October 19, 2020 4:22 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Police unions nationwide have largely supported President Donald Trump’s reelection, amid mass demonstrations over police brutality and accusations of systemic racism. But a number of Black law enforcement officers are speaking out against those endorsements, saying their concerns over entering the 2020 political fray were ignored. Trump has touted his support from the law enforcement community, tapping into a strain of anger and frustration by law enforcement who believe they are being unfairly accused of racial discrimination. He’s received endorsements from national, city and state officers’ unions, but minority officers say those don’t reflect their voices.
October 19, 2020 4:21 am
BEIJING (AP) – China’s shaky economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is gaining strength as consumers return to shopping malls and auto dealerships while the United States and Europe endure painful contractions. Official data show the world’s second-largest economy expanded by 4.9% over a year ago in the latest quarter. Retail spending rebounded to above pre-virus levels for the first time and factory output rose, boosted by demand for exports of masks and other medical supplies. China, where the pandemic began in December, became the first major economy to return to growth after the ruling Communist Party declared the disease under control in March and began reopening factories, shops and offices.
October 19, 2020 4:20 am
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden have been on offense, with each campaigning in states they’re trying to flip during the Nov. 3 election that’s just over two weeks away. Trump began Sunday in Nevada, making a rare visit to church before an evening rally in Carson City. Nevada was once considered a battleground, but the state hasn’t swung for a Republican presidential contender since 2004.áBiden attended Mass in Delaware before flying to North Carolina. A Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008.
October 19, 2020 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – New virus relief will have to wait until after the November election. Congress is past the point at which it can deliver more coronavirus aid soon, with differences between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump proving insurmountable. Trump’s Republican allies are reconvening the Senate this week to vote on a virus proposal, but it’s a bill that failed once before, and that Trump himself now derides as too puny. Once the measure fails, Republicans plan to turn the chamber’s full attention to confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
October 19, 2020 4:15 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Legislature and governor are facing a deadline at the end of November to finish the state’s partial budget and plug a multibillion-dollar funding hole. The budget that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed in May was incomplete by design. It was passed amid uncertainty about the scale of federal support and the pandemic’s effect on revenues and costs. The $25.8 billion deal included just five months of funding for many governmental functions and programs. That five-month period runs out on Nov. 30, the last day of the two-year legislative session.
October 19, 2020 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An appellate court judge in Pennsylvania has turned down an emergency petition from Republicans seeking to block the Philadelphia suburb of Delaware County from operating a three-day early voting center in the city of Chester. Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin Brobson, in a decision Friday night, wrote that a county judge had reasonable grounds to reject the emergency petition. Pennsylvania is a key battleground state in the contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. The voting center began operating Friday in the predominantly Black and Democratic city of Chester. The county’s solicitor, William Martin, called the litigation a baseless attempt at voter suppression.
October 19, 2020 4:12 am
DUNBAR TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI)- A car slammed into the side of a daycare in Fayette County on Sunday. The entire car ended up inside Desirae’s Playland Daycare on Dunbar Road in Dunbar Township. No one was hurt. State police are investigating the cause of the crash.
October 18, 2020 7:51 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A free speech demonstration staged by conservative activists quickly fell apart in downtown San Francisco on Saturday after several hundred counterprotesters surged the area, outnumbering and attacking those gathered, including knocking one in the mouth. A photographer working for The Associated Press witnessed a Trump supporter being taken away in an ambulance and an injured San Francisco police officer on the ground by San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza. Team Save America organized the rally to protest Twitter, which it said squelches conservative speech. Members of the group wore red “Make America Great Again” Trump campaign hats and carried pro-police “Thin Blue Line” flags and U.S. flags. Philip Anderson, the organizer of the event, posted photos to social media of his bloody mouth with a front tooth missing and another hanging loosely. He said anti-fascist protesters attacked him “for no reason.” Anderson took the stage at about 1 p.m. and was greeted by chants and plastic water bottles and glass bottles thrown over police barricades. The event was canceled, although both sides lingered in the area into the afternoon.
October 18, 2020 7:49 am
MOSCOW (AP) — It’s Friday night in Moscow, and popular bars and restaurants in the city center are packed. No one except the staff is wearing a mask or bothers to keep their distance. There is little indication at all that Russia is being swept by a resurgence of coronavirus infections. The outbreak in Russia this month is breaking the records set in the spring, when a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus was put in place. But, as governments across Europe move to reimpose restrictions to counter rising cases, authorities in Russia are resisting shutting down businesses again. Some regions have closed nightclubs or limited the hours of bars and restaurants, but few measures have been implemented in Moscow, which is once again the epicenter of the surge. On Friday, Russian authorities reported over 15,000 new infections, the highest daily spike so far in the pandemic. Moscow — with less than 10% of the population — accounts for up to 30% of new infections each day. The health minister says 90% of hospital beds for coronavirus patients have been filled. Three times this week, Russia’s daily death toll exceeded the spring record of 232.
October 18, 2020 7:47 am
Ever since Russian agents and other opportunists abused its platform in an attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has insisted — repeatedly — that it’s learned its lesson and is no longer a conduit for misinformation, voter suppression and election disruption. But it has been a long and halting journey for the social network. Critical outsiders, as well as some of Facebook’s own employees, say the company’s efforts to revise its rules and tighten its safeguards remain wholly insufficient to the task, despite it having spent billions on the project. As for why, they point to the company’s persistent unwillingness to act decisively over much of that time. The company’s rhetoric has certainly gotten an update. CEO Mark Zuckerberg now casually references possible outcomes that were unimaginable in 2016 — among them, possible civil unrest and potentially a disputed election that Facebook could easily make even worse — as challenges the platform now faces. “This election is not going to be business as usual,” Zuckerberg wrote in a September Facebook post in which he outlined Facebook’s efforts to encourage voting and remove misinformation from its service. “We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy.” Yet for years Facebook executives have seemed to be caught off guard whenever their platform — created to connect the world — was used for malicious purposes. Zuckerberg has offered multiple apologies over the years, as if no one could have predicted that people would use Facebook to live-stream murders and suicides, incite ethnic cleansings, promote fake cancer cures or attempt to steal elections. While other platforms like Twitter and YouTube have also struggled to address misinformation and hateful content, Facebook stands apart for its reach and scale and, compared to many other platforms, its slower response to the challenges identified in 2016.
