AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
70 minutes at Astroworld: A countdown to catastrophe
Anticipation had been building for hours, but never more than now, as the red numerals on the countdown clock disappeared and the first synthesized notes vibrated. An image of an eagle in a fireball hovered above the stage, a neon red tunnel appeared and eight towers of flames rose to the sky. Leaping from darkness into the glow, rapper Travis Scott emerged, the instant for which tens of thousands gathered before him had waited.
In the thrill of the moment, clamoring for an idol, many pushed forward, thrusting revelers into revelers, closer and closer and closer, until it seemed every inch was swallowed. Then, fighting the compression or seeking escape, people pushed from the front to the back, and new ripples came with it.
What followed last Friday in Houston is clouded by unanswered questions and strikingly different experiences based on where someone stood, which swells of movement reached them, and how they handled the crush. But in the 70 minutes the headliner was on stage in a show that left nine dead, one thing was certain: Nearly everyone felt the waves of humanity, borne of excitement but soaked with risk, as they spread.
"You became an organism," said 26-year-old Steven Gutierrez of Ellenville, New York, who is 6-foot-2 and 391 pounds but nonetheless found himself struck by the power of the pushes that sent him drifting from his spot. "We´re all one. You´re moving with the crowd. The crowd´s like water. It´s like an ocean."
The enthusiasm of some 50,000 spectators at the sold-out Astroworld festival was evident from the time gates opened seven hours earlier, when some of the earliest arrivals rushed through entrances with such force that metal detectors were toppled as security guards and police on horseback struggled to keep up. Though the concert grounds hosted numerous acts, Scott, a Houston-born musician who founded the festival in 2018 on the heels of his chart-topping album "Astroworld," was undoubtedly the top draw. Some fans made a beeline for the stage built solely for the headliner, staking out positions they would hold for hours under the manufactured peaks of "Utopia Mountain."
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COVID-19 hot spots offer sign of what could be ahead for US
The contagious delta variant is driving up COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Mountain West and fueling disruptive outbreaks in the North, a worrisome sign of what could be ahead this winter in the U.S.
While trends are improving in Florida, Texas and other Southern states that bore the worst of the summer surge, it´s clear that delta isn´t done with the United States. COVID-19 is moving north and west for the winter as people head indoors, close their windows and breathe stagnant air.
"We´re going to see a lot of outbreaks in unvaccinated people that will result in serious illness, and it will be tragic," said Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
In recent days, a Vermont college suspended social gatherings after a spike in cases tied to Halloween parties. Boston officials shut down an elementary school to control an outbreak. Hospitals in New Mexico and Colorado are overwhelmed.
In Michigan, the three-county metro Detroit area is again becoming a hot spot for transmissions, with one hospital system reporting nearly 400 COVID-19 patients. Mask-wearing in Michigan has declined to about 25% of people, according to a combination of surveys tracked by an influential modeling group at the University of Washington.
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Next battleground at Rittenhouse trial: Jury instructions
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) - Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse will return to the courthouse without the jury present on Friday to finalize how jurors will be instructed when they get the case next week.
Jurors will soon begin deliberating in a case that left Americans divided over whether Rittenhouse was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.
Rittenhouse´s lawyers rested their case Thursday, putting on about 2 1/2 days of testimony to the prosecution´s five, with the most riveting moment coming when the 18-year-old told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.
Prosecutors have sought to portray Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, which took place during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice.
He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.
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AP analysis: Exposure to extreme heat has tripled since 1983
World leaders have committed to limiting Earth´s rising temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
But what does that feel like?
It´s difficult to convey, because you may not notice changes in average temperature. But, depending on where you live, you might notice when it´s extremely hot.
To better understand the issue, Columbia University´s climate school recently published a global dataset with estimates of both population and temperature. The Associated Press analyzed the data - spanning 1983 to 2016 - and found that exposure to extreme heat has tripled and now affects about a quarter of the world´s population.
HOW HEAT IS MEASURED
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GOP leaders say little to condemn violent political rhetoric
NEW YORK (AP) - In the past week, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted a video showing a character with his face killing a figure with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's face. Several of the 13 House Republicans who backed a bipartisan infrastructure bill said they faced threats after their vote. In one profanity-laced voicemail, a caller labeled Rep. Fred Upton a "traitor" and wished death for the Michigan Republican, his family and staff.
The response from Republican leaders? Silence.
Less than a year after former President Donald Trump's supporters staged a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power, the GOP's refusal to broadly and forcefully condemn more recent examples of disturbing rhetoric and behavior suggests an unsettling shift. One of the nation's two major political parties appears increasingly tolerant of at least some persistent level of violence in American discourse, or at least willing to turn a blind eye to it.
