WELLINGTON, New Zealand — 

Samoa’s main streets were eerily quiet Thursday as the government stepped up efforts to curb a measles epidemic that has killed 62 people.

The government told most public and private workers to stay home on Thursday and Friday, and it shut down roads to nonessential vehicles as teams began going door to door to administer vaccines.

Families in the Pacific island nation were asked to hang red flags from their houses if they needed to be vaccinated.

Most of those who have died from the virus are young, with 54 deaths among children 4 or younger.

The Samoa Observer newspaper said the normally bustling capital, Apia, was a ghost town Thursday, with only birds nesting in the rooftops and stray dogs roaming the streets.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi told reporters the vaccine drive was unprecedented in the nation’s history.

He said one challenge was that a lot of people hadn’t considered that measles could be deadly.

“They seem to take a kind of lackadaisical attitude to all the warnings that we had issued through the television and also through the radio,” he said.

Another challenge, he said, was that others had been seeking help from traditional healers, who had been successfully treating tropical diseases in Samoa for some 4,000 years.

“Some of our people pay a visit to traditional healers thinking that measles is a typical tropical disease, which it is not,” the prime minister said.

Samoan authorities believe the virus was first spread by a traveler from New Zealand.

The nation declared a national emergency last month and mandated that all 200,000 people get vaccinated. The government has also closed all schools and banned children from public gatherings.

According to the government, more than 4,000 people have contracted the disease since the outbreak began and 172 people remain in hospitals, including 19 children in critical condition.

Figures from the World Health Organization and UNICEF indicate that fewer than 30% of Samoan infants were immunized last year. That low rate was exacerbated by a medical error that killed two babies who were administered a vaccine that had been incorrectly mixed, causing wider delays and distrust in the vaccination program.

NASHVILLE  — 

Tennessee is set to carry out what is expected to be only the second execution of a blind prisoner in the United States since the nation reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Barring an 11th-hour stay, 53-year-old inmate Lee Hall is scheduled to die in the electric chair Thursday evening for his conviction in the 1991 burning death of his estranged girlfriend. Hall had his sight when he entered death row nearly three decades ago, but his attorneys say he later become functionally blind from improperly treated glaucoma.

Earlier this year, Hall chose the electric chair over lethal injection as allowed under state law. His lawyer said it also would be the first electrocution of a blind inmate since the 1976 resumption of U.S. executions. But attorney Kelly Gleason has asked the federal courts to stop Hall from being put to death in the big wooden electric chair believed to have been built with the wood from Tennessee’s old gallows.

“Unless the federal courts intervene, Tennessee will become the first state in modern United States history to electrocute a blind man,” Gleason said in a statement Wednesday. “It is a sad day for justice in the state of Tennessee.”

Authorities said Hall attacked Traci Crozier, 22, on April 16, 1991, by setting her car ablaze with a container of gasoline: stuffing a paper towel over the top, lighting it on fire and tossing it in her vehicle while she was inside. The container exploded and Crozier suffered burns over more than 90% of her body, dying the next day in the hospital.

Crozier’s sister, Staci Wooten, and her father, Gene Crozier, have said they intend to watch Hall’s execution Thursday.

Hall’s attorneys have sought for weeks to delay or block the execution plans. They made last-minute pleas with the Tennessee Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Lee for more time to explore questions surrounding legal questions about what they described as the possible bias of a juror who helped deliver the original death sentence.

Lee and the state courts declined to intervene, arguing that Hall had exhausted his legal options.

“The justice system has extensively reviewed Lee Hall’s case over the course of almost 30 years, including additional review and rulings by the Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday and today,” the Republican governor said in a statement Wednesday. “I will not intervene in this case.”

There’s only other known blind inmate who has been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court began allowing executions in 1976. Clarence Ray Allen, 76, died via lethal injection in 2006 in California.

Hall’s team filed several legal filings in federal court on Wednesday in a last effort to block the execution as the options dwindled. Meanwhile, Hall was moved earlier this week to a room adjacent to Tennessee’s execution chamber as part of the state’s death penalty guidelines. For his last meal, Hall selected a Philly cheesesteak, onion rings and a slice of cheesecake.

To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has neither set an upper age limit for executions nor created an exception for a physical infirmity.

Tennessee is one of six states in which inmates can choose the electric chair, but it’s the only state that has used the chair in recent years. Three out of five recent inmates put to death in Tennessee have chosen the chair since the state began resuming executions in August

Courts in Georgia and Nebraska have declared the electric chair unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court has never fully considered its constitutionality.

