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SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020 World
WASHINGTON (AP) - United States
(US) President Donald Trump blasted
Joe Biden as a hapless career politi-
cian who will endanger Americans’
safety as he accepted his party’s
re-nomination on the South Lawn
of the White House.
While the coronavirus kills 1,000
Americans each day, Trump deˆied
his own administration’s pandemic
guidelines to speak for more than
an hour to a tightly packed, largely
mask-less crowd.
Facing a moment fraught with
racial turmoil, economic collapse
and a national health emergency,
Trump delivered a triumphant, op-
timistic vision of America’s future
on Thursday.
But he said that brighter horizon
could only be secured if he defeated
his Democratic foe, who currently
has an advantage in most national
and battleground state polls.
“We have spent the last four years
reversing the damage Joe Biden
inˆlicted over the last 47 years,"
Trump said, referring to the former
senator and vice president's career
in Washington.
When Trump ˆinished, a massive
ˆireworks display went off by the
Washington Monument, complete
with explosions that spelled out
“Trump 2020”.
His acceptance speech kicked off
the ˆinal stretch of the campaign, a
race now fully joined and, despite
the pandemic, soon to begin criss-
crossing the country. Trump’s pace
of travel will pick up to a near daily
pace while Biden, who has largely
weathered the pandemic from this
Delaware home, announced on
Thursday that he will soon resume
campaign travel.
Teasing once more that a vac-
cine could arrive soon, the presi-
dent promised victory over the
coronavirus pandemic, which has
killed more than 180,000 people
in the US, left millions unemployed
and rewritten the rules of society.
And, in the setting for his speech,
Trump sought to project a sense
of normalcy by throwing caution
about the coronavirus aside.
All week long, Republicans at the
non-convention convention tried to
create the illusion that the pandemic
is largely a thing of the past.
The rows of chairs on the South
Lawn were inches apart. Protec-
tive masks were not required, and
COVIDž19 tests were not adminis-
tered to everyone.
BIRMINGHAM (AP) - An Alabama
man has been indicted on charges
he manufactured homemade
and untested cancer drugs in his
kitchen and marketed them to
“alternative-medicine doctors"
in the United States (US), Mexico
and elsewhere, according to fed-
eral prosecutors.
Patrick Charles Bishop, 54,
was charged with conspiracy and
nearly three-dozen other fraud-
related counts in the purchase,
manufacture and distribution of
drug products that were never
been reviewed or approved by
federal regulators.
Prosecutors saidBishopclaimed
the drugs, which contained a
compound he purchased from a
Chinese manufacturer, were ef-
fective cancer treatments.
BERLIN (AFP) - Coping with the
coronavirus will become more
challenging in the coming au-
tumn and winter months, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said in
her annual summer press confer-
ence yesterday.
"Some things are likely to be
more difˆicult over the next few
months than they are in the sum-
mer," Merkel said.
"We have all enjoyed the free-
doms and relative protection
from aerosols in the summer,
which is possible through life
outdoors," she said, referring to
micro-particles that are thought to
spread through the air, especially
in enclosed spaces.
Merkel's comments came af-
ter she agreed a wave of new
measures with the leaders of
Germany's 16 federal states on
Thursday designed to combat
rising case numbers in Germany
blamed mainly on summer travel
and private parties.
The measures include a mini-
mum ˆine of EUR50 (USD59) for
anyone caught without a facemask
in places where wearing one is
compulsory, a ban on large events
until the end of the year and new
quarantine rules for travellers.
"We will have to live with this
virus for a long time to come. It
is still serious. Please continue to
take it seriously," Merkel warned.
"Not everything will be the
same as before the pandemic, it
will hit us hard and existentially,"
she added.
Trump blasts Biden,
defies pandemic on stage
Protestors rally in Washington. PHOTO: AP
As his speech brought the scaled-
back Republican National Conven-
tion to a close, Trump's incendiary
rhetoric risked inˆlaming a divided
nation reeling from a series of ca-
lamities, including the pandemic, a
major hurricane that slammed into
the Gulf Coast and nights of protest
after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was
shot by a white Wisconsin police of-
ˆicer. Prosecutors charged a white,
17-year-old police admirer with the
fatal shooting of two protesters and
wounding of a third.
