Local election workers fear threats to their safety as November nears. One group is trying to help
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A top concern for local election workers throughout the country this year is their own safety. A group formed after the 2020 presidential election is traveling the country helping them prepare for what could lie ahead and making sure they are connected to local law enforcement. The Associated Press was granted rare access to one recent session in northern Michigan. The threats and harassment stem from the false claims made repeatedly by former President Donald Trump since his loss in 2020. He already has been attacking some election officials this year. The drumbeat has contributed to an exodus of local election directors across the country.
Prosecutors will make history with opening statements in Trump’s hush money criminal case
NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in history, prosecutors are presenting a criminal case against a former American president to a jury as they accuse Donald Trump of a hush money scheme aimed at preventing damaging stories about his personal life from being public. A New York jury will hear opening statements Monday from prosecutors and defense lawyers in the first of four criminal cases against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to reach trial.
Aid approval brings Ukraine closer to replenishing troops trying to hold front lines
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Approval by the U.S. House of Representatives of a $61 billion package for Ukraine puts the country a step closer to getting an infusion of new firepower. But the clock is ticking. Russia is using all its might to achieve its most significant gains since the invasion by a May 9 deadline. In the meantime, Kyiv has no choice but to wait for replenishment after months of rationing ammunition.
The Pentagon has said it could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if the Senate and President Joe Biden give final approval to the plan.
Experts and Ukrainian lawmakers say it could take weeks for the assistance to reach troops.
Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous
BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings, and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known — in the first weeks of the outbreak — and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.
Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says
NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Two top climate monitoring organizations are reporting that Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average. The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency are also warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity. They say the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to speed up the transition to renewable resources like wind, solar and hydroelectric power in response to the effects of climate change. The continent generated 43% of its electricity from renewable resources last year, up from 36% the year before, the agencies say in their European State of the Climate report for last year.
Papua New Guinea leader takes offense after Biden implies his uncle was eaten by cannibals
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has accused Joe Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the U.S. president had been eaten by “cannibals” there during World War II. Biden spoke at a Pennsylvania war memorial last week about his Army Air Corps aviator uncle Ambrose Finnegan, who was shot down over Papua New Guinea, which was a theater of heavy fighting. Biden said: “They never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals for real in that part of New Guinea.” Marape said in a statement on Sunday that Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue but that his country “does not deserve to be labeled as such.”
From Sin City to the City of Angels, building starts on high-speed rail line
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Groundbreaking on a $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area is just about here. A ceremony by Brightline West is set for Monday in Las Vegas with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The company plans to have trains running by 2028 from just south of the Las Vegas Strip to a commuter rail hub in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The track will be laid in the median of Interstate 15, where motorists sitting in traffic jams would see trains whisk past at speeds comparable to Japan’s bullet trains. A Brightline sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida.
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