Mali Releases 180 Jihadists in Likely Prisoner Exchange

By BABA AHMED

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Malian authorities have released 180 Islamic extremists from a prison in the capital and flown them to the country’s north, an official confirmed late Sunday, fueling speculation that a prominent opposition politician held by jihadists could soon be freed after more than six months in captivity.

The militants who abducted Soumaila Cisse back in late March were believed to be seeking a prisoner exchange with the Malian government. Some 70 men were released on Saturday and another 110 on Sunday, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

There was no immediate comment late Sunday from Mali’s transitional government, which was only recently put in place more than a month after the country’s democratically elected president was ousted in a military coup.

Cisse, a 70-year-old who has run for Mali’s presidency three times, was campaigning ahead of legislative elections not far from Timbuktu at the time of his abduction. His bodyguard was killed in the attack, and the only proof of life has been a handwritten letter delivered back in August.

Government efforts to negotiate his release were thrown into upheaval after the coup that forced President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita from power, though it did not appear progress was being made toward Cisse’s release.

Little is known about Cisse’s conditions in captivity after the initial abduction, when the assailants opened fire on his vehicule and he was injured by broken glass from the attack.

Islamic militants are active throughout northern and central Mali, though typically launch attacks on the Malian military and U.N. peacekeepers. A 2013 French-led military operation dispersed the jihadists, who then regrouped and have expanded their reach in the years since.

Many fear that the political upheaval in Mali since the coup will allow them to do so again, a fear underscored by the weekend prisoner release.

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Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

Michigan Governor’s Virus Powers Upended With Court Ruling

By DAVID EGGERT and ED WHITE

October 2, 2020

A group gathers as boxes filled with petition signatures are delivered by Unlock Michigan to the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections in Lansing, Mich., Friday, Oct. 2, 2020. The Michigan group on Friday submitted at least 539,000 signatures in a bid to repeal a law that has given Gov. Gretchen Whitmer broad emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic, demanding that the veto-proof initiative be put before the Republican-led Legislature before the year's end. (Rod Sanford/Detroit News via AP)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A 1945 law repeatedly used by Gov. Gretcher Whitmer to respond to the coronavirus pandemic was declared unconstitutional Friday by the Michigan Supreme Court, a striking decision that puts months of restrictions in jeopardy while COVID-19 continues to flare up around the state.

The opinion is an extraordinary development in a monthslong conflict between Whitmer, a Democrat, and Republicans who control the Legislature and have complained that they have been shut out of sweeping orders that have impacted education, the economy and health care.

Coincidentally, the court’s action emerged on the same day that Whitmer’s foes submitted more than 539,000 signatures in a bid to repeal the ’45 law.

The governor said the 4-3 decision, with Republican-nominated justices in the majority, was “deeply disappointing.” But Whitmer did not signal that she was giving up. She said her emergency declaration and related orders still can remain in place for 21 days, and then many of them will continue “under alternative sources” of law.

Whitmer did not elaborate, but it is likely that her administration will act under public health statutes. The state health department, for instance, previously issued orders mirroring some of the governor’s restrictions.

“Every state and the federal government have some form of declared emergency,” she said. “With this decision, Michigan will become the sole outlier at a time when the Upper Peninsula is experiencing rates of COVID infection not seen in our state since April.”

For nearly seven months, Whitmer has imposed — and sometimes eased — restrictions on Michigan’s economy, K-12 school system, health care and even visits to state parks, all in an attempt to reduce the risk of the highly contagious virus, which has infected 126,000 residents and killed more than 6,700.

Masks are required in enclosed public spaces and in crowded outdoor places. Restaurant capacity is limited to 50%. People must work remotely if they can, and indoor residential gatherings are capped at no more than 10 people.

Republican officials said Whitmer can continue to use a 1976 law, which gives lawmakers a say in any emergency declarations after 28 days.

The Supreme Court said the ’45 public safety law cited by Whitmer granted Michigan governors unchecked authority.

“That act is an unlawful delegation of legislative power to the executive branch in violation of the Michigan Constitution,” Justice Stephen Markman wrote. “Accordingly, the executive orders issued by the governor in response to the COVID-19 pandemic now lack any basis under Michigan law.”

In a dissent, Chief Justice Bridget McCormack said she would have let the law stand, even if it gives a governor sole authority to “exercise the whole of the state’s police power in some emergencies.”

Lawmakers could repeal the law or amend it, and frustrated residents could sue if they do not agree with specific orders, McCormack said.

“The majority needlessly inserts the court into what has become an emotionally charged political dispute,” McCormack wrote, joined by fellow Democratic-nominated justices Richard Bernstein and Megan Cavanagh.

Although the constitutionality of the ’45 law produced a split ruling, the justices unanimously agreed that any orders past April 30 without input from the Legislature were not valid.

The case reached the Supreme Court in an uncommon way. A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit that makes state and federal claims about Whitmer’s powers asked for an opinion on the constitutionality of the Michigan laws.

“Our Constitution matters, and this was a big win for our democratic process,” said Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield of Emmet County.

In a footnote to his opinion, Markman offered an optimistic message.

“Our decision leaves open many avenues for the governor and Legislature to work together to address this challenge and we hope that this will take place,” he said.

Unlock Michigan, which collected petitions for an initiative to rescind the ’45 law, said the law still needs to be repealed. If 340,000 of the conservative group’s signatures are deemed valid, the Legislature could adopt the bill and Whitmer could not veto it.

“A different court, at a different time, could come to a different conclusion,” said Unlock Michigan spokesman Fred Wszolek.

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White reported from Detroit.

One Month Out, Battered Trump Campaign Faces Big Challenges

By JONATHAN LEMIRE and STEVE PEOPLES

President Donald Trump speaks about coronavirus testing strategy, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Washington. Trump’s long-hidden tax returns leaked out. His first debate performance ignited a firestorm over white supremacy. He was hospitalized for COVID-19 after months of playing down the threat of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans. And that was just this week. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s long-hidden tax returns leaked out. His first debate performance ignited a firestorm over white supremacy. He was hospitalized for COVID-19 after months of playing down the threat of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.

And that was just this week.

Trump’s reelection team, battered on all sides, now enters the final month of the campaign grappling with deficits in the polls, a shortage of cash and a candidate who is at least temporarily sidelined.

The crises, many of Trump’s own making, have come so quickly that they are hard to keep straight.

Recordings revealed that he acknowledged minimizing the dangers of the coronavirus earlier this year. A blockbuster story raised questions over whether he privately belittled members of the military. And even the first lady was captured on tape expressing disdain for having to decorate the White House for Christmas.

“Are the political gods simply saying, ‘Your run is over’? That four years of chaos has caught up to you?” asked Michael Steele, former head of the Republican Party. He predicts the president’s coronavirus diagnosis will overwhelm all the other massive storylines.

“We are a caring, forgiving people,” Steele said of the American public. “But while they may show him empathy, they also won’t forget that he didn’t do all the things he needed to protect himself and the American people.”

The president’s team is launching what it calls “Operation MAGA” to propel his campaign forward, even as he was being treated Sunday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Although Trump’s medical team raised the possibility that he could be released as early as Monday, significant questions remained about the president’s health and schedule.

The challenges facing the reelection team are enormous.

Both heads of Trump’s political apparatus — campaign manager Bill Stepien and Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel — tested positive for COVID-19 this week. Also infected: several outside advisers who had been involved in the president’s debate preparations last week, including former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

And that comes just days after Brad Parscale, who was demoted from his campaign manager post over the summer but remained in a senior role, was hospitalized. Police were called to his Florida home after his wife said he had a firearm and was acting suicidal.

Deputy campaign manager Justin Clark is temporarily overseeing the campaign’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Stepien organized a late Saturday staff call to project an optimistic tone, even as he acknowledged the loss of the campaign’s “best asset,” the president.

“We built a team that’s stronger than any one of us singularly,” he said.

