Damian Lewis herds sheep over a London bridge in homage to a medieval tradition

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurricane Helene’s deadly devastation has scrambled the presidential candidates’ campaign plans, with Kamala Harris returning early from a campaign visit to Las Vegas to attend briefings and Donald Trump heading to Georgia to see the storm’s impact.

The death toll surpassed 100 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.

In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign. North Carolina and Georgia, two of the states hit by the storm, are key battlegrounds in November’s presidential election.

At the beginning of a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, Harris said “we will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild.”

Trump, speaking in Erie, Pa., on Sunday, described the storm as “a big monster hurricane” that had “hit a lot harder than anyone even thought possible.”

He criticized Harris for attending weekend “fundraising events with her radical left lunatic donors” in California while the storm hit.

“She ought to be down in the area where she should be,” Trump said.

He escalated his criticism on Truth Social, his social media website, where he said that he’s bringing “lots of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water, and other things” to Georgia.

Trump said he wanted to stop in North Carolina but is holding off because access and communication is limited in hard-hit communities. He claimed without evidence that the federal government and the state’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornados and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

It also took until weeks before the presidential election in 2020 for Trump’s administration to release $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.

Trump campaign officials have long pointed to his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic trail derailment, as a turning point in the early days of the presidential race when he was struggling to establish his footing as a candidate. They believed his warm welcome by residents frustrated by the federal government’s response helped remind voters why they had been drawn to him years earlier.

The White House said Harris would visit impacted areas “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.” She also spoke with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and she received a briefing from Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell while she was traveling.

FEMA uses the disaster relief fund to coordinate the federal response to major disasters. It pays for debris removal, the repair of public infrastructure and financial assistance for survivors, among other things. The temporary spending bill passed and signed into law last week pumped about $20 billion into the fund and gave FEMA the ability to spend that money more quickly.

That should help the agency respond to the most immediate needs, but lawmakers from both parties recognize that additional money will be needed in the coming months. Lawmakers are expected to return to Washington shortly after the November election and negotiate a full-year spending bill, when many lawmakers will seek billions of dollars more for the disaster relief fund.

President Joe Biden described Hurricane Helene as “a historic, history-making storm” during remarks at the White House on Monday. He plans to visit areas affected by the storm later this week, with efforts to not disrupt response efforts.

“I want them to know, we’re not leaving until the job is done,” he said.

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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed from Las Vegas.

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian human rights activists Monday accused the government of pressuring political prisoners who have been pardoned by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and forcing them to cooperate with authorities.

During the past three months, Lukashenko has pardoned 115 activists who were convicted for taking part in the protest against his rule.

Those pardoned were a small fraction of more than 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Viasna human rights center. They include the group’s founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and Polish newspaper journalist Andrzej Poczobut, whose release Poland is seeking. At least six political prisoners have died behind bars, Viasna said.

Viasna and other rights groups said Monday that those amnestied were barred from leaving the country and forced to take part in propaganda videos.

Andrei Stryzhak of the BYSOL rights group said that some of the amnestied had their phones infested with software intended to spy on the opposition. “We categorically condemn the authorities’ pressure on the former political prisoners,” he said.

Viasna representative Pavel Sapelka said the Belarusian law enforcement agencies have threatened those amnestied with repeat conviction or reprisals against their relatives to force them to cooperate with the authorities.

In 2020, Belarus was rocked by its largest-ever protests following an election that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office but was condemned by the opposition and the West as fraudulent. According to Viasna, 65,000 people have been arrested since the protests began and hundreds of thousands have fled Belarus.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lawyers for two former Memphis officers rested their cases Monday without calling them to testify in their own defense against charges that they violated Tyre Nichols’ civil rights in a beating that proved fatal following a 2023 traffic stop.

The third former on trial could still take the witness stand.

Attorneys for Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley told a jury that they were not calling any more witnesses. Michael Stengel, Haley’s lawyer, and John Keith Perry, Bean’s attorney, each called their own police use-of-force experts in previous days of testimony in an attempt to justify the officers’ actions during the traffic stop and beating. The trial is now in its fourth week.

Martin Zummach, the lawyer for Justin Smith, said in opening statements that Smith would testify in his own defense. Smith has not yet taken the stand. On Monday, Zummach questioned Jared Zwickey, who spent 50 years law enforcement and was called as an expert witness.

Zwickey said he analyzed video and he showed the jury excerpts of Smith and Bean hitting Nichols when they caught him after he ran from the traffic stop. Zwickey testified that Smith’s actions were consistent with Memphis police and national policing standards and training.

The five officers charged in Nichols’ death were part of the the Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. It was disbanded after Nichols’ death. Two of them — Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin — pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors.

Smith, characterized as Scorpion Unit One’s team leader, said, “hit him,” during the beating. Prosecutors have called witnesses who said that statement went against department policy and training in the context of Nichols’ beating. Zummach asked Zwickey if that statement was appropriate in the Nichols situation.

“It’d be appropriate if the officer needed help,” Zwickey said.

The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then punched, kicked and hit him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.

Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.

Prosecutors have maintained officers employed the “street tax” or “run tax ” against Nichols because he ran from the traffic stop.

Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.

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Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.

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