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AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT

| July 3, 2020 3:27 PM

Trump readies fiery speech for Mount Rushmore July Fourth

KEYSTONE, S.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump planned a fiery Mount Rushmore speech Friday night including denunciations of protesters he says are trying to “tear down” the nation's history. He's adding condemnation of those who pull down statues to a big fireworks show and his more traditional July Fourth praise of America's past and values.

Trump, who has spoken forcefully against protesters who have tried to topple Confederate monuments and statues honoring those who have benefited from slavery, planned to target “the left wing mob and those practicing cancel culture," said a person familiar with his remarks.

Trump planned to condemn such “totalitarian behavior that is completely alien to American life,” said the person, who described the planned remarks in advance only on condition of anonymity.

The president was to preside over a fireworks display at an event expected to draw thousands, even as coronavirus cases spike across the country.

The president was enjoying a South Dakota show of support, with the state Republican Party selling T-shirts that feature Trump on the memorial alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. But concern about the coronavirus risk and wildfire danger from the fireworks, along with protests from Native American groups, were also expected.

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`Huge bummer': July Fourth will test Americans' discipline

The U.S. headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a crucial test of Americans' self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak.

With confirmed cases climbing in 40 states, governors and local officials have ordered the wearing of masks in public, and families were urged to celebrate their independence at home. Even then, they were told to keep their backyard cookouts small.

“This year is a huge bummer, to say the least,” said Ashley Peters, who for 14 years has hosted 150 friends and relatives at a pool party at her home in Manteca, California, complete with a DJ, bounce house, water slide and shaved-ice stand. This time, the guest list is down to just a few people.

Pulling the plug on the bash, she said, was a “no-brainer” because so many of those she knows are front-line workers, including her husband, a fire captain. “I woke up and told my husband I wish it was just July 5,” she said.

Health experts agree this will be a pivotal moment in determining whether the nation slides into a deeper mess. The fear is that a weekend of crowded pool parties, picnics and parades will fuel the surge.

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Can Trump's anti-mail-voting crusade hurt him in key states?

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump's campaign and allies have blocked efforts to expand mail-in voting, forcing an awkward confrontation with top GOP election officials who are promoting the opposite in their states.

The rare dissonance between Trump and other Republican elected officials also reflects another reality the president will not concede: Many in his party believe expanding mail-in voting could ultimately help him.

Trump's campaign has intervened directly in Ohio, while allies have fired warning shots in Iowa and Georgia, aimed at blunting Republican secretaries of state in places that could be competitive in November.

“There is a dimension to legislatures underfunding or undercutting election officials that could ironically backfire and hurt Republicans,” said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor and director of the nonpartisan United States Election Project.

Action by these three secretaries of state, who are the top election officials in their states, was designed to make ballot access easier during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that voting by mail could lead to fraud so extensive it could undermine the integrity of the presidential election.

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Iran declines to disclose cause of mysterious nuke site fire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause but would not make it public due to “security reasons.”

The multiple, different claims by a self-described group called the “Cheetahs of the Homeland” included language used by several exiled Iranian opposition organizations. They also focused almost entirely on Iran's nuclear program, viewed by Israel as a danger to its very existence.

The disparate messages, as well as the fact that Iran experts have never heard of the group before, raised questions about whether Natanz again had faced sabotage by a foreign nation as it had during the Stuxnet computer virus outbreak believed to have been engineered by the U.S. and Israel. Tehran's reaction so far shows Iranian officials are increasingly taking the possibility seriously.

“If it is proven that our country has been attacked by cyberattacks, we will respond,” warned Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of Iran’s military unit in charge of combating sabotage, according to a report late Thursday by the Mizan news agency.

Iranian officials have sought to downplay the fire, which erupted early on Thursday, calling it only an “incident” that affected an “industrial shed.” However, a released photo and video of the site broadcast by Iranian state television showed a two-story brick building with scorch marks and its roof apparently destroyed. Debris on the ground and a door that looked blown off its hinges suggested an explosion accompanied the blaze.

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Redskins to have 'thorough review' of name amid race debate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Redskins began a “thorough review” of their name Friday, a significant step toward moving on from what experts and advocates call a “dictionary-defined racial slur.”

Even though owner Dan Snyder had shown no willingness to change the name since buying the team in 1999, the recent national conversation on race has renewed opposition to the name and prompted sponsors to speak up. With support from the NFL, it may finally lead to a new moniker for the long-struggling storied franchise with long-ago Super Bowl success.

“In the last few weeks, we have had ongoing discussions with Dan, and we are supportive of this important step," Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

In a statement, the team said recent events around the U.S. and feedback from the community prompted the formal review.

“This process allows the team to take into account not only the proud tradition and history of the franchise but also input from our alumni, the organization, sponsors, the National Football League and the local community it is proud to represent on and off the field," Snyder said.