With early voting already underway in many states, Trump has consistently trailed Democrat Joe Biden in national polling even as the margins in most battleground states have been closer.

“This race is going to be super close. This is officially October. It’s officially game time,” Stepien said. “These are crazy times. These weeks feel like months with the amount of action and news packed into each week.”

Vice President Mike Pence outlined plans to launch a new effort to ramp up campaign appearances by Trump lieutenants who haven’t been infected. Pence himself will star in the new effort, in addition to Trump’s children. Pence promised that he and the first family would begin fanning out across the country aggressively in person after Wednesday’s vice presidential debate.

“We’ve got a campaign to run,” Pence said. “I promise you, this president, as soon as his doctors say so, he’s going to be back out there.”

But Pence’s “business as usual” approach faced questions.

Although Pence tested negative for the virus on Sunday, COVID-19 can have a lengthy incubation period. Pence attended a Sept. 26 White House event where Trump announced his Supreme Court pick. Several attendees at that event have since tested positive. Pence also has interacted with key aides since then who have also been exposed.

With Trump still not “out of the woods,” in the words of his doctors, Pence plans to travel to Arizona on Thursday, Indiana on Friday and Florida on Saturday for events rather than isolating himself after potential exposure and trying to protect himself from contracting the virus anywhere else.

“We’re in a campaign. We have a month to go,” senior campaign adviser Jason Miller said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris out there campaigning.”

The Trump campaign was already facing a significant cash deficit to Biden, and now the president has been sidelined from in-person fundraising as well as his signature rallies just as the campaign was about to ramp up his travel schedule. Plans for upcoming events in Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada were all scrapped after his diagnosis, and it remained unclear when — or if — the president would be able to resume campaigning.

“He’s losing, and the debate was a disaster, and the campaign is imploding,” said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, a vocal Trump critic.

The president’s hospitalization also underscores what has long been the Trump campaign’s greatest challenge: its inability to shift the national discourse away from the virus. For months, even as the campaign has tried to frame the election as a choice between Trump and Biden, the race has been perceived largely as a referendum on the president’s handling of the pandemic.

And Trump’s tone on the virus has changed little despite his illness. In a video released late Saturday from the hospital, he expressed no contrition for his handling of the virus and still spoke of quickly moving beyond the pandemic.

”He is a struggling incumbent, and this all makes reelection much harder. More importantly, the more the nation is discussing the pandemic, the harder the debate gets for the president,” said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. Still, Zelizer said it would be premature to count Trump out, with a full month to go until Election Day.

“He has three tools still at his disposal — unyielding Republican loyalty, the Electoral College and the power of the presidency,” Zelizer said. “His ability to tie up voting and spread disinformation remains formidable.”

For some Democrats, burned by Trump’s late surge to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Nov. 3 can’t come soon enough.

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville declared: “Let’s go to the polls tomorrow.”

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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.

Delays in Verifying Mail-in ballots Will Slow Election Tally

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020 file photo, An employee of the Philadelphia Commissioners Office examines ballots at a satellite election office at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. Local election clerks can’t start verifying mailed-in ballots in Pennsylvania until Election Day and in Michigan until the day before, which the secretary of state says is not enough time. This means millions of mailed-in ballots in the two key presidential battleground states will not be tallied for days after the election, potentially showing Trump with a tenuous lead there the so-called “red mirage” until all those votes are recorded. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson, File)

Voters awaiting results in some of the key presidential battleground states on election night should be prepared to keep waiting, thanks to obstacles that will slow the count for what is expected to be a crush of mailed-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Many states allow local officials to start processing those ballots weeks before Election Day or even as they arrive. But in some of the most crucial states on the electoral map, rules prevent or give clerks little time to begin sorting ballots and verifying signatures before the election.

That’s priming a scenario in which results may come in days — or even weeks — later.

In an election cycle that has seen President Donald Trump baselessly cast doubt on the legitimacy of mail voting, many fear that any delay in results could give the president more room to continue his attacks.

Democrats are requesting mail-in ballots at higher rates than Republicans in many states, giving rise to the notion that Trump could enjoy election night leads — a so-called “red mirage” — only to see that edge slowly vanish as mail-in ballots are tallied over the days that follow.

Potential problems are looming most acutely in Pennsylvania, which is being hotly contested by Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Republican state lawmakers there have not allowed additional time to process ballots that arrive before Election Day, despite pleas from local election officials.

Pennsylvania is expected to see 3 million or more mail-in ballots — half of this year’s total and a ten-fold increase from 2016. Registered Democrats are applying at a rate of nearly 3 to 1 over Republicans.

“The longer it takes for the election results to be known, the greater the risk that they’re going to be questioned and second-guessed, and that we’re going to be that national news story that we really don’t want to be,” said Lisa Schaefer, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

The seemingly mundane administrative task of processing ballots — verifying signatures and other voter information to ensure legitimacy, and separating them from their envelope so they are ready to be tabulated — essentially readies ballots for counting on Election Day. That helps speed up the release of results.

County officials have pushed Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and state lawmakers to set aside a larger partisan fight and let them process mail-in ballots before Election Day. They argue that doing so will speed up vote counting amid concerns that the presidential election result will hang in limbo over a drawn-out count.

During a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Trump said the only way he will lose the state is if Democrats “steal the election.”

“A lot of people are worried that if it takes a long time to count, people are going to use that to say we can’t trust the results, when in fact it’s the exact opposite,” said Lawrence Norden, director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program. “It’s taking so long because of all these security measures to make sure the count is as accurate as possible.”

In Michigan, another battleground this fall, the Republican-controlled legislature has approved a measure to let clerks begin some ballot processing in cities or townships with at least 25,000 people the day before Election Day. Democrats had asked for at least three days of processing time and for no population-based limits.

“That one day can really make a difference,” said the bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Ruth Johnson, a former secretary of state.

Johnson said allotting additional days would have been difficult because the new law will require volunteer election inspectors from both major political parties to observe the removal of ballots from their outer envelopes.

“You need to make sure that there’s integrity,” she said.

Still, the timing is tight. The day before Election Day already is a busy one for local election officials scrambling to get ready for in-person voters. Sonja Buffa, clerk for Warren, a city of roughly 135,000 people outside Detroit, has sent upwards of 30,000 absentee ballots so far with hundreds more going out every day.

“The day before is the worst day,” Buffa said. “I wish I had three days so we could spread it out and not be so stressed.”

Democrats in Wisconsin, another closely-watched state, sued in federal court to allow for absentee ballots to be tabulated before Election Day. They argued that the law, which had not been an issue before the pandemic when absentee voting was about 6% of all ballots cast, made it difficult for clerks to address problems with the ballots.

But the judge was unmoved, noting in a September ruling that state law already allows for errors made on the outside of absentee ballots to be corrected before Election Day. It is on the outside of the ballot that voters must have a witness signature, address and date, the source of most of the errors seen in absentee ballots.

The judge also said that extending the deadline for counting absentee ballots by six days -- a ruling Republicans vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — sufficiently addresses the concern about not being able to count absentee ballots before Election Day.

Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said “the earlier you start counting and the wider the time frame before you normally do it can introduce some risk into the processes and election integrity.”

In a normal election, when about 5% of Georgia voters cast absentee ballots, scanning and tabulating them on Election Day isn’t a problem, said Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager for the secretary of state’s office.

But with fears about potential coronavirus exposure, nearly 1.2 million people voted absentee in the primary, about 50% of the total turnout. With such a dramatic increase, county election officials would be overwhelmed if they had to wait until Election Day to process ballots, Sterling said.

The state election board implemented a rule before the June primary to allow county election officials to begin processing absentee ballots eight days before Election Day, as long as they aren’t actually tabulated until Nov. 3. Anticipating an even greater flood of absentee ballots this fall, the board extended that to 15 days.

“If we had not done this, the system would have broken down,” Sterling said. “I do genuinely feel bad for those states where there’s a hard law against it.”

