AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

At Rushmore, Trump to say protesters seek to ‘defame’ heroes

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to say in a fiery speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday night that protesters have waged “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history” amid demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality.

The sharp rebuke in a holiday address to mark the nation’s independence follows weeks of protests across the nation, sparked by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Some demonstrators have also destroyed or damaged Confederate monuments and statues honouring those who have benefited from slavery.

“This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House. He will also add that some on the political left hope to “defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”

His speech, intended to rev up his conservative base, comes as Trump has seen his standing slump over his handling of the pandemic and response to protests and unrest around the country. With four months until the election, Trump’s reelection hopes — once buoyed by low unemployment and a roaring stock market — seem uncertain.

Amid the headwinds, Trump has sharpened his focus on his most ardent base of supporters as concern grows inside his campaign that his poll numbers in the battleground states that will decide the 2020 election are slipping.

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The Latest: Trump goes to Mount Rushmore for fireworks

KEYSTONE, S.D. (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s July Fourth celebration at Mount Rushmore (all times local):

8:50 p.m.

With the U.S. setting another record in newly reported coronavirus cases Friday, thousands have gathered at President Donald Trump’s Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore — and few are wearing protective masks.

Nor was there any evidence of social distancing in the tightly packed audience assembled for Trump’s speech and a fireworks display.

Trump did offer thanks to “the doctors, nurses and scientists working tirelessly to kill the virus.”

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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 cancelled, 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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The Latest: 2 death row inmates die in California outbreak

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Authorities in California say two more death row inmates have died from apparent complications of the coronavirus in the midst of an outbreak that has infected 40% of inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

The corrections department says Scott Erskine and Manuel Machado Alvarez died Friday.

Erskine was on death row for the 1993 murder of two boys, 9 and 13, in San Diego. Alvarez was there for a 1987 series of crimes that included rape, robbery, carjacking and murder in Sacramento.

There have now been two dozen deaths from COVID-19 in California’s prison system.

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8-year-old killed, 3 injured in shooting at Alabama mall

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — An 8-year-old boy was killed Friday in a shooting at an Alabama’s shopping mall that left three other people injured, police said.

Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said the child was killed in the afternoon shooting at the Riverchase Galleria. The police chief said a girl and two adults were also hospitalized after the shooting. Authorities did not release the victims’ names.

Police did not give a motive for the shooting. Derzis said police are working promising leads, but did not say if they had identified suspects.

“This is certainly a tragic situation when you have an innocent child who gets caught in the middle of an altercation between others,” Derzis said.

Multiple shots were reported near the food court inside the mall, police said. “We don’t know at this point what led to the shooting or how many gunmen were involved,” Police Capt. Gregg Rector said in an earlier news release.

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Cops fired over photos of chokehold used on Elijah McClain

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Three officers were fired Friday over photos showing police reenact a chokehold used on Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died last year after police stopped him on the street in a Denver suburb.

One of those fired is Jason Rosenblatt, a white Aurora officer who helped stop McClain in August for wearing a ski mask and “being suspicious.” Police put McClain in a chokehold, paramedics injected him with a sedative and McClain suffered cardiac arrest before later being taken off life support.

Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson told reporters that officers sent the photos to Rosenblatt and others two months after McClain died to “cheer up a friend,” without explaining who that was. Rosenblatt responded with a text saying, “Haha.” Officer Nathan Woodyard, who put McClain in a chokehold, also got the photos but he was not disciplined because he didn’t respond.

“We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry,” Wilson said. The officers may not have committed a crime, but the photographs are “a crime against humanity and decency,” she added.

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.

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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 defence 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 defence 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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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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Paint schemes go political as NASCAR season heats up

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Many a fan is quick to insist they do not like politics in their sports — no kneeling, no raised fists, no T-shirt messages. Just the game or event, please and thank you.

That has not been the case of late as the nation goes through a reckoning on race and racism following the death of George Floyd in police custody. In NASCAR, the colorful paint schemes on the stock cars themselves have taken a decidedly political turn in recent weeks — and will again this weekend.

Corey LaJoie’s car will carry a scheme touting the re-election bid of President Donald Trump during Sunday’s Brickyard 400. The Patriots of America PAC spent $350,000 for the political advertisement that will be seen by anyone who catches a glimpse of the No. 32 Ford on NBC.

Political ads are not unheard of in NASCAR, but the move still drew attention in part because Trump is a polarizing figure for many and because the series itself is wrestling with how to boost diversity.

“Let’s just say there’s been a lot of Corey LaJoie stories this week,” said Tom Jensen, manager of curatorial affairs for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “Historically, I can tell you (NASCAR) sponsorship is a mixture of brand awareness, brand favourability and in some cases to move product directly.”