America’s most popular national park crippled by Helene

WASHINGTON — The gorgeous fall colors will still come this month to the Great Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina, but many of the millions of travelers who normally arrive this time of year at America’s most-visited national park probably will not, in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

The result is a triple tragedy for the region: extensive damage that has closed many roads and trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, thousands of homes and businesses in ruins and millions of dollars in lost revenues from tourism and recreation.

The full extent of the damages to the park and the communities surrounding it might not be known for weeks, but it is clearly a calamitous situation in the park that last year drew 13.3 million visitors, three times more than either the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park, according to the National Park Service.

Those visitors pumped more than $2 billion into the region’s economy, with a large share coming in the autumn leaf-peeping season, the Park Service says.

—CQ-Roll Call

Democrats press abortion issue after Vance admits GOP has lost ‘trust’

Democrats pressed their advantage on the issue of abortion rights Wednesday after Republican JD Vance admitted the GOP has lost the trust of voters on the issue at the vice presidential debate and former President Donald Trump shifted his stance on a national abortion ban.

The Republican vice presidential nominee surprised many on both sides of the reproductive rights debate by effectively conceding Democrats have the upper hand on the issue in an answer during the debate with Democratic rival Tim Walz.

“We’ve got to do much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly, just don’t trust us,” Vance said. Vance recounted a story of a female childhood friend who believed that having an abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy “saved her life.”

Democrats angrily pointed out that Vance supports abortion bans that would take that choice away from the woman he mentioned.

—New York Daily News

Do Americans think the US should be based on Christian values? What new survey finds

Americans are split down the middle on their perceptions of the country’s religion, new research finds.

Fifty percent of Americans surveyed say they think the U.S. is a Christian nation and should be based on Christian values, according to a Sept. 24 analysis by Public Religion Research Institute fellows. The research is based on a national probability survey of 1,280 U.S. adults, conducted in April.

According to the data, white Christian conservatives show the most support for the idea that the U.S. should be based on Christian values, with 85% of the group saying so. By contrast, non-Christian and non-religious groups are much less likely to say they think Christian values should ground the country, according to the analysis.

Forty percent of Americans who identify as religiously Jewish say the U.S. should be based on Christian values, while just 25% of religious “nones” agree, the survey found. According to the survey, 35% of Americans overall think Christians should have dominion over U.S. laws, compared to 43% of white Christian conservatives who agree.

—The Charlotte Observer

Sheinbaum, a ‘child of 1968,’ apologizes for historic ‘atrocity’ in Tlatelolco, Mexico City

MEXICO CITY — Calling herself a “child of 1968,” Mexico’s newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a formal apology Wednesday for one of the country’s most notorious episodes — the brutal repression and murder of student protesters 56 years ago in the capital’s Tlatelolco district.

“We cannot forget Oct. 2,” said Sheinbaum, who assumed office on Tuesday as the nation’s first female president.

The “Tlatelolco massacre,” during which Mexican security forces opened fire on demonstrators, unfolded amid the global upheaval of the 1960s, notable for anti-establishment, antiwar and civil rights protests. Mexico’s then-authoritarian leaders were keen to present an image of order and stability before the 1968 Summer Olympics, the first held in Latin America.

Sheinbaum, a leftist activist, condemned the government’s 1968 actions in remarks at her inaugural mañanera, or morning news conference, continuing the tradition of media sessions launched by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

—Los Angeles Times