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Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis.; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; David Eggert in Lansing, Mich.; and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press produced this coverage with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Trump Declares ‘I Get It,’ Then Briefly Leaves Hospital

By JILL COLVIN, STEVE PEOPLES and ZEKE MILLER

In this image from video, President Donald Trump waves as he drives past supporters gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. Trump was admitted to the hospital after contracting COVID-19. (AP Photo/Carlos Vargas)

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Two days after being hospitalized with COVID-19, President Donald Trump declared, “I get it,” in a message to the nation Sunday before briefly leaving the hospital to salute supporters from his motorcade, a move that again showed his willingness to disregard basic precautions to contain the virus that has killed more than 209,000 Americans.

Hours earlier, Trump’s medical team reported that his blood oxygen level dropped suddenly twice in recent days and that they gave him a steroid typically only recommended for the very sick. The doctors also said his health is improving and that he could be discharged as early as Monday.

“It’s been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID,” Trump said, standing in his hospital room in a video posted on social media. “I learned it by really going to school.”

He added, “I get it, and I understand it.”

Before the video was posted, the infected president cruised by supporters in his sealed SUV, windows rolled up, driven by Secret Service agents in protective gear who were potentially exposed to the disease that has swept through the White House in recent days.

“This is insanity,” tweeted Dr. James P. Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump has been hospitalized since Friday evening.

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die,” the doctor wrote. “For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater.”

Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said the Democratic presidential nominee again tested negative for coronavirus Sunday. The results came five days after Biden spent more than 90 minutes on the debate stage with Trump. Biden had two negative tests on Friday, as well.

Trump’s doctors earlier in the day sidestepped questions about exactly when Trump’s blood oxygen dropped — an episode they neglected to mention in multiple statements the day before — or whether lung scans showed any damage.

It was the second straight day of confusion and obfuscation from a White House already suffering from a credibility crisis. And it raised more doubts about whether the doctors treating the president were sharing accurate, timely information with the American public about the severity of his condition.

Pressed about conflicting information he and the White House released on Saturday, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged that he had tried to present a rosy description of the president’s condition.

“I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, that his course of illness has had. Didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction,” Conley said. “And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.”

Medical experts said Conley’s revelations were hard to square with the doctor’s upbeat assessment and talk of a discharge.

“There’s a little bit of a disconnect,” said Dr. Steven Shapiro, chief medical and scientific officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

At the same time, Trump’s drive-by greeting was reminiscent of the moment in 2016 when he emerged from Trump Tower in the midst of the Access Hollywood tape scandal to greet his supporters on the street below. But this move potentially exposed several people in his security detail to COVID-19.

According to CDC guidelines, “In general, transport and movement of a patient with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection outside of their room should be limited to medically essential purposes.”

Some Secret Service agents have expressed concern about the lackadaisical attitude toward masks and social distancing inside the White House, but there isn’t much they can do, according to agents and officials who spoke to the AP. This close to the election, thousands of agents are engaged on protective duty so they can be subbed out quickly should someone test positive.

Concern over Trump’s impromptu drive capped a day when doctors’ revelations about his oxygen levels and steroid treatment suggested the president is enduring more than a mild case of COVID-19.

Blood oxygen saturation is a key health marker for COVID-19 patients. A normal reading is between 95 and 100. Conley said the president had a “high fever” and a blood oxygen level below 94% on Friday and during “another episode” on Saturday.

He was evasive about the timing of Trump oxygen drops. (“It was over the course of the day, yeah, yesterday morning,” he said) and asked whether Trump’s level had dropped below 90%, into concerning territory. (“We don’t have any recordings here on that.”) But he revealed that Trump was given a dose of the steroid dexamethasone in response.

At the time of the briefing, Trump’s blood oxygen level was 98% — within normal rage, Trump’s medical team said.

Signs of pneumonia or other lung damage could be detected in scans before a patient feels short of breath, but the president’s doctors declined to say what those scans have revealed.

“There’s some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern,” Conley said. He declined to outline those “expected findings.”

Asked about Conley’s lack of transparency, White House aide Alyssa Farah suggested the doctors were speaking as much to the president as to the American public, “when you’re treating a patient, you want to project confidence, you want to lift their spirits and that was the intent.”

Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, pulled his attack ads off the air during Trump’s hospitalization, and on Sunday, he dispatched senior aides to deliver a largely friendly message.

“We are sincerely hoping that the president makes a very quick recovery, and we can see him back out on the campaign trail very soon,” Biden adviser Symone Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

She added, “This is a glaring reminder that the virus is real.”

Trump’s medical team indicated that his hospital stay could end soon.

“Our plan for today is to have him eat and drink, to be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile,” Dr. Brian Garibaldi said. “And if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.”

More than 209,000 Americans have been killed by the virus, by far the highest number of confirmed fatalities in the word. In all, nearly 7.4 million people have been infected in the United States, and few have access to the kind of around-the-clock attention and experimental treatments as Trump.

Trump’s treatment with the steroid dexamethasone is in addition to the single dose he was given Friday of an experimental drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. that supplies antibodies to help the immune system fight the virus. Trump on Friday also began a five-day course of remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug currently used for moderately and severely ill patients. The drugs work in different ways — the antibodies help the immune system rid the body of virus, and remdesivir curbs the virus’ ability to multiply.

Garibaldi, a specialist in pulmonary critical care, said the president was not showing any side effects of the drugs “that we can tell.”

The National Institutes of Health COVID-19 treatment guidelines recommend against using dexamethasone in patients who do not require oxygen. It has only been proven to help in more serious cases. Among the concerns with earlier use is that steroids tamp down certain immune cells, hindering the body’s own ability to fight off infection.

Trump is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk of serious complications.

First lady Melania Trump has remained at the White House as she recovers from her own bout with the virus.

Several White House officials this weekend expressed frustration with the way level of transparency and public disclosure since the president announced his diagnosis early Friday.

They were particularly upset by the whiplash between Conley’s rosy assessment Saturday and Meadows’ more concerned outlook. They privately acknowledge that the administration has little credibility on COVID-19 and that they have unnecessarily squandered what remains of it with the lack of clear, accurate updates on Trump’s condition.

Many in the White House are also shaken and scared — nervous that they have been exposed to the virus and confronting the reality that what seemed like a bubble of safety has become a COVID-19 hot spot. There has been no mass directive sent to staff on how they should respond.

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Peoples reported from New York. Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lauran Neergaard and Jonathan Lemire in Washington, and Bill Barrow in Wilmington, Del., and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

Analysis: Trump Faces Credibility Crisis Over Health Scare

By JULIE PACE

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump steps down from Marine One as he arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after he tested positive for COVID-19. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is in the background. The president’s coronavirus infection, as well as the illnesses of several aides and allies, has imperiled the highest levels of the U.S. government. The White House’s efforts Saturday to project calm backfired in stunning fashion, resulting in a blizzard of confusing and contradictory information about the health and well-being of the commander in chief. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump is facing a credibility crisis as yawning as his health crisis, at a moment when he needs the public’s trust the most.

The president’s coronavirus infection, as well as the illnesses of several aides and allies, has imperiled the highest levels of the U.S. government. The White House’s efforts Saturday to project calm backfired in stunning fashion, resulting in a blizzard of confusing and contradictory information about the health and well-being of the commander in chief. A cleanup effort on Sunday did little to increase confidence, with Trump’s doctor saying he was trying to project an “upbeat attitude” while also revealing new details about the president’s condition that he had not previously disclosed.

It’s a moment months in the making, the collision of Trump’s repeated defiance of his own administration’s guidelines for staying safe during the pandemic and his well-known disregard for facts. The result: deep uncertainty for Americans over whom and what to believe about the health of the nation’s leader at a perilous moment in U.S. history.

“This is bigger than Donald Trump. It’s about the institution of the presidency,” said Robert Gibbs, who served as President Barack Obama’s first White House press secretary.

For any president, credibility in a crisis is paramount — the ability to rally Americans of every political persuasion around a commonly accepted understanding of the situation. For a president on the brink of an election, particularly one held in as tumultuous a year as 2020, it could be the difference between serving one term or two.

Yet Trump has squandered widespread credibility from the very start of his presidency, spending his first full day in office disputing official tallies of the crowd size at his inauguration and asking Americans to disregard photographic evidence showing that he drew fewer people to the National Mall in Washington than his predecessor.

The episode set the tone for the rest of his administration, with Trump creating alternate realities around issues big and small, amplified by the help of friendly media outlets. He frequently touts records and milestones that don’t exist. He spreads baseless rumors about his political opponents, including declaring without evidence that Joe Biden, his Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential campaign, might be on drugs in their debate.

Yet Trump’s credibility has come under even greater scrutiny during the pandemic, the single biggest test of his presidency. He’s repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus in public, despite telling journalist Bob Woodward privately in February that COVID-19 was more deadly than the flu. He’s floated unverified and harmful treatments, including suggesting Americans could inoculate themselves by injecting bleach.

In April, just weeks after the pandemic took hold in the U.S., only 23% of Americans said they had high levels of trust in the information the president was providing the public about the virus, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

As Election Day draws near, Trump has increasingly flouted public health guidelines and many of the scientists advising his administration, eager to make the case to voters that the worst of the pandemic that upended nearly every aspect of American life is behind them.

For weeks, Trump has been traveling across the country holding large rallies and hosting events at the White House without social distancing or requiring guests to wear masks. That includes a crowded ceremony in the Rose Garden last weekend to announce the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Several attendees, including two U.S. senators and first lady Melania Trump, have since announced they have tested positive for coronavirus.

They, and the president himself, are now among the more than 7 million Americans who have been infected. More than 205,000 Americans have died.

It’s not clear how Trump became infected. He announced on Twitter at 1 a.m. Friday that he and Mrs. Trump had tested positive for the virus; the following evening, he was transported via the presidential helicopter to a military hospital just outside of Washington. The only details the White House provided were that the hospitalization was precautionary and that Trump’s symptoms were mild.

On Saturday, the White House tried to fill in the details with a televised briefing by Trump’s physician, who painted a sunny picture of the president’s situation, emphasizing that he was still working, walking on his own and not laboring to breathe. But Dr. Sean Conley notably refused to provide some specific details, including repeatedly sidestepping questions about whether the president had at any point required oxygen.

Shortly after, and off camera, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gave journalists a more troubling depiction. After describing Trump’s symptoms as “mild” the previous day, Meadows now said the president’s situation had been “very concerning.” Though his health was improving, Meadows said the next 48 hours would be critical.

On Sunday, Conley conceded that he had been trying to be “upbeat” in his assessments. But his second briefing revealed how much he had withheld: the fact that the president had required supplemental oxygen on Friday morning and that the president was given steroids because of a second drop in oxygen levels on Saturday. Conley said Sunday that he didn’t know whether Trump required supplemental oxygen on Saturday and that he would have to ask the nurses. He also sidestepped questions about the results of Trump’s lung scans.

Still, Conley said the president could be discharged from Walter Reed as soon as Monday.

To those who have grown weary of Trump’s record on transparency and the truth, there was little hope that the coming days would bring a greater level of clarity.

“These are the patterns of this presidency, and for Trump, the patterns of a lifetime,” said Peter Wehner, a Republican who served in President George W. Bush’s administrations and a Trump critic. “There’s no reason to believe he or his inner circle are going to change.”

Covid: Things 'Bumpy to Christmas and Beyond' - PM

BBC World Service

Boris Johnson has warned it may be "bumpy through to Christmas" and beyond as the UK deals with coronavirus.

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr, the PM said there was "hope" in beating Covid, but called on the public to "act fearlessly but with common sense".

He said the government was taking a "balanced" approach between saving lives and protecting the economy.

His comments come as the UK announced more than 10,000 new cases for the first time since mass testing began.

There were 12,872 new cases announced on Saturday. However, the government said a technical issue meant some cases earlier in the week were not recorded at the time so had been included in Saturday's data.

The prime minister said: "The best thing we can do now for all those who have suffered in the course of this pandemic is bring it to an end in the speediest possible way."

Labour's shadow health minister, Alex Norris, criticised the interview as a "wasted opportunity" to set out a "serious strategy to improve public confidence in the government's handling of this crisis".

He said: "Instead [the PM] waffled and ducked every question. His serial incompetence is holding Britain back."

Mr Johnson said he believed over the "next few weeks and months" the "scientific equation will change whether that is vaccines or testing" and there will be "progress" in beating the virus.

As a result, he said there was "hope" and "things can be significantly different by Christmas", as well as being "radically different" by spring.

But, the prime minister warned there could be "a very tough winter for all of us", adding: "I tell you in all candour, it will continue to be bumpy through to Christmas and may even be bumpy beyond."

Is Boris Johnson optimistic or pessimistic about the fight against Covid? He seems to be a bit of both.

The prime minister's prediction for the next few months is gloomy - winter will be "bumpy".

Restrictions of varying degrees could be with us for months.

But at the same time, he is urging people to be fearless if they use common sense - and believes a "radically different" spring is around the corner.

The short-term forecast is downbeat. But the PM wants to retain hope that things could improve again in the not so distant future.

Labour has been a long-standing critic of the performance of the Test and Trace system, with its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the government of having "lost control" of the virus.

Mr Johnson said the system was "not perfect" and that he was "frustrated with it".

But he defended its "massive increase in capacity", saying it had "made a huge difference" in tackling Covid-19.

Mr Johnson also stood by the Eat Out to Help Out restaurant discount introduced in August, which some critics have said added to the rise in coronavirus cases in September.

"In so far as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus then obviously we need to counteract that and we need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we're proposing," he said.

But he insisted it was "right to reopen the economy" as the government tries to "strike the right balance".

Mr Johnson said he took "full responsibility for everything that has happened since the pandemic began".

'Suspicion'

Asked about how effective the latest local lockdowns were in tackling the growing number of cases, the prime minister said it was "too early to say".

Mr Johnson said he understood the "frustrations" of people living in the affected areas - as well as a number of his own backbench MPs - but defended the action, saying: "I'm a freedom-loving Tory. I don't want to have to impose measures like this, are you crazy?

"This is the last thing we want to do. But I also have to save life. And that's our priority."

"And I also think, by the way, that's the priority of the British people and I think they will want to see their government continue to work, continuing to fight the virus and that's what we're doing."

Labour's shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth earlier called for the government to publish guidelines on what criteria they used to impose local lockdowns, and to involve local council leaders and health officials.

He said there were questions as to why current areas have extra restrictions, while the constituencies of cabinet ministers with higher case numbers remained unchanged.

"Because there are no clear guidelines as to why an area goes into restrictions, and how an area comes out of restrictions, then there is a suspicion that there is political interference," he told Andrew Marr.

"I hope there isn't. But until the government publish clear guidelines, that suspicion will always linger."

Media captionAndrew Marr challenged the PM over his comments about people becoming "complacent" over Covid-19

Mr Johnson was also asked about his health following his own experience of fighting coronavirus in March and April - and in light of US President Donald Trump testing positive.

The prime minister said when he had the virus he was "too fat" and it was a "teachable moment for our great country" to get on top of the issue of obesity.

But he claimed it was "balderdash" that he was still suffering from the effects of coronavirus, known as "long Covid".

He said the claim was "drivel", adding: "It is balderdash and nonsense. I can tell you I'm fitter than several butchers' dogs."

The Conservatives are currently holding their first virtual party conference due to coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings.

