India begins counting votes in marathon election expected to bring Prime Minister Modi a third term
NEW DELHI (AP) — India has started counting more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise. The count Tuesday was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. The six-week election was seen as a referendum on Modi. If he wins, it will only be the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister. Exit polls have projected a comfortable win for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies over a broad opposition alliance led by the Congress party and its main campaign leader, Rahul Gandhi.
Biden says Hamas is sufficiently depleted. Israel leaders disagree, casting doubts over cease-fire
JERUSALEM (AP) — President Joe Biden has called for a quick cease-fire and end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the militant group is no longer capable of launching an attack on Israel like the one on Oct. 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right ministers disagree, saying that destroying Hamas will require continued Israeli military operations in the strip. These differing visions of what it looks like to destroy Hamas have raised questions about a new cease-fire effort and threaten to exacerbate already-strained tensions between the close allies.
Hunter Biden’s federal firearms case is opening after the jury is chosen
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Opening statements are set to begin in the federal gun case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. A jury of 12 and four alternates was seated Monday. The first lady attended the proceedings and so did Hunter Biden’s sister Ashley. Hunter Biden has been charged with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. Jury selection moved at a clip Monday in the president’s home state, where Hunter Biden grew up and where, the elder Biden often says, the family is deeply established.
Mexico’s next president faces 3 pressing challenges: money, dialogue and the US election
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s newly elected president faces a long list of challenges, including persistent cartel violence, a deeply divided country, cash-straitened social programs and the long shadow of her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But for some analysts what awaits Claudia Sheinbaum mostly comes down to three things: money, dialogue and what happens in the U.S. election. She begins her six-year presidential term Oct. 1, so has four months to define her agenda. During this time, López Obrador is expected to continue delivering his daily morning press briefings as he tries to solidify his legacy. The coexistence might be far from easy: He has divided society; she says she wants to unite it. He is a leader of the masses; she is an academic and a scientist.
China’s spacecraft carrying rocks from the far side of the moon leaves the lunar surface
BEIJING (AP) — China says a spacecraft carrying rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon has lifted off from the lunar surface to start its journey back to Earth. The ascender of the Chang’e-6 probe lifted off Tuesday morning Beijing time and entered a preset orbit around the moon, the China National Space Administration said. The Chang’e-6 probe was launched last month and its lander touched down on the far side of the moon Sunday. The container with the samples will be transferred to a reentry capsule that is due to return to Earth about June 25.
How Trump’s deny-everything strategy could hurt him at sentencing
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has had plenty to say since his hush money trial conviction last week. What he hasn’t done is utter any variation of the words that might benefit him most come sentencing time next month: “I’m sorry.” It’s an age-old truism of the criminal justice system that defendants hoping for lenient treatment at sentencing are expected to take responsibility for their actions, even express remorse. But that approach flies in the face of the “deny everything” strategy that Trump and his legal team employed at trial — and the combative posture the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has adopted during years of investigations into his business career, presidential activities and post-White House life.
Biden lays into Trump over convictions and says he now poses a greater threat than in 2016
GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — President Joe Biden has laid into his likely opponent in November’s election, Donald Trump, for being convicted by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts related to hush money payments. Biden says “this campaign has entered uncharted territory.” Speaking Monday at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, Biden said the former president “wants you to believe it’s all rigged. Nothing could be further from the truth.” He accused Trump of “attacking both the judiciary and elections system as rigged” and said such rhetoric was “reckless and dangerous and downright irresponsible.” Biden added: “This isn’t the same Trump that got elected in 2016. He’s worse.”
Tractors rumble in streets again ahead of EU polls. Farming is a big issue and the far right pounces
BEERSEL, Belgium (AP) — Tractors are rumbling through the streets again days ahead of the four-day European Union elections. The populist and hard right groups have instrumentalized agriculture throughout the 27-nation bloc in the months leading up to the polls. They claim farmers have become the victims of an overbearing EU and environmentalists that fail to take their considerations into account. The issue is expected to have a real impact on the outcome of elections where populist and hard right parties are expected to surge.
French children hail D-Day veterans as heroes as they arrive in Normandy for anniversary events
DEAUVILLE AIRPORT, France (AP) — French schoolchildren have greeted dozens of U.S. World War II veterans with a big poster saying ‘’thank you” as they arrived on Monday in Normandy. The veterans are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Many are in their 100s. France’s first lady Brigitte Macron and top French officials met the 48 veterans as they arrived on board a special flight from Atlanta. Children from local schools sang the French and U.S. national anthems. Among the veterans was Jake Larson, a 101-year-old American best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake.” They will take part in commemoration of the June 6 landings by soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations.
Mourners can now speak to an AI version of the dead. But will that help with grief?
BERLIN (AP) — Several companies have emerged in the last few years to develop grief-related technology, where users can interact with an AI version of the deceased. Among them is Eternos, which uses an in-house model as well as external large language models developed by major tech companies like Meta and OpenAI. Eternos records users speaking 300 phrases and then compresses that information through a two-day computing process capturing a person’s voice that loved ones can then access. While some have embraced this type of technology as a way to cope with grief, others feel uneasy about companies using AI to try to maintain interactions with those who have passed away. Still others worry it could make the mourning process more difficult because there isn’t any closure.
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