Helicopters scramble to rescue people in flooded Iowa town while much of US toils again in heat
The governor of Iowa is sending helicopters to a small town to evacuate people from flooded homes. Meanwhile, much of the United States is longing for relief from yet another round of extraordinary heat Saturday. Sirens blared after midnight in Rock Valley, Iowa. People in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. Elsewhere in the U.S., the miserable grip of heat and humidity continues. The National Weather Service says roughly 15 million people are under a heat warning while another 90 million are under a heat advisory.
GOP targets a Biden executive order on voter registration ahead of the fall election
ATLANTA (AP) — A three-year-old Biden administration executive order asking federal agencies to assist with voter registration is being targeted by Republicans as this year’s presidential election draws closer. Republicans and conservative activists claim the order is unconstitutional and an attempt to interfere in the November election. Last month, a Republican-led House committee issued subpoenas to agency directors and a group of GOP secretaries of state asked the Supreme Court to take up a case challenging the order. A White House spokesperson said the criticism amounted to “baseless claims brought by the very people who spread debunked lies about the 2020 elections ”
Biden and allied Republicans are trying to rally GOP women in swing-state suburbs away from Trump
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies are trying to replicate their success with suburban women, who helped the Democrat beat Donald Trump in swing states like Pennsylvania four years ago. This year, they are signaling they can win a small number of Republican women who may be opposed to a second Trump presidency. But in dozens of interviews this month in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, the most competitive of Philadelphia’s largest suburban counties four years ago, there was little evidence that traditional Republicans were ready to abandon Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in significant numbers.
LGBTQ+ librarians grapple with attacks on books – and on themselves
Worldwide Pride Month events are underway but they are coming at a time when many people who identify as LGBTQ+ say they are facing increasing difficulties at work, ranging from being repeatedly misgendered to physically assaulted. For gender nonconforming library workers in particular, they are also grappling with growing calls for book bans across the U.S., with books about gender identity, sexual orientation and race topping the list of most criticized titles and making the attacks all the more personal. The American Library Association documented the highest-ever number of titles targeted for censorship in 2023 in more than 20 years of tracking. Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age story ‘Gender Queer’ was the most criticized library book for the third straight year.
An Israeli found dead after being shot in the West Bank as deadly strikes hit northern Gaza
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s army says an Israeli man was shot dead in a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank while deadly strikes rocked northern Gaza. The army said the man was killed in the town of Qalqilya. Saturday’s announcement comes a day after Israeli forces shot dead two militants in the same West Bank town. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said they pulled 38 bodies from a building hit by an Israeli strike in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City. The Associated Press has been unable to verify the figures provided by the emergency group.
Yemen Houthi rebel attack targets a ship in the Gulf of Aden as the Eisenhower reportedly heads home
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has targeted a commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden but apparently caused no damage. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have reportedly ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America’s response to the Houthi attacks, to return home. The fire late Friday by the Houthis comes after the sinking this week of the ship Tutor, which marked what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Authorities say no one was injured on the vessel targeted Friday. The Houthis identified it as the bulk carrier Transworld Navigator.
Trump will address influential evangelicals who back him but want to see a national abortion ban
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is set to speak to a group of politically influential evangelicals who fiercely support him but would like to see the Republican presidential candidate promise to do more to restrict abortion. Trump’s stated opposition to signing a nationwide ban on abortion and his reluctance to detail some of his views on the issue are at odds with many members of the evangelical movement. Ralph Reed is the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition that Trump will address on Saturday afternoon in Washington. Reed says Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn nationwide abortion rights did more for their cause than any other president.
Now an abortion rights advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 22-year-old woman who’s become a vocal reproductive rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend. It’s part of a 2024 election push around the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional protections for abortion in that the landmark Supreme Court case. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022 that ended the federal right to abortion, roughly half the nation has restrictions in place. And at least 10 states have no exceptions for rape or incest.
Rescuers find family of 6 dead in landslide in eastern China, as severe weather warning extended
BEIJING (AP) — Six people who were missing were found dead by rescuers in Fujian province, state media reported Saturday, adding to the extreme weather deaths after downpours caused landslides in the area, even as authorities extended a warning of more severe weather ahead. A family of six were found dead in a local temple by rescuers after days of searching in Fujian’s Shanghang county, according to the state-backed Hongxing news. They had gone to the temple looking for shelter, as the temple was on higher ground, but the building was toppled by a landslide, killing the family. On Friday, authorities reported 47 people dead in neighboring Guangdong province, which has seen historic flooding caused by the rains.
South Africa’s new government brings Black and white together. It’s also reviving racial tensions
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s new coalition government has brought a Black president and a white opposition leader together in an image of unity. But the power-sharing agreement between the African National Congress party and one of South Africa’s few white-led parties has unwittingly renewed some racial tensions. Many Black South Africans have expressed discomfort with a white-led party being back in power, even in a coalition. It shows how the country is haunted by the racist apartheid system that ended 30 years ago but is still felt by millions of the Black majority who were brutally oppressed by a white government.
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