AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT – Winnipeg Free Press


Abortion ban legislation adds to political challenge for GOP

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Don Bolduc didn’t have much time to celebrate winning the Republican nomination for Senate in New Hampshire on Wednesday before he and other swing-state GOP candidates were on the defensive.

A conservative retired Army brigadier general, Bolduc insisted during the Republican primary he would “always default for a system that protects lives from beginning to end.” But South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s decision to introduce legislation this week that would create a national abortion ban created the prospect that a campaign talking point could become a reality.

With his attention now shifting to the November general election in a moderate state that President Joe Biden carried by more than 7 percentage points, Bolduc quickly distanced himself from Graham’s measure.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he told Fox News, adding that abortion laws are better left to each individual state. “Women on both sides of the issue will get a better voice at the state level.”

With less than two months until the midterm elections, Bolduc’s pivot is a sign of the challenge dividing Republicans in some of the most competitive states as they navigate abortion politics. The party was already facing a potential backlash from voters upset by the Supreme Court’s June decision invalidating a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. But Graham’s legislation risked adding to the headwinds, undermining the GOP’s argument this summer that the future of abortion rights in the U.S. would be decided by individual states.

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From carmakers to refiners, industries brace for rail strike

Car buyers might not get the vehicle they want on time, commuter rail lines could see service disrupted, and shipments from everything from oil to livestock feed could be snarled.

Those are just a few of the wide-ranging impacts a walkout by U.S. rail workers would have on the country’s industries and economy. A strike could happen if the railroads and unions can’t settle their differences before an early Friday walkout deadline.

Here’s how some industries are gauging the potential impacts and getting ready for the possible work stoppage.

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AUTO INDUSTRY

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Ukrainian flag raised in retaken city after Russian retreat

IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Hand on heart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched his country’s flag rise Wednesday above the recaptured city of Izium, making a rare foray outside the capital that highlights Moscow’s embarrassing retreat from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Kyiv’s soldiers pressed a stunning advance that has reclaimed large swaths of territory in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

As Zelenskyy looked on and sang the national anthem, the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall. After almost six months under Russian occupation, Izium was left largely devastated, with apartment buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked by artillery strikes.

A gaping hole and piles of rubble stood where one building had collapsed.

“The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me,” Zelenskyy told journalists, “because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories … the same destroyed buildings, killed people.”

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Queen Elizabeth II lies in state as throngs pay respects

LONDON (AP) — The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II left Buckingham Palace for the last time Wednesday, borne on a horse-drawn carriage and saluted by cannons and the tolling of Big Ben, in a solemn procession through the flag-draped, crowd-lined streets of London to Westminster Hall. There, a steady stream of mourners paid their respects to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

As the cortege left the palace, her son, King Charles III, and his siblings and sons marched behind the coffin, which was topped by a wreath of white roses and her crown resting on a purple velvet pillow.

The military procession underscored Elizabeth’s seven decades as head of state as the national mourning process shifted to the grand boulevards and historic landmarks of the U.K. capital.

At 900-year-old Westminster Hall, where the queen will lie in state until her funeral Monday, crowds shuffled past her coffin well into the night. They moved silently down the steps of the hall under a great stained glass window, then past the coffin that was covered with the Royal Standard and had been placed on a raised platform known as a catafalque by eight pallbearers.

There were couples and parents with children, veterans with medals clinking on navy blue blazers, lawmakers and members of the House of Lords. Some wore black or suits and ties, others jeans and sneakers, and all had waited hours to stand in front of the coffin for a few moments

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R. Kelly convicted of child porn, enticing girls for sex

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury in Chicago convicted R. Kelly on Wednesday of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex after a monthlong trial in his hometown, delivering another legal blow to the Grammy Award singer who was once one of the world’s biggest R&B stars.

Prosecutors won convictions on six of the 13 counts against him, with many of the convictions carrying long mandatory sentences. But the government lost the marquee count — that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008.

Both of his co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid — who had told jurors that testimony from four Kelly accusers had led him to change his mind about Kelly’s believability — were acquitted of all charges.

The trial was, in ways, a do-over of Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial, with a key video critical to both. Kelly, who shed tears of joy when jurors acquitted him in 2008, gave a thumbs-up sign to spectators after Wednesday’s verdict but otherwise showed little emotion.

Before Kelly was returned to federal lockup, McDavid hugged Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a superstar.

