In Michigan, Harris doesn't get hoped-for firefighters endorsement amid shifting labor loyalties
REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — It was the perfect place to welcome the endorsement of the firefighters union — a gleaming new firehouse in a blue-collar town just outside of Detroit in the key battleground state of Michigan.
But by the time Kamala Harris showed up in Redford Township on Friday, there was no endorsement waiting for her.
By a slim margin, the International Association of Firefighters declined to back any candidate, a reminder of the Democratic nominee’s struggle to lock down the same support from organized labor that President Joe Biden won four years ago. The Teamsters also balked at an endorsement last month.
Harris is still gaining more endorsements than she’s losing. National teachers unions, building trade unions, the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers backed the vice president shortly after Biden ended his run for a second term. And the leader of the Michigan firefighters union, Matthew Sahr, showed up for Harris in Redford Township — although not to bestow the endorsement.
"We could have chosen to stay away. But what kind of message would that send?” Sahr said.
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Biden talks election, economy and Middle East in surprise news briefing
WASHINGTON (AP) — After 1,080 days as president, Joe Biden on Friday decided to pop in and take questions in the White House briefing room for the first time, striding in with a grin after a strong monthly jobs report and the temporary settlement of a strike by ports workers.
The president has been less available than his recent predecessors to questions from White House press corps, making his surprise appearance welcome to the gathered reporters who waited as his press secretary's daily briefing was moved up 15 minutes, then delayed for nearly one hour.
The president stepped through the press room's blue door in a dark gray suit and red tie and proceeded to make news in response to questions about comments on the 2024 presidential election, the latest jobs numbers and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The 81-year old stepped aside from the Democratic nomination this summer, backing Vice President Kamala Harris instead. He acknowledged doubts about whether the November election would be peaceful, given comments by former President Donald Trump that the results could be rigged.
“I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it will be peaceful,” Biden said. “The things that Trump has said, and the the things that he said last time when he didn’t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.”
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Trump and Georgia Gov. Kemp use hurricane recovery to make first 2024 appearance together
EVANS, Ga. (AP) — After making up privately, Donald Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp used the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to put their détente on public display, with the former president praising a fellow Republican he blistered just months ago and promising to treat the state well if he returns to the White House.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Kemp, a popular second-term governor, appeared outside Augusta to tout recovery efforts after Helene made landfall in Florida and wrought widespread damage as it moved inland through Georgia and other states.
”I want to thank President Trump for coming back to our state a second time … and keeping the national focus on our state as we recover,” Kemp said, speaking as Trump stood silently over his right shoulder, both of them surrounded by water, paper products, diapers and other relief supplies.
The appearance in the town of Evans involved none of the vitriol that has defined the two Republicans' relationship since November 2020, when Trump insisted falsely that he defeated Democrat Joe Biden and chided Kemp for refusing to help him overturn the result.
Kemp and Trump met privately before addressing reporters. Trump was accompanied on the trip by his top campaign advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is his handpicked Republican National Committee co-chair.
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Israeli airstrikes rock southern suburbs of Beirut and cut off a key crossing into Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel carried out another series of punishing airstrikes Friday, hitting suburban Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Hezbollah militant group.
The overnight blasts in Beirut's southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings kilometers (miles) away in the Lebanese capital. Additional strikes sent people running for cover in streets littered with rubble in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, where at least one building was leveled and cars were burned out.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah's central intelligence headquarters around midnight. It did not say who it was aiming for or if any militants were killed in that strike, but it claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area. Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries' shared border.
And a hospital in southern Lebanon said it was shelled Friday evening after being warned to evacuate. The Salah Ghandour Hospital in the city of Bint Jbeil said in a statement that the shelling “resulted in nine members of the medical and nursing staff being injured, most of them seriously,” while most of the medical staff were evacuated. A day earlier, the World Health Organization said 28 health workers in Lebanon had been killed in the past 24 hours.
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When will the power return? Weary Carolinas residents long for relief after Helene's fury
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The weary and worn residents of Julianne Johnson's neighborhood in Asheville have been getting by without electricity since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast last week and upended their lives. They've been cooking on propane stoves and using dry erase boards to keep up with local happenings while wondering when the lights would come back on.
Johnson, who has a 5-year-old son and works for a land conservation group, received a text from Duke Energy promising her power would be restored by Friday night. But as of midday, utility poles and wires were still draped at odd angles across the streets, pulled down by mangled trees.
“I have no idea what’s next,” said Johnson, whose family does have some power thanks to a generator. “Just the breadth of this over the whole region, it’s kind of amazing.”
She and her neighbors have been taking care of each other since Helene came ashore Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a path of destruction as it moved northward from Florida, killing at least 220 people in six states, including at least 72 in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. Block captains set out whiteboards with information about who can provide first aid and where to get tools repaired.
