AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Trump lashes Biden, defies pandemic on White House stage
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden as a hapless career politician who will endanger Americans’ safety as he accepted his party’s renomination on the South Lawn of the White House. While the coronavirus kills 1,000 Americans each day, Trump defied his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to speak for more than an hour to a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.
Facing a moment fraught with racial turmoil, economic collapse and a national health emergency, Trump delivered a triumphant, optimistic vision of America’s future Thursday. But he said that brighter horizon could only be secured if he defeated his Democratic foe, who currently has an advantage in most national and battleground state polls.
“We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years," Trump said, referring to the former senator and vice president's career in Washington.
When Trump finished, a massive fireworks display went off by the Washington Monument, complete with explosions that spelled out “Trump 2020.”
His acceptance speech kicked off the final stretch of the campaign, a race now fully joined and, despite the pandemic, soon to begin crisscrossing the country. Trump’s pace of travel will pick up to a near daily pace while Biden, who has largely weathered the pandemic from this Delaware home, announced Thursday that he will soon resume campaign travel.
___
AP Analysis: Trump wields fear in pitch for 4 more years
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he laid out his case for reelection, President Donald Trump deployed a powerful, and familiar, political tactic: fear.
In a tradition-defying convention address delivered from the White House, Trump painted a grim portrait of violence in American cities run by Democrats and populated by voters who largely oppose him. Though his depictions were at odds with the full reality on the ground in those cities, Trump held himself up as the last best hope for keeping lawlessness from reaching suburban communities — the same communities where he needs to stem the tide of voters turning against the Republican Party.
“Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans, or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens,” Trump declared, adding that the “American way of life” is on the line in his race against Democrat Joe Biden.
Fear has long been wielded by politicians, in part because it works. Richard Nixon, who ran on a similar “law and order” message when seeking the presidency in 1968, once said: “People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true.”
Trump embraced that belief during his 2016 campaign, barnstorming the country warning that an influx of immigrants would steal Americans jobs, rape and murder citizens, and change the fabric of American society. When he accepted the Republican nomination that year, he painted a dark portrait of America and vowed that “crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end.”
___
Japan PM Shinzo Abe says he's resigning for health reasons
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Friday he intends to step down because a chronic health problem has resurfaced. He told reporters that it was “gut wrenching” to leave so many of his goals unfinished.
Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about Abe’s health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups. He is now on a new treatment that requires IV injections, he said. While there is some improvement, there is no guarantee that it will cure his condition and so he decided to step down after treatment Monday, he said.
“It is gut wrenching to have to leave my job before accomplishing my goals,” Abe said Friday, mentioning his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea and a territorial dispute with Russia.
He said his health problem was under control until earlier this year but was found to have relapsed in June when he had an annual checkup.
In a country once known for its short-tenured prime ministers, the departure marks the end of an unusual era of stability that saw the Japanese leader strike up strong ties with U.S. President Donald Trump even as Abe's ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China. While he pulled Japan out of recession, the economy has been battered anew by the coronavirus pandemic, and Abe has failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.
___
Weakened but still dangerous, Laura to pose continued threat
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and destruction and mangled buildings along the Gulf Coast, and forecasters warn a turn toward the east may spell new dangers for the Eastern Seaboard over the weekend.
The threat of tornadoes was forecast to redevelop Friday, less than a day after a reported tornado tore through a church and homes in northeastern Arkansas. Trees were reported down and power was out where what was left of the once fearsome Category 4 hurricane packing 150-mph winds spun over the state.
No injuries were immediately reported. Around 45,000 customers were without electricity in Arkansas early Friday.
Laura weakened to a tropical depression late Thursday, but forecasters said the possibility of more tornadoes and up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain was headed for the Tennessee Valley region before the system closed in on the Mid-Atlantic states by Saturday.
One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States, Laura was blamed for six deaths as it barreled across Louisiana and parts of Texas.
___
Thousands expected at March on Washington commemorations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Capping a week of protests and outrage over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, civil rights advocates will highlight the scourge of police and vigilante violence against Black Americans at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Thousands are expected at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” address, a vision of racial equality that remains elusive for millions of Americans.
And they are gathering on the heels of yet another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man — this time, 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Sunday — sparking days of protests and violence that left two dead.
“We’ve got to create a different consciousness and a different climate in our nation,” said Martin Luther King III, a son of the late civil rights icon and co-convener of the march.
