AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST
Trump launches final battleground pitch; Biden focuses on PA
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump is mounting one final test of whether the massive crowds that often show up at his signature rallies will translate into votes as he finishes the final 48 hours of his reelection campaign with a dizzying onslaught of events in the battleground states that could decide the race.
The president will hold five rallies in five states on Sunday alone. He'll hold seven more on Monday to close out the final full day of the campaign.
Down in the polls and at a cash disadvantage to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, Trump is turning to rallies to help keep his message in front of voters. But it's unclear whether they will broaden his appeal beyond those already likely to vote for him. And the packed — often unmasked — crowds risk deepening the pandemic at a time when coronavirus cases are surging across the U.S.
But Trump, still relishing his late-stage upset in the 2016 campaign, sees his showmanship as a central element of his outsider appeal that he hopes will resonate again this year.
“Let me ask you, is there a better place to be anytime, anywhere than a Trump rally?” Trump asked a massive crowd Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, that responded in roaring approval.
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Zambia's risk of default highlights Africa's debt crisis
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Facing financial difficulties aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, the southern African nation of Zambia appears headed for a default on debt owed to private investors.
One of the world's top copper producers, Zambia for years has been heavily indebted but now could get an undesired reputation for financial unreliability if a group of investors who hold $3 billion of the country's eurobonds insist on payments that have come due. Zambia seeks a holiday of six months, but the bondholders' final decision is pending.
The cash-strapped country is a strong example of the debt distress for other governments in Africa even as they try to focus limited resources on urgent problems such as healthcare and education. How Zambia fares will be watched by other nations that owe large amounts not just to private bondholders but also to commercial banks and state lenders such as China.
A debt moratorium granted by G20 countries in response to the pandemic that freed up to $20 billion for low-income nations ends in late December, and African governments seek an extension to free up further resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and help battered economies.
A default on private debt is damaging in the eyes of investors, and credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Zambia to almost junk status after the government sought to delay interest payments to bondholders in September.
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Super typhoon batters Philippines; 1 million in shelters
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A super typhoon slammed into the eastern Philippines with ferocious winds early Sunday, knocking down power in several towns and prompting the evacuation of about a million people in its likely path, including in the capital, Manila, where the main airport was shut down.
Typhoon Goni hit the island province of Catanduanes at dawn with sustained winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour and gusts of 280 kph (174 mph). It was blowing west toward densely populated regions, including Manila, and rain-soaked provinces still recovering from a typhoon that hit a week ago and left at least 22 dead.
There were initial reports of deaths, including a man who was reportedly pinned by a fallen tree in Albay province, but authorities said they were still verifying the details.
About two hours after it blew ashore, the typhoon battered Albay with a slightly weaker sustained winds but more powerful gusts of 310 kph (193 mph), forecasters said.
Diane Joco scrambled with her husband, parents, siblings and cousin out of their flimsy houses on stilts on the shores of Calauag town in Quezon province when the wind began to batter their wooden homes. Goni was forecast to hit parts of Quezon Sunday afternoon.
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Sean Connery, a lion of cinema whose roar went beyond Bond
Writing an appreciation of Sean Connery feels inevitably inadequate compared to experiencing the real thing. To glimpse his magnetism, you might turn to a photograph of him in a tailored suit, leaning against an Aston Martin. You’d probably get more of his menacing charisma by pulling up the “Chicago way” scene from “The Untouchables.”
It might be enough simply to say: The king is dead.
As a lion of movies for half a century, Connery’s talent was manifest. He was famously cast as James Bond without a screen test. It was that obvious. And from then on, in even the lesser films, Connery, who died Saturday at 90, was never out of place on screen. His presence was absolute. Noting his supreme confidence, the late film critic Pauline Kael once wrote, “I don’t know any man since Cary Grant that men have wanted to be so much.”
As a more earthy, macho movie-star ideal, Connery was so beloved that he was shared, like folklore, between generations. It helped that he never seemed to be appealing to the audience, or to anybody, for anything. With raised eyebrows and roguish wisecracks, there was little that Connery (nearly always the lead) didn’t command. And to a certain extent, that cocksureness shaped his career, too.
Connery, 32 when “Dr. No” came out,” had already lived through World War II. Born into poverty in Edinburgh, he left school at age 13 during the war and worked as a laborer and a bricklayer before he donned the tuxedo. He saw Bond, too, as a product of the war.
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When death seems everywhere: some coping suggestions
The coronavirus is the first widespread health crisis in the age of information and social media. So far, more than 225,000 people have died in the United States from the coronavirus or complications from it, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
According to one anthropologist, Americans already lack a healthy relationship with death, associating it with medical failure rather than a natural part of life. Here are some examples from a variety of different perspectives of how to take care of yourself and not get too stressed out during a stressful and sometimes tragic time.