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Defense suddenly rests case in Florida school shooter trial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz suddenly and surprisingly rested their case Wednesday after calling only a fraction of their expected witnesses, leading to a shouting match after the judge accused them of a lack of professionalism.

Cruz’s attorneys had told the judge and prosecutors they would be calling 80 witnesses but rested at the beginning of Wednesday’s court session after calling only about 25. There were 11 days of defense testimony overall, the last two spotlighting experts about how his birth mother’s heavy use of alcohol during pregnancy might have affected his brain’s development and led to his murder of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago.

The sudden announcement by lead attorney Melisa McNeill led to a heated exchange between her and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who called the decision without warning to her or the prosecution “the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case.”

The 12-member jury and 10 alternates were not present but were lining up outside the courtroom to enter. The sudden announcement also meant prosecutors weren’t ready to start their rebuttal case.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz threw his hands up when Scherer asked if he could begin and, with a nervous laugh, said “no.”

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Texts: Mississippi ex-governor knew of Favre welfare money

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Newly revealed text messages show how deeply a Mississippi governor was involved in the state paying more than $1 million in welfare money to Brett Favre to help fund one of the retired NFL quarterback’s pet projects.

Instead of the money going to help low-income families in one of the nation’s poorest states, as intended, it was funneled through a nonprofit group and spent on a new $5 million volleyball facility at a university that the football star and the governor both attended.

One of the texts from 2017 showed Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who left office in 2020, was “on board” with the arrangement. The state is suing Favre and others, alleging they misspent millions of dollars in welfare money. The director of the nonprofit has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in Mississippi’s largest public corruption case in decades.

The texts were in documents filed Monday in state court by an attorney for the nonprofit, known as the Mississippi Community Education Center. Messages between Favre and the center’s executive director, Nancy New, included references to Bryant. The documents also included messages between Bryant and Favre and Bryant and New.

New pleaded guilty in April to charges of misspending welfare money, as did her son Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify against others. Favre has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

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Armenia, Azerbaijan agree on cease-fire to end fighting

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated a cease-fire to end a flare-up of fighting that has killed 155 soldiers from both sides, a senior Armenian official said early Thursday.

Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, announced the truce in televised remarks, saying it took effect hours earlier, at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) Wednesday. A previous cease-fire that Russia brokered Tuesday quickly failed.

Several hours before Grigoryan’s announcement, Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported that shelling had ceased but it didn’t mention the cease-fire deal.

There was no immediate comment from Azerbaijan’s government.

The cease-fire declaration followed two days of heavy fighting that marked the largest outbreak of hostilities between the two longtime adversaries in nearly two years.

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Q&A: Next steps for Iowa teen sentenced for killing rapist

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donations are pouring in to help a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim who was ordered by a court to pay $150,000 to the family of a man she stabbed to death after he raped her.

A GoFundMe campaign set up for Pieper Lewis has already raised more than $200,000 just one day after the restitution order was handed down by an Iowa judge.

Lewis also received a deferred 20-year prison sentence on Tuesday that will be expunged if she successfully completes five years of closely supervised probation. Prosecutors described the sentence as merciful for a teen who had been horribly abused — and the judge said the law compelled him to order the $150,000 payment — but it struck many observers as unnecessarily harsh.

Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, a married father of two. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment.

Lewis has maintained that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked.

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‘Abbott Elementary’ creator wants focus on show, not Kimmel

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Abbott Elementary” creator-star Quinta Brunson said she’d rather focus on the show than Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy bit that overshadowed her Emmy acceptance speech and prompted criticism.

But Sheryl Lee Ralph, who received her own Emm y for the sitcom with a rousing song and speech, didn’t duck the matter during a Q&A panel discussion Wednesday with TV critics.

“I was like, ‘Oh, the disrespect, Jimmy,’” Ralph recalled. She sarcastically referred to it as “lovely that he was lying on the floor during her wonderful acceptance speech.

“I told him too, to his face, and he understood,” said Ralph, who was honored at Monday’s ceremony as best supporting comedy actress for her role in the warm-hearted comedy set in a Philadelphia school.

Brunson won the best comedy series writing Emmy and found herself sharing the Emmy stage with Kimmel — who was flat on his back, dragged by fellow presenter Will Arnett because the late-night host had supposedly had too many “skinny Margaritas.” Kimmel gave Brunson a thumbs-up for her award but didn’t budge, a decision that was blasted online as rude and thoughtless by some and cited as an example of white-male arrogance by others.



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