# Neo-Nazi podcasters sent to prison on terror charges for targeting Prince Harry and his young son
By **BRIAN MELLEY**
January 4, 2024. 4:28 PM EST

---

**LONDON (AP)** - A neo-Nazi podcaster who called for the deaths of Prince Harry and his young son received a prison sentence Thursday along with his co-host Thursday. The sentencing judge in London called the duo "dedicated and unapologetic white supremacists" who encouraged terrorism.

Christopher Gibbons and Tyrone Patten-Walsh espoused racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, homophobic and misogynistic views and encouraged listeners of their "Lone Wolf Radio" podcast to commit violent acts against ethnic minorities, authorities said.

Using aliases on their show, the pair said "the white race was likely to be 'genocided' unless steps were taken to fight back." They approved of a day when so-called race traitors would be hanged, particularly those in interracial relationships. Prince Harry's wife, Meghan, is biracial.

On one episode, Gibbons said the Duke of Sussex should be "prosecuted and judicially killed for treason" and called Harry's son, Archie, who is now 4, a "creature" that "should be put down."

Gibbons, 40, was sentenced to eight years in prison, the Metropolitan Police said. Patten-Walsh, 34, was given a 7-year term. Both will be on the equivalent of probation for three years after their release.

"The evidence demonstrates that you desire to live in a world dominated by white people purely for white people. Your distorted thinking is that the white race has ceded too much influence to Blacks and Asians, to Jews and Muslims, to gays, to white liberals and to white people in mixed-race relationships," Judge Peter Lodder said.

While Patten-Walsh and Gibbons were entitled to hold their beliefs - regardless of being "as preposterous as they are offensive to a civilized society" - Lodder said they had gone too far.

The London men started "Lone Wolf Radio," which had 128 subscribers and around 9,000 views of its 21 episodes in June 2020.

The two celebrated right-wing extremists who carried out mass murders in Norway, Christchurch, New Zealand and Charleston, South Carolina. They also posted images of a Nazi executing a Jewish man at the edge of a pit of corpses and Nelson Mandela being lynched.

A Kingston Crown Court jury convicted them in July of eight counts of encouraging terrorism.

Gibbons was also convicted of two counts of disseminating terrorist documents through his online neo-Nazi "radicalization" library that had more than 2,000 subscribers, authorities said.

Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, who heads the Met's counter terrorism unit, said the material they disseminated "is exactly the kind that has the potential to draw vulnerable people - particularly young people - into terrorism."


# Japan's imperial family hosts a poetry reading with a focus on peace to welcome the new year
By **YURI KAGEYAMA**
January 19, 2024. 2:28 AM EST

---

**TOKYO (AP)** - A mother's love and a yearning for peace flowed from Japanese Empress Masako's poem, read Friday at an annual celebration of poetry at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

The poem sings of how Masako was touched by what her daughter, Princess Aiko, wrote after her school trip to the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima, which was devastated by an atomic bomb in the closing days of World War II.

Starting the new year with poetry is part of Japanese culture. The gathering at the palace is believed to have begun in the 13th century, according to the Imperial Household Agency.

Among the guests wearing suits, kimono and other formalwear were people who had won awards for their own poems.

Various works written in traditional "waka" style were presented Friday, solemnly read aloud in a sing-song way, like a chant, as the imperial family watched. Waka - literally meaning Japanese-style song - is short-form poetry that usually follows a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format.

Aiko's poem depicted her fascination with the waka form, which she has studied at Gakushuin University. She marveled at how the art has survived a thousand years, which she imagined to include deep human suffering.

Emperor Naruhito's poem affirmed the idea of peace by describing seeing the smiles of all the people during his travels throughout Japan.

Naruhito - grandson of the wartime emperor Hirohito - and his family are fairly popular, greeted by waving crowds wherever they go. The emperor does not have political power, but he carries symbolic significance for Japan. Naruhito's father, Akihito, abdicated in 2019. The move is rare for a Japanese emperor, whose reign typically ends upon death.

The official translation of Masako's poem reads: "How moved I was to read / My daughter's deep feelings for peace / After her first visit / To Hiroshima."