The American president spoke
from a setting that was both familiar
and controversial.
Despite tradition and regulation
to not use the White House for po-
litical events, a huge stage was set
up outside the executive mansion,
dwarˆing the trappings for some
of the most important moments of
past presidencies.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - More than
50,000 people forced to ˆlee their
homes were allowed to return by
Thursday night as ˆireˆighters made
progress in their effort to put out
massive and deadly wildˆires in
Northern California.
Ofˆicials were working on plans to
repopulate other evacuated areas.
Cooler weather and higher humidity,
along with an inˆlux of equipment
and ˆireˆighters, continued to help
hard-pressed crews ˆighting some
of the largest ˆires in recent state
history, burning in and around the
San Francisco Bay Area.
Evacuation orders for more than
20,000 people were lifted over
the past 24 hours in San Mateo
and Santa Cruz counties, where a
massive blaze caused by lightning
was 24 per cent surrounded, ˆire
ofˆicials announced.
In heavily damaged areas, crews
were working to restore electricity
andwater somore people can return
to their homes, Santa Cruz County
Chief Deputy Chris Clark said.
“I think we're going to have good
news day to day," he said, adding
that three people reportedmissing in
evacuation zones had been found.
The ˆire has burned at least 516
homes but the tally could rise.
Inspection teams were struggling
to get into remote areas because
bridges were damaged and roads
blocked by fallen trees and power
lines, ˆire ofˆicials said.
50,000 that fled California fires allowed back home Man indicted in sale of ‘homemade’,
untested cancer drugs
Merkel sees difficult season ahead
PARIS (AFP) - Paris authorities made
a last-minute about-turn yesterday
on a new requirement for universal
mask-wearing, exempting cyclists
and joggers from the otherwise
blanket outdoors obligation.
Outdoor mask-wearing became
compulsory in Paris and near sub-
urbs at 8am yesterday as the gov-
ernment moves to stay a trend of
mounting coronavirus infections.
Non-compliance is punishable with
a ˆine of EUR135 (USD160).
"The wearing of a mask will not
be required" for people "exercising
cycling or jogging as a physical ac-
tivity", the police prefecture said in
a statement which came in response
to a request by the Paris city council
for an exemption.
On Thursday, ofˆicial data showed
6,111 conˆirmed new cases in 24
hours countrywide, a record since
the end of France's coronavirus
lockdown in May.
The Paris region is one of 21
French departments on a map of red
zones with active virus circulation.
On Thursday, authorities said the
new mask obligation would apply
to pedestrians, cyclists and kick-
scooter users alike.
Paris U-turns on masks for cyclists, runners
"We are pleased with the decision
to allow an exemption from mask-
wearing for cyclists in #Paris," Deputy
Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire tweeted
yesterday. "On top of the health ben-
eˆits, cycling is a great way to avoid
congestion on public transport."
Just hours before thenewmeasure
came into force, the Paris city council
urged thepoliceprefecture toexclude
cyclists "as there as nothing in the sci-
ence to suggest that it is dangerous"
to cycle without a mask.
Gregoire said such a requirement
would be counter-productive. "We
tell people: 'Take your bike to reduce
congestion on public transport' and
at the same time we ask them to
wear a mask which is particularly
uncomfortable," he argued.
Cyclists stop at a traf ic light while wearing a protective face masks as a
precaution against the coronavirus in Paris. PHOTO: AP
VIENNA (AFP) - Austrian Chan-
cellor Sebastian Kurz yesterday
predicted a return to "normal"
next year after a challenging
autumn and winter because of
the pandemic.
The next months would be
"challenging" as schools start
again, temperatures drop and the
annual ˆlu season begins, he said.
However, Kurz added: "It is very
probable from our standpoint
today that next summer can be a
normal one again."
He said the government would
decide next week whether to fur-
ther tighten measures to rein in
rising numbers of infections.
Austrian Chancellor says return
to ‘normal’ by middle of 2021