AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Alarm over new virus outbreaks as India cases pass 1 million
MITO, Japan (AP) — New coronavirus outbreaks, even in places as far flung as China’s western Xinjiang region, are prompting worldwide moves to guard against the pandemic, as the number of confirmed cases globally approaches 14 million.
India on Friday said it had surpassed 1 million cases, third only to the United States and Brazil, with more than 25,000 deaths. That followed Brazil's announcement Thursday evening that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases and 76,000 deaths — 1,000 fatalities a day, on average, since late May on a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.
India's grim milestone drove home concerns over the country's readiness to deal with an inevitable surge that could overwhelm hospitals and test the country’s feeble health care system.
In the technology hub of Bangalore, the government ordered a weeklong lockdown that began Tuesday evening after the cases surged exponentially.
Local governments are frantically trying to quash outbreaks and keep their economies running as the pandemic spreads in the vast countryside.
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Russia is hacking virus vaccine trials, US, UK, Canada say
WASHINGTON (AP) — Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.
The alleged culprit is a familiar foe. Intelligence agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada say the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development. The same group was implicated in the hacking of Democratic email accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
It was unclear whether any useful information was stolen. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.”
He accused Moscow of pursuing “selfish interests with reckless behavior.”
Sticking to more general language, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so."
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Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 set for execution Friday
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A meth kingpin from Iowa who killed five people, including two young girls, is scheduled Friday to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week, following a 17-year pause in federal executions.
Dustin Honken, 52, was sentenced to death for killing government informants and children in his effort to thwart his drug trafficking prosecution in 1993.
Honken is set to die by a lethal injection of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he’s been on death row since 2005. His lawyers are making last-minute pleas for a reprieve, but their chances of success seem remote after the Supreme Court reversed lower-court orders that sought to block the executions of two other men this week.
Daniel Lewis Lee was executed Tuesday morning and Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death two days later, each after hours of legal wrangling that the high court ended with 5-4 votes to allow the executions to take place.
Lee was convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. He maintained his innocence to the end, saying just before he died, "I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer. You’re killing an innocent man.”
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Days grow long at nursing homes as virus lockdowns drag on
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) — In the activity room, where birthdays were celebrated and Sunday services were held, the aquarium and its brightly colored tropical fish are the only signs of life.
Off quiet hallways, Southern Pines residents pass the time with word-search books or a nap. Meals once were a social time enjoyed at tables of neighbors; now most are delivered bedside. Visitors are resigned to muffled conversations through windowpanes, and the only tickets out may be a trip to dialysis or an ambulance ride to the hospital — or something worse.
Life has frozen at this nursing home, walled off for four months by a virus that’s zeroed in on the old. And with the pandemic raging outside, there’s no telling when the thaw might come.
“It’s really not normal,” says Christen Washington, a nurse who handles social services and admissions at Southern Pines. “I don’t know what that is anymore.”
Like facilities nationwide, Southern Pines followed the federal government’s March 13 guidance to halt all visits, a move that spurred some backlash but seemed prescient as the news exploded of deadly outbreaks elsewhere. The home went six weeks with no infections at all.
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Georgia gov sues to end cities' defiance on mask rules
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is suing Atlanta's mayor and city council to block the city from enforcing its mandate to wear a mask in public and other rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, in a suit filed in state court late Thursday in Atlanta, argue that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has overstepped her authority and must obey Kemp's executive orders under state law.
“Governor Kemp must be allowed, as the chief executive of this state, to manage the public health emergency without Mayor Bottoms issuing void and unenforceable orders which only serve to confuse the public,” the lawsuit states.
Kemp on Wednesday clarified his executive orders to expressly block Atlanta and at least 14 other local governments across the state from requiring people to wear face coverings.
Kemp’s order was met with defiance Thursday by Bottoms and some other mayors, who said they would continue enforcing the order. The lawsuit forces that showdown, resolving an ambiguous situation with Kemp denying local governments could order masks, but local governments arguing it was within their power.
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Far apart: EU holds masked budget summit in pandemic times
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders acknowledged Friday they are about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and virus recovery fund as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons at their summit center.
“The differences are still very, very big and so I can’t predict whether we will achieve a result this time,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrived at the Europa summit site. “So I expect very, very difficult negotiations.”
The challenges facing the 27 EU leaders — some of whom arrived masked, some unmasked — are formidable. The bloc is suffering through the worst recession in its history and member states are fighting over who should pay the most to help other countries and which nations should get the most to turn around their battered economies.
