Nation and World briefs for November 23

Despite cold, balloons fly at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

NEW YORK — Frigid weather and blustery winds didn’t chill the enthusiasm at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where spectators bundled up in blankets and sleeping bags and the giant character balloons flew lower than usual.

SpongeBob, Charlie Brown, the Grinch and other big balloons were cleared for takeoff just before Thursday’s parade, although some floated at noticeably lower-than-usual heights above the people holding their tethers, like the outstretched hand of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” balloon that appeared to hit some of his handlers on their wool cap-covered heads.

The 21 degrees (minus 6 Celsius) at the start made it one of the coldest Thanksgivings in the city in decades, and the temperature warmed only a few degrees as the parade rolled along.

Officials had been ready to order the 16 helium-filled balloons to a lower altitude or removed entirely if sustained winds exceeded 23 mph (37 kph) and gusts exceeded 34 mph (54 kph). There have been mishaps and injuries in the past when gusts blew them off course.

Bystanders refused to let the cold put a damper on watching the parade, breaking out blankets and sleeping bags to watch the balloons, bands and floats go by.

Relatives, strangers offer hot meal, comfort to evacuees

CHICO, Calif. — Hannah Crenshaw hosts a Thanksgiving dinner each year, cooking turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes — her favorite — for up to 15 guests at her home in Magalia.

That’s not an option this year. Her house burned down in the wildfire that tore through the town of Paradise and surrounding communities, killing at least 83 people and destroying more than 13,000 homes.

Instead, the 26-year-old Crenshaw will be spending Thanksgiving with her husband’s family in nearby Durham. She’s trying to see the best in the heartbreaking situation.

“It doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving,” she said. “But Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for this year with everything going on.”

The Camp Fire has displaced tens of thousands of people, with hundreds still unaccounted for. The blaze was 90 percent contained Thursday, two weeks after it began.

Nissan board fires Ghosn as chairman following arrest

TOKYO — Nissan Motor Co. fired Carlos Ghosn as chairman Thursday, curtailing the powerful executive’s nearly two-decade reign at the Japanese automaker after his arrest for alleged financial improprieties.

In an hourslong meeting, the company’s board of directors voted unanimously to dismiss Ghosn as chairman and as a representative director, Nissan said in a statement. It said its own internal investigation, prompted by a whistleblower, found serious misconduct including under-reporting of his income and misuse of company assets.

It was a stunning downfall for one of the biggest figures in the auto industry. Ghosn had helped drive turnarounds at both France’s Renault SA and at Nissan and then managed an alliance between them that sold 10.6 million cars last year, besting its rivals.

Renault is still reeling from Ghosn’s Monday arrest, and its share price has yet to recover. Its acting chief, Deputy CEO Thierry Bollore, spoke publicly Thursday night for the first time since Ghosn was sidelined, and sought to soothe markets, car buyers and his employees by promising continuity.

In a video released by Renault, Bollore said the carmaker still plans to release several new models next year. Acknowledging the “particular situation” the company is in, he pledged his “full commitment” to Renault’s 180,000 workers and its partners and customers. Renault’s board decided not to fire Ghosn, instead installing temporary leadership.

Indian island police struggle to get body of American

NEW DELHI — Indian authorities were struggling Thursday to figure out how to recover the body of an American who was killed after wading ashore on an island cut off from the modern world.

John Allen Chau was killed last week by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach, police say.

But even officials don’t travel to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked.

“It’s a difficult proposition,” said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel is located. “We have to see what is possible, taking utmost care of the sensitivity of the group and the legal requirements.”

Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, he said.

In Mexico’s border city, Haitians hailed as success story

TIJUANA, Mexico — A few blocks from a shelter housing members of a Central American migrant caravan sits the first Haitian restaurant to open in Tijuana, a bustling eatery that has come to symbolize an immigrant success story in this Mexican border city where Haitians are now a part of the fabric, landing jobs, studying and marrying locals.

Tijuana welcomed thousands of Haitians to pursue a scaled-down American dream south of the border after the U.S. closed its doors on them more than two years ago. But it has not shown the same tolerance so far toward the Central Americans, who have met official complaints and anti-caravan protests even though most of the people in this city are migrants or the offspring of migrants.

That’s raising questions about how the newest group will integrate if it doesn’t don’t get into the U.S. or return home.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum has made a point of saying the city is not happy with the caravan migrants who began arriving last week, and he compared the Central American group unfavorably with the roughly 3,000 Haitians who ended up staying after their bid to reach the U.S. failed.

“The Haitians arrived with their papers, with a clear vision,” Gastelum said in an interview posted on the city’s Facebook page. They came “in an orderly way, they never asked us for food or shelter,” renting apartments and making their own food. He said the Haitians found jobs and “inserted themselves in the city’s economy” and had not been involved in any disturbances.

UK’s May faces more criticism for post-Brexit ties text

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May faced wide-ranging criticism from skeptical lawmakers Thursday as she sought to portray a draft agreement on a post-Brexit relationship with the European Union as a “good deal for our country.”

Addressing the House of Commons after the publication of a 26-page draft political declaration with the EU on post-Brexit relations, May said the agreement will ensure a “smooth and orderly” British departure from the European Union. Britain officially leaves the 28-nation EU — the first country to ever do so — on March 29.

“The draft text that we have agreed with the (European) Commission is a good deal for our country and for our partners in the EU,” May said.

May is due to travel to Brussels on Saturday for further Brexit meetings, including with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a day before a summit of the EU’s 27 other leaders at which both the political declaration on post-Brexit relations as well as the divorce agreement, which alone has legal status, are expected to be formally signed off.

The withdrawal agreement needs to be sealed soon to leave enough time for the European Parliament and the U.K. Parliament to endorse it.

Big test coming up for tiny satellites trailing Mars lander

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A pair of tiny experimental satellites trailing NASA’s InSight spacecraft all the way to Mars face their biggest test yet.

Their mission: Broadcast immediate news, good or bad, of InSight’s plunge through the Martian atmosphere today.

Named WALL-E and EVE after the main characters in the 2008 animated movie, the twin CubeSats will pass within a few thousand miles of Mars as the lander attempts its dicey touchdown.

If these pipsqueaks manage to relay InSight’s radio signals to ground controllers nearly 100 million miles away, we’ll know within minutes whether the spacecraft landed safely.

A look at InSight’s itty-bitty sidekicks: