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```rss <![CDATA[Top News: US & International Top News Stories Today | AP News | AP News]]> https://apnews.com/hub/apf-topnews RSSHub i@diygod.me (DIYgod) en Wed, 30 Aug 2023 05:29:07 GMT 5 <![CDATA[Idalia projected to hit Florida as Category 4 hurricane with ‘catastrophic’ storm surge]]> CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave as Hurricane Idalia gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and authorities warned of a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds” when the storm moves ashore Wednesday morning.

Idalia was packing sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) early Wednesday, after growing into a Category 2 system on Tuesday afternoon. It was projected to make landfall later Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph) in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.

On the island of Cedar Key, Commissioner Sue Colson joined other city officials in packing up documents and electronics at City Hall on Tuesday. She had a message for the almost 900 residents who were under mandatory orders to evacuate. More than a dozen state troopers went door to door warning residents that storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters).

“One word: Leave,” Colson said. “It’s not something to discuss.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis repeated the warning at Tuesday afternoon news conference.

“You really gotta go now. Now is the time,” he said. Earlier, the governor stressed that residents didn’t necessarily need to leave the state, but should “get to higher ground in a safe structure.”

Not everyone was heeding the warning. Andy Bair, owner of the Island Hotel, said he intended to “babysit” his bed-and-breakfast, which predates the Civil War. The building has not flooded in the almost 20 years he has owned it, not even when Hurricane Hermine flooded the city in 2016.

“Being a caretaker of the oldest building in Cedar Key, I just feel kind of like I need to be here,” Bair said. “We’ve proven time and again that we’re not going to wash away. We may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but we’ll be OK eventually.”

Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area, shelters were open and hotels prepared to take in evacuees. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane’s wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.

In Tarpon Springs, a coastal community northwest of Tampa, 60 patients were evacuated from a hospital out of concern that the system could bring a 7-foot (2.1-meter) storm surge.

After landing in the Big Bend region, Idalia is forecast to cross the Florida peninsula and then drench southern Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday. Both Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced states of emergency, freeing up state resources and personnel, including hundreds of National Guard troops.

“We’ll be prepared to the best of our abilities,” said Russell Guess, who was topping off the gas tank on his truck in Valdosta, Georgia. His co-workers at Cunningham Tree Service were doing the same. “There will be trees on people’s house, trees across power lines.”

At 1 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Idalia was about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southwest of Cedar Key and 160 miles (257 kilometers) south of Tallahassee, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving north at 16 mph (26 kph).

Idalia pummeled Cuba with heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday, leaving the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio underwater and many of its residents without power.

“The priority is to reestablish power and communications and keep an eye on the agriculture: Harvest whatever can be harvested and prepare for more rainfall,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a meeting with government officials Tuesday.

State media did not report any deaths or major damage.

With a large stretch of Florida’s western coast at risk for storm surges and floods, evacuation notices were issued in 22 counties, with mandatory orders for some people in eight of those counties.

Many school districts along the Gulf Coast were to be closed through at least Wednesday. Several colleges and universities also closed, including the University of Florida in Gainesville. Florida State University in Tallahassee said its campus would be closed through Friday.

Two of the region’s largest airports stopped commercial operations, and MacDill Air Force Base on Tampa Bay sent several aircraft to safer locations.

Asked about the hurricane Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he had spoken to DeSantis and “provided him with everything that he possibly needs.”

Ian was responsible last year for almost 150 deaths. The Category 5 hurricane damaged 52,000 structures, nearly 20,000 of which were destroyed or severely damaged.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently said the 2023 hurricane season would be far busier than initially forecast, partly because of extremely warm ocean temperatures. The season runs through Nov. 30, with August and September typically the peak.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in St. Louis, Missouri; Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Curt Anderson in Orlando, Florida; Chris O’Meara in Clearwater, Florida; Cristiana Mesquita in Havana; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Tara Copp in Washington; and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 04:35:49 GMT c40b3c66-417e-39ca-915c-d3f7bb90ba34 https://apnews.com/article/florida-hurricane-idalia-2136985ceea53f5deb600c43aeea1138 U.S. News <![CDATA[As Trump and Republicans target Georgia’s Fani Willis for retribution, the state’s governor opts out]]> ATLANTA (AP) — Some Republicans in Washington and Georgia began attacking Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis immediately after she announced the Aug. 14 indictment of former President Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. But others, including Gov. Brian Kemp, have been conspicuous in their unwillingness to pile on.

