AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
'Deadly stuff': Trump's own words bring focus back to virus
WASHINGTON (AP) — Try as he might to change the subject, President Donald Trump can’t escape the coronavirus.
In April, the president tried to shift the public's focus to the economy. In July, to defending the country's “heritage.” In September, to enforcing “law and order.” But all along the way, the death toll from the coronavirus continued to mount.
And now, Trump’s own words are redirecting attention to his handling of the pandemic when he can least afford it — less than two months before Election Day.
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said of the threat from the virus. That was in a private conversation with journalist Bob Woodward last March that became public on Wednesday with the publication of excerpts from Woodward's upcoming book “Rage."
In taped conversations released along with the excerpts, Trump insisted he didn’t want to create “panic.” But his comments also raised fresh questions about how he has managed the defining crisis of his presidency, one that has killed about 190,000 Americans so far, with no end in sight.
___
California fire that killed 3 threatens thousands of homes
OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California wildfire threatened thousands of homes Thursday after winds whipped it into a monster that incinerated houses in a small mountain community and killed at least three people.
Several other people have been critically burned and hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the North Complex fire northeast of San Francisco, authorities said.
Some 20,000 people were under evacuation orders or warnings in Plumas, Yuba and Butte counties.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the fire — which had been burning for weeks in forestland and was 50% contained — exploded to six times its size as winds gusting to 45 mph drove a path of destruction through mountainous terrain and parched foothills.
The winds subsided Wednesday but the fire was only 24% contained and the danger remained.
___
Fires without precedent rage in usually cool, wet Northwest
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Numerous wildfires burned in Oregon's forested valleys and along the coast, destroying hundreds of homes and causing mass evacuations. Farther north, flames devoured buildings and huge tracts of land in Washington state.
Officials said the number of simultaneous fires and perhaps the damage caused was unprecedented. Several deaths were reported, including a 1-year-old boy in Washington state. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said communities have been “substantially destroyed” and warned there could be numerous fatalities.
Because of its cool, wet climate, the Pacific Northwest rarely experiences such intense fire activity. But climate change driven by human-caused greenhouse gases is expected to keep warming the region, with most models predicting drier summers, according to the College of the Environment at the University of Washington.
Brown said Oregon could see the greatest loss of life and property from wildfires in state history. The small towns of Phoenix and Talent in southern Oregon were heavily damaged. Another fire leveled most of the small farming town of Malden in eastern Washington — burning down the fire station, post office, City Hall and library.
In Washington state, a fire burned more than 480,000 acres of forest, brush and shrubland, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday after a 30-minute tour of the fire area in Sumner, east of Tacoma.
___
Scarcity of key material squeezes medical mask manufacturing
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Rachel Spray is still grieving the loss of her fellow nurse who died after being exposed to the novel coronavirus at Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center. Now, as she stands in front of the gleaming glass and concrete hospital, she says she “dreads going in there” and fears she’ll be next.
That’s because like those in many U.S. hospitals, management is rationing supplies, she says, keeping medical-grade masks under lock and key.
White House officials say U.S. hospitals have all the medical supplies needed to battle the deadly virus, but frontline health care workers, hospital officials and even the Food and Drug Administration say shortages persist. Critical shortfalls of medical N95 respirators — commonly referred to as N95 masks — and other protective gear started in March, when the pandemic hit New York. Pressure on the medical supply chain continues today, and in "many ways things have only gotten worse,” the American Medical Association's president, Dr. Susan Bailey, said in a recent statement.
“N95s are still in a shortage,” said Mike Schiller, the American Hospital Association’s senior director for supply chains. “It’s certainly not anywhere near pre-COVID levels.”
Early in the pandemic the White House failed to heed stark warnings — specifically about N95s — from high-level administration officials. The Associated Press has found the administration took months to sign contracts with companies that make the crucial component inside these masks: meltblown textile. Meltblowing is the manufacturing process that turns plastic into the dense mesh that makes N95 masks effective at blocking vanishingly small particles, including viruses.
___
Asia Today: India has record spike of 95K new virus cases
NEW DELHI (AP) — India reported another record spike of 95,735 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours as the virus spreads beyond its major cities.
According to the Health Ministry, the number of people known to be infected in India reached 4,465,863 on Thursday. It has the second-highest caseload in the world behind the United States, where more than 6.3 million people are known to be infected.
The Health Ministry also reported 1,172 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 75,062. Its death toll is third-highest in the world behind the U.S. and Brazil.
The ministry said the surge in new infections is due to ramping of daily testing that exceeds 1 million now. However, experts caution that India’s outbreak is entering a more dangerous phase as the virus spreads to smaller towns and villages.
The Indian capital saw a record surge of 4,618 new cases in the past 24 hours with 19 deaths. New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai are the worst-hit cities in the country.
___
Little left of Greece's Moria refugee camp after 2nd fire
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Little remained of Greece's notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp Thursday after a second fire overnight destroyed nearly everything that had been spared in the original Tuesday night blaze, leaving thousands more people in need of emergency housing.
Early morning saw former residents of the country’s largest camp, which had been under coronavirus lockdown, return to the area to pick through the charred remains of their belongings, salvaging what they could. Many had spent the night sleeping in the fields, by the side of the road or in a small graveyard.
New, small fires also sprang up in the remains of tents set up outside the camp, fanned by strong winds Thursday morning.
Authorities say the original fire in the camp on the island of Lesbos was deliberately started Tuesday evening by residents angered by quarantine measures imposed to contain a COVID-19 outbreak after 35 people tested positive.
That blaze had left about 3,500 of the more than 12,500 people living in and around Moria homeless, and authorities flew in tents and were providing a ferry and two navy ships as emergency temporary housing.
___
Book: Kim Jong Un told Trump about killing his uncle
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's comments about the threat from the novel coronavirus attracted widespread attention after excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's book “Rage” were released. The excerpts also provide new details about the president's thoughts on North Korea's Kim Jong Un, racial unrest and a mysterious new weapon that Trump claims other world powers don't know about.
Some of the other topics covered in the book, which was based on 18 interviews that Woodward conducted with Trump between December and July and with others (excerpts from the book were reported by The Washington Post, where Woodward is an editor, and CNN):
NORTH KOREA
Woodward wrote that Trump said he was impressed with Kim when he first met the North Korean leader in Singapore in 2018 and that Kim was “far beyond smart.” Trump also said that Kim “tells me everything” and even gave the president a graphic account of how Kim had his own uncle killed.
As he engaged in nuclear arms talks with Kim, Trump dismissed intelligence officials' assessments that North Korea would never give up its nuclear weapons. Trump told Woodward that the CIA has “no idea” how to handle Pyongyang.
___
Official claims pressure to alter Homeland Security intel
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Department of Homeland Security official said in a whistleblower complaint that he was pressured by more senior officials to suppress facts in intelligence reports that President Donald Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian interference in the election and the rising threat posed by white supremacists.
The official, Brian Murphy, alleged that senior DHS officials also pressed him to alter reports so they would reflect administration policy goals and that he was demoted for refusing to go along with the changes and for filing confidential internal complaints about the conduct.
Murphy, a former FBI agent and Marine Corps veteran, was demoted in August from his post as principal deputy under secretary in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. He is seeking to be reinstated in a complaint filed with the DHS Office of Inspector General.
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday released the complaint, which he said contained “grave and disturbing” allegations. He said Murphy has been asked to give a deposition to Congress as part of an investigation into intelligence collection by DHS related to its response to protests in Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere.
“We will get to the bottom of this, expose any and all misconduct or corruption to the American people, and put a stop to the politicization of intelligence," the California Democrat said.
___
In a year of social distancing, virus alters Sept. 11, too
NEW YORK (AP) — In a year when the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped countless American rituals, even the commemoration of 9/11 could not escape unchanged.
The 19th anniversary of the terror attacks will be marked by dueling ceremonies at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza and a corner near the World Trade Center, reflecting a divide over the memorial's decision to suspend a cherished tradition of relatives reading victims' names in person. Vice President Mike Pence is expected at both those remembrances in New York, while President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden plan to attend a truncated ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.
In New York, the double beams of light that evoke the fallen twin towers were nearly canceled in the name of virus safety, until an uproar sparked a change of heart. The Fire Department has cited the virus in urging members to stay away from any observances of the 2001 attacks that killed nearly the 3,000 people, among them almost 350 firefighters.
Some victims' relatives say they understand the ground zero observance had to change in a year when so much else has. Others fear the pandemic is making plain what they have feared was happening unspoken: that the commitment to “Never Forget” is fading.
“It’s another smack in the face," says Jim Riches, who lost his son Jimmy, a firefighter.
___
Chiefs nix headdresses, face paint to start NFL season
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs fans who file into Arrowhead Stadium Thursday for a masked and socially distanced start to the NFL season won't be wearing headdresses or face paint amid a nationwide push for racial justice following the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The move by the reigning Super Bowl champions has pleased Native Americans as a good first step, but frustrated some of the 17,000 fans who will be in the stands as the team becomes the first to take the field in front of a crowd — albeit a smaller than normal one — during the coronavirus pandemic. Enforcing the new restrictions also comes as the team tries to require masks, which has proven challenging at some public practices.
NFL teams with Native American mascots are facing increased scrutiny after the team in Washington chose to drop Redskins as its nickname after a long and often contentious dialogue with fans and the public. The Chiefs also announced last month that the team was discussing the future of its tomahawk chop celebration amid complaints that it’s racist.
Students at nearby Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, are among those who demanded changes.
“Using this mascot and having this fan base of predominantly white people wearing face paint and headdresses and doing the tomahawk chop, and it energizes them and gives them this sense of power, and then thinking there is nothing wrong with doing that is just mind boggling to me," said William Wilkinson, Haskell's former University Student Government Association president.