SADC Ratchets Up Anti-sanctions Drive

04 OCT, 2020 - 00:10 

Lincoln Towindo Chief Reporter

Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

REGIONAL countries will make an emphatic stand against the continued imposition of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe on October 25 through various activities to commemorate the day of solidarity against the embargo.

Leaders attending the SADC Heads of State and Government meeting last year, declared October 25 as a day of solidarity with Zimbabwe against economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union bloc. All the member states have undertaken to convene a series of annual events on the day in their respective countries until the embargo is lifted.

Diplomatic channels will be used to lobby for the unconditional removal of the sanctions.

Government is presently finalising preparations for the region-wide commemorations through the SADC secretariat and bilateral communication channels.

An inter-ministerial committee has been set up to direct local preparations for the day.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo will this week appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade to outline Government’s re-engagement programme, including efforts to facilitate the removal of sanctions.

Permanent Secretary Ambassador James Manzou told The Sunday Mail most of the key programmes will discussed this week.

“The day is SADC’s day of commemorations and not just not Zimbabwe’s day,” said Ambassador Manzou.

“SADC took the decision that for as long as the sanctions are in place, every October 25 the region will undertake activities to highlight the need for those sanctions to be removed.

“In terms of activities, it is still early to talk about them specifically because we are liaising with the SADC secretariat, and the inter-ministerial committee on the Zimbabwean side is meeting next week (this week) to look at some ideas on the day.

“On Thursday, my Minister (Dr Moyo) is addressing the portfolio committee on the issue of sanctions and will update on what is being planned for the day.

“So, by Thursday next week (this week), we will have a clearer picture of what will be taking place on the day.

“We saw at the United Nations General Assembly, leaders of Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda all coming up and calling for the lifting of sanctions; that is what the leaders agreed on in Tanzania.”

Last year, the event held at the National Sports Stadium — headlined by President Mnangagwa — was part of broader efforts that were conducted in unison with regional countries.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Kindness Paradza, told The Sunday Mail that the August House is complementing Government’s efforts through engaging their counterparts in Washington.

“This has now become a tradition to observe October 25 as a day of condemning sanctions,” he said.

“Until they are removed, we will continue to observe this day.

“We are complementing Government’s efforts in re-engaging with our counterparts at Capitol Hill in Washington.”

A study commissioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on the impact of sanctions shows how sanctions have affected every facet of economic life in Zimbabwe.

According to the research, Zimbabwe has lost over US$42 billion in revenue over the past 18 years, while donor support estimated at US$4,5 billion has been lost annually since 2001.

Further, US$12 billion worth of loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and African Development Bank, and commercial loans worth US$18 billion, have been lost, while the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), or economic output, has shrunk by US$21 billion.

According to the paper, over 400 000 Zimbabwe lost their jobs in the private sector between 2005 and 2013, while the number of people living under the Poverty Datum Line grew from 54 percent of the total population to nearly 90 percent.

In addition, the number of people living in extreme poverty grew from 10 percent of the population to over 30 percent of the population since the sanctions were imposed.

Autopsy Finds LA Deputies Shot Black Man 16 Times

By ROBERT JABLON

FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2020, file photo, attorneys Carl Douglas, left, and Benjamin Crump, right, point to bullet wounds on a diagram of Dijon Kizzee's body as part of an independent autopsy during a news conference in Los Angeles. An autopsy report says Kizzee, a Black man shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies was wounded 16 times in the front and back but it doesn't shed any light on whether he was on the ground when he was shot. The county coroner's report supplied to The Associated Press on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 says Dijon Kizzee had four "rapidly life-threatening wounds." (AP Photo/Stefanie Dazio, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Black man shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies was wounded 16 times in the front and back, according to an autopsy that doesn’t shed any light on whether he was on the ground when he was shot.

Dijon Kizzee, 29, had four “rapidly life-threatening wounds” to the heart, lungs, liver and left kidney, according to the autopsy report that was supplied to The Associated Press on Friday. The autopsy was conducted on Sept. 2.

Three of the shots were to his chest and one to the upper center of his back, according to the report, which listed the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death as homicide by law enforcement.

Kizzee also had scrapes to his face, shoulders and other areas, the report said.

The report didn’t indicate the order in which the wounds occurred and noted that the autopsy doesn’t necessarily indicate the position of Kizzee’s body when he was shot.

Attorneys for the family have said witnesses described a volley of shots being fired as he lay on the ground.

Kizzee was killed Aug. 31 in South Los Angeles after sheriff’s deputies tried to stop him for riding a bicycle in the wrong direction. They said they were unaware he had a weapon wrapped in a piece of clothing he was carrying at the time.

Two deputies told investigators they fatally shot Kizzee after he picked up the handgun he had dropped during a struggle with one of them. A video showed him stooping down, but a wall blocked a full view. No weapon could be seen in the video, although authorities found a gun at the scene.

However, attorneys for the family say Kizzee wasn’t holding the gun when he was shot.

Kizzee “posed no threat” to deputies when they fired a total of 19 shots at him, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said at a news conference last month.

A message to his office Friday wasn’t immediately returned.

Carl Douglas, another civil rights attorney who is representing Kizzee’s family, said witnesses said the deputies fired three or four shots at Kizzee, followed by a pause and then a second volley while he was on the ground.

Although the official autopsy cited four rapidly life-threatening wounds, Douglas last month said an independent autopsy commissioned by relatives showed that Kizzee did not die instantly and instead writhed on the ground in pain.

The official autopsy found that Kizzee was wounded a total of 16 times. In addition to chest and back wounds, he had other wounds to his hands, arm, chin, shoulder, hip and the back of his head.

Toxicology tests determined that Kizzee had the marijuana compound THC and phencyclidine, sometimes known as PCP, in his blood while some traces of other drugs were found in his urine.

Kizzee’s shooting sparked peaceful protests and followed nationwide protests over police confrontations that killed or injured Black men. George Floyd was killed in May when a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck, and Jacob Blake was shot in the back and left paralyzed on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Of Presidents and Health, History Replete With Secrecy, Lies

By DEB RIECHMANN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Throughout American history, an uncomfortable truth has been evident: Presidents have lied about their health.

In some cases, the issues were minor, in others quite grave. And sometimes it took decades for the public to learn the truth.

Now President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease. The White House initially said he had “mild symptoms.” By Friday evening, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. After a rosy press conference by the president’s medical team, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday that Trump had gone through a “very concerning” period Friday and that the next 48 hours would be critical in terms of his care.

Pandemics have cursed the presidencies of both Trump and Woodrow Wilson. Each played down the viruses that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Both presidents got sick — and each had to decide how much to tell the public.

Like many administrations before, Wilson’s White House tried to keep his sickness secret.

He was at talks in Paris on ending World War I when he fell ill in April 1919. His symptoms were so severe and surfaced so suddenly that his personal physician, Cary Grayson, thought he had been poisoned. After a fitful night caring for Wilson, Grayson wrote a letter back to Washington to inform the White House that the president was very sick.

Flash forward 100 years. In a tweet at 12:54 a.m. Friday, Trump told the world that he and first lady Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19.

The White House initially shared few details about his condition. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said he was taken to Walter Reed many hours later “out of an abundance of caution.”

However sick he was or wasn’t, his COVID-19 was startling since Trump had been declaring almost daily that the nation had turned the corner on the disease, which has killed 208,000 people in the United States.

Trump has said he has played down the pandemic so as not to create panic, but there were political reasons for doing so. Seeking another four years in office, Trump did not want the U.S. economy to tank before the Nov. 3 election.

“The Wilson administration, for a very different reason, completely downplayed the pandemic,” said John Barry, an adjunct professor in public health at Tulane University whose book “The Great Influenza” chronicles the 1918-19 pandemic that sickened Wilson and killed 675,000 Americans. “Wilson was concerned that any negative news about anything would detract from the war effort — decrease the energy that people would put into winning the war. In this case, there are more strictly political benefits.”