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THE PSYCHIATRIST:
Dr. Joan Anzia is a psychiatrist and professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She recommends taking care of yourself physically — getting at least seven or eight hours of a sleep a night, going to bed and getting up around the same time every day.
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70-year-old pulled out alive in Turkey as quake toll hits 57
IZMIR, Turkey (AP) — Rescue workers extricated a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey on Sunday, some 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing at least 57 people and injuring more than 900.
It was the latest series of remarkable rescues after the Friday afternoon earthquake, which was centered in the Aegean northeast of the Greek island of Samos. Search-and-rescue teams were working in nine toppled or damaged buildings in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city, but appeared to be finding more bodies Sunday than survivors.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca raised the death toll Sunday in Izmir to 55. Two teenagers were killed Friday on Samos and at least 19 others were injured.
There was some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey rated it 7.0, while the Istanbul's Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said it measured 6.6.
Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled out of the rubble in the middle of the night and was hospitalized. Koca tweeted that Citim said: “I never lost hope.” The minister visited the survivor and said he was doing well.
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French manhunt underway after shooting of Greek priest
LYON, France (AP) — French police interrogated one suspect and searched for others Sunday after a Greek Orthodox priest was shot and critically wounded while closing the door to his church in the French city of Lyon.
Investigators are trying to determine whether a man arrested Saturday night was the gunman behind the attack, or has information about it, according to a police official. The priest remains in critical condition after being shot with a hunting rifle, said the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy.
The motive for Saturday’s shooting remains unclear. Anti-terrorism prosecutors are not investigating the case, and the Lyon prosecutor opened an attempted murder investigation.
The attack came as France is under high security alert after the killing of three people at a Nice church on Thursday, amid global tensions over cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad published in a French newspaper. The French prime minister has promised more protection for religious sites.
It also came amid tensions within the Greek Orthodox community in Lyon. The priest, a Greek citizen, had had a long-running legal dispute with a former monk who was convicted of defamation, according to French media reports.
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Obama criticizes Trump in scathing, personal terms
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Barack Obama is hitting President Donald Trump right where he thinks it’ll hurt most: His ego.
Campaigning for Joe Biden on Saturday, the former president painted Trump as insecure and self-absorbed, describing him as a failed president who cares more about himself than the country.
“Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe,” Obama said in Flint, Michigan.
In a scathing speech, Obama mocked and belittled Trump for everything from the president’s criticism of the media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic — Trump, he said, was “jealous of COVID’s media coverage” — to his “obsession with crowd size.”
“He’s still worried about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that. Does he have nothing better to worry about?” Obama said. “Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid? Was he traumatized?”
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Exorcism: Increasingly frequent, including after US protests
In popular culture, exorcism often serves as a plot device in chilling films about demonic possession. This month, two Roman Catholic archbishops showed a different face of exorcism – performing the rite at well-attended outdoor ceremonies to drive out any evil spirits lingering after acrimonious protests.
The events' distinctive character gave a hint of how exorcism — with roots in ancient times — has evolved in some ways as it becomes more commonplace in many parts of the world.
In Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Alexander Sample led a procession of more than 200 people to a city park on Oct. 17, offered a prayer, then conducted a Latin exorcism rite intended to purge the community of evil. The event followed more than four months of racial justice protests in Portland, mostly peaceful but sometimes fueling violence and riots.
On the same day, 600 miles to the south, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone performed an exorcism ceremony outside a Catholic church in San Rafael, where protesters had earlier toppled a statue of Father Junipero Serra.
“We pray that God might purify this place of evil spirits, that he might purify the hearts of those who perpetrated this blasphemy,” Cordileone said.
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After year of disruption, America set to choose a path ahead
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a year of deep disruption, America is poised for a presidential election that renders a verdict on the nation's role in the world and the direction of its economy, on its willingness to contain an escalating pandemic and its ability to confront systemic racial inequity.
But the two men on the ballot, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, offer more than just differing solutions for the country's most pressing problems. The choice before voters is a referendum on the role of the presidency itself and a test of the sturdiness of democracy, with the president challenging the legitimacy of the outcome even before Election Day and law enforcement agencies braced for the possibility of civil unrest.
“There’s more than just your standard ideological difference between the two candidates. There’s a fundamentally different view of what the presidency is and what leadership means for the nation,” said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.
Voters appear to recognize the moment: More than 91 million people have already cast ballots, shattering records for early voting.
A Trump victory would deepen the anti-establishment, inward-facing approach to the nation’s challenges that he has ushered in over the past four years — an approach enthusiastically embraced by the president’s supporters and loathed by his critics. The courts, which have been stacked with a generation of conservative jurists during Trump’s tenure, would veer further to the right.