Kemp, who had previously survived scathing attacks from Trump over his refusal to endorse the former president’s false claims about the election, declined to comment on the indictment of Trump and 18 others at a conservative political conference hosted by radio host and Kemp ally Erick Erickson.

Noting that he had been called before a special grand jury to testify during the investigation, Kemp stated forcefully that Democratic President Joe Biden was the rightful winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes and said swinging the spotlight to Trump’s legal troubles would be a mistake.

“Democrats want us to be focused on things like this, so we’re not focused on Joe Biden’s record,” Kemp told Erickson on Aug. 18.

Trump, meanwhile, has kept up a withering assault on both Willis and Kemp.

“Governor Kemp of Georgia is fighting hard against the impeachment of the crooked, incompetent & highly partisan D.A. of Fulton County, Fani Willis, who has allowed murder and other violent crime to MASSIVELY ESCALATE,” the former president wrote Aug. 21 on his Truth Social platform. “Crime in Atlanta is WORST IN NATION. She should be impeached for many reasons, not just the Witch Hunt (I did nothing wrong!)”

There’s little evidence to support Trump’s claim that crime is escalating — the number of homicides has fallen sharply in Atlanta this year.

Other Georgia Republicans didn’t hesitate to assail Willis, with some joining Trump in the call to impeach the Atlanta-based prosecutor.

“Fani Willis should be ashamed of herself and she’s going to lose her job,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. “We’ll make sure of that.”

Greene spoke to reporters last Thursday outside the Fulton County Jail, shortly before Trump arrived by motorcade to submit to booking and a mug shot. That same day, House Republicans in Washington announced their own investigation of Willis.

By then, a few GOP lawmakers in Georgia were calling for a special session to impeach and remove Willis or defund her office. Others proposed amending the state constitution to let Kemp pardon Trump.

Both are longshot prospects.

Georgia’s General Assembly hasn’t impeached anyone in more than 50 years, and with Republicans holding less than the required two-thirds state Senate majority to convict Willis, they would have to persuade Democrats.

Colton Moore, a Republican state senator whose purist brand of conservatism wins him few allies, launched a petition for lawmakers to call themselves into special session, requiring signatures by three-fifths of both houses. That too would require some Democratic support.

Georgia voters amended the state constitution to shift pardon power from the governor to a parole board in the 1940s after a governor was accused of selling pardons. It would take a two-thirds vote of both houses to put a measure before voters to change that status, again requiring Democratic support.

And it’s not clear Kemp would pardon Trump even if he had that power. Kemp and Trump were on bad terms even before Kemp spurned Trump’s calls to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. And relations grew icier after Trump recruited former Sen. David Perdue for an embarrassingly unsuccessful Republican primary challenge to Kemp’s reelection in 2022. Kemp, like some other Republican governors, now openly argues that his party needs to move on from Trump.

At least one other top Georgia Republican, state House Speaker Jon Burns, is siding with Kemp in opposing a special session. In a letter to fellow Republicans, he squelched talk of a special session, writing that he wants to look toward “a positive vision that prepares for the bright future our children and grandchildren deserve.”

“All those charged are innocent until proven guilty, and I am certain both sides will ensure this matter is exhaustively considered through the courts,” Burns wrote, saying he wouldn’t comment further.

Burns’ comments drew the scorn of Amy Kremer, a suburban Atlanta Republican activist who helped organize the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington that spawned the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

“We need to flip these corrupt RINO seats to true conservatives who will actually work and fight for the people,” Kremer wrote on social media. “So embarrassing.”

Looking for other options to go after Willis, some Georgia Republicans are coalescing around a plan to seek her removal by a new state prosecutorial oversight commission that begins work on Oct. 1.

The Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission was created with the aim of disciplining or removing wayward prosecutors. Republicans fought hard for the law because they said some Democratic prosecutors were incompetent or coddling criminals, improperly refusing to prosecute whole categories of crimes, including marijuana possession.

Democrats retorted that Republicans were the ones politicizing prosecutions, and some viewed the law as Republican retribution against Willis. She criticized the measure as a racist attack after voters elected 14 nonwhite DAs in the state.

The law lets the commission sanction prosecutors for “willful misconduct in office” or “undue bias or prejudice against the accused or in favor of persons with interests adverse to the accused.” It’s unclear how the commission will interpret those terms, because it hasn’t created rules yet.

