses. Savvy consumers see it as a way to stretch their health care dollars.

The catch is that under the law those employee contributions count toward the thresholds for triggering the tax.