South Africans start casting their votes in an election considered the most significant in 30 years
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans have begun 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.
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.
Israeli strikes kill at least 37 Palestinians, most in tents, near Gaza’s Rafah as offensive expands
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Renewed Israeli shelling and strikes have killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That’s according to witnesses, first responders and hospital officials. The bombardment overnight and into Tuesday pummeled the same area where Israeli strikes triggered a deadly fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians days earlier, killing 45 people. The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage over Israel’s expanding offensive into Rafah. The U.N. says more than a million people have fled the city in recent weeks. And in a sign of Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday.
Jury in Trump’s hush money case to begin deliberations after hearing instructions from judge
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial are expected to begin deliberations after receiving instructions from the judge on the law and the factors they may consider as they strive to reach a verdict in the first criminal case against a former American president. The deliberations will follow a marathon day of closing arguments in which a Manhattan prosecutor accused Trump of trying to “hoodwink” voters in the 2016 presidential election by participating in a hush money scheme meant to stifle stories he feared would harm his campaign. The lawyers’ dueling accounts, wildly divergent in their assessments of witness credibility and the strength of evidence, offered both sides one final chance to score points with the jury.
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.
Mexico’s next president is likely a woman. But in some Indigenous villages, men have all 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.
Transitional council in Haiti selects new prime minister for a country under siege by gangs
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.N. development specialist Garry Conille has been named Haiti’s new prime minister nearly a month after a coalition within a fractured transitional council had chosen someone else for the position. The long-awaited move announced Tuesday evening comes as gangs continue to terrorize the capital of Port-au-Prince, opening fire in once peaceful neighborhoods and using heavy machinery to demolish several police stations and prisons. In addition to choosing a new prime minister, the council also is responsible for selecting a new Cabinet and holding general elections by the end of next year.
The toll of Beijing’s security law on Hong Kong’s activists
HONG KONG (AP) — For decades, Hong Kong’s activists have been fighting for democracy. But a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 has dramatically changed their lives. In the city’s biggest national security case, 47 democracy advocates were charged in 2021 over their roles in an unofficial primary election. Most of them have been in custody for over three years, facing an uncertain future about when they can reunite with their loved ones. The separation has taken a heavy emotional toll on their families, too. On Thursday, 16 activists who pleaded not guilty will learn their verdicts. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to life in prison. Others who pleaded guilty will be sentenced later.
Storm-weary Texas battered again as powerful storm, strong winds kill 1, cause widespread damage
HOUSTON (AP) — Storm-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, where some homes were damaged by trees, 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 in the collapse. The storms were a continuation of deadly storms over the Memorial Day weekend, when 24 people were killed in seven states.
Washington Post said it had the Alito flag story 3 years ago and chose not to publish
NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post says it reported on a story about a controversial flag being flown outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito years ago, but chose not to write about it. The story broke in The New York Times earlier this month about an upside-down U.S. flag outside of the Alito house shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection — a symbol that had been used by some supporters of former President Donald Trump that day. The Post said it had accepted the explanation that Alito’s wife was responsible for the flag, and it wasn’t sure the dispute was political.
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