HBO produces documentary to help kids understand 9/11
NEW YORK — For students from elementary to high school, the Sept. 11 terrorist attack isn’t a memory. It’s history. A new HBO documentary that debuts on the event’s 18th anniversary treats it that way.
The necessity of her project, “What Happened on September 11,” struck filmmaker Amy Schatz when a third grade girl told her about a playdate where she and a friend Googled “Sept. 11 attacks.”
“When a child does that, what he or she finds are some pretty horrific images that are not necessarily appropriate for kids,” Schatz said on Tuesday. “So I felt a responsibility to try to fill that void and try to give kids something that isn’t horrifying and kind of fills in the gap.”
The half-hour film debuts today at 6 p.m. ET.
Desperation mounts in Bahamas as shelters turn evacuees away
NASSAU, Bahamas — Desperation mounted in the Bahamas on Tuesday as hurricane survivors arriving in the capital by boat and plane were turned away from overflowing shelters.
As government officials gave assurances at a news conference that more shelters would be opened as needed, Julie Green and her family gathered outside the headquarters of the island’s emergency management agency, seeking help.
“We need a shelter desperately,” the 35-year-old former waitress from Great Abaco said as she cradled one of her 7-month-old twins on her hip, his little face furrowed. Nearby, her husband held the other twin boy as their four other children wandered listlessly nearby. One kept crying despite receiving comforting hugs.
Hurricane Dorian devastated the Abaco and Grand Bahama islands in the northern part of the archipelago a week ago, leaving at least 50 dead, with the toll certain to rise as the search for bodies goes on.
Nearly 5,000 people have arrived in Nassau by plane and by boat, and many were struggling to start new lives, unclear of how or where to begin. More than 2,000 of them were staying in shelters, according to government figures.
GOP wins one N. Carolina congressional seat
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republicans won a vacant North Carolina House seat in a special election on Tuesday. But that victory was expected, and all eyes were on another House race in the state that could provide clues about President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects and Republican chances of retaking the House in 2020.
Physician Greg Murphy defeated Democrat Allen Thomas in a district along the state’s Atlantic coast and will succeed the late GOP Rep. Walter Jones Jr., who died in February after 24 years in Congress. Trump won the district comfortably in 2016.
“One down, one to go – Greg Murphy is projected to win in the Great State of North Carolina! #NC03,” Trump tweeted Tuesday night.
Tent courts set to open on border for U.S. asylum seekers
EL PASO, Texas — The Trump administration is ready to open a tent court on the border to help handle tens of thousands of cases of asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico, with hearings held entirely by videoconference.
The court, or “soft-sided” facility as U.S. officials call it, is scheduled to begin operations Monday in Laredo, Texas. Another is expected to open soon in Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings.
The administration introduced its “Remain in Mexico” policy in San Diego in January and later expanded it to El Paso, but hearings there are conducted inside large buildings with normal courtrooms, and the judge usually appears in person.
By wire sources