AP News Summary at 11:47 a.m. EDT | National News

Harris freshens up her message on the economy as Trump and Republicans go after her on inflation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since President Joe Biden left the White House race, Vice President Kamala Harris has begun to craft her own narrative around the economy. She’s putting an emphasis on ending child poverty, promoting labor unions, reducing the costs of health and child care and protecting “dignity” in retirement. Not once in recent speeches did she mention the word “inflation.” That’s been the overwhelming economic challenge that has dogged Biden’s administration and forced the president to consistently acknowledge voters’ pain as they cope with higher grocery, gasoline, housing and auto expenses. Republicans have moved quickly to try to blame Harris for the inflation that until recently they pinned on Biden.

Trump is returning to Minnesota with Midwesterner Vance to try to swing Democrat-leaning state

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Donald Trump is taking his campaign back to Minnesota, a state that has favored Democrats but that the former president thinks could be in his reach this year. Trump is set to hold a rally Saturday night in St. Cloud with running mate JD Vance. In May, Trump headlined a GOP fundraiser in St. Paul, where he boasted he could win the state and made explicit appeals to the iron mining range in northeast Minnesota, where a heavy population of blue-collar and union workers has been shifting Republican after years of being solidly Democratic. Trump plans to speak at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier Saturday.

An Israeli airstrike hits a school sheltering people in Gaza, killing at least 30 including children

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have hit a school being used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza and killed at least 30 people including seven children. Saturday’s attack occurred as negotiators prepare to meet international mediators on Sunday to discuss a proposed cease-fire. Thousands of people had been sheltering at the girls’ school in Deir al-Balah. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command and control center used to store weapons and plan attacks. Hamas denied it. Meanwhile, Israel’s military has ordered another evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis.

California’s largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West

California’s largest active fire has exploded in size, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scramble to meet the danger. The Park Fire’s intensity and rapid spread Friday evening led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the monstrous Camp Fire, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes. More than 130 structures have been destroyed by this fire so far, and thousands more remain threatened. Communities elsewhere in the U.S. West and Canada were under siege Friday, from a fast-moving blaze in rural Idaho to a new blaze that was causing evacuations in eastern Washington.

‘Gen Z feels the Kamalove’: Youth-led progressive groups hope Harris will energize young voters

CHICAGO (AP) — Youth-led progressive organizations have warned for months that Joe Biden had a problem with young voters, pleading with the president to work more closely with them to refocus on the issues most important to younger generations or risk losing their votes. But that changed when Biden exited the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. With Biden out of the race, many of these young leaders are now hoping Harris can overcome his faltering support among Gen Z and harness a new explosion of energy among young voters. On Friday, a coalition of 17 youth-led groups endorsed Harris.

Simone Biles is leading the charge of older gymnasts at the Olympics who are redefining their sport

Olympic gymnastics is no longer exclusively the realm of teenagers. American star Simone Biles leads an experienced field at the Paris Games. The 27-year-old Biles headlines the oldest gymnastics team the U.S. has ever sent to the Olympics. Improved training methods, experience and the ability for athletes to stay sharp at the NCAA level are redefining the idea of when a female gymnast peaks. Biles says she is still competing because she can while her teammates say she is creating a blueprint on how to succeed in gymnastics well into your 20s and perhaps beyond.

Apache Christ icon controversy sparks debate over Indigenous Catholic faith practices

MESCALERO, New Mexico (AP) — The congregation at St. Joseph Apache Mission in the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico, is struggling to deal with the hurt caused by their priest removing a cherished painting called the Apache Christ, which portrays Jesus as an Indigenous holy man. Parishioners say that for years, they have successfully blended their Indigenous culture with their Catholic faith. While the paintings and other objects that were taken have been returned and a new priest has been assigned to the parish, the community is demanding a public apology from the Diocese of Las Cruces, which oversees the church. They say it is essential to help them move forward in the path of healing and reconciliation.

Mexican kingpin’s arrest likely to set off violent jockeying for power

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A new era is coming for Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel in the wake of the capture by U.S. authorities of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the last of the grand old Mexican drug traffickers. Experts believe his arrest will usher in a new wave of violence in Mexico even as Zambada could potentially provide loads of information for American prosecutors. Zambada had eluded authorities for decades and had never set foot in prison. He was known for being an astute operator, skilled at corrupting officials and having an ability to negotiate with everyone, including rivals. He was captured Thursday along with a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Technology’s grip on modern life is pushing us down a dimly lit path of digital land mines

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — “Move fast and break things,” a high-tech mantra popularized 20 years ago by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was supposed to be a rallying cry for game-changing innovation. It now seems more like an elegy for a society perched on a digital foundation too fragile to withstand a defective software program that was supposed to help protect computers. The worldwide technology meltdown unleashed late last week by a flawed update installed by cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike illustrated the digital pitfalls looming in a culture that takes the magic of technology for granted until it implodes into a horror show exposing our ignorance.

Justice Department says TikTok collected US user views on issues like abortion and gun control

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a fresh broadside against one of the world’s most popular technology companies, the Justice Department has accused TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion. Government lawyers say in a brief filed in federal court late Friday that TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to enable TikTok employees to speak directly with ByteDance engineers in China. One of Lark’s internal search tools, the filing states, permits ByteDance and TikTok employees in the U.S. and China to gather bulk user information based on content.