William Howell, professor of American politics at the University of Chicago, wonders how transparent the White House will be about Trump’s case of COVID-19.

“He is obviously going to be eager to get back onto the campaign trail,” Howell said. “He has all kinds of incentives to signal strength and to get back into the mix. He’s going to want to.”

But he added: “This is a president who’s been less than straightforward over the course of his presidency about all manner of factual issues. And so, is he to be believed is a good cause of real concern.”

He said the pathology of COVID-19 and the virus in 1918 are “very similar, and that’s a little scary.”

History is replete with examples of how presidents have kept the American public in the dark about their ailments and medical conditions.

President Grover Cleveland, fearing poor health would be a political weakness, underwent secret oral surgery late at night in a private yacht in Long Island Sound. The cancerous lesion taken from his mouth was displayed in 2000 in an exhibit by the College of Physicians, a Philadelphia-based medical society.

President Lyndon B. Johnson secretly underwent surgery for removal of a skin lesion on his hand in 1967.

After leading the nation through a decade of war and depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was diagnosed early in 1944 as suffering from high blood pressure, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac failure and acute bronchitis.

The problems also betrayed an underlying arteriosclerosis - hardening of the arteries. Roosevelt was put on a low-salt diet and ordered to cut down on smoking. But with an election coming on, Roosevelt and the White House staff issued a statement saying the problem was far less serious.

“The stories that he’s in bad health are understandable enough around election time, but they are not true,” his doctor told a reporter. Historians now believe his doctors concealed all the facts from their patient and the public.

Roosevelt won reelection. Only months later, on April 12, 1945, he died of a stroke.

According to historian Robert Dallek, President John F. Kennedy suffered more pain and illness than most people knew and took as many as eight medications a day, including painkillers, stimulants, sleeping pills and hormones to keep him alive. Dallek, who wrote a biography on Kennedy, examined medical files from the last eight years of Kennedy’s life before Kennedy was assassinated.

As president, Kennedy was known for having a bad back, and since his death, biographers have pieced together details of other illnesses, including persistent digestive problems and Addison’s disease, a life-threatening lack of adrenal function. Kennedy went to great lengths to conceal his ailments, even denying to reporters that he had Addison’s disease.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a serious heart attack in 1955, while vacationing in Colorado. He was hospitalized for six weeks. Instead of advising Eisenhower not to run for a second term, his doctor recommended that more time in office would aid his recovery.

In 1841, William Henry Harrison became ill with what doctors thought was pneumonia caused by cold weather during his inauguration, where he rode horseback sans topcoat. The White House did not tell the public that Harrison was sick. Harrison died just nine days after becoming ill and only one month after taking the oath of office.

After pools of reporters began to cover nearly every moment that a president is in public, it became harder for commanders-in-chief to keep their medical conditions private.

The first known instance of a so-called pool reporter inside the White House was in 1881 when James A. Garfield was shot. As he lay in bed, Associated Press reporter Franklin Trusdell sat outside the president’s sick room, listening to him breathe and sharing updates with other correspondents.

“I listen for every sound,” Trusdell wrote to his wife in a note about his overnight Garfield watch at the White House. “A dog barking in the distance is heard. A fountain splashes on the lawn. Not a step is heard in the mansion. The president sleeps.”

Trump’s Diagnosis Shows US Vulnerability to the Coronavirus

By CARLA K. JOHNSON and JIM SALTER

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2020, file photo, a man wearing a face mask walks past a mural in South Central Los Angeles. President Donald Trump’s startling COVID-19 diagnosis serves as a cruel reminder of the pervasive spread of the coronavirus in the United States and shows how tenuous of a grip the nation has on the crisis, health experts said. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s startling COVID-19 diagnosis serves as a cruel reminder of the pervasive spread of the coronavirus and shows how tenuous of a grip the nation has on the crisis, health experts said.

With U.S. infections rising for several weeks, Trump became one of the tens of thousands of Americans who test positive each day. He went through a “very concerning” period Friday and the next 48 hours “will be critical” in his care, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday.

That differed dramatically from the rosy assessment by Trump’s staff and doctors, who took pains not to reveal the president had received supplemental oxygen at the White House before he went to a military hospital. Some of Trump’s top advisers and allies also have tested positive recently.

“No one is entirely out of the virus’s reach, even those supposedly inside a protective bubble,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.

Eight months after the virus reached the United States, worrying signals mounted of what’s ahead this fall. The NFL has postponed two games after players on three teams tested positive. Some hospitals in Wisconsin have run low on space, and experts warned of a likely surge in infections during the colder months ahead. Some economists say it could take as long as late 2023 for the job market to fully recover.

The U.S. leads the world in numbers of confirmed infections, with more than 7 million, and deaths, with more than 208,000. Only a handful of countries rank higher in COVID-19 deaths per capita.

“The statistics are so mindboggling, they make us numb to the reality of just how painful, unacceptable and absurd this is,” said Dr. Reed Tuckson, board chairman of the nonpartisan Health Policy Alliance in Washington. “Every single American must double down on their vigilance. If we don’t, then we are being foolhardy and irresponsible.”

Wallace Clark, 50, of Springfield, Illinois, said he was flummoxed by the president’s diagnosis but hopes it makes people realize they need to take the pandemic seriously.

“Some people probably think they’re immune or can’t get it, but it is possible. It does send a message,” Clark said Saturday.

The president’s infection occurred as the nation has reached a crossroads in its response to the virus.

The U.S. is averaging 40,000 cases a day. The situation is improving in Sun Belt states that were hot spots in the summer, and many loosened restrictions this week.

Mississippi’s governor ended a mask requirement, South Carolina’s governor said he would ease capacity restrictions on restaurants and New Orleans bars got the greenlight to sell carry-out drinks. Florida has moved ahead with an aggressive reopening that gives bars and restaurants latitude to allow as many customers as they choose.

The outlook is gloomier in the Midwest.

Wisconsin reported a record daily death toll Wednesday, and hospitals in multiple cities said they were running out of space. A 530-bed field hospital that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built on the state fairgrounds in the city of West Allis in April could be used if the situation worsens.

Iowa reported more than 1,000 new cases for the third consecutive day Friday as the virus continued to aggressively spread, but the governor said bars in the two largest college towns could reopen Monday after a five-week closure. South Dakota officials reported record highs in deaths and cases Thursday.

In Missouri, several people waving Trump signs and American flags at drivers in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles on Saturday said the president and Republican Gov. Mike Parson getting infected recently won’t change their behavior. Of the roughly two dozen Trump supporters who gathered, most didn’t wear masks.

Vince Kuhn, a 72-year-old retiree and Vietnam War veteran, called Trump “a brave man” who likely caught the virus because he was willing to be out with people. Kuhn said he opposed restrictions like mask mandates before the president got sick and still does.

“I fought for freedom in ’Nam,” Kuhn said. “I really didn’t like it when they stopped us from going to church and assembling. But people are coming back. Everything’s coming back. People want the real America we fought for.”

Carol Schutz, 54, who had a lung transplant last year and often wears a mask but didn’t Saturday, doesn’t believe Trump’s illness will sway many people but will be “more fuel for the fire” for those who don’t like him.

The mood was far different in St. Louis.

Arlene Mathis, 65, was one of several Black volunteers at voter registration event where nearly everyone wore masks.

“I don’t know that we would have to have the president affected by this to be awakened by it, because so many people have died and continue to die every day,” Mathis said.

She was hopeful, however, that Trump’s illness would change behavior.

“It’s an indication that nobody is immune,” Mathis said. “It goes high, it goes low, it goes everywhere. So hopefully, them being affected by it will have an impact.”

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University, said Trump’s diagnosis “reinforces the notion we need a national policy and we need everyone to participate in the basic preventions.”

Instead, Schaffner said, the response “has been subcontracted to the governors, which has left us with a crazy quilt of approaches.”

