Trump says he’s taking malaria drug to protect against virus

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects.

Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure or prophylaxis for COVID-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration’s top medical professionals. The drug has the potential to cause significant side effects in some patients and has not been shown to combat the new coronavirus.

Trump said his doctor did not recommend the drug to him, but he requested it from the White House physician.

“I started taking it, because I think it’s good,” Trump said. “I’ve heard a lot of good stories.”

The White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said in a statement released through the White House press office that, after “numerous discussions” with Trump about the evidence for and against using hydroxychloroquine, “we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.”

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Automakers help restart US industry as globe reopens further

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — More than 130,000 autoworkers returned to factories across the U.S. for the first time in nearly two months Monday in one of the biggest steps yet to restart American industry, while an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus yielded encouraging results in a small and extremely early test.

Stocks rallied on the vaccine news and signs that the worst of the crisis has passed in many countries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared about 900 points, or nearly 4%.

In a surprise announcement, President Donald Trump said he’s been taking a malaria drug to protect against the virus even though his own administration has warned it should only be administered in a hospital or research setting because of potentially fatal side effects.

Automakers from Detroit’s Big Three — Fiat Chrysler, General Motors and Ford — to Honda and Toyota put screening procedures in place at the dozens of factories that reopened from the Great Lakes states south to Tennessee and Texas and out west to Tesla’s factory near the San Francisco Bay. Some Detroit automakers started cranking out vehicles Monday, but it will take longer to fully restart other plants. Workers appeared reassured by the precautions.

At a Fiat Chrysler pickup truck assembly plant in Warren, outside Detroit, workers entered a giant white tent with a sign reading, “Let’s restart and keep each other safe.” They had their temperatures checked and answered questions on whether they had COVID-19 symptoms.

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2020 Watch: Battleground map taking shape for Biden, Trump

ATLANTA (AP) — Presidential politics move fast. What we’re watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:

Days to general election: 169

THE NARRATIVE

States are relaxing shutdown and stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump is travelling more, determined to model the confidence he believes the nation needs to return to normal. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, continues a virtual campaign from his Delaware residence, determined to heed public health recommendations he says are the first steps toward a national recovery. Meanwhile, the U.S. coronavirus death toll now exceeds 89,000, and there are more unemployed working-age Americans than at any other point in history.

THE BIG QUESTIONS

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Democrats: Fired watchdog was looking into Saudi arms sale

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats say the State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump last week was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog’s abrupt dismissal.

Democrats said Monday that ousted Inspector General Steve Linick was probing how the State Department pushed through a $7 billion Saudi arms sale over congressional objections. Democrats previously suggested the dismissal might have been tied to Linick’s investigation of allegations that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have improperly ordered staff to run personal errands for him.

Linick’s dismissal late Friday comes amid broader concerns over Trump’s removal of inspectors general at various departments. Trump has said he had lost confidence in those fired but has not given specific reasons, which lawmakers from both parties have criticized.

Pompeo told The Washington Post on Monday that he had recommended to Trump that Linick be removed because he was “undermining” the State Department’s mission. He would not address specifics except to say it was not in retaliation for any investigation.

“It is not possible that this decision, or my recommendation rather, to the president rather, was based on any effort to retaliate for any investigation that was going on, or is currently going on,” Pompeo told the Post, adding that he did not know if Linick’s office had been looking into possible impropriety on his part.

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FBI: Shooter at Pensacola base co-ordinated with al-Qaida

The gunman who killed three U.S. sailors at a military base in Florida last year communicated with al-Qaida operatives about planning and tactics in the months leading up to the attack, U.S. officials said Monday, as they lashed out at Apple for failing to help them open the shooter’s phones so they could access key evidence.

Law enforcement officials discovered contacts between Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani and operatives of al-Qaida after FBI technicians succeeded in breaking into two cellphones that had previously been locked and that the shooter, a Saudi Air Force officer, had tried to destroy before he was killed by a sheriff’s deputy.

“We now have a clearer understanding of Alshamrani’s associations and activities in the years, months and days leading up to his attack,” Attorney General William Barr said at a news conference in which he chastised Apple for not helping open the phones.

The new details, including that Alshamrani had been radicalized abroad before he arrived in the U.S., raise fresh questions about the vetting of foreign military members and trainees who spend time at American bases. The announcement also comes amid tension with the U.S. over instability in the oil market during the coronavirus pandemic and as the Trump administration faces criticism that it has not done enough to hold the kingdom, which has been trying to improve its international image, accountable for human rights violations.

The criticism directed at Apple could also escalate divisions between the U.S. government and the technology company, which rejected the characterization that it has been unhelpful. The company said Monday that it does not store customers’ passcodes, does not have the capacity to unlock passcode-protected devices and that weakening encryption could create vulnerabilities that undermine national secuity and data privacy.

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Tropical Storm Arthur hits North Carolina coast with rain

Tropical Storm Arthur moved out to sea Monday after dumping heavy rain on North Carolina as forecasters warned that the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season could continue to whip dangerous surf and rip currents for another day or more along the U.S. East Coast.

The storm represented another early start for the Atlantic hurricane season. Arthur formed Saturday in waters off Florida, marking the sixth straight year that a named storm has developed before June 1.

By late Monday, storm watches and warnings that had been in effect for parts of the North Carolina coast were cancelled.

As Arthur’s centre passed off North Carolina earlier in the day, a pocket along the coast that includes Newport and Havelock recorded more than 4 inches (10 cm) of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Other areas along the coast saw 2 inches (5 cm) or more, causing some secondary roads to flood. Wind gusts of 40 mph or more (64 kph) were recorded in at least two places on the Outer Banks, the weather service said.

The Hurricane Center said Arthur was moving northeast at 16 mph (26 kph) Monday afternoon as its centre pulled away from the U.S. mainland.

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Barr says he doesn’t envision investigations of Biden, Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he did not expect an investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation to lead to criminal probes of either President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, or former President Barack Obama.

Trump has stated without evidence that he believes Obama committed unspecified crimes as president, repeatedly tweeting, “OBAMAGATE!” The claims have become a rallying cry among Trump supporters, while Democrats view it as a desperate attempt to shift the focus from the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and the nation’s soaring unemployment.

Barr, speaking Monday at an unrelated news conference and responding to a question about Trump’s allegations, insisted that the Justice Department would not be swayed by political pressure to investigate the president’s opponents and that the “criminal justice system will not be used for partisan political ends.”

Barr’s comments come as Democrats and some former law enforcement officials have accused the attorney general of politicizing decisions and doing Trump’s bidding at the Justice Department. That criticism was stepped up two weeks ago when the department moved to dismiss charges against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

“We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice, between President Trump and Vice-President Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues,” Barr said. “And we cannot allow this process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate.”

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US stocks rally on hopes for vaccine and economic recovery

The stock market bounced back from its worst week in nearly two months Monday as optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus and hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year put investors in a buying mood.

The S&P 500 climbed 3.2%, its best day since early April. The gains erased all of its losses from last week, when the index posted its worst showing since late March and its third weekly loss in the last four. Bond yields rose broadly in another sign that investors were becoming more optimistic.

Stocks were already headed for a higher opening on Wall Street when a drug company announced encouraging results in very early testing of an experimental coronavirus vaccine. The stock of the company, Massachusetts-based Moderna, jumped 20%.

Investors were also encouraged by remarks over the weekend from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who expressed optimism that the U.S. economy could begin to recover in the second half of the year. Once the outbreak has been contained, he said, the economy should be able to rebound “substantially.”

The S&P 500 gained 90.21 points to 2,953.91. The benchmark index is still down 12.8% from its all-time high on February 19.

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Ken Osmond, Eddie Haskell on ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ken Osmond, who on TV’s “Leave It to Beaver,” played two-faced teenage scoundrel Eddie Haskell, a role so memorable it left him typecast and led to a second career as a police officer, died Monday.

Osmond died in Los Angeles at age 76, his family said. No cause was given.

“He was an incredibly kind and wonderful father,” son Eric Osmond said in a statement. “He had his family gathered around him when he passed. He was loved and will be very missed.”

Ken Osmond’s Eddie Haskell stood out among many memorable characters on the classic family sitcom “Leave it to Beaver,” which ran from 1957 to 1963 on CBS and ABC, but had a decades-long life of reruns and revivals.

Eddie was the best friend of Tony Dow’s Wally Cleaver, big brother to Jerry Mathers’ Beaver Cleaver. He constantly kissed up to adults, flattering and flirting with Wally and Beaver’s mother, and kicked down at his peers, usually in the same scene. He was the closest thing the wholesome show had to a villain, and viewers of all ages loved to hate him.

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Sri Lanka newlyweds cancel wedding party, help poor instead

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — As couples do all over the world, Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana and his fiance, Pawani Rasanga, spent months planning a grand wedding.

And everything was on course for the Sri Lankan couple — until the coronavirus struck the island nation off India’s southern tip, leading to an indefinite lockdown.

“By that time, we had made all the arrangements. Clothes, rings and cakes had been ordered. The reception hall was booked. We had planned to invite 250 guests,” Darshana told The Associated Press by phone from his home in Malimbada, a small town about 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Family and friends urged them to postpone their April 27 wedding.

Instead, the couple chose to celebrate their love by feeding the poor.