Rallies and debates used to define campaigns. Now they’re about juries and trials
NEW YORK (AP) — Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has been sitting for hours a day in a Manhattan courtroom, where his hush money trial is nearing its end. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s own criminal trial is set to start Monday in Delaware. While presidents have been deposed in criminal matters, impeached and pardoned and their family members have been entangled in legal scrapes before, never has the criminal courtroom taken center stage in a presidential election like this. The two cases are in no way related. But politically there is some obvious overlap.
Netanyahu frequently makes claims of antisemitism. Critics say he’s deflecting from his own problems
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly accused critics of Israel or his policies of antisemitism. But his detractors say he is overusing the label to push his political agenda and try to quash even legitimate criticism, and that doing so risks diluting the term’s meaning at a time when antisemitism is surging worldwide. Among other things, he has called the U.S. college campus protests and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court antisemitic. Netanyahu’s supporters say he is genuinely concerned for the safety of Jews around the world. However, he has repeatedly sidestepped accountability for not preventing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
3 Israeli soldiers killed in a booby trap explosion as Rafah offensive widens
The Israeli military and media say three soldiers have been killed in Rafah when a booby trap exploded. Three others were wounded Tuesday. The military says at least 290 soldiers have been killed since the ground operation in Gaza began in October. Israel’s national security adviser says the war with Hamas is likely to last through the end of the year. Palestinians in Rafah have reported heavy fighting Wednesday as Israeli forces press their assault on the border town was once seen as the territory’s last refuge. But fighting in Rafah has caused more than 1 million Palestinians to flee.
South Africans vote in a pivotal election as president says he has no doubt his ANC party will win
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans are voting in an election seen as their country’s most important in 30 years, and one that could put their young democracy in unknown territory. At stake Wednesday is the three-decade dominance of the African National Congress party. It led South Africa out of apartheid’s brutal white minority rule in 1994 but is now the target of a new generation of discontent in a country of 62 million people. After winning six successive national elections, several polls have the ANC’s support at less than 50% ahead of this one. It might lose its majority in Parliament for the first time. Final results are expected by Sunday.
Biden, Harris to launch Black voter outreach effort amid signs of diminished support
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris head to the battleground state of Pennsylvania as they step up their reelection pitch to Black voters. They’ll launch a new summerlong Black voter outreach effort with a visit on Wednesday to Girard College, an independent boarding school in Philadelphia with a predominantly Black student body. They will also stop by a small business to visit with members of the Black Chamber of Commerce. The push comes at a moment when Biden has seen his solid support among Black voters show signs of erosion. Among Black adults, Biden’s approval has dropped from 94% when he started his term to just 55%, according to an AP-NORC poll published in March.
A woman will likely be Mexico’s next president. In some Indigenous villages, men hold the power
PLAN DE AYALA, Mexico (AP) — Seventy years ago, Mexican women won the right to vote, and today the country’s on the verge of electing its first woman president. Yet some of the Indigenous women who will vote in Sunday’s national election don’t have a voice in their own communities. Some communities of Tojolabal people in the southern state of Chiapas don’t allow women to participate in local government. It’s one example of the marginalization Indigenous women continue to face. In certain places, such as Plan de Ayala in Las Margaritas, some Indigenous women are pushing for change little by little with help from younger generations. They say they’re seeing progress, for example in workshops where young men and women discuss equality.
Weather-weary Texas battered again as powerful storm, strong winds kill 1, cause widespread damage
HOUSTON (AP) — Weather-weary Texas has been hammered again by powerful storms bearing forceful winds that left one person dead, collapsed homes under construction and uprooted trees. In Dallas, the city has opened respite centers where people can get shelter and air conditioning. The high winds were blamed for the collapse of a house under construction Tuesday in the Houston suburb of Magnolia. A 16-year-old construction worker was killed. The storms were a continuation of deadly storms over the Memorial Day weekend, when 24 people were killed in seven states. The potential for heavy rains, localized flash flooding and severe weather continues Wednesday through Oklahoma and Texas.
ConocoPhillips buying Marathon Oil for $17.1 billion in all-stock deal as energy prices rise
ConocoPhillips is buying Marathon Oil in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $17.1 billion as energy prices soar and big oil companies reap massive profits. The deal announced Wednesday is valued at $22.5 billion when including $5.4 billion in debt. Marathon Oil shareholders will receive 0.2550 shares of ConocoPhillips common stock for each share of Marathon Oil common stock that they own. ConocoPhillips said Wednesday that the transaction will add highly desired acreage to its existing U.S. onshore portfolio.
Inflation pressures lingering from pandemic are keeping Fed rate cuts on pause
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for interest rate cuts this year by the Federal Reserve are steadily fading, with a stream of recent remarks by Fed officials underscoring their intention to keep borrowing costs high as long as needed to curb persistently elevated inflation. A key reason for the delay in rate cuts is that the inflation pressures that are bedeviling the economy are being driven largely by lingering forces from the pandemic — for items ranging from apartment rents to auto insurance to hospital prices. Though Fed officials say they expect inflation in those areas to eventually cool, they’ve signaled that they’re prepared to wait as long as it takes.
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