Touring flooding, Trump moves ahead with campaign turnaround
Touring flooding, Trump moves ahead with campaign turnaround
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Offering consolation, expressing regret, cutting ties with a controversial aide. Donald Trump’s campaign turnaround plan on Friday featured the unorthodox candidate acting much like a conventional politician struggling to revive a presidential bid on the ropes.
Trump headed to flood-damaged Louisiana to express solidarity with residents cleaning up after devastating flooding that left at least 13 people dead. The trip that made for a pointed contrast to President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who both have yet to go, although Obama announced late Friday that he, too, would visit next week.
The typically brash and spotlight-seeking billionaire offered notably restrained remarks as he surveyed the waterlogged wreckage.
“Nobody understands how bad it is,” Trump told reporters, after briefly helping unload a truck of supplies while cameras captured the moment. “It’s really incredible, so I’m just here to help.”
Yet, the trip did little to obscure the turmoil in Trump’s campaign, punctuated early Friday when Trump announced he accepted campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s offer to resign in the wake of a campaign shake-up and revelations about his work in Ukraine.
In a statement issued as he arrived in Louisiana to tour the flood-ravaged state, Trump called Manafort “a true professional.”
“I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process,” Trump said.
Haiti welcomes UN admission, plans to assist cholera victims
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A U.N. acknowledgement that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vows to aid victims were welcomed Friday in the Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history.
While the number of cholera cases has been significantly reduced from the initial outbreak in 2010, the fact that the preventable disease is still routinely sickening and killing Haitians is galling to many.
“The U.N. brought this sickness to Haiti so they need to pay the country back. A lot of people got sick, a lot have died,” said Michelle Raymond, who said her young son nearly died of the waterborne disease in 2013.
This week, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq acknowledged the United Nations’ “own involvement” in the introduction of cholera to impoverished Haiti and pledged that “a significantly new set of U.N. actions” will be presented in the next two months.
On Friday, Haq added that “the United Nations has a moral responsibility to the victims.” He said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is developing a package that would provide “material assistance” to cholera victims in Haiti, indicating for the first time that some people might get financial help from the U.N.
Taking heat, US officials defend $400M cash payment to Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Friday defended its decision to make a $400 million cash delivery to Iran contingent on the release of American prisoners, saying the payment wasn’t ransom because the Islamic Republic would have soon recouped the money one way or another.
In a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said it made no sense not to use the money as leverage to ensure that four U.S. citizens were freed, especially as Washington was uncertain until the very moment their plane left that Iran would live up to its word.
The administration’s defense came after the State Department outlined for the first time that the Jan. 17 repayment of money from a 1970s Iranian account to buy U.S. military equipment was connected to a U.S.-Iranian prisoner exchange on the same day. Previously, President Barack Obama and other officials had denied any such linkage.
The acknowledgement kicked off a torrent of Republican criticism, who declared it evidence of a quid pro quo that undermined America’s longstanding opposition to ransom payments.
“He denied it was for the hostages, but it was,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a speech Thursday night in Charlotte, North Carolina. “He said we don’t pay ransom, but he did. He lied about the hostages, openly and blatantly.”
Officials: Zika found in South Beach; spraying not practical
MIAMI (AP) — South Beach has been identified as a second site of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland, and containing it there will be difficult because high-rise buildings and strong winds make it impractical to spray the neighborhood from the air, officials said Friday.
Five cases of Zika have been connected to mosquitoes in Miami Beach, bringing the state’s caseload to 36 infections not related to travel outside the U.S., Florida’s governor and health department announced Friday.
The discovery prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to announce that it was expanding its travel warning for pregnant women to include an area in Miami Beach known for nightclubs, pedestrian thoroughfares and beaches.
Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy.
The virus’s apparent spread from a Miami neighborhood popular for day trips to the South Beach streets where many tourists sleep has rattled the tourism industry, even in the slower summer season.
2 New Jersey commuter buses collide, killing 2, injuring 17
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two commuter buses slammed into each other in downtown Newark on Friday morning, killing a veteran driver and a passenger and injuring 17 others, including several critically, authorities said.
A New Jersey Transit bus just starting its route and carrying no passengers slammed into the side of another NJ Transit bus carrying about 20 passengers at around 6 a.m. at a downtown intersection.
Joseph Barthelus, the driver of the bus carrying no passengers, was killed. He had worked for NJ Transit for 27 years, the agency said.
A female passenger on the other bus died later Friday, said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County prosecutor’s office.
“This is a tragic day for New Jersey Transit,” interim Executive Director Dennis Martin said Friday. “Our organization is in mourning today.”