Kemp, Burns and Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones name the commission’s five-member investigative panel to examine complaints. They also name a three-member hearing panel that decides on charges filed by the investigative panel.

Some district attorneys, not including Willis, are already suing to overturn the law. Barring court intervention, people can begin filing complaints on Oct. 1 for alleged misconduct occurring after July 1.

Such complaints could relieve political pressure on Georgia Republicans.

“District Attorney Fani Willis has demonstrated that she is nothing more than a liberal activist attempting to bend the law to fit a narrative that she has spent an egregious amount of taxpayer resources to craft,” state Sen. Jason Anivitarte wrote on social media, encouraging people to bring complaints.

But if the commission’s first act is to pursue Willis, critics say that will prove that it’s nothing but a political tool to enforce GOP rule in Georgia.

DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, a Democrat and plaintiff in the suit challenging the law, told The Associated Press Monday that using the commission against Willis would confirm that it’s what its opponents warned it would be — “an assault on prosecutorial independence and the latest attempt to subvert democracy in Georgia.”

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 04:07:56 GMT b61b7d4d-cff1-3301-bb91-229368fe79b8 https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-brian-kemp-georgia-indictment-2d3cc1b7f5a63e2c331daed85ee8b2e0 U.S. News <![CDATA[Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack]]> WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election, capping one of the most significant prosecutions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who had already been arrested and ordered to leave Washington, D.C. by the time Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters in storming the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But prosecutors say he organized and led the group’s assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought Civil War-era offense that the Justice Department levied against members of far-right groups who played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack.

“Using his powerful platform, Tarrio has repeatedly and publicly indicated that he has no regrets about what he helped make happen on January 6,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

The Justice Department has also recently charged Trump with conspiring to subvert American democracy, accusing the Republican of plotting in the days before the attack to overturn the results of the election that he lost. The Tarrio case — and hundreds of others like it — function as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s weeks of lies around the election and the extent to which his false claims helped inspire right-wing extremists who ultimately stormed the Capitol to thwart the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Trump, who is the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 nomination, insists he did nothing wrong. His trial is set for March 4.

Prosecutors have recommended 33 years in prison for for Tarrio, 39, of Miami — nearly twice as long as the harshest punishment that has been handed down so far in the Justice Department’s massive Jan. 6 prosecution. The longest prison sentence so far went to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who got 18 years for seditious conspiracy and his conviction on other charges.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly isn’t bound by prosecutors’ recommendation when he sentences Tarrio and seperately sentences former Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean on Wednesday in Washington’s federal courthouse — which sits within view of the Capitol. Later this week, Kelly is scheduled to sentence three other Proud Boys members who were convicted by a jury in May after a trial alongside Tarrio and Nordean.

Tarrio, Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Prosecutors also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Biggs, 30 years for Rehl, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola.

Tarrio’s lawyers denied the Proud Boys had any plan to attack the Capitol, and argued that prosecutors used Tarrio as a scapegoat for Trump, who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 and urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

In urging the judge for a lenient sentence, Tarrio’s lawyers noted in court papers that he has a history of cooperating with law enforcement. Court records uncovered in 2021 showed that Tarrio previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

Tarrio’s lawyers urged the judge “to see another side of him — one that is benevolent, cooperative with law enforcement, useful in the community, hardworking and with a tight-knit family unit and community support.”

Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, but law enforcement officials later said he was arrested in part over concerns about the potential for unrest during the certification. He complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest.

On Jan. 6, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. The mob’s assault overwhelmed police, forced lawmakers to flee the House and Senate floors and disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden’s electoral victory.

Tarrio picked Nordean and Biggs to be his top lieutenants on Jan. 6 and created an encrypted Telegram group chat for group leaders to communicate, according to prosecutors. The backbone of the case against Tarrio and other Proud Boys leaders was messages that they privately exchanged before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack.

“Make no mistake ... we did this,’” Tarrio wrote to other group leaders.

Tarrio also posted encouraging messages on social media during the riot, expressing pride for what he saw unfold at the Capitol and urging his followers to stay there. He also posted a picture of rioters in the Senate chamber with the caption “1776.”

Several days before the riot, a girlfriend sent Tarrio a document entitled “1776 Returns.” It called for storming and occupying government buildings in Washington “for the purpose of getting the government to overturn the election results,” according to prosecutors.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol attack. More than 600 of them have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, and Rehl, of Philadelphia, led local Proud Boys chapters. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Pezzola was a group member from Rochester, New York.

