AP-Newswatch

Democrats making a fresh push for Biden to reconsider running in runup to their own party convention

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats worried about President Joe Biden’s ability to win this November are making a renewed push for him to reconsider his reelection bid. They’re encouraging him to reassess by using mountains of data, frank conversations and now, Biden’s own time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID. Biden has insisted he is not backing down. He’s adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again in November. But key Democrats publicly and privately are sending signals of concern in the runup to the party’s own nominating convention next month.

Donald Trump will accept Republican nomination again days after surviving an assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump will take the stage at the Republican National Convention to accept the nomination of a party that has been remade in his image. Thursday’s speech will be Trump’s first since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Trump’s address marks the climax of the four-day convention in Milwaukee, where the former president has appeared each day with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the assassination attempt. In a show of solidarity, some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.

GOP vice presidential pick Vance talks Appalachian ties in speech as resentment over memoir simmers

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Newly minted vice presidential nominee JD Vance built his speech to the Republican National Convention around his own Appalachian roots. But it wasn’t the first time he had shared his personal story. Long before he was a U.S. senator from Ohio, Vance rose to prominence on the wings of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestselling memoir that many thought captured the essence of Donald Trump’s political resonance in a rural white America ravaged by joblessness, opioid addiction and poverty. The 2016 book set off a fierce debate among scholars and thinkers in the region. Many thought it trafficked in stereotypes and blamed working-class people for their own struggles.

Far-right Israeli minister visits sensitive Jerusalem holy site, a threat to Gaza cease-fire talks

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s far-right national security minister visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday, a move that could disrupt the delicate Gaza cease-fire talks. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader, said he had gone up to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of the hostages “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.” The move by Ben-Gvir threatens to disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israel-Hamas war. Jews and Muslims both claim the Jerusalem hilltop compound and visits like Ben-Gvir’s, while legal, are seen as a provocation.

Bedwetting, nightmares and shaking. War in Gaza takes a mental health toll, especially on children

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to maintain their mental health, with few resources and no safe places to recover after nine months of war. Mental health experts say anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation and aggression are prevalent. Children are especially vulnerable. Some wet the bed and have nightmares. One expert says essentially every child in Gaza needs mental health support. One mother says she tries to calm her children by saying that dying as a martyr is an opportunity to meet God and ask for the fruits and vegetables they didn’t have in hunger-ravaged Gaza.

Uncertainty is the winner and incumbents the losers so far in a year of high-stakes global elections

LONDON (AP) — Discontented, economically squeezed voters have turned against sitting governments on both right and left during many of the dozens of elections held this year, as global power blocs shift and political certainties crumble. From India to South Africa to Britain, voters dealt blows to long-governing parties. Elections to the European Parliament showed growing support for the continent’s far right, while France’s centrist president scrambled to fend off a similar surge at home. More than 40 countries have held elections already this year. More uncertainty awaits. Nations home to over half the world’s population are going to the polls in 2024.

The uncertainty that plagues life in crisis-ridden Venezuela is also wreaking havoc on relationships

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — In crisis-ridden Venezuela, nothing has been spared the uncertainty that plagues everyday life. The country has seen several million people leave in the last decade or so, and that is wreaking havoc not only on the nation’s politics and economy but also its dating scene. As a presidential election looms later this month along with questions about Venezuela’s future, many more are considering leaving. And so young people are debating online and among themselves whether it’s worth it to start a relationship — or whether to end one. Others are wondering when it is too soon or too late to ask the crucial question: Will you leave the country?

US journalist attends hearing in Russia in his trial on espionage charges that he and the US deny

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has attended a hearing behind closed doors in his trial in Russia on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Closing arguments are set for Friday. Authorities arrested the 32-year-old journalist on March 29, 2023, while he was on a reporting trip and claimed without offering any evidence that he was gathering secret information for the U.S. The American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Gershkovich is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. The U.S. State Department has declared him “wrongfully detained,” thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.

‘One screen, two movies’: Conflicting conspiracy theories emerge from Trump shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two very different conspiracy theories are spreading in the days following former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination. For some Trump supporters, the failure of the Secret Service to stop the shooter before he fired at Trump suggests a conspiracy orchestrated by President Joe Biden. For some Trump critics, however, the same video footage is being used to suggest Trump staged the shooting. There’s no evidence to support either claim, and authorities haven’t suggested a motive for the suspect. That lack of information is prompting many people to go online for information. Often, the misleading claims they encounter say less about the shooting than the country’s political polarization.

Paris police are sealing off the Seine River ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony

PARIS (AP) — A special kind of iron curtain has come down across central Paris. Police have set up the beginning of an anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the Seine River before it hosts the Olympics opening ceremony next week. Parisians and tourists can only pass through if they apply in advance for a pass. Those with the precious QR code passed smoothly past police checkpoints at gaps in the barriers taller than most people. Those without got mostly turned away. The perimeter went into effect early Thursday morning, and will last through the ceremony. As an exception, Paris has decided to hold the opening ceremony on the river rather than in a stadium.