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Zelenskyy will arrive on Capitol Hill to grim mood as Biden’s aid package for Ukraine risks collapse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive on Capitol Hill to a darker mood than when he swooped in last winter for a hero’s welcome, as the Russian invasion is grinding into a third year and U.S. funding hangs in balance.Zelenskyy’s visit Tuesday comes as President Joe Biden’s request for an additional $110 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs is at serious risk of collapse in Congress. Republicans are insisting on strict U.S.-Mexico border security changes that Democrats decry as draconian in exchange for the overseas aid.“It is maddening,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of Biden, of the stalemate. “A very bad message to the world, to the Ukrainian people.”The White House said the time was right for Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington as Biden pushes lawmakers to approve the aid package before the year-end holidays. But the mood turned grim at the Capitol on the eve of his arrival. Zelen...

Backlash to House testimony shines spotlight on new generation of Ivy League presidents

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The university presidents called before a congressional hearing on antisemitism last week had more in common than strife on their campuses: The leaders of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT were all women who were relatively new in their positions.In that sense, they represented the changing face of leadership at top-tier universities, with a record number of women leading Ivy League schools.Now Penn’s president has resigned over a backlash to comments that she said did not go far enough to condemn hate against Jewish students. And Harvard’s president is facing calls to step down from donors and some lawmakers.While the Israel-Hamas war has deepened rifts at campuses across the country, the three leaders were invited to testify as the public faces of universities embroiled in protest and complaints of antisemitism. The Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce chose the three presidents because their schools “have been at the ...

Battle over creating new court centers on equality in Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The constitutional right of equal treatment under the law is at the center of a monthslong legal fight over a state-run court in part of Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city of Jackson.A federal judge is set to hear arguments Dec. 19 over the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court, which is scheduled to be created Jan. 1.The new court would be led by a state-appointed judge and prosecutors, and it would be the equivalent of a municipal court, handling misdemeanor cases. Municipal judges and prosecutors in Mississippi are typically appointed by local elected officials, but legislators who created the CCID Court said it was part of a package to fight crime.The Justice Department says the new court would continue Mississippi’s long history of trying to suppress Black people’s right to participate in government.“Just like many past efforts to undermine Black political power, (the law) singles out the majority-Black City of Jackson for los...

Hong Kong leader praises election turnout as voter numbers hit record low

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong leader John Lee on Tuesday praised the 27.5% voter turnout in the city’s weekend election, a record low since the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.Sunday’s district council election was the first held under new rules introduced under Beijing’s direction that effectively shut out all pro-democracy candidates.“The turnout of 1.2 million voters has indicated that they supported the election, they supported the principles,” Lee said at a news conference.“It is important that we focus our attention on the outcome of the election, and the outcome will mean a constructive district council, rather than what used to be a destructive one,” he said.Sunday’s turnout was significantly less than the record 71.2% of Hong Kong’s 4.3 million registered voters who participated in the last election, held at the height of anti-government protests in 2019, which the pro-democracy camp won by a landslide.Lee said there was resistance to Sunday&...

Florida school board may seek ouster of Moms for Liberty co-founder over Republican sex scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A co-founder of the conservative Moms for Liberty group could move a step closer to getting ousted from a Florida school board on Tuesday, as she is embroiled in the fallout of a sexual assault investigation into her husband, the Republican Party state chairman.The Sarasota County School Board cannot directly remove Bridget Ziegler from the panel but was set to vote on a resolution requesting that she step down. The resolution was authored by board Chair Karen Rose, who said in an email that she is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the rape allegations involving Ziegler’s husband, Christian Ziegler, and the couple’s admissions about having a three-way sexual encounter previously with the accuser.“I personally care about Bridget and her family and deeply regret the necessity for this course of action, but given the intense media scrutiny locally and nationally, her continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our cri...

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear sworn in for 2nd term in Republican-leaning Kentucky

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear renewed his oath of office early Tuesday during a ceremony at Kentucky’s Capitol, launching his second term after notching a convincing reelection victory that could offer a roadmap for his party’s broader efforts to make inroads in Republican strongholds.Beshear, 46, was sworn in just after midnight before a gathering of family, friends and supporters — a Bluegrass State ritual every four years to ensure continuity at the head of state government.The middle-of-the night formality preceded a full day of inaugural events Tuesday, including a worship service, a parade and a public swearing-in ceremony on the Capitol steps. Beshear will lay out themes for the second half of his governorship during his inaugural speech in the afternoon.The governor defeated Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron in last month’s election, extending Beshear’s winning streak in a state that otherwise has swung decidedly toward t...

Journalists tackle a political what-if: What might a second Trump presidency look like?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Even before anyone has cast a vote in a 2024 presidential primary, the attention of many political journalists has shifted to Jan. 20, 2025.There has been a flurry of recent stories about the implications of a potential second presidency for Donald Trump, and his team’s planning for Inauguration Day and beyond. Polls show his continued dominance over Republican rivals and the likelihood of a close general election.The New York Times reporting team of Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman has been mining that topic since the summer, and last week wrote in depth about the former president’s authoritarian impulses, and the possibility of fewer checks on his power. On Sunday, they examined whether Trump would leave NATO.A special issue of The Atlantic magazine released last week collected essays by 24 writers on how a Trump presidency would affect things like foreign policy, immigration, journalism and climate change. Editor Jeffrey Goldberg wrote...

Whitmer’s fight for abortion rights helped turn Michigan blue. She’s eyeing national impact now

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Ten years ago, as Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature was on the verge of passing one of the nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws at the time, a 42-year-old state senator from East Lansing took to the Senate floor to speak out against what she knew was about to happen.Minutes into her speech, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tossed aside her prepared remarks and revealed for the first time publicly that she had been raped while attending college. Had she become pregnant, Whitmer said, she would not have been able to afford an abortion under the proposed law.The bill, which Whitmer had derisively called “rape insurance” because it required women to declare when buying health insurance whether they expected to receive an abortion, passed anyway. But Whitmer, now in her second term as Michigan’s governor after winning reelection by nearly 11 percentage points in 2022, this week removed the requirement from state law with the stroke of a pen after Michigan...

How the 2016 election could factor into the case accusing Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 race

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — To hear his lawyers tell it, Donald Trump was alarmed by Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, motivated as president to focus on cybersecurity and had a good-faith basis four years later to worry that foreign actors had again meddled in the race.But to federal prosecutors, 2016 is significant as the year that Trump spread misinformation about voter fraud and proved himself resistant to accepting the outcome of elections that might not go his way.Even though a trial set for next year in Washington is centered on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, lawyers on both sides have signaled their desire — for totally different purposes — to draw attention to the tumultuous presidential contest four years earlier as a way to help explain his state of mind after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. “When we’re talking about someone’s belief or mental state, there is usually no one piece of evidence that is dispositive,” said David Aaron, a former Just...

US inflation likely cooled again last month as Fed prepares to assess interest rates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:54:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s steady slowdown in U.S. inflation likely continued in November, though the latest data may also point to steadily higher prices in some areas of the economy. Tuesday’s inflation report from the Labor Department is expected to show that businesses kept overall prices unchanged for a second straight month.Falling gas prices, in particular, are thought to have offset a rise in food costs from October to November. And compared with a year earlier, inflation is expected to ease to 3.1% from 3.2% in October, according to a survey of economists by FactSet. But a closely watched category called “core prices,” which excludes volatile food and energy costs, is predicted to rise 0.3% from October to November — a monthly pace that far outpaces the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual inflation target. On a year-over-year basis, core prices are expected to increase 4%, the same as in October.The Fed considers core prices to be a better guide to the likely p...