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 04:05:45 GMT 21e62b98-75f2-3f4d-a266-4576fc944d2c https://apnews.com/article/trump-sentencing-proud-boys-capitol-riot-1ab0567db6209a5a653beb4292ff6a91 Politics <![CDATA[2 killed in Kyiv as Russia accuses Ukraine of biggest drone attack on its soil since fighting began]]> KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia accused Ukraine of launching what appeared to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil since Moscow invaded 18 months ago, followed by a Russian attack on Kyiv that Ukrainian officials said killed two people early Wednesday.

Drones hit an airport in Russia’s western Pskov region near the border with Estonia and Latvia, and started a massive fire, the governor and local media reported. More drones were shot down over Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga and the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital, according to the Defense Ministry.

Pskov regional Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov ordered all flights to and from the airport in the region’s namesake capital canceled Wednesday so the damage could be assessed during daylight.

The airport strike, which was first reported minutes before midnight, damaged four Il-76 transport aircraft, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.

Footage and images posted on social media showed smoke billowing over the city of Pskov and a large blaze. Vedernikov said there were no casualties, and the fire has been contained. Unconfirmed media reports said between 10 and 20 drones could have attacked the airport.

In Kyiv, falling debris killed two people and injured another after Russia launched a “massive combined attack” on the Ukrainian capital using drones and missiles, head of the military administration Sergei Popko wrote on Telegram.

In what Popko said was the biggest attack since spring, Russia launched Shahed drones at Kyiv from various directions and then targeted the capital with missiles from Tu-95MS strategic aircraft. He said more than 20 targets had been brought down by Ukraine’s air defenses. It was unclear how many had been launched.

The deaths and injury occurred when debris fell on a commercial building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, Popko said.

Explosions in Ukraine were also reported in the southern city of Odesa and the Cherkasy region.

In Russia, Pskov was the only region reporting substantial damage. In Kaluga, one drone was brought down and another hit an empty oil reservoir, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished, region Gov. Vladislav Shapsha reported. Residential windows were shattered, Shapsha said.

Three drones were shot down over the Bryansk region, according to the Russian military, and some Russian media cited residents as saying they heard a loud explosion. Two drones were downed over the Oryol region, its Gov. Andrei Klychkov said. Two more were downed over the Ryazan region and one over the Moscow region, officials said.

Outside Moscow, three main airports — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo — temporarily halted all incoming and outgoing flights, a measure that has become routine in the wake of the drone attacks.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who usually refuse to take responsibility for any attacks on the Russian soil.

Also early Wednesday, Russian-installed officials in the annexed Crimea reported repelling an attack of drones targeting the harbor of the port city of Sevastopol. Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev said it wasn’t immediately clear how many of the drones have been destroyed. It wasn’t immediately clear if the attack caused any damage.

Drone attacks on Crimea or Russian regions have become increasingly common in recent months, with Moscow being a frequent target, as well as regions that border with Ukraine, such as Bryansk. Fuel depots and air fields have been hit in drone attacks Russian officials blamed on Kyiv.

The Oryol and Kaluga regions border with Bryansk, and the Moscow region sits on top of Kaluga. Pskov, however, is about 700 kilometers (434 miles) north of Russia’s border with Ukraine, and has been described by Russian media and military bloggers on Wednesday morning as an unlikely target.

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 01:36:45 GMT b651c8b4-0b0e-3b13-bdd4-4dca7e6e8447 https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drones-a9fc4ddad80a906e85aacca7354eb317 World News <![CDATA[Unclear how many in Lahaina lost lives as Hawaii authorities near the end of their search for dead]]> HONOLULU (AP) — Crews in Hawaii have all but finished searching for victims of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, authorities said Tuesday, and it is unclear how many people perished.

Three weeks after the fire devastated Maui’s historic seaside community of Lahaina, the count of the dead stands at 115. But an unknown number of people are still missing.

Officials suggested that responders likely have already recovered any remains that are recognizable as such, and they are shifting the response to focus on removing hazardous waste and making the area safe for residents to begin returning.

“We have wrapped up almost completely the search and recovery mission and moving into the next phase,” Darryl Oliveira, the interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, said at a news conference.

The next phase would be hazardous waste removal conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he said.

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said urban search and rescue teams have “completed 100% of their area” but some search activity continues in the ocean off Lahaina.

The FBI is searching 200 yards (183 meters) out along a four-mile (6.4-kilometer) stretch of coastline, but no human remains have been found, he said. There are 110 missing persons reports filed with Maui police, and more than 50 of those remain open cases that are still actively being worked, he said.

Although the initial land search is complete, authorities may also use details from the missing person reports to go over areas again, he added.

“They say, “My loved one was here’ and this may be a data point and we can continue,” Pelletier said. “In case there was a chance that something needs to be further looked at, we’ve got archeologists and we’re gonna make sure that we can do that so, again, we do this the right way.”

He asked for “trust and patience” as officials continue to identify remains and go through lists of the missing.

So far, authorities have identified and notified the loved ones of 45 of those killed. They have collected DNA from 120 people to identify the dead and continue to see more samples.

EPA teams will search for and remove by hand hazardous materials like paints, pesticides and batteries. Lahaina had a large number of lithium ion solar-powered energy storage batteries, which the agency will treat as though they are unexploded ordnance, said Steve Calanog, the EPA’s incident commander.

Teams will remove large pieces of asbestos material, but any asbestos in ash will be addressed in the next cleanup phase, he said.

The EPA will mist an adhesive called Soiltac on the ash to prevent it from migrating into the ocean, Calanog said. The substance is “non-toxic, biodegradable and marine safe” and will degrade in two to three months, he said.

The EPA has integrated about 25 cultural observers into its teams so the agency “proceeds with caution, reverence and respect” in the town that was the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom in the 1800s and home to Hawaiian chiefs for centuries.

“We all know of the rich, long, historic and cultural significance of Lahaina,” Calanog said.

The EPA said in a news release it will take up to several months to remove household hazardous material, though the work could be finished sooner.

Later, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a recorded message on Instagram that the EPA would ship the toxic debris it collects to the continental U.S.

“Those materials will not remain on Maui, nor will they remain in the state of Hawaii,” Bissen said.

Maui County didn’t sound its emergency sirens to warn residents of the fire when it spread on Aug. 8.

Darryl Oliveira, who took over as interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency on Monday, said sirens had not been used for wildfires in Hawaii before. But he said Maui, the state, and other Hawaii counties were working on new protocols to do so.

“We see tremendous value in incorporating more tools into our arsenal to keep the public aware and get them early warning,” he said, adding that the current hurricane season is overlapping with extremely dry conditions on Maui and statewide.

In an early example of this, officials on Saturday sounded emergency sirens to warn residents of a brush fire near Kaanapali resort hotels in Lahaina. Firefighters quickly brought the fire under control.

Oliveira guided the Big Island through hurricanes and volcanic eruptions as the head of Hawaii County civil defense for many years.

He said one challenge was educating the public -- including tourists -- on what to do if they hear a siren sound to warn of a wildfire.

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 01:09:32 GMT 1f55a5db-ab7a-31a0-af82-c5323a1c6400 https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-maui-lahaina-fire-dead-missing-fb8592496f400e995266944ffb16a7e7 U.S. News <![CDATA[Guatemala’s president-elect faces legal challenges that seek to weaken him. Here’s what’s happening]]> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s Aug. 20 presidential election has been bogged down in court and legal challenges despite the fact the results were clear: Progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo won about 61% of the vote to conservative Sandra Torres’ 39%. After weeks of uncertainty, the top electoral court finally certified Arévalo as the winner Monday.

But federal prosecutors are seeking to suspend his party, throwing into doubt whether he will have any support in congress. And Torres has filed court challenges seeking to overturn the election result, alleging fraud in the vote count — something none of the independent election observer groups reported.

How did it get so complicated?

FIRST, YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND CORRUPTION

Governmental corruption and impunity was so bad in Guatemala that in 2006 the country had to call in a United Nations-backed commission, known as CICIG, to combat it.

The commission’s work led to some serious results: In 2015, Guatemala became one of the few countries in the world to force a sitting president, Otto Pérez Molina, to resign and immediately go to jail, along with his vice president.

The next elected president, Jimmy Morales — and much of Guatemala’s political elite — decided things had gone too far. Morales kicked out CICIG in 2019.

THE HUNTERS BECOME THE HUNTED

Under current President Alejandro Giammattei and the attorney general he appointed, Consuelo Porras, the government has targeted criminal investigations not against corruption but against those who investigated and punished it.

Some 30 judges, magistrates and prosecutors involved in the investigation or processing of corruption cases have been forced to flee the country after facing legal action. Opponents and critics have also been targeted.

The U.S. government has cancelled Porras’ U.S. visa, calling her actions unjustified.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ARÉVALO?

Arévalo campaigned on one main pledge: cleaning up corruption. That made some in the current administration nervous at the all-too-real prospect of jail time.

Prosecutors claim they found evidence that some of the signatures gathered to register Arévalo’s Seed Movement party were illegal. So Porras’ office has requested the suspension of his political party — even though the law clearly says that can’t be done during a campaign.

IS THIS ‘LAWFARE?’

The term ‘lawfare’ is understood as the use of multiple prosecutions and lawsuits to intimidate, silence or discredit dissidents or opponents. Can it be applied to Guatemala’s elections?

Consider this: Prosecutors and courts barred at least three of the most popular candidates from running in the first round on June 25 due to technicalities, in some cases ridiculously small.

And the attorney general’s office raided the headquarters of the country’s electoral authority hours after it certified the results of the first round to search and seize evidence from voter rolls related to the investigation of Arévalo’s party.

IS THERE ANY MERIT TO PROSECUTORS’ ALEGATIONS AGAINST ARÉVALO?

Prosecutors say one of the people who signed to register Arévalo’s party in 2022 came forward to say his signature was falsified. And the attorney general’s office said the names of 12 dead people were found among the 25,000 signatures and as many as 100 might have been falsified.

The office also claims some of the people collecting signatures were paid to do so — something that’s legal and commonplace in the United States, for example. Arévalo’s supporters say that’s a small-potatoes argument for overturning millions of votes.

WHAT’S LIKELY TO HAPPEN?

Giammattei, who has sought to portray himself as above the fray of his attorney general’s raids and prosecutions, has said he is willing to meet with Arévalo and fulfill the transfer of power to him Jan. 14.

There seems to be little that could be done to stop Arévalo from taking office, and his opponents’ efforts now seem to be concentrated on ensuring he is a weak president with as little legislative support as possible.

Former congressman Roberto Alejos said prosecutors’ decision to suspend Arévalo’s party — which won 23 seats in congress — could at the very least prevent it from getting key committee assignments. But it’s not just politics.

“What prosecutors are doing, intervening in the electoral process, is creating a great deal of legal instability,” Alejos said, “and that could affect the economy, tourism, the rule of law and that could affect investment.”

]]> Tue, 29 Aug 2023 20:15:34 GMT 68fb3107-d790-3d21-9a30-9d883fc2dd0d https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-corruption-explained-f7e64b92d7cb76490f71211c129b8e9d World News <![CDATA[Lawyers indicted with Trump say they were doing their jobs. But that may be a tough argument to make]]> WASHINGTON (AP) — As John Eastman prepared to surrender to Georgia authorities last week for an indictment related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, he issued a statement denouncing the criminal case as targeting attorneys “for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients.”

Another defendant, Rudy Giuliani, struck a similar note, saying he was being indicted for his work as Donald Trump’s attorney. “I never thought I’d get indicted for being a lawyer,” he lamented.

The 18 defendants charged alongside Trump in this month’s racketeering indictment in Fulton County include more than a half-dozen lawyers, and the statements from Eastman and Giuliani provide early foreshadowing of at least one of the defenses they seem poised to raise: that they were merely doing their jobs as attorneys when they maneuvered on Trump’s behalf to undo the results of that election.

The argument suggests a desire to turn at least part of the sprawling prosecution into a referendum on the boundaries of ethical lawyering in a case that highlights anew how Trump’s own attorneys have become entangled over the years in his own legal problems.

But while attorneys do have wide berth to advance untested or unconventional positions, experts say a “lawyers being lawyers” defense will be challenging to pull off to the extent prosecutors can directly link the indicted lawyers to criminal schemes alleged in the indictment. That includes efforts to line up fake electors in Georgia and other states who would falsely assert that Trump, not Democrat Joe Biden, had won their respective contests.

“The law books are replete with examples of lawyers who were disciplined for claiming they were representing their clients,” said Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush’s winning presidential campaign in 2000 in a dispute ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. “Lawyers are required to follow very stringent rules of propriety. And there are certain things you can’t do for your clients. You cannot tell the court facts you have reason to know are not true.”