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Epstein cohort's arrest becomes new test for plea deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Before Jeffrey Epstein’s jailhouse suicide last year, his defense hinged on a 2008 deal with federal prosecutors in Florida over his alleged sexual abuse of multiple teenage girls. His lawyers said it prevented him from being charged with further crimes.

Could that same deal now help Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein confidante arrested Thursday, evade charges she helped lure at least three girls into sexual liaisons with him?

Maxwell’s lawyers haven’t outlined their defense strategy, but her legal team is bound to raise the issue in the months ahead.

The British socialite was arrested Thursday in New Hampshire on charges that she acted as a recruiter of underage girls for Epstein, usually under the guise of hiring them to perform massages, and sometimes participated in his sexual abuse of the teens.

The allegations against the couple date back many years, but Epstein, for a while, appeared to have resolved them under a deal with federal and state prosecutors in South Florida in which he pleaded guilty to lesser state charges and served 13 months in jail and a work-release program.

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Geofence warrants to be tested in Virginia bank robbery case

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It was a terrifying bank robbery: Demanding cash in a handwritten note, a man waved a gun, threatened to kill a teller's family, ordered employees and customers onto the floor and escaped with $195,000.

Surveillance video gave authorities a lead, showing a man holding a cellphone outside the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia, on May 20, 2019. So like a growing number of law enforcement agencies, they got a court-approved “geofence” search warrant, seeking the location history of any devices in the area at the time.

Google is served with the vast majority of these warrants because it stores information from millions of devices in a massive database known as Sensorvault. If your Android phone or iPhone has Location History enabled, this is where your data is tracked and stored.

A Google spokesman declined to say how many geofence warrants the company has received, but Google's legal brief in the bank robbery says requests jumped 1,500% from 2017 to 2018, and another 500% last year.

Police credit these warrants with helping identify suspects in a fatal shooting in North Carolina, home invasions in Minnesota and a murder in Georgia, among other crimes. Defense attorneys say they unconstitutionally ensnare innocent people and violate the privacy of anyone whose cellphone happens to be in the vicinity.

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Cop who stopped Elijah McClain fired over chokehold photos

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — One of the three white officers who stopped Elijah McClain was fired over photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used on the Black man before he died last year, authorities said Friday. After getting a text message with the images, he replied, “haha."

Police stopped McClain as he walked down the street in a ski mask last August for “being suspicious.” Aurora Officer Jason Rosenblatt tried to use a chokehold on the 23-year-old but couldn't because of his position, so another officer did, a report from prosecutors said.

Two months later, Rosenblatt received the photos from three fellow officers who smiled as they mimicked a chokehold near where McClain was stopped, which had become a public memorial.

McClain’s death has become a rallying cry amid a national reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice, with the state reopening the case for possible criminal charges and federal officials looking into a civil rights investigation. In several places, the chokehold has been banned and other police reforms passed after nationwide protests.

A visibly shaken Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson assailed the four officers involved with the photos, saying their explanation is that they were “trying to cheer up a friend by sending that photo.”

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Reps: Singers Kacey Musgraves, Ruston Kelly file for divorce

NEW YORK (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Kacey Musgraves and her musician-husband, Ruston Kelly, have filed for divorce.

Representatives for both singers confirmed the news Friday to The Associated Press. In a joint statement, Musgraves and Kelly said “we’ve made this painful decision together."

“With heavy but hopeful hearts we wanted to put our own thoughts into the air about what’s happening. These kinds of announcements are always met with scrutiny and speculation and we want to stop that before it even starts. We believe that we were put into each other’s lives for a divine reason and have both changed each other infinitely for the better. The love we have for each other goes far beyond the relationship we’ve shared as husband and wife. It’s a soul connection that can never be erased," the emailed statement read.

“We’ve made this painful decision together — a healthy decision that comes after a very long period of trying the best we can. It simply just didn’t work. Though we are parting ways in marriage, we will remain true friends for the rest of our lives. We hold no blame, anger, or contempt for each other and we ask for privacy and positive wishes for us both as we learn how to navigate through this," the statement continued.

Musgraves and Kelly, both 31, were married in 2017.

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Discourse over national anthem looms for NBA, other leagues

Rick Carlisle isn't sure what to expect from players during the national anthem when the NBA season resumes in empty arenas in Florida.

The Dallas Mavericks coach does know how he will react if players kneel or otherwise violate a longtime league policy that requires them to stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“We support our players 100% in terms of their ability to express themselves individually or as a group if they wish,” Carlisle said. "I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like in Orlando. There could be different forms of expression. But our country is a free country.”

The death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police in May sparked fresh questions across sports about kneeling during the anthem and the gesture has been seen from European soccer to North American auto racing. Former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the latest movement in 2016, saying he was protesting racial inequality and police mistreatment of minorities.

Since sports resumed following Floyd's death, players have knelt worldwide, at professional and even youth sporting events. And NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league was wrong not to acknowledge the right of its players to peacefully protest, a move that perhaps prompted new criticism from President Donald Trump, who has long opposed kneeling during the anthem.