Abortion bans raise fears inside GOP about backlash in 2024
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — As a new election season begins, the Republican Party is struggling to navigate the politics of abortion.
Allies for leading presidential candidates concede that their hardline anti-abortion policies may be popular with the conservatives who decide primary elections, but they could ultimately alienate the broader set of voters they need to win the presidency.
The conflict is unfolding across America this week, but nowhere more than Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law one of the nation's toughest abortion bans late Thursday. If the courts ultimately allow the new measure to take effect, it will soon be illegal for Florida women to obtain an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most realize they're pregnant.
Even before he signed the law, DeSantis' team was eager to highlight his willingness to fight for, and enact, aggressive abortion restrictions. The Florida governor's position stands in sharp contrast, they say, with some Republican White House hopefuls — most notably former President Donald Trump — who are downplaying their support for anti-abortion policies for fear they may ultimately alienate women or other swing voters in the 2024 general election.
"Unlike Trump, Gov. DeSantis doesn’t back down from defending the lives of innocent unborn babies,” said Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for DeSantis’ super PAC, when asked about Florida's six-week ban.
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Sudan's army and rival force battle, killing at least 27
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary force battled fiercely Saturday in the capital and other areas, reportedly causing more than 200 deaths and injuries while dealing a new blow to hopes for a transition to democracy and raising fears of a wider conflict.
The country’s doctors’ syndicate said late Saturday that at least 27 people had been killed and more than 180 wounded. But the Sudan Doctor’s Syndicate added that there many uncounted casualties, including military and RSF personnel in the western Darfur region and the northern town of Merowe.
The clashes capped months of heightened tensions between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces group. Those tensions had delayed a deal with political parties to get the country back to its short-lived transition to democracy, which was derailed by an October 2021 military coup.
After a day of heavy fighting, the military ruled out negotiations with the RSF, instead calling for the dismantling of what it called a “rebellious militia.” The tough language signaled that the conflict between the former allies, who jointly orchestrated the 2021 coup, was likely to continue.
The Sudan Doctor’s Syndicate did not immediately release details of where the 27 deaths occurred, but it said at least six of them were in the capital Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman. At least eight dead and 58 wounded were in the vicinity of Nyala, the capital city of the South Darfur province in the southwest.
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G-7 talks may measure allies' reaction to US documents leak
HANOI (AP) — While the Biden administration sees minimal damage from the disclosure of highly classified documents related to the war in Ukraine and U.S. views of its allies and partners, that assessment will get its first real test when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets in Japan with counterparts from six of America’s closest foreign friends.
The three days of talks between the Group of Seven foreign ministers, which begin Sunday, may shed light on whether the disclosure has harmed trust between the allies or is only the latest embarrassment for the U.S, which has been grappling with the fallout from leaks of highly sensitive secrets over the past decade.
Blinken said Saturday he had heard no concerns from allies, but the revelations, and the arrest of a relatively low-level suspect in the leaks, will loom over the G-7 meeting, the first major international diplomatic conference since the documents were discovered online and made public.
“We have engaged with our allies and partners since these leaks came out, and we have done so at high levels, and we have made clear our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and our commitment to our security partnerships,” Blinken told reporters in Hanoi before leaving for Japan.
“What I’ve heard so far at least is an appreciation for the steps that we’re taking, and it’s not affected our cooperation,” he said. “I just haven’t seen that, I haven’t heard that. And, of course, the investigation is taking its course.”
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Explosive thrown at Japan PM at campaign event; 1 hurt
WAKAYAMA, Japan (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed Saturday after someone threw an explosive device in his direction while he was campaigning at a fishing port in western Japan, officials said. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air.
One police officer was slightly hurt and Kishida continued campaigning Saturday, but the chaotic scene was reminiscent of the assassination nine months ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which also came on a campaign tour and continues to reverberate in Japanese politics. Kishida was visiting Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture to support his ruling party’s candidate in a local election, and the explosion occurred just before he was to begin his speech.
A young man believed to be a suspect was arrested Saturday at the scene after he allegedly threw “the suspicious object,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Matsuno refused to comment on the suspect’s motive and background, saying police are still investigating.
TV footage shows Kishida standing with his back to the crowd. His security detail suddenly points to the ground near him, and the prime minister whips around, looking alarmed. The camera quickly turns to the crowd just as several people, including uniformed and plainclothes police officers, converge on a young man wearing a white surgical mask and holding what appears to be another device, a long silver tube.
As they collapse on top of the man, working to remove the tube from his hands, a large explosion is heard near where Kishida had been standing. The crowd scatters in panic as police roughly drag the man away.
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What to know about 1st test flight of SpaceX's big Starship
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship.
It's the biggest and mightiest rocket ever built, with the lofty goals of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.
Jutting almost 400 feet (120 meters) into the South Texas sky, Starship could blast off as early as Monday, with no one aboard. Musk's company got the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday.
It will be the first launch with Starship's two sections together. Early versions of the sci-fi-looking upper stage rocketed several miles into the stratosphere a few years back, crashing four times before finally landing upright in 2021. The towering first-stage rocket booster, dubbed Super Heavy, will soar for the first time.
For this demo, SpaceX won’t attempt any landings of the rocket or the spacecraft. Everything will fall into the sea.