Lee has previously declined to weigh in on whether he approves of the state’s increased usage of the electric chair, noting that it’s a legal option in Tennessee.

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TRIPOLI, Libya — 

Officials in Libya’s U.N.-supported government say they plan to confront Moscow over the alleged deployment of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside their opponents in the country’s civil war.

Libyan and U.S. officials accuse Russia of deploying fighters through a private security contractor, the Wagner Group, to key battleground areas in Libya in the past months.

They say the Russian fighters are backing commander Khalifa Hifter, whose forces have been trying for months to capture the capital, Tripoli. The U.N.-supported Government of National Accord is based in Tripoli.

The GNA has documented between 600 to 800 Russian fighters in Libya and is collecting their names in a list to present to the Russian government, according to Khaled Meshri, the head of the Tripoli-based government’s Supreme Council of State.

“We are going to visit Russia after we collect all evidence and present to the authorities and see what they say,” Meshri told the Associated Press last week. He did not say when that visit would take place.

Moscow has repeatedly denied playing any role in Libya’s fighting.

Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army — made up of army units, ultraconservative Salafists and tribesmen — launched its offensive on Tripoli in April after seizing much of eastern Libya from Islamic militants and other rivals in recent years. Hifter is backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia, while the Tripoli-based government receives aid from Turkey, Qatar and Italy.

Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Kadafi in 2011. The country is now split between a government in the east, allied with Hifter, and the GNA in Tripoli in the west. Both sides are bolstered by militias. Fighting has stalled in recent weeks, with both sides dug in and shelling one another along Tripoli’s southern reaches.

David Schenker, U.S. assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, told reporters last week that the State Department is working with European partners to impose sanctions on the Russian military contractor responsible for sending fighters to Tripoli.

“The way that this organization of Russians in particular has operated before raises the specter of large-scale casualties in civilian populations,” he said.

Schenker’s comments came shortly after U.S. officials met with Hifter to press for a cease-fire and “expressed serious concern” over Russia’s intervention in the conflict.

But President Trump has sent decidedly mixed messages to Hifter.

Trump voiced support of Hifter when he launched his attempt to take over Tripoli, praising the commander’s “anti-terrorism” efforts in a phone conversation. The call was a sharp break with the U.S. policy of supporting Libya’s Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.

Hifter’s offensive dealt a blow to U.N. efforts to bring warring parties together. Meshri called for confidence-building measures and a push toward presidential and parliamentary elections.

“Since Kadafi’s ouster, there have been no presidential elections. People are fed up,” he said.

The Russians’ presence has further mired an already complex conflict.

Meshri maintains his administration has strong evidence that there are Russian fighters on the ground.

He says that government forces have found cellphones, intercepted communications and seized personal belongings left behind in the chaos of battle. He said flight data show dates and names of Russians moving from Syria to Egypt and then the Jordanian capital of Amman before flying to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Hifter’s seat of power. He didn’t elaborate or present any of these documents or items to the AP.

Wagner Group is believed to have sent mercenaries to multiple conflicts, including Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere, raising accusations that Moscow is using it to spread its influence. The firm is a military contractor run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin. Russian officials have refused in the past to comment on the firm’s activities.

By deploying fighters into Libya, Russia is embroiling itself in another conflict in the Middle East. Russia’s military is involved in Syria’s civil war, conducting airstrikes and deploying troops and military police. That operation successfully shored up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and — at a relatively modest cost — helped Moscow expand its clout in the region.

Analysts believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to find leverage with Western powers in oil-rich Libya. They say he also recognizes that the country is a gateway for many migrants trying to reach European shores.

“Most of this is smoke and mirrors designed to induce fear,” said Anas Gamati, founder of the Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute. “Russian influence has done only two things: inflate their size and specter of their power in Libya. They’re not positively engaged or trying to play a constructive role with diplomatic or political value.”

Officially, Russia continues to maintain a dialogue with both sides. Hifter has visited Moscow several times over the years, and a delegation of the Tripoli-based government met with Putin during a Russia-Africa Economic Forum summit in Sochi in October.

The allegations of Russian interference come amid a renewed push for international players to reach a consensus on Libya.

Germany is working with the United Nations to host a conference on Libya by early 2020. Observers hope that international players could exert enough pressure to stop the fighting.

But others worry that Hifter’s appetite for territory and power might prove too large. Former GNA defense minister Mahdi Barghathi, who left the government in July, says the only way toward peace is for Hifter to be left with no powerful friends and no other options. Otherwise, Barghathi said, Hifter will be set to become another Kadafi.