Nearly 700,000 homes and businesses — mostly in the Carolinas and Georgia — were still without electricity Friday, according to poweroutage.us. That's an improvement over the more than 2 million customers without power five days ago, and Duke Energy, the dominant provider in North Carolina, said it hoped to have the lights back on by Sunday night for many of its affected customers. But for roughly 100,000 customers in places with catastrophic damage, it could be next week or longer, according to company spokesperson Bill Norton.
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A week after Helene hit, thousands still without water struggle to find enough
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 5-gallon containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource — drinking water.
Flooding tore through the city’s water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks. To make do, Anna Ramsey arrived Wednesday with her two children, who each left carrying plastic bags filled with 2 gallons (7.6 liters) of water.
“We have no water. We have no power. But I think it’s also been humbling,” Ramsey said.
Helene’s path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of gallons of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must trudge through knee-deep debris to learn whether residents are safe.
It also damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide inland area that one federal official said the toll “could be considered unprecedented.” As of Thursday, about 136,000 people in the Southeast were served by a nonoperational water provider and more than 1.8 million were living under a boil water advisory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
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A French judge in a shocking rape case allows the public to see some of the video evidence
PARIS (AP) — A French judge in the trial of dozens of men accused of raping an unconscious woman whose now former husband had repeatedly drugged her so that he and others could assault her decided on Friday to allow the public to see some of the video recordings of the alleged rapes.
The decision by Judge Roger Arata in Avignon in southern France to allow journalists and members of the public attending the trial to see the recordings marks a stunning reversal in the case that has shaken France.
It comes after a two-week legal battle in which journalists following the trial and lawyers of Gisèle Pelicot — who was allegedly raped over the course of a decade — argued that the videos were crucial for a full understanding of the extraordinary trial.
Pelicot, 71, has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France. She has insisted that the trial be public, against the court's suggestion that it be held behind closed doors.
Since the hearings started on Sept. 2, Pelicot has come face-to-face almost daily with her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot and 49 other alleged rapists. She has been praised for her courage and composure, admired for speaking in a calm and clear voice and allowing that her full name be published — uncommon under French law for victims in rape trials.
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US adds a robust 254,000 jobs and unemployment dips to 4.1% in sign of still-sturdy labor market
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added a surprisingly strong 254,000 jobs in September, easing concerns about a weakening labor market and suggesting that the pace of hiring is still solid enough to support a growing economy.
Last month’s gain was far more than economists had expected, and it was up sharply from the 159,000 jobs that were added in August. And after rising for most of 2024, the unemployment rate dropped for a second straight month, from 4.2% in August to 4.1% in September, the Labor Department said Friday.
The latest figures suggest that many companies are still confident enough to fill jobs despite the continued pressure of high interest rates.
In an encouraging sign, the Labor Department also revised up its estimate of job growth in July and August by a combined 72,000. Including those revisions, September's job gain — forecasters had predicted only around 140,000 — means that job growth has averaged a solid 186,000 over the past three months. In August, the three-month average was only 140,000.
“There’s still more momentum than we had given it credit for," Stephen Stanley, chief economist at the banking company Santander, said of the job market. “I would call it solid — certainly not as explosive as what we were seeing last year or the year before, when we were catching up from the pandemic. But the pace of job growth overall is very healthy.’’
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Judge denies an order sought by a Black student who was punished over his hair
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a request by a Black high school student in Texas for a court order that the student’s lawyers say would have allowed him to return to his high school without fear of having his previous punishment over his hairstyle resume.
Darryl George had sought to reenroll at his Houston-area high school in the Barbers Hill school district after leaving at the start of his senior year in August because district officials were set to continue punishing him for not cutting his hair. George had spent nearly all of his junior year serving in-school suspension over his hairstyle.
The district has argued that George’s long hair, which he wears to school in tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violates its policy because if let down, it would fall below his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes.
George, 19, had asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown in Galveston to issue a temporary restraining order that would have prevented district officials from further punishing him if he returned and while a federal lawsuit he filed proceeds.
But in a ruling issued late Friday afternoon, Brown denied George’s request, saying the student and his lawyers had waited too long to ask for the order.
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The Nobel Prizes will be announced against a backdrop of wars, famine and artificial intelligence
STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Wars, a refugee crisis, famine and artificial intelligence could all be recognized when Nobel Prize announcements begin next week under a shroud of violence.
The prize week coincides with the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which began a year of bloodshed and war across the Middle East.
The literature and science prizes could be immune. But the peace prize, which recognizes efforts to end conflict, will be awarded in an atmosphere of ratcheting international violence — if awarded at all.
“I look at the world and see so much conflict, hostility and confrontation, I wonder if this is the year the Nobel Peace Prize should be withheld,” said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
As well as events roiling the Middle East, Smith cites the war in Sudan and risk of famine there, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and his institute's research showing that global military spending is increasing at its fastest pace since World War II.
The Associated Press