A more complicated question, though, is how far lawyers can go in advancing legal theories — even poorly supported ones — to achieve a desired outcome for a client, said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and former Justice Department official.

“Bad lawyering” is in and of itself not a crime, nor is “testing the waters” of legal arguments, he said.

“The real question is, at what point does a lawyer who knows that the legal theory that that lawyer is espousing has never been accepted anywhere — when does the lawyer cross the line if the lawyer suggests sort of that it is OK, that it’s clearly OK?” Saltzburg said. “And that’s a fuzzy line.”

Of course, attorneys are expected, as Eastman noted in his statement, to zealously represent clients — though he did privately acknowledge that he anticipated the Supreme Court might unanimously dismiss a legal theory he advanced that then-Vice President Mike Pence was entitled to reject the counting of electoral votes.

There’s also a long history of election-related lawsuits, none more famous than the 2000 Florida fight between Democrat Al Gore and the Bush campaign. Justice Department counsel Jack Smith acknowledged as much in his own federal indictment against Trump, saying he was entitled like any candidate to file lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures and contest the results through other legal means.

But the Georgia indictment lists numerous acts in which prosecutors allege that lawyers went beyond conventional legal advocacy and engaged themselves in criminal activities.

It alleges, for instance, that former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark — who has denied any wrongdoing — drafted a memo he wanted to send to Georgia officials falsely claiming that fraud had been identified that could have affected the election outcome in that state. It also accuses another lawyer, Sidney Powell, of plotting to illegally access voting equipment in a rural county in Georgia in an attempt to prove voting fraud claims.

And the indictment says multiple other lawyers — including Kenneth Chesebro, Giuliani and Eastman — were involved in discussions about enlisting fake electors in battleground states won by Biden in place of the legitimate ones. A lawyer for Chesebro has said that each allegation against him related to his work as an attorney; lawyers for Powell declined to comment Tuesday.

“The difference here is between recommending to the client that it may be possible to appoint electors other than those identified by the secretary of state, and then the client does it or doesn’t do it,” said Stephen Gillers, a legal expert at New York University. “It’s different when the lawyer himself or herself proceeds to follow that advice.”

He added: “The lawyer as actor, as opposed to the lawyer as advocate, gets less freedom to trespass on legal principles.”

The Georgia case continues a pattern of Trump lawyers becoming sucked into his legal woes. His former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty in 2018 to arranging at Trump’s direction a hush money payment to a porn actress who said she had an extramarital affair with Trump years earlier.

More recently, some of Trump’s lawyers testified before a federal grand jury investigating his alleged mishandling of classified documents, with statements from one of those attorneys, M. Evan Corcoran, helping form the backbone of an indictment against Trump filed in June.

Richard, who represented the Bush campaign in 2000, said there was no fair comparison to those legitimate court challenges of that era and the alleged misconduct 20 years later. The fighting then was done in court, and once the Supreme Court ruled, the matter was considered resolved.

When it came to that decision, Richard said, “I remember people said to me, ‘How is anybody going to govern after this?’ I said, ‘The Monday after this is over, everybody will go back to work, and everybody will acknowledge that we have a president’ — and that’s exactly what happened.”

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Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

]]> Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:52:15 GMT 3b508bf3-0877-3cb3-835b-958fbe62e02b https://apnews.com/article/trump-georgia-indictment-election-giuliani-95f5451f6b038c98db7bb14b1e0cd4e2 Politics <![CDATA[Syria protests spurred by economic misery stir memories of the 2011 anti-government uprising]]> BEIRUT (AP) — Anti-government protests in southern Syria have stretched into a second week, with demonstrators waving the colorful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of President Bashar Assad’s government and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party.

The protests were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of the Assad government.

The demonstrations have been centered in the government-controlled province of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze, who had largely stayed on the sidelines during the long-running conflict between Assad and those trying to topple him.

In a scene that once would have been unthinkable in the Druze stronghold, protesters kicked members of Assad’s Baath party out of some of their offices, welded the doors shut and spray-painted anti-government slogans on the walls.

The protests have rattled the Assad government, but don’t seem to pose an existential threat. They come at a time when government forces have consolidated control over most of the country. Meanwhile, Damascus has returned to the Arab fold and restored ties with most governments in the region.

