Raccoons approach CNN White House reporter in pre-dawn attack: 'Frickin' raccoons, man!'

• The White House lawn was the site of another raccoon encounter early Wednesday morning, with a CNN reporter appearing to fend off an attack right before his live shot.
• CNN caught the encounter on camera, with the reporter Joe Johns throwing something off-screen and telling a critter to get lost.
• "Frickin' raccoons, man," Johns said. "God, again! That's the second time. Jesus."
• Raccoons rampaged through several tents outside the White House recently, tearing into TV crews' gear in broad daylight.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The White House on Wednesday morning was the site of another raccoon encounter, to the dismay of a CNN reporter.

The reporter Joe Johns was recorded trying to do an early-morning live shot for "New Day" when his attention turned.

His foe could not be seen on camera, but Johns sprang into action, throwing an object off-screen and yelling for a critter to "get!" as he tried to salvage his TV hit.

"Frickin' raccoons, man," Johns said. "God, again! That's the second time. Jesus."

Raccoons recently ransacked tents along the White House lawn used by TV crews, that time in broad daylight.

Johns later tweeted his theory that the pre-dawn raccoons were drawn to the bright lights around the live-shot setup.

Gove says cause for 'steady optimism' in EU talks

LONDON (Reuters) – British minister Michael Gove said he was optimistic about negotiations with the European Union on a future trade deal, and that he was hopeful and confident of making progress.

“Negotiations are proceeding … in a way which gives us cause for steady optimism,” Gove told a parliamentary committee.

How Will Pence Fare vs. Harris? 5 Moments From 2016 Offer Clues

The vice president is likely to be focused and aggressively defend President Trump, as he did in the debate against Senator Tim Kaine.

By Adam Nagourney

Nigeria Lawmakers Approve Plan to Borrow $11 Billion in 2021

Nigerian lawmakers have approved a plan to borrow as much as 4.28 trillion naira ($11 billion) from both domestic and foreign debt markets to support its expenditure in 2021.

The National Assembly gave the go-ahead on Wednesday after debating the government’s medium-term expenditure plan covering the next three years. President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to present the 2021 budget proposals before lawmakers on Thursday.

The spending plan provides for an estimated deficit of 5.16 trillion naira and total expenditure of 13.08 trillion naira. The government has retained an exchange rate of 379 naira to the dollar “given the determination of the Central Bank of Nigeria to pursue unification” of rates, according to the document.

Debt service is projected to take 3.12 trillion naira, slightly less than the 3.58 trillion naira planned for infrastructure development.

Africa’s largest crude producer sees daily crude production of 1.86 million barrels a day in 2021 at an average price of $40 a barrel.

WEF Says 2021 Annual Meeting to Take Place in Lucerne in May

The World Economic Forum announced its 2021 annual meeting will be held in Lucerne-Buergenstock, Switzerland, after organizers postponed the usual gathering in the ski resort of Davos due to the pandemic.

The meeting under the banner “The Great Reset” is scheduled to take place from May 18 to May 21, the WEF said on Wednesday.

The Buergenstock resort is located on a mountain overlooking lake Lucerne, in the center of Switzerland, and has conference capacity for more than 600 guests. There is only one main access road, but visitors can also arrive by boat, funicular railway, or helicopter.

In years past, the WEF’s annual meeting has attracted political leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as a parade of billionaires, executives and celebrities to debate global challenges.

Organizers had announced in late August that the meeting, usually held in January, would be postponed.

It’s not the first time the WEF has budged from Davos. Its 2002 meeting was held in New York, to show solidarity following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

— With assistance by Marion Halftermeyer, and Leonard Kehnscherper

Ex-Trump DHS Official: Biden’s Gettysburg Speech ‘Perfectly Encapsulates What We Need’

Elizabeth Neumann, who until April was a high-ranking official in the Department of Homeland Security, offered a ringing endorsement of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s Tuesday address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

In an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Neumann praised the former vice president for his campaign speech at the Civil War battlefield, in which he declared: “We can end this era of division. We can end the hate and the fear. We can be what we are at our best: The United States of America.”

Neumann, who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, had revealed in a video released by the group Republican Voters Against Trump in August that she’d flipped on the president due to his failed response to the coronavirus pandemic and because his racist rhetoric had made her job impossible.

“I’ve been working on commercials and op-eds and different ways to communicate to people why I came to this conclusion,” Neumann told “Deadline” host Nicolle Wallace Tuesday of her decision to back Biden.

“Now I can just send them this speech,” she said. “It perfectly encapsulates what we need right now in this country.”

Check out the exchange above.

RELATED…