AP News in Brief at 12:09 a.m. EDT

Aid effort picks up momentum as some Bahamians seek way out

ABACO, Bahamas (AP) — A few meagre possessions stuffed in plastic bags, some of the haggard Bahamians who lost homes to the ravages of Hurricane Dorian are waiting at a small airport hoping to catch planes out of the disaster zone as an international humanitarian effort to help the Caribbean country gains momentum and the death toll has risen to 30.

A few hundred people sat at the partly flooded Leonard M. Thompson airport on Abaco island Thursday as small planes picked up the most vulnerable survivors, including the sick and the elderly. The evacuation was slow and there was frustration for some who said they had nowhere to go after the Category 5 hurricane splintered whole neighbourhoods.

“They told us that the babies, the pregnant people and the elderly people were supposed to be first preference,” said Lukya Thompson, a 23-year-old bartender. But many were still waiting, she said.

Despite hardship and uncertainty, those at the airport were mostly calm. The Bahamian health ministry said helicopters and boats were on the way to help people in affected areas, though officials warned of delays because of severe flooding and limited access.

At least 30 people died in the hurricane and the number could be “significantly higher,” Bahamian health minister Duane Sands told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Thursday. The victims are from Abaco and Grand Bahama islands and include some who died from injuries after being flown to New Providence island, he said.

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Dorian grazes Carolina coast, aims for Outer Banks

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Hurricane Dorian sideswiped the Carolinas with shrieking winds, tornadoes and sideways rain Thursday as it closed in for a possible direct hit on the dangerously exposed Outer Banks. At least four deaths in the Southeast were blamed on the storm.

Twisters spun off by Dorian peeled away roofs and flipped trailers, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses were left without power as the hurricane pushed north along the coastline, its winds weakening after sunset to 100 mph (160 kph). Trees and power lines littered flooded streets in Charleston’s historic downtown. Gusts had topped 80 mph (129 kph) in some areas.

North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a thin line of islands that stick out from the U.S. coast like a boxer’s chin, braced for a hit late Thursday or early Friday. To the north, Virginia was also in harm’s way, and a round of evacuations was ordered there.

The damage from the same storm that mauled the Bahamas was mercifully light in many parts of South Carolina and Georgia as well, and by midafternoon many of the 1.5 million people who had been told to evacuate in three states were allowed to return.

But overnight winds will cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, and debris could block repair crews from accessing damaged lines, said Mike Burnette senior vice-president of Electric Cooperatives, a North Carolina utility provider. Customers should prepare for prolonged power outages, he said.

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A mother, a son, and a fight to survive opioids in Australia

FOUNTAINDALE, Australia (AP) — Deb Ware stared in numb horror at her son, a frail, 22-year-old man in diapers who looked like he’d had a stroke.

This was hardly Sam Ware’s first dance with death in the years since his addiction to pharmaceutical opioids began with a simple wisdom tooth extraction; in just the past 12 months, he overdosed more than 60 times.

But on this day in June, inside this hospital in Australia, his mother wondered if it would be his last.

For three years, she had battled to save his life, a lonely war against a system that made pharmaceutical opioids cheap and easy to get, in a country that has quietly endured what was once thought to be a uniquely American crisis of skyrocketing opioid addiction and deaths.

And yet despite all her efforts to rescue her son from an addiction funded largely by her government, here she was: Standing by, helpless, as doctors prepared to place her child in a coma.

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Singer says opera’s Domingo harassed her, grabbed her breast

The glittering production was a high point of the Washington Opera’s 1999-2000 season: Jules Massenet’s “Le Cid,” about a legendary Spanish conqueror, starring a tenor legendary in his own right — Placido Domingo, then the company’s artistic director.

The opera, also being filmed for broadcast on public television, was unquestionably a career break for a 28-year-old singer named Angela Turner Wilson, who’d been cast as the second female lead and was singled out for praise in reviews. “I knew this was the start of big things for me,” she says now.

But one evening before a performance, she said, she and Domingo were having their makeup done together when he rose from his chair, stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. As she looked at him in the mirror, he suddenly slipped his hands under her bra straps, she said, then reached down into her robe and grabbed her bare breast.

“It hurt,” she told The Associated Press. “It was not gentle. He groped me hard.” She said Domingo then turned and walked away, leaving her stunned and humiliated.

Wilson, now 48 and a college voice teacher in the Dallas area, was one of 11 women to come forward after an Aug. 13 AP story in which numerous women accused the long-married, Spanish-born superstar of sexual harassment or inappropriate, sexually charged behaviour and of sometimes damaging their careers if they rejected him.

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AP-NORC Poll: Most Americans see weather disasters worsening

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three-quarters of Americans see weather disasters, like Hurricane Dorian, worsening and most of them blame global warming to some extent, a new poll finds.

And scientists say they’re right.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey shows 72% of Americans think catastrophic weather is more severe, while 4% see it as less nasty. About one-quarter say those disasters are about as extreme as they always were.

Half of those who think weather disasters are worsening say it’s mainly because of man-made climate change, with another 37% who think natural randomness and global warming are equally to blame.

The poll was conducted in mid-August before Dorian formed, pummeled the Bahamas and put much of the U.S. East Coast on edge.

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Treasury unveils plan to privatize Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has unveiled its plan for ending government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant mortgage finance companies that nearly collapsed in the financial crisis 11 years ago and were bailed out at a total cost to taxpayers of $187 billion.

The administration’s plan calls for returning Fannie and Freddie to private ownership and reducing risk to taxpayers. That while preserving homebuyers’ access to 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a pillar of housing finance. The Treasury Department published the plan Thursday and submitted it to President Donald Trump, who called for it in March.

While not prominently in the public eye, the two companies perform a critical role in the housing market. Together they guarantee roughly half of the $10 trillion U.S. home loan market.

Fannie and Freddie, operating under so-called government conservatorships, have become profitable again in the years since the 2008 rescue and have repaid their bailouts in full to the Treasury.

The administration initially looked to Congress for legislation to overhaul the housing finance system and return the companies to private shareholders. But Congress hasn’t acted, and now officials say they will take administrative action for the core change, ending the Fannie and Freddie conservatorships.

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Mr Never Wrong: Storm spat underscores Trump’s mindset

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump doesn’t make mistakes. At least according to him.

Trump’s relentless justifications of his erroneous warnings that Hurricane Dorian was threatening Alabama on Sunday, which created days of ridicule and skepticism, are just the latest example of the president’s lifelong reluctance to admit an error, no matter how innocuous.

His fervent, dayslong pushback has displayed not only his prolonged focus on a personal spat but his willingness, notably again late on Thursday, to deploy government staff and resources to justify an inaccurate claim. Presidential proclamations can move markets, rattle world capitals and, in this case, unnecessarily alarm the residents of a state. Trump’s relationship with the truth and accountability threatened to, yet again, diminish the weight of any president’s words.

“Great presidents admit when they’ve screwed up, they fix it, and they move on,” said presidential historian Jon Meacham. “Right now, it is a mistake about a hurricane hitting a state. But it can also be a far bigger deal and cost people lives and help create a climate where people can’t trust the government.”

This was far from the first time Trump has refused to admit a mistake. Examples range from the harmless, like his assertion that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history, to the more serious, like his claim of widespread voter fraud in 2016 that led to the establishment of an election commission to try and back up his claim.

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Owner of dive boat where 34 died seeks to head off lawsuits

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owners of the dive boat where 34 people perished in a fire off Southern California filed a lawsuit Thursday to head off potentially costly litigation, a move condemned by some observers as disrespectful to the families of the dead.

Truth Aquatics Inc., which owned the Conception, filed the action in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability.

Investigators are still searching for what caused the blaze that wrecked the boat, which remains upside down at the bottom of the sea near the Channel Islands.

The time-tested legal manoeuvr has been successfully employed by owners of the Titanic and countless other crafts — some as small as Jet Skis — and was widely anticipated by maritime law experts. Still, the fact it was filed just three days after the deadly inferno Monday came as a surprise to legal observers.

Families of the deceased, who are not named in the complaint, will be served with notice that they have a limited time to challenge the company’s effort to clear itself of negligence or limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which is a total loss.

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No conviction in California warehouse fire stuns families

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Thursday didn’t convict two men charged after flames tore through a party at a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse that had been converted into a mazelike artist space, stunning families of the 36 victims who had opposed a deal that would have put the pair behind bars.

Jurors acquitted Max Harris of involuntary manslaughter but said they could not agree on whether to convict or acquit Derick Almena after deliberating over a two-week period.

As the judge declared a mistrial, sobs and gasps erupted from family and friends of the victims who have packed the courtroom for the emotional three-month trial. The men were accused of filling the building in Oakland with so much clutter that it trapped people at an electronic music party nearly three years ago.

“I’m in shock,” said David Gregory, whose 20-year-old daughter Michela perished in the fast-moving fire. “We were hoping for justice, but we didn’t get justice today.”

Michela Gregory and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Alex Vega, died when fire roared through the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse, which had been illegally converted into a live-work space for artists and held events.

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Packers’ D, Aaron Rodgers beat Bears 10-3 in opener

CHICAGO (AP) — The Monsters of the Midway showed up for the NFL’s season opener. They were wearing gold, green and white.

In a defensive battle also marked by sloppy offence and penalties, the Packers used the Bears’ usual trademark, a staunch D, and just enough from Aaron Rodgers on Thursday night to kick off the league’s 100th season with a 10-3 victory over their archrivals.

A lack of action in the preseason clearly damaged both offences, and Rodgers at times looked uncomfortable in the attack designed by new coach Matt LaFleur. But he is a two-time league MVP, and he hit Jimmy Graham in the second quarter for the only touchdown,

From there, it was an aggressive defence that would have made Vince Lombardi proud in the latest edition of the NFL’s longest rivalry, which the Packers lead 98-95-6. Green Bay has won 16 of the last 19 regular-season meetings, and Rodgers is 17-5.

Chicago’s defence hardly slacked, getting five sacks — tying the most it has had against Rodgers. But it could do little with the ball and the Packers had five sacks of Mitchell Trubisky, who never found his stride, and was sacked on Chicago’s final offensive play. Former Bears safety Adrian Amos picked off an end-zone pass into double coverage with 1:58 remaining, the only turnover of the contest.

The Associated Press