As the summit got underway all leaders were wearing masks. The usual hugs, handshakes and kisses were replaced by friendly nods and elbow bumps. The jovial atmosphere was not expected to last long at what will likely be one of the most brutal and bruising summits of recent times. What is slated as a two-day meeting could go even longer, if necessary, to bridge the differences between leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron led the early negotiations, arriving Thursday and using the the pre-summit hours to meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a stringent budget hardliner and considered one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a deal at the two-day meeting.
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1 quest for justice helps fuel Black rights fight in France
IVRY-SUR-SEINE, France (AP) — Assa Traoré has been fighting for justice ever since her brother Adama died in the custody of French police on his 24th birthday four years ago. And she’s determined to keep fighting until “the end,” she says: until someone is convicted for his death.
But recently, her goal has grown larger. She’s now at the forefront of a new movement for Black rights, to wipe out systemic racism in policing and to challenge France’s official vision of itself as a colorblind society.
“We became soldiers in spite of ourselves,” Assa Traoré, whose family is of Malian origin, told The Associated Press this week. "There’s a movement today. We call it the Adama generation, these people who are not afraid anymore, and these youth who will not shut up.”
The 35-year-old, who gave up her job as a special education teacher in a small Paris suburb to lead a movement demanding justice for her brother, has renewed purpose since George Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police.
“George Floyd is our brother here in France, too,” Traoré said in an interview ahead of a demonstration Saturday marking the anniversary of Adama’s death — her speech determined, her energy palpable. “When you see George Floyd’s death, you imagine the death of my brother Adama Traoré.”
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Israel supporter's dramatic shift shocks establishment
JERUSALEM (AP) — An influential American commentator has sent shock waves through the Jewish establishment and Washington policy-making circles by breaking a long-standing taboo: He has endorsed the idea of a democratic entity of Jews and Palestinians living with equal rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, arguing that a two-state solution — Israel and Palestine — is no longer possible.
In making his case, Peter Beinart challenged a core tenet of Western foreign policy and of discourse among many Jews around the world of needing to ensure the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
Beinart took aim at decades of failed efforts by U.S. and European diplomats, as well as Israeli leaders who he believes have undermined the idea that establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel is the best way to peace.
“There’s a category of people in the U.S., Jewish and non-Jewish, who had been like me committed to the two-state solution for a long time and have been quietly losing faith in it but didn’t necessarily see an alternative,” Beinart said in an interview, after publishing a July 8 op-ed in The New York Times and a longer piece in the magazine Jewish Currents, where he is an editor at large.
The logic behind the two-state solution is straightforward. If Israel continues to control millions of Palestinians who do not have the right to vote, Israel will have to make a difficult choice: maintain the status quo and stop being a democracy, or grant the Palestinians the right to vote and lose its Jewish majority. An independent Palestinian state is widely seen as meeting both sides’ aspirations.
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AP PHOTOS: India fights virus as cases cross 1 million
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — From high up in the Himalayan valley of Kashmir to the seemingly endless sprawl of beaches in Kanyakumari, the virus despair has stretched across the large swathes of India, overwhelming its hospitals and burial grounds.
On Friday, the confirmed cases passed 1 million, still soaring at an alarming pace, as the Indian government looks to confront an inevitable surge that could test the country’s feeble health care system.
But because testing has been limited, official statistics cannot capture the full picture. Yet, the virus has already brought immense grief to Indians.
Nearly 25,000 people have died so far. The already ailing economy has been severely hit. Millions of migrants have been forced to return to the countryside due to job losses and hunger during lockdown, triggering an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
The virus, like elsewhere in the world, has also upended religious ceremonies for the dead, which are largely devoid of rituals that comfort mourners. Freshly dug graves have been filling up quickly for weeks and crematoriums are working extra hours.
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'Yes we exist' - Black fans eye NASCAR's work to diversify
Kevin Johnson became enamored with NASCAR as a kid through clips on “ Wide World of Sports,” decades before billion-dollar broadcast deals when auto racing shared precious air time with barrel jumping and demolition derby.
Raised in the South Bronx, Johnson considered himself “a closet NASCAR fan,” without a friend or family member who truly shared his interest in catching the latest race.
“As you can imagine,” Johnson said, “there just simply weren’t a lot of people receptive to the sport given its history.”
Johnson recalled staying in his Temple University dorm during the massive blizzard that wreaked havoc on the East Coast in 1979 to watch the Daytona 500, broadcast live in its entirety for the first time. His roommate was stuck elsewhere because of the weather, leaving Johnson alone with the TV.
“Nobody knew,” Johnson said, laughing. “As a Black person in an urban area, it wasn’t acceptable. I wasn’t really out there. But that love continued to this day.”