“We don’t want to go back to square one,” he said.

As long as international powers remain divided, Libya’s conflict risks continuing to play out as the world’s latest proxy war, some observers warn.

“Putin would like nothing more than to keep Europe busy and divided over Libya, scared of illegal immigration, paralyzed by right-wing populism that threatens the very idea of the EU,” said Mohammed Eljareh, an analyst who runs Libya Outlook, a consulting company on Libyan affairs.

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“All of this is music to Putin’s ears,” he said.

The House Judiciary Committee brought in four experts: Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law professor; Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor; Jonathan Turley of George Washington University law school and Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina.

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Beyond Con Law 101

The House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing yesterday featured four legal scholars testifying about whether President Trump’s actions were impeachable offenses under the Constitution. Not surprisingly, the three called by Democrats said they were impeachable, while the one called by Republicans said they were not.

But beyond offering a constitutional law class and partisan bickering, the committee took a major step toward defining how it could craft articles of impeachment against Trump. They could encompass not only the president’s alleged abuse of power in the Ukraine scandal but also obstruction of justice stemming from the Russia investigation.

More Politics

— During the hearing, Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan mentioned Trump’s son, Barron, prompting a barrage of backlash from Melania Trump and Republicans — and an apology from Karlan.

— Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, met with former government officials in what he said was an effort to undermine the impeachment inquiry and continue his crusade to dig up dirt on those same Democratic rivals, according to the New York Times.

— Trump, who long has claimed his leadership has brought unprecedented respect to the United States, returned from a NATO summit after being laughed at by some of America’s closest allies.

— A new poll for The Times has found the Democratic presidential contest in California remains extremely fluid. But not enough, at least so far, to provide an opening for Michael Bloomberg, who entered the race two weeks ago and was banking on winning big in the delegate-rich state.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Atmospheric river storms like the one pounding California this week are becoming more intense and cost Western states roughly $1 billion in damage annually, according to a new study. The culprit: climate change. And that’s not the only water-related peril resulting from global warming. This week, California lawmakers are discussing sea level rise and what the state needs to do to better prepare coastal communities facing the prospect of devastating loss.

Brother, Can You Spare a … ?

Robert Marbut, a Texas-based consultant sought by communities looking for ways to address homelessness, has long encouraged elected officials to stop coddling people on the streets — in part by blocking charities from handing out food. Now, he’s been tapped to lead the agency that coordinates the federal government’s response to homelessness.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Americans who rely on the federal food stamp program will lose their benefits under a new Trump administration rule that will tighten work requirements for recipients.

Hanged for Murder — or Being Mexican?

In the summer of 1851, California celebrated the Fourth of July — the first since becoming a state. The streets of Downieville, about 100 miles northwest of Sacramento, were filled with parades, bands and heavy drinking. Then, a man died. By the next day, a young Mexican woman named Josefa had been arrested, tried, convicted of murder and hanged. Today, her legend lives on in this small town.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this date in 1933, Utah ratified the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th — thus marking the official end of Prohibition, fulfilling a promise President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made on the campaign trail.

The Times reported at the time: “Voicing a determination that the day of the bootlegger is done, the President said he trusted ‘to the good sense of the American people that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors, to the detriment of health, morals and social integrity.’” It went on to note: “Mr. Roosevelt had been swimming in the White House pool prior to the signing of the proclamation, and there were reports which White House attaches refused to discuss that the President had signed the document while in his swimming suit.”

CALIFORNIA

— California’s economic growth will slow next year, but it will still probably outperform the U.S. overall, as employers boost payrolls, a new UCLA forecast finds.

— The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously approved a law to curb campaign contributions from real estate developers, but critics warn it’s been too watered down.

— The feds have sued the L.A. Department of Water and Power, saying its equipment caused the 2017 Creek fire, which destroyed dozens of homes.

— The L.A. City Council agreed to pay up to $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who plunged along with her car into a sinkhole in Studio City in 2017.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Billie Eilish isn’t stressing over the Grammys. She’s busy worrying about Trump and climate change.

— For today’s confessional pop queens, Jack Antonoff is more than a producer. He’s a confidant.

— After 13 years apart, Viacom and CBS are about to reunite. They’ve got their work cut out for them.

— She’s British, but singer-songwriter Yola will challenge your idea of American roots music.