For months, Trump has downplayed the virus, rarely wearing a mask, holding large campaign rallies and urging businesses and schools to reopen. Masks have not been mandatory for White House staff, despite evidence they help stop the spread.

“Now, tragically, this experiment has shown, at the highest office of the country, it ain’t working. It didn’t work,” Schaffner said.

It has George George, 63, worried.

“I’m nervous this process could last another couple of years,” George said outside a coffee shop in the Cleveland suburb of Cleveland Heights. “People in March and April were terrified of the unknown. But now restaurants are filling up. People are tired of being isolated.”

Michaud said the nation is experiencing “a dangerous moment.”

“We have lots of schools, universities, workplaces and other businesses and institutions reopening. Colder weather is also on the way, which will likely increase the chances people will congregate together indoors,” Michaud said.

If complacency sets in, infections will rise.

“We’re still not doing sufficient testing and contact tracing across the country,” Michaud said. “For all these reasons, we’re likely to see more transmission in the U.S., not less, in the coming weeks and months.”

___

Johnson reported from Washington state. Associated Press writer John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois, and Mark Gillespie in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Virus Spreads on Panel Handling Supreme Court Nomination

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising questions about the timing of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and whether additional senators may have been exposed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared the confirmation process was going “full steam ahead.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Utah Sen. Mike Lee both said Friday that they had tested positive for the virus. Both had attended a ceremony for Barrett at the White House on Sept. 25 with President Donald Trump, who announced Friday that he had tested positive and was later hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Lee, who did not wear a mask at the White House event, said he had “symptoms consistent with longtime allergies.” Tillis, who did wear a mask during the public portion of the event, said he had no symptoms. Both said they would quarantine for 10 days — ending just before Barrett’s confirmation hearings begin on Oct. 12.

The positive tests come as Senate Republicans are pushing to quickly confirm Barrett in the few weeks they have before the Nov. 3 election. There is little cushion in the schedule set out by Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and McConnell, who want to put a third Trump nominee on the court immediately in case they lose any of their power in the election.

Democrats, many of whom have been critical of Barrett, seized on the virus announcements to call for a delay in the hearings.

“We now have two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who have tested positive for COVID, and there may be more,” tweeted Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “I wish my colleagues well. It is irresponsible and dangerous to move forward with a hearing, and there is absolutely no good reason to do so.”

Several other members of the Judiciary panel attended the White House ceremony, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo. Blackburn said she tested negative after the event. Crapo said he “recently” had a negative test and a spokeswoman said he would be getting another one as soon as it could be arranged. A spokeswoman for Hawley said he was being tested Saturday.

Sasse tested negative, but said in a statement that he would work remotely from his home state and undergo further testing due to his “close interaction with multiple infected individuals,” his office said. He said he planned to to return to Washington in time for the confirmation hearing.

Graham was not at the White House on Saturday but sees Trump frequently. He said Friday that he had taken a test after interacting with Lee and it was negative. A spokeswoman for another GOP member of the committee, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, said Saturday that he had also interacted with Lee and had also tested negative. Still, Cruz’s office said he is remaining at home until the hearings out of an abundance of caution.

Confirmation hearings for Barrett, who would replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are scheduled to last for four days. McConnell on Saturday announced that he would seek to delay floor action for the next two weeks but that the hearings would proceed. At an event in Kentucky on Friday, he said he thought remote hearings could work if some senators couldn’t attend.

Graham also suggested the possibility of remote hearings, saying on Twitter that “any senator who wants to participate virtually will be allowed to do so.” In a statement Saturday, Graham said there would be “no change” in the hearings even if Senate floor votes were delayed. It is not unusual for committees to meet when there is no action on the floor.

Senators cannot vote virtually, however, so Republicans would need a full slate of committee members to approve the nomination shortly after the hearings and all of their senators on the floor for a final confirmation vote, which they hope will happen the last week of October.

After interacting with Sen. Lee, in consultation with the attending physician, Sen. Cruz is remaining at home out of an abundance of caution. He feels healthy, hasn’t exhibited any COVID-19 symptoms, and has tested negative. In accordance with medical advice he will return to the Senate for the Supreme Court nomination hearings.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also announced Saturday that he tested positive for the virus and would not return until he was cleared by his doctor. He is not on the Judiciary panel, but his presence would likely be needed for a floor vote.

Tillis is in a competitive reelection race against Democrat Cal Cunningham, and the two debated Thursday evening. On Twitter, Cunningham said he wished Tillis a quick recovery and said he would also get tested.

Barrett, who was with Trump and many others on Saturday and met with Lee, Tillis and other members of the Judiciary panel this week, tested negative, the White House said Friday. It was confirmed that she had a mild case of COVID earlier this year and has now recovered.

Several people who attended the Sept. 26 White House Rose Garden event to introduce Amy Coney Barrett as President Donald Trump's newest Supreme Court nominee have tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Graphic)

Trump, who has consistently downplayed the virus and often discouraged the use of masks, was flown to Walter Reed on Friday evening after experiencing symptoms.

The president tweeted Saturday that he was “feeling well,” though White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the next 48 hours would be critical in terms of his care.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Hundreds Demonstrate in Khartoum Against Hamdok Government

Protesters in Khartoum chanting against Hamdok government on 30 Sept 2020 (ST photo)

September 30, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Hundreds of people demonstrated in the capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday, to protest the deteriorating economic conditions and chanted slogans calling for the removal of Hamdok government.

A year of its formation, the Sudanese government did not succeed to put an end to the economic crisis facing the country due to the lack of resource and corruption.

Further, inflation continued to rise as the Sudanese pound fell to a record low of 260 to the dollar. Also, the Sudanese continue in large number to queue at bakeries and petrol stations.

The protesters raised large banners reading they are taking Hamdok’s government "to its final resting place", and chanted slogans denouncing the economic conditions in the country.

Eyewitnesses told the Sudan Tribune that the police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters who were on their way to the Council of Ministers building.

For its part, the Sudanese Traffic Police called, in a statement seen by "Sudan Tribune", vehicle drivers to avoid main streets in central Khartoum and to take alternative routes.

Sudanese Islamists are accused of seeking to destabilize Hamdok’s government due to its unsuccessful efforts to deal with the economic crisis. Also, Khartoum is still struggling to convince Washington to remove the country from the terror list.

The vice governor of the central bank confessed that the government borrows money from the bank to pay salaries and other public expenditures.

(ST)

U.S. Continues Efforts to Bring Non-signatories to Sudan Peace Process

October 2, 2020 (JUBA) - The U.S. special envoy to Sudan said he is continuing his efforts to persuade the non-signatory parties to join peace in Sudan in order to achieve stability in the country.

US special envoy Donald Booth speaks at the Atlantic Council on Sudan and South Sudan (State Department courtesy photo)Donald Booth met on Friday with the Sudanese government negotiating team in Juba where he arrived to attend the signing ceremony of a peace agreement with the armed group s of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front and the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi on Saturday.

In statements to the official news agency, SUNA, Both said the meeting discussed the implementation of the agreement and how the international community can contribute and its role in this regard.

Booth further said he was in contact with Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N al-Hilu), and Abdel-Wahid al-Nur, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) to bring them to the negotiating table.

He praised the meeting between the Prime Minister, Abdallah Hamdok and al-Hilu in Addis Ababa early last September, during which it was agreed to resume peace talks on the relation between the state and religion.

The U.S. diplomat said he is still continuing his efforts with the exiled rebel leader al-Nur for the same purpose.

In a joint agreement reached in Addis Ababa on 3 September, Hamdok and al-Hilu agreed to hold informal discussions on the relationship between the state and religion and once a consensus is reached they would resume formal talks.

It is worth mentioning that Booth met also with the SRF and SLM-MM leaders but no statements have been released on the discussions.

Ending war in Sudan is one of the main tasks of the transitional government to prepare the country for democratic elections 30 years after an Islamist regime that waged war across the country and displaced millions of Sudanese.