In an interview, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who has emerged as a top Trump critic in her party, said Gosar should be censured "for his continued indefensible activities." And she blasted House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy for his silence on the matter.
"It´s a real symbol of his lack of strength, the lack of leadership in our conference right now, and the extent to which he and other leaders seem to have lost their moral compass," said Cheney, who was ousted from her leadership post after voting in favor of Trump´s impeachment. "In a moment where you´ve got an avowed white nationalist in Rep. Gosar who has posted a video advocating the killing of another member, the idea that our leader will not stand against that but that he´s somehow going after and allowing attacks against 13 members who are conducting themselves in a serious and substantive way is really outrageous."
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Court temporarily delays release of Trump's Jan. 6 records
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, granting - for now - a request from former President Donald Trump.
The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for Nov. 30.
The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a momentous clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trump's efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.
The National Archives, which holds the documents, says they include call logs, handwritten notes and a draft executive order on "election integrity."
Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.
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Attorney: No more `Black pastors' in court for Arbery case
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - An attorney for one of the white men standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery told the judge Thursday he doesn't want "any more Black pastors" in the courtroom after the Rev. Al Sharpton sat with the slain man's family.
Kevin Gough represents William "Roddie" Bryan, who along with father and son Greg and Travis McMichael is charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery's Feb. 23, 2020, killing. The 25-year-old Black man was chased and fatally shot after the defendants spotted him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick.
Gough told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley that he was concerned Sharpton's presence in court Wednesday was an attempt to intimidate the disproportionately white jury hearing the case. The jury was not in the courtroom when he made the remarks.
"Obviously there´s only so many pastors they can have," Gough said. "And if their pastor´s Al Sharpton right now that's fine, but then that´s it. We don´t want any more Black pastors coming in here ... sitting with the victim´s family, trying to influence the jurors in this case."
Jason Sheffield, one of Travis McMichael's lawyers, told the judge he didn't notice any distractions caused by Sharpton, who sat in the back row of the courtroom gallery wearing a mask.
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Blow-up at Rittenhouse trial over enlarging photos and video
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Attorneys in Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial sparred for a second day Thursday over the technology used to zoom in on video and create enlarged images, with prosecutors alleging the defense was taking advantage of the 75-year-old judge's admitted lack of understanding about current technology.
"I will tell you that I totally agree with your comment about my lack of familiarity with these concepts," Judge Bruce Schroeder told the attorneys without the jury present. "This is a difficult concept for me, yes."
In both cases, prosecutors were arguing for enlarging key images on the night last summer that Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters and injured a third on the streets of Kenosha. Much of the action that night was captured on sometimes hard-to-decipher cellphone video, as well as by a drone.
The defense rested its case Thursday, but not before arguing with prosecutors about whether an enlarged image taken from a drone video could be admitted into evidence. Schroeder, following arguments held without the jury present, said he would allow the image, while admitting he didn't understand the technology used by a state crime lab employee to enlarge it.
"With all due respect to your honor, I think the defense is trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge about technology," Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney James Kraus said.
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Missouri man who buried wife's body convicted of her murder
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri man who admitted to burying his wife´s body and misleading authorities for more than a year about her whereabouts was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder.
After deliberating for almost seven hours, a jury found Joseph Elledge guilty in the killing of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji, whom he married after she moved to the U.S. from China to study at the University of Missouri.
Elledge reported Ji missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri, in March.
Elledge was charged with first-degree murder, but Circuit Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs told jurors they could consider charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and first-degree or second-degree involuntary manslaughter. Elledge was acquitted of the first-degree murder charge.
First-degree murder requires the state to prove that Elledge killed Ji intentionally after deliberating about it, and Elledge´s intent was central to arguments throughout the trial.
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A stunner: Miami wins 2nd straight, tops Ravens 22-10
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) - Xavien Howard forced a fumble and returned it 49 yards for a touchdown, Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench and capped his night with a 1-yard sneak for a score with 2:19 left and the Miami Dolphins stunned the Baltimore Ravens 22-10 on Thursday night.
The Dolphins (3-7) got three field goals from Jason Sanders and got their second win in five days.
Tagovailoa - who couldn't start because of a fractured finger on his left, or throwing, hand - threw for 158 yards in relief of Jacoby Brissett, who passed for 156 yards before needing to depart in the third quarter with an injured right knee.
Baltimore's streak of 51 regular-season games with at least 14 points - the second-longest such streak in NFL history behind a 63-game run by New England from 2009 through 2013 - came to an end.
An emphatic end, at that.
