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.
Israeli national found dead after being shot in West Bank Palestinian town
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army says a man was shot dead in a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning, while deadly strikes rocked northern Gaza. The army said the Israeli national was pronounced dead after being fatally shot in the town of Qalqilya, and that Israeli troops were currently operating in the area. Saturday’s announcement comes a day after Israeli forces shot dead two militants in the same West Bank town. No further details were made public. Violence has flared in the the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October. Israeli nationals are prohibited from entering Qalqilya and other areas of the West Bank
Likely Yemen Houthi rebel attack targets ship in Gulf of Aden as Eisenhower reportedly heads home
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden has seen explosions near the vessel, likely the latest attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attempting to target the shipping lane. 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 apparent 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. The British military says the ship attack Friday saw no mariners wounded. The Houthis did not immediately claim the assault.
US aircraft carrier arrives in South Korea as a show of force against nuclear-armed North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in South Korea for a three-way exercise involving Japan as they step up military training to cope with North Korean threats, which have escalated following a security pact with Russia. The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan on Saturday came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest a major deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week. The agreement pledges mutual defense assistance in the event of war. South Korea says the deal poses a threat to its security.
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.
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. But Ralph Reed, the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition that Trump will address Saturday, 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.
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.
A year ago, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin challenged the Kremlin with a mutiny
On a lazy summer weekend a year ago, Russia was jolted by the stunning news of an armed uprising. The swaggering chief of a Kremlin-sponsored mercenary army seized a military headquarters in the south and began marching toward Moscow to oust the Defense Ministry’s leaders, accusing them of starving his force of ammunition in Ukraine. And even though Yevgeny Prigozhin and his soldiers-for-hire called off their rebellion hours later, it still dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin, the most serious challenge to his rule in nearly a quarter-century in power. Prigozhin’s motives are still hotly debated, and his death in a suspicious crash exactly two months after the rebellion remains mired in mystery.
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