“That won’t happen though, unless we are mobilized and galvanized,” King said Thursday.
___
Kenosha shooting strains tie between Black residents, police
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Until the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the bedroom community of Kenosha had been largely untouched by the level of demonstrations that were seen in nearby Milwaukee and Chicago after the death of George Floyd.
Like other places in America, Kenosha's Black residents saw inequality in the way police treated them. But there had been nothing like the shooting that left Blake, who is Black, paralyzed. An officer shot Blake in the back Sunday as the 29-year-old leaned into his SUV, three of his children seated inside.
Now the city of 99,000 residents along Lake Michigan finds itself as the latest flashpoint in a larger discussion about racism and police brutality in the U.S.
“We’ve had some situations where we’ve thought the Police Department hasn’t been treating some minorities fairly. This incident, it’s just changed,” said Anthony L. Davis, president of the Kenosha NAACP branch.
The shooting, captured on cellphone video, led to several nights of protests and unrest, with some people destroying buildings, setting fires and hurling objects at police, who responded at times with tear gas. On Wednesday, a 17-year-old from a nearby Illinois community killed two demonstrators, according to authorities.
___
AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts record; BLM falsely accused
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump claimed accomplishments he didn't earn on the pandemic, energy and veterans at a Republican convention finale that also heard Black Lives Matter baselessly accused of coordinating violent protests across the country.
A look at some of the rhetoric Thursday from Trump and his supporting speakers at Republican National Convention proceedings:
COVID-19
TRUMP: “Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our nation’s children, families, and citizens of all backgrounds.”
THE FACTS: That’s false. Biden has publicly said he would shut down the nation’s economy only if scientists and public health advisers recommended he do so to stem the COVID-19 threat. In other words, he said he would follow the science, not disregard it.
___
AP finds Brazil's plan to protect Amazon has opposite effect
NOVO PROGRESSO, Brazil (AP) — In May, facing urgent international demands for action after a string of massive wildfires in the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro put the army in charge of protecting the rainforest.
Instead, The Associated Press has found, the operation dubbed as “Green Brazil 2” has had the opposite effect. Under military command, Brazil’s once-effective but recently declining investigation and prosecution of rainforest destruction by ranchers, farmers and miners has come to a virtual halt, even as this year’s burning season picks up.
The Brazilian army appears to be focusing on dozens of small road-and-bridge-building projects that allow exports to flow faster to ports and ease access to protected areas, opening the rainforest to further exploitation. In the meantime, there have been no major raids against illegal activity since Bolsonaro required military approval for them in May, according to public officials, reporting from the area and interviews with nine current and former members of Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency.
The AP also found that:
— The number of fines issued for environmental crimes has been cut by almost half since four years ago, especially under Bolsonaro.
___
Virus lockdown brings new misery to long-suffering Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Ahmed Eissa, a father of two living in the Gaza Strip, was already struggling to make ends meet on $7 a day, dealing with frequent electricity cuts and worried that another war might break out.
Then the coronavirus found its way into the impoverished Palestinian territory, just as Israel was tightening its blockade in a standoff with Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, and a strict lockdown has confined everyone to their homes.
Now Eissa doesn't know how he will feed his family.
“I don’t have savings and I don't have a job, so no one would lend me money," he said. "I won't beg from anyone."
The restrictions imposed by Hamas are aimed at averting what many fear would be an even bigger catastrophe: a wide-scale outbreak in a population of 2 million people confined to a territory where the health care system has been devastated by years of war and isolation.
___
Small businesses in college towns struggle without students
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Perry Porikos sat in the street outside one of his five businesses, in a makeshift patio area that didn’t exist before the COVID-19 pandemic sent his best customers — University of Michigan students — back home in mid-March.
The Greek immigrant arrived here more than four decades ago as a 20-year-old soccer player for the Wolverines and part-time dishwasher at The Brown Jug Restaurant, which he now owns. He nonchalantly dropped names of sports stars like Tom Brady and Michael Phelps, two of the many former Michigan students he counts as friends, and recalled hustling enough to own more than 10 businesses at one time.
“Living the dream that people talk about, especially if you live in Europe and you come here,” Porikos said, “I am the dream.”
Lately, though, it has been difficult for Porikos to rest easy. And he’s not alone.
Both the stress and the stakes are high for all the small business owners near Michigan's campus on and around South University Avenue, which winds through the city of about 120,000 residents -- about one-third of them students.