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China auto show highlights intense electric car competition
SHANGHAI (AP) — Global and Chinese automakers plan to unveil more than a dozen new electric SUVs, sedans and muscle cars this week at the Shanghai auto show, their first full-scale sales event in four years in a market that has become a workshop for developing electrics, self-driving cars and other technology.
Automakers are competing to roll out faster, more luxurious, more feature-drenched electric vehicles in the technology’s biggest, most crowded market. The ruling Communist Party has invested billions of dollars in subsidies to buy an early lead in an emerging industry. Established global brands face intense competition from Chinese rivals.
For the first time since 2019, executives are flying in from the United States, Europe and Japan for the world’s biggest auto show after anti-virus curbs that blocked most travel into China were lifted in December. Auto shows in the industry’s biggest market went ahead during the pandemic, but on a smaller scale. Global brands were represented by employees of their China operations.
Drivers in the world's biggest auto market bought 5.4 million pure-electric vehicles last year, or about two-thirds of the global total of 8 million, plus 1.5 million gasoline-electric hybrids. That was more than one-quarter of total auto sales of 23.6 million. This year’s EV sales are forecast to rise another 30%.
“Consumers lost interest in gasoline cars. That is the biggest challenge for foreign brands to compete in China,” said industry analyst John Zeng of LMC Automotive. “They are going to have to show their best EV products.”
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NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence
IMATRA, Finland (AP) — The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia - primarily meant to curb illegal migration - has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.
The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building of the initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence to be erected in Pelkola near a crossing point off Imatra, a quiet lakeside town of some 25,000 people.
Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.
Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government amid wide political support last year. The main purpose of the three-meter (10-foot) high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities, Finnish border officials say.
In 2015-2016, Moscow attempted to influence Finland by organizing large numbers of asylum-seekers to northern Finnish crossing points in the Arctic Lapland region. Russian authorities were seen deliberately ushering thousands of asylum-seekers - mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East nations - to those border crossing points.
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Italy's Meloni acknowledges 'anomalies' in Russian escape
ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni acknowledged “anomalies” in the handling of a Russian businessman who escaped from house arrest in Italy to avoid extradition to the United States and said Saturday she would speak with the justice minister to understand what happened.
During a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meloni termed the case of Artyom Uss “grave” and vowed to get to the bottom of it when she returned to Rome.
Uss, the 40-year-old son of a Russian regional governor, was detained in October 2022 at Milan Malpensa Airport on a U.S. warrant accusing him of violating sanctions. In November, a ruling from a Milan appeals court resulted in him being moved from jail to house arrest and outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.
He escaped from Italy on March 22, a day after a Milan court recognized as legitimate the U.S. extradition request, and surfaced in Russia earlier this month.
“For sure there are anomalies,” Meloni told reporters in Ethiopia. “The principal anomaly, I’m sorry to say, is the decision of the appeals court to offer him house arrest with a frankly debatable motivation, and to then maintain that decision even after there was an extradition request. Because obviously in that case, the flight risk becomes more obvious.”
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US dollar scarcity threatens Bolivia's 'economic miracle'
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Sofia Andrade, a lawyer, chose over the past month to withdraw all her dollar savings from the bank as the US currency became scarce on the streets of Bolivia.
“I prefer to have them at home,” she said. “I fear they won’t let me withdraw them later.”
Like her, many Bolivians are withdrawing their dollar deposits or rushing to buy the US currency amid increased concern about Bolivia’s economic fragility, a marked change for a country that for more than a decade experienced what many called an “economic miracle” amid strong growth, record exports, low inflation, a fixed exchange rate and subsidized gasoline.
The scarcity of the greenback, which opposition politicians attribute to the Central Bank running out of hard currency reserves and the government blames on speculation, means that for the first time since 2011, a parallel market for the U.S. dollar has emerged that charges slightly more than the official price.
When the shortage began earlier this year, hundreds spent the night outside the Central Bank to buy dollars at the official exchange rate. A new system has now been established to buy the currency online. The physical lines have disappeared, but the problem remains and is reminding Bolivians of past economic woes.
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Report finds democracy for Black Americans is under attack
WASHINGTON (AP) — Extreme views adopted by some local, state and federal political leaders who try to limit what history can be taught in schools and seek to undermine how Black officials perform their jobs are among the top threats to democracy for Black Americans, the National Urban League says.
Marc Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who leads the civil rights and urban advocacy organization, cited the most recent example: the vote this month by the Republican-controlled Tennessee House to oust two Black representatives for violating a legislative rule. The pair had participated in a gun control protest inside the chamber after the shooting that killed three students and three staff members at a Nashville school.
“We have censorship and Black history suppression, and now this,” Morial said in an interview. "It’s another piece of fruit of the same poisonous tree, the effort to suppress and contain.”
Both Tennessee lawmakers were quickly reinstated by leaders in their districts and were back at work in the House after an uproar that spread well beyond the state.
The Urban League's annual State of Black America report released Saturday draws on data and surveys from a number of organizations, including the UCLA Law School, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The collective findings reveal an increase in recent years in hate crimes and efforts to change classroom curriculums, attempts to make voting more difficult and extremist views being normalized in politics, the military and law enforcement.
The Associated Press