Regarding the file of sanctions imposed on Sudan, the special envoy said his administration is working to get the country off the terror list.

"Sudan is still on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and we are working hard with the government to reach a settlement of this file," he said.

(ST)

Sudan’s Peace Partners Pledge to Work Together for Successful Implementation

Gibril Ibrahim of JEM and Minnawi of SLM wave their hands after the signing of the peace agreement on 3 October 2020 (ST photo)

October 3, 2020 (JUBA) - Sudan’s transitional authority and armed groups on Saturday signed the final peace agreement and vowed to work together for peace implementation and democratic reforms.

The Sudanese government, Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF and Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) signed a comprehensive peace agreement in Juba after a year of negotiations.

President Salva Kiir organized a great celebration at the Freedom Square for the event that gave the impression for the guests that they were in the united Sudan of before 2011.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in his speech spoke about this communion saying that "This peace would not have been possible without (the role of) Juba".

For his part, al-Burhan sang a song for the Sudanese army saying "Sudan is our country and we are all brothers". Immediately, he was accompanied by the South Sudan Army Music Band and the applause of the crowd.

President Kiir in his speech expressed this happiness and pride for the signing of the Sudan peace agreement in Juba despite all the challenges that faced the process.

Al-Hadi Idris, SRF leader in his speech also underlined the rebirth of relations between the north and south Sudan as a result of the collapse of the former regime and Juba mediation of this agreement.

"The peace we reached today will contribute to establishing a new relationship between the people of the two states of Sudan," he stressed.

However, President Kiir expressed his disappointment for the absence of the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu and the SLM of Abdel Wahid al-Nur. Also, he reminded the Sudanese parties that the peace implementation process requires a lot of money and called for international support to its enforcement.

Hamdok also launched a call to al-Hilu and al-Nur saying "we are waiting for you".

"Today’s agreement is not a deal to share power and wealth. Rather, it is a new page in the rise of the Sudanese people and the replacement of ammunition and weapons bills with production and development inputs," he further said.

General al-Burhan said that there would be no return to war and affirmed the government’s determination to fully implement the agreement.

He further said that peace will enhance the transitional period and broadening the political base of the groups to achieve the transition towards a state of justice, citizenship and democracy.

Idriss said this peace is a gift to the martyrs of the Sudanese revolution and the martyrs of the armed struggle movements.

"Now, your souls will rest in peace, as the cause for which you sacrificed has triumphed, and the peace that you seek has become a reality today," he stressed.

He also spoke addressed his speech to the displaced, refugees and victims of war calling on them to support the peace agreement.

"This peace is for you, through you, and from you; and to you, it will grant security, and guarantee your voluntary return to your areas of origin and to a beginning of a new life".

The heads of states of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Chad were present at the ceremony while Uganda was represented by its prime minister. The Kenyan government dispatched its special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.

But Sudanese were at ease to gather ministerial delegations from the Gulf countries despite the current divisions in the region.

The event was attended by the UAE oil minister who represented his government, Saudi Arabia sent its state minister for African affairs, Qatar was represented by its state minister for foreign affairs.

Also attended the signing ceremony, the Egyptian prime minister.

The European Union and the United States dispatched special envoys to attend the signing of the Sudanese peace agreement.

As a result of the peace agreement, Hamdok will reshuffle his cabinet to integrate some ministers representing the armed groups. Also, some rebel leaders will join the Sovereign Council.

However, the most important will be the set up of the transitional parliament which will allow better representation of the groups that participated in the revolution and allow them to control the government policies.

(ST)

Kiir, Hamdok, Hilu Say Comprehensive Peace is Needed in Sudan

Hamdok meets with President Kiir on 2 October 2020 (SUNA photo)

October 2, 2020 (JUBA) - South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Sudanese Prime Abdallah Hamdok and the SPLM-N leader Abdulaziz Al-Hilu agreed on the need to achieve a comprehensive peace in Sudan.

President Salva Kiir held a meeting at the State House in Juba with Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and SPLM-N Abdelaziz al-Hilu.

The Sudan News Agency reported that the meeting dealt with the recent developments in the peace process between the transitional government and the SPLM-N al-Hilu which would lead to the resumption of the talks between two parties.

"It was agreed that the completion of a just and comprehensive peace in Sudan is a fateful matter for the states of Sudan and South Sudan to achieve political and economic stability in the interest of the peoples of the two countries," stressed the official agency.

Hamdok and al-al Hilu signed a joint agreement in Addis Ababa on 3 September to resolve the dispute over whether or not the relationship between religion and state be discussed in the peace process.

The two parties agreed to hold informal discussions first on the concept of separation of the state and religion. Once they reach an agreement on the matter then they would resume formal peace talks.

Initially, Kiir wanted the joint agreement to be signed in Juba, the venue of the peace talks but for an unknown reason, the meeting took place in Addis Ababa.

President Salva Kiir had repeatedly said that peace in Sudan is indispensable to peace in his country, especially since the war is taking place in the border areas between the two countries and that the matter created a lot of tension between the two countries in the past.

(ST)

Sudan Peace Deal Ushers in New Era of Hope, Prosperity: Egypt's PM Madbouly

Ahram Online

Saturday 3 Oct 2020

The peace agreement represents a decisive step towards establishing comprehensive peace throughout Sudan, the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Saturday that the peace deal signed between Sudan's transitional government and rebel groups reflects "the rational African will" that aspires for stability, justice, and democracy, adding that it also ushers in a new era of hope and prosperity for Sudan.

Earlier today, an Egyptian delegation headed by the prime minister arrived in the South Sudanese capital Juba to witness the breakthrough deal that is meant to put an end to decades-long regional conflicts that have left millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead.

Sudanese paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo – best known by his nickname "Hemeti" – signed the deal on behalf of Khartoum.

The deal was also signed by the Sudan Revolutionary Front, which comprises rebel groups from the war-ravaged western Darfur region, as well as the southern states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Representing Egypt, Madbouly signed the deal as a guarantor. The deal was also signed by Chad, Qatar, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), who also put their names to the agreement as guarantors.

The Egyptian PM said in a speech during the event that "Egypt appreciates the serious and good efforts exerted by Sudan since the launch of the Juba negotiating platform, which has culminated with the inking of the final agreement."

Egypt has supported this platform since the beginning, Madbouly said, noting that it participated in its establishment by inviting the Sudanese armed movements to sort out their affairs and demonstrate their intention to achieve peace during the conference Egypt hosted in Ain Al-Sokna city in 2019.

Madbouly stressed that "the enforcement of the deal is more important than signing it."

He added that political, economic, developmental, security, and social responsibilities oblige all signatories and regional and international parties to support post-peace entitlements.

He assured that today's gathering affirms the potential for surmounting every dispute and building cooperative relations based on the common interests of all African leaders to achieve prosperity on the continent.

Madbouly expressed Egypt's keenness to continue working with Sudan to boost the various aspects of the partnership between both countries.

The summit was attended by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, head of the Transitional Sovereign Council General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.

Also in attendance were several foreign officials including the US Special Envoy for Sudan Donald Booth, African Union Chairman Moussa Faki, and the heads of state of Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda and Chad.

The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement on Saturday that Egypt welcomes the final signing of the peace agreement and praises the sincere and tireless mediation efforts by South Sudan.

The signing of the peace agreement represents a decisive step in the efforts exerted over many decades to establish comprehensive peace throughout Sudan, the Egyptian cabinet statement said.

Egypt also affirmed that it stands by Sudan and asserts its full solidarity with the brotherly country during this defining stage in its history, the Egyptian cabinet said.

“Within the framework of the unified destiny and the bonds of brotherhood and solidarity that have brought the two countries together since ancient times, Egypt will spare no effort to work to support stability, prosperity and development throughout Sudan, in order to meet the legitimate aspirations of the brotherly Sudanese people for a better tomorrow,” the statement said.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/386501.aspx