NATION-WORLD

— An active duty U.S. sailor whose submarine was docked at Pearl Harbor opened fire on three civilian employees, killing two and then taking his own life just days before dignitaries and veterans descend on the base for the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack.

— Romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley that’s tainted with fecal bacteria has been linked to 102 illnesses in 23 states.

— Nearly eight years after he shot Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman is suing the late teen’s family and lawyers for $100 million.

— Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan made a surprise stop in Kabul Wednesday to push for peace talks between Afghans on both sides of the conflict.

— Federal prosecutors in Germany have taken over the investigation of a brazen daylight killing of a Georgian man on the streets of Berlin, saying evidence suggests it was ordered either by Moscow or the Chechen Republic. Germany expelled two Russian diplomats, saying they weren’t cooperating with the probe.

— The fall of the Berlin Wall once gave South Korea hope. Not anymore.

BUSINESS

— He went from buffalo wings to cannabis and became the talk of L.A.’s pot business.

— PG&E is close to finalizing a $13.5 billion payout to victims of wildfires ignited by its power lines, a key step toward resolving its bankruptcy.

— San Diego-based craft beer pioneer Ballast Point is being sold again, this time to a tiny brewery across the country.

— OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma wants to give its CEO a $1.3 million bonus. State attorneys general have balked, but the company says the bonus is needed to keep it from falling apart, which would mean less money to address the opioid crisis it’s accused of helping create.

SPORTS

— USC is keeping Clay Helton as its football coach. Columnist Bill Plaschke has a question for new athletic director Mike Bohn: What are you thinking?

— Even though they’re still figuring how to ease Kawhi Leonard and Paul George into their lineup without losing their team identity, the Clippers are proving impressively deep and resourceful, columnist Helene Elliott writes.

— The Angels have reached a deal to stay in Anaheim through 2050. Now it’s up to them whether to upgrade or replace their stadium.

OPINION

— We should be ashamed, but when it comes to Amazon, we just can’t help ourselves, columnist Steve Lopez writes.

— L.A. says it banned developer political contributions, but the job is only half-finished, The Times’ editorial board writes.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Consulting giant McKinsey helped the Trump administration implement its immigration policy with proposals to speed up deportations and cut costs, including on food and medical care. Some Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers found the measures too harsh. (New York Times)

— Actress and filmmaker Lee Grant on her 70-year career, sexism and ageism in Hollywood and the things today that remind her of her blacklisted years. (Bright Wall Dark Room)

— Why defining “authenticity” in food isn’t as easy as it used to be. (Eater)

ONLY IN L.A.

Every year, Los Angeles County holds a burial ceremony for its unclaimed dead. Yesterday, that meant people gathered in Boyle Heights to remember the 1,457 individuals who died and whose cremated remains have been in the county’s possession for the past three years. The interfaith ceremony included a Tongva song; a recitation of Psalm 23 in English and in Hebrew; the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish, English and Tagalog; and the chanting of Buddhist texts.

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Zandvoort’s couple of banked corners which the Dutch circuit has designed for F1’s return in 2020 were imagined with the enthusiastic support of the late Charlie Whiting.

Dutch Grand Prix organisers are in the process of upgrading Zandvoort’s historic track ahead of next year’s big event.

While most of the work involves infrastructure changes to accommodate F1, a few tweaks to the circuit itself will include a reprofiling of the Turn 4 Hugenholtzbocht and the final right hand Arie Luyendijkbocht, named after Holland’s double Indy 500 winner.

Take a sim lap around the new and improved Zandvoort

Both corners will feature an 18-degree incline – a slope steeper than at the Indianapolis Speedway – that will no doubt get F1drivers’ attention.

Dutch GP head of operations Erik Weijers revealed that FIA race director Charlie Whiting, who passed away in Melbourne at the start of the F1 season, had been instrumental in pushing the banking idea through.

“He was also very enthusiastic about the layout of the circuit, the gravel traps and the short pitlane,” said Weijers.

“At the Luyendijk bend, he suggested putting a crash barrier directly next to the track. That reduces the impact if you shoot off the track: the farther from the track, the greater the angle and the impact.

“One day after the visit, we went back to the office and said, ‘Why don’t we do a banking? That goes nicely with Arie, given his roots in America. We put the idea to FOM, they were enthusiastic and that’s how we got things rolling.”

Zandvoort relied on Italian architect Dromo for the design changes.

“We realised that specialists were needed,” added Weijers. “That’s how we came in contact with Dromo.

“They started off with our idea and our briefing to keep Zandvoort an old school circuit and it worked very well.”

©Wri2