Still, anger is building, even among Syrians who did not join the initial anti-Assad protests in 2011. Those demonstrations were met with a harsh crackdown and plunged the country into years of civil war.

For some, the final straw came two weeks ago when the Syrian president further scaled back the country’s expensive fuel and gasoline subsidy program. Assad also doubled meager public sector wages and pensions, but those actions did little to cushion the blow, instead accelerating inflation and further weakening the already sinking Syrian pound. The results further piled on the economic pressure on millions living in poverty.

Soon after, protests kicked off in Sweida and the neighboring province of Daraa.

Over the past decade, Sweida had largely isolated itself from Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict. The province witnessed sporadic protests decrying corruption and the country’s economic backslide. This time, crowds quickly swelled into the hundreds, calling out political repression by Assad’s government and stirring echoes of the protests that rocked the country in 2011.

“People have reached a point where they can no longer withstand the situation,” Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of the local activist media collective Suwayda24, told The Associated Press. “Everything is crumbling.”

While Assad’s political fortunes have been on the rise in recent months, life for much of the country’s population has become increasingly miserable. At least 300,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict, half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million has been displaced and large parts of the infrastructure have been crippled. Ninety percent of Syrians live in poverty. Rampant corruption and Western-led sanctions have also worsened poverty and inflation.

In Daraa — often referred to as the birthplace of the 2011 uprising but now under government control — at least 57 people were arrested in the current protests, according to the Britain-based Syrian Network for Human Rights. Unlike in 2011, government forces did not use lethal force.

In Sweida, the response has been more restrained, with Assad apparently wary of exerting too much force against the Druze. During the years of civil war, his government presented itself as a defender of religious minorities against Islamist extremism.

Over the years, the province’s young men also have armed themselves to defend their villages from Islamic State militants and Damascus-associated militias that produce and trade in illegal amphetamine pills, known as Captagon.

Joseph Daher, a Swiss-Syrian researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, believes that this provides a layer of protection for protesters.

“Unlike other government-held areas, Sweida has some form of limited autonomy,” Daher said.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, Lattakia, Tartous and other urban government strongholds, some are voicing their discontent more quietly. They write messages of support for the protests on paper, take pictures of those notes on the streets of their towns, and share them on social media.

Others suffer in silence and focus on daily survival. In Damascus, some have taken to carrying backpacks instead of wallets to carry the wads of cash they need to make everyday purchases amid the rampant inflation, while families struggle to buy basic necessities.

“If I buy (my son) two containers of milk, I’d have spent my entire month’s salary,” Damascus resident Ghaswan al-Wadi told the AP while preparing her family dinner at home after a long day at work.

The ongoing protests highlight Assad’s vulnerability as a result of the failing economy, even in areas that tried to withstand the situation and not hold large-scale protests against his rule.

Could the protests eventually threaten his rule?

Daher said this could only happen if the protesters banded together.

“You have forms of solidarity from other cities (with Sweida),” Daher said. “But you can’t say it would have a real effect on the regime, unless there would be collaboration between (protesters in) different cities.”

]]> Tue, 29 Aug 2023 05:27:07 GMT e93aa970-7578-371f-9f7b-a18d3121a15d https://apnews.com/article/syria-protests-sweida-economy-assad-daec33a9af0e53641d3defb3beed589a World News <![CDATA[University of North Carolina graduate student left building right after killing adviser, police say]]> CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A University of North Carolina graduate student walked into a classroom building, shot his faculty adviser and quickly left, authorities said a day after the attack paralyzed campus as police searched for the gunman.

Tailei Qi, 34, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and having a gun on educational property in Monday’s killing of Zijie Yan inside a science building at the state’s flagship public university.

Chapel Hill police arrested Qi without force in a residential neighborhood near campus within two hours of the attack, UNC Police Chief Brian James said at a news conference.

Investigators were trying to determine a motive and searching for the gun, James said. He declined to specify where in Caudill Labs Yan was killed, saying officers are still looking at evidence. Qi was already gone when a team of officers reached the building, James said.

Yan was “a beloved colleague, mentor and a friend of so many on our campus and a father to two young children,” UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz at the news conference.

On Wednesday afternoon, the school’s iconic Bell Tower will ring in honor of Yan’s memory and students are encouraged to take a moment of silence, he said. The school also canceled classes until Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday, Qi briefly appeared in Orange County Superior Court in Hillsborough. Judge Sherri Murrell ordered Qi to remain jailed without bond ```

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