Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race
CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump falsely suggested Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the former president appeared Wednesday before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago in an interview that quickly turned hostile.
The Republican former president wrongly claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said while addressing the group's annual convention.
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting legislation to strengthen voting rights and to reform policing.
Trump has leveled a wide range of criticism at Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden atop the likely Democratic ticket last week. Throughout his political career, the former president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of opponents who are racial minorities.
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Harris calls Trump's false claims about race 'the same old show' of divisiveness and disrespect
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump's false assertions about her race were the “same old show" as she emphasized the need for Black women to organize for his defeat this November.
Addressing the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. — one of "Divine Nine" historically Black fraternities and sororities — in Houston, Harris told the crowd, "When I look out at everyone here, I see family.”
She drew knowing chuckles from the audience as she mentioned Trump’s comments earlier in the day at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. Trump said Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past promoted only her Indian heritage.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said while addressing the NABJ in Chicago.
Harris responded briefly during her address to the sorority, saying Trump's display was "the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect.”
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Biden is adjusting to a new reality, coming to terms with his departure from 2024 race
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was President Joe Biden's first public appearance since he dropped out of the race, and the applause for him from the crowded auditorium in Austin, Texas, just kept going. He put his hand on his heart in thanks, looked down and, for the briefest of moments, took it all in.
The ovation on Monday was most certainly not for the stated topic of his speech but for what had come before — Biden's decision to step aside in the 2024 race and throw his support behind his vice president.
Not to say it's been easy for him. Ten days since ending his reelection campaign, Biden still is coming to terms with the political whiplash that he — and the country — have experienced.
Privately, the Democratic president is smarting over those who orchestrated the abrupt end of his 50-year political career and processing a mixture of emotions — bitterness and regret among them, but also relief at not having to run a grueling race against Republican Donald Trump. Nor will Biden have to confront the risk of what his potential loss might have done do his legacy and the country.
At the same time, the Democratic Party's swift embrace of Vice President Kamala Harris as Biden's replacement has sparked pride in the quick consolidation of the party at his encouragement — and also served as an unwelcome reminder of his soon-to-be political irrelevance.
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused as the main plotter of 9/11 attacks, agrees to plead guilty
WASHINGTON (AP) — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused as the mastermind of al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, has agreed to plead guilty, the Defense Department said Wednesday. The development points to a long-delayed resolution in an attack that killed thousands and altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.
Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to enter the pleas at the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as soon as next week.
Defense lawyers have requested the men receive life sentences in exchange for the guilty pleas, according to letters from the federal government received by relatives of some of the nearly 3,000 people killed outright on the morning of Sept. 11.
Terry Strada, the head of one group of families of the nearly 3,000 direct victims of the 9/11 attacks, invoked the many relatives who have died while awaiting justice for the killings when she heard news of the plea agreement.
“They were cowards when they planned the attack," she said of the defendants. "And they’re cowards today."
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Hamas' top political leader is killed in Iran in strike that risks triggering all-out regional war
BEIRUT (AP) — Hamas' top political leader was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that risked escalating into an all-out regional war. Iran's supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will exact a very heavy price from any aggression against us on any front" but did not mention the killing. “There are challenging days ahead,” he added.
Israel had pledged to kill Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. The strike came just after Haniyeh had attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran — and hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran's ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The assassination was potentially explosive amid the region's volatile, intertwined conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in Tehran. Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates. The U.S. and other nations scrambled to prevent a wider, deadlier conflict.
In a statement on his official website, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said revenge was “our duty” and that Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear guest in our home.”
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Hezbollah confirms a top commander was killed in Israeli strike in Beirut
BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah confirmed Wednesday that Israel killed a top commander after a rare strike in Beirut.
The Iran-backed group said earlier that Fouad Shukur was in the building during the attack on Tuesday, and they were searching for him in the rubble to determine his fate.
Hezbollah’s announcement came after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
Israel said late Tuesday that it had killed Shukur, who it said was behind the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths. The United States also blames Shukur for staging and planning a bombing of a Marine Corps barrack in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American service members.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians — two children and three women — died in the strike in a busy neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations.
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911 calls before Sonya Massey's shooting include 1 from her mother asking officers not to 'hurt her'
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Two emergency response calls were made from the home of Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was shot in the face by an Illinois sheriff's deputy after she called 911 for help, in the days leading up to her death, according to records released Wednesday.
In a third call, Massey's mother, Donna Massey, reports that her daughter is suffering a “mental breakdown” and tells the dispatcher, “I don't want you guys to hurt her.” She adds that she fears the police and asks that no officer who is “prejudiced" be sent.
In the other calls, a woman calling from Sonya Massey's address, who doesn't identify herself, says people want to hurt her, and a day later, a woman identifying herself as Sonya Massey reports a neighbor had hit her with a brick.
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department is still trying to determine whether Massey’s history of mental health issues was relayed to deputies responding to the call about a suspected prowler, which ended in her death on July 6.
Former sheriff's deputy Sean Grayson, 30, who is white, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in the shooting death of Massey, 36, in her home. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond.
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Hawaii Gov. Josh Green tells AP a $4 billion settlement for 2023 Maui wildfire could come next week
HONOLULU (AP) — The parties involved in Lahaina wildfire lawsuits against the state of Hawaii, Maui County and utilities are close to a global settlement of claims that will be worth a little over $4 billion, Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Green said he’s hoping to finalize the details in coming days, perhaps as soon as Aug. 6, which would be two days before the one-year anniversary of the fire that killed 102 people and wiped out historic Lahaina.
“If that could happen, it would be great. I humbly invite all the parties to finalize the agreement,” Green said in an interview at his office. “It appears that we are almost there, and we only have a very tiny holdout remaining.”
He said all the plaintiffs and defendants have agreed to the global settlement number but final details are pending.
More than 600 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and destruction caused by the fires. In the spring, a judge appointed mediators and ordered all parties to participate in settlement talks.
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Venezuela's Maduro asks top court to audit the presidential election, but observers cry foul
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela’s high court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
Maduro told reporters that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election.
“I throw myself before justice,” he said outside the Supreme Tribunal of Justice headquarters in the capital, Caracas, adding that he is “willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated.”
This is Maduro's first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the court is closely aligned with his government; the court's justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.
The Carter Center, which sent a delegation to Venezuela to monitor the election, criticized Maduro's audit request, saying the court would not provide an independent review.
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What's next for Katie Ledecky? Another race and a relay as she goes for more records
NANTERRE, France (AP) — Katie Ledecky has tied one of swimming's most impressive records.
Chances are, she'll have it all to herself by the time she completes the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old Ledecky bumped her career total to 12 medals with a dominating victory in the 1,500-meter freestyle Wednesday night, equaling three fellow Americans — Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin and Jenny Thompson — for the most ever by a female swimmer.
Ledecky won her first gold in London when she was just 15.
“It’s not easy, it doesn’t get any easier, so I do try to enjoy it each year and there’s different perspective that I have different years and different challenges that you face each year,” Ledecky said after winning the 1,500.
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