AP-Newswatch

Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will debut as the 2024 Democratic ticket at a Philadelphia rally

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will appear with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at an evening rally in Philadelphia. Harris selected Walz on Tuesday as her vice presidential pick against the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Harris says Walz has “delivered for working families” in his Midwestern state. It was her biggest decision yet as the Democratic nominee and she went with a broadly palatable choice. Walz is someone who deflects dark and foreboding rhetoric from Republicans with a lighter touch. The strategy is one the campaign has been increasingly turning to since Harris took over the Democrats’ 2024 ticket from President Joe Biden.

Takeaways from a Harris-Walz ticket now that the stage is set for a reimagined presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) — The stage is set for an election that was unimaginable mere weeks ago when President Joe Biden was atop the Democratic ticket. Now Vice President Kamala Harris has tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate to take on Republican Donald Trump and his No. 2, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. As different as they are, Walz and Vance both qualify as picks meant to reassure their party’s loyal base voters rather than adding local heft in a critical battleground state. Walz is traveling this week with Harris to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. And Vance will have an overlapping itinerary to offer counterprograming.

Slow-moving Tropical Storm Debby bringing torrential rains and flooding to southeastern US

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby has brought prolonged downpours to the southeastern United States and could hover over the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, then boomerang back onto the mainland. The storm was forecast to move relatively slowly across some of America’s most historic Southern cities with the potential of dropping record-setting rain. The center of Debby was just southeast of Savannah, Georgia, by 2 p.m. Tuesday. The latest forecast says Debby could restrengthen in the ocean and then move inland again near Charleston, South Carolina, by Thursday. Debby made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a hurricane. At least five people have died.

Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, as its new leader in show of defiance

BEIRUT (AP) — The Palestinian militant group Hamas says it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader. The choice of Sinwar, a secretive figure who leads Hamas’ hardliners and is close to Iran, was a defiant step. Sinwar is at the top of Israel’s kill list as it seeks to destroy Hamas and its leadership after the Oct. 7 attack. He replaces Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike. Unlike Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Sinwar has remained in Gaza.

A Nobel laureate will head an interim government in Bangladesh after unrest ousted Hasina

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head Bangladesh’s interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule, led mostly by students. Wednesday’s annoncement came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Abedin says leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country’s three divisions of the military, civil society members as well as some business leaders met with the president for more than five hours late on Tuesday to decide on the head of the interim administration. Yunus, who is in Paris for the Olympics, was not immediately reachable for comment but a student leader says he’s accepted the post.

Hearing seeks insight into blowout on a Boeing jet that pilots said threw the flight into ‘chaos’

Boeing factory workers say they were pressured to work too fast and asked to perform jobs that they weren’t qualified for, including opening and closing the door plug that later blew off an Alaska Airlines jet. Those accounts from inside the company were disclosed Tuesday, as federal investigators opened a two-day hearing into the blowout, which further tarnished Boeing’s safety reputation and left it facing new legal jeopardy. A Boeing door installer said he was never told to take any shortcuts but everyone faced pressure to keep the assembly line moving.

Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged in plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil. Prosecutors in Brooklyn announced criminal charges Tuesday against Asif Merchant, accusing him of traveling to New York to try to hire a hitman. The plot was disrupted before it could be carried out. Court documents don’t identify any of the potential targets. But the case was unsealed just weeks after U.S. officials disclosed that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally last month in which Trump was injured by a gunman’s bullet.

Fossils suggest even smaller ‘hobbits’ roamed an Indonesian island 700,000 years ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — New research suggests ancestors of the “hobbits” were even smaller. Two decades ago, researchers discovered fossils of an early human species in an Indonesian cave that stood 3 1/2 feet tall, earning them the nickname “hobbits.” Now a new study released Tuesday suggests earlier relatives that were 2.4 inches shorter and existed 700,000 years ago. Findings were published in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers have debated how the hobbits — named Homo floresiensis — evolved to be so small and where they fall in the human evolutionary story.

Elon Musk’s X sues advertisers over alleged ‘massive advertiser boycott’ after Twitter takeover

WICHITA FALLS, Tex. (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws. The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted. It accused the advertising group’s initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.

Parisians once scoffed at hosting the Olympics. Now, here come the conga lines

PARIS (AP) — Impromptu conga lines at beach volleyball. Spontaneous street dancing during cycling. And serious people wearing ridiculous costumes. The evidence is anecdotal but mounting: Many Parisians are dumping the pre-Olympics grump and having a great time. Fears of huge crowds, beastly hot weather and overbearing security restrictions all led many Parisians to leave town ahead of the Games. But many who stayed are now fully embracing the Olympic spirit — and some who left are regretting it. One resident says it’s as if “the entire city took a pill.” Another exults from afar: “We pulled it off!” Not as happy are merchants who say a drop in non-Olympic tourism is hurting them.