# US in deep freeze while much of the world is extra toasty? Yet again, it's climate change
By **SETH BORENSTEIN**
January 16, 2024. 6:13 PM EST

---

Much of the United States is shivering through brutal cold as most of the rest of the world is feeling unusually warm weather. However strange it sounds, that contradiction fits snugly in explanations of what climate change is doing to Earth, scientists said.

In a map of global temperatures the last several days, big chunks of the world - the Arctic, Asia, parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America - show as dark red, signifying more than a dozen degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) warmer than the late 20th-century average. But the United States stands out like a cold thumb - a deep bluish-purple that is just as out of whack but on the frigid side.

Wind chills in parts of North Dakota reached minus 70 degrees (minus 56 degrees Celsius), while the heat index in Miami was more than 160 degrees warmer at 92 (33 degrees Celsius). The fourth-coldest NFL football game took place in Kansas City, while across the globe the thermometer hit a blistering 92 degrees, 12 degrees (6.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than average on Friday during tennis' Australian Open in Melbourne. Warm temperature records fell overnight in Aruba, Curacao, parts of Argentina, Oman and Iran.

Where weather was warmer than usual, it was happening both in the southern hemisphere, which is in summer, and in the northern hemisphere, which is in winter. For example, Oman, in the north, had its warmest January night ever at 79.5 degrees (26.4 degrees Celsius). Argentina, in the south, had a record for warmest January night at 81.1 Fahrenheit (27.3 Celsius).

If it seems as if the world has gone topsy-turvy, in a way it has. Because this all comes from what's happening in the Arctic, where it used to be warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Now, it's warming three to four times faster.

"When the Arctic is off-the-charts warm (like now), we're more likely to see frigid cold invade places like Texas that are ill-equipped to deal with it," said Jennifer Francis, a Woodwell Research Center climate scientist and a pioneer in the theory of Arctic Amplification, which links the cold outbreaks to climate change. "Rapid Arctic warming is one of the clearest symptoms of human-caused climate change, making winter extremes more likely even as the globe warms overall."

The way the cold is invading is through a weather phrase that is becoming increasingly familiar to Americans: The polar vortex. It's a weather term that goes back to 1853 but has only been frequently used in the past decade or so.

That could be because the icy stabs are happening more often, said winter weather expert Judah Cohen of Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston.

The polar vortex is strong, icy weather that usually stays over the top of the planet, penned in by strong winds that whip around it, Cohen said.

It's like an ice skater spinning rapidly with her arms tucked in, he said. But when the polar vortex weakens, the arms start flailing out, the skater slips and "all the cold air then gets released away from the center of the polar vortex," Cohen said.

The current cold outbreak is consistent with Arctic change and the polar vortex, Cohen said. "What we found is when the polar vortex stretches like a rubber band, severe extreme winter weather is much more likely in the United States. That's where it tends to be focused and in January we have an extreme case of that stretching of the polar vortex."

This one is stronger and may last longer than most, Cohen said.

Cohen and others have done studies that show the polar vortex outbreaks have become more frequent in recent decades.

The idea is the jet stream - the upper air circulation that drives weather - is wavier in amplified global warming, said University of Wisconsin-Madison climate scientist Steve Vavrus. And those wave changes in the upper air knock the polar vortex out of its place and toward the United States, Cohen said.

It's a theory still debated by climate scientists but growing in acceptance. Initially, Vavrus and Francis theorized it was due to melting Arctic sea ice leading to barometic pressure changes. Now several scientists say it's more complicated, yet still connected to climate change and the supercharged warming in the Arctic, with other factors like Siberian snow cover and other atmospheric waves also playing a role.

"The key takeaway for me right now is that Arctic Amplification is happening and has complex interactions within our climate system. Winter will always bring us cold weather, but like the warm season it may be changing ways that we understand and ways that we are still learning about," said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd. "Unlike the Vegas slogan, what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic."

Think of what's happening as an orchestra making one symphony, and "what's driving all those orchestra instruments is a warming planet," Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said.

Gensini and Cohen said this cold snap in the United States will fade in several days to be replaced by unusually warm weather, due to climate change. But another polar vortex looks like it's coming at the end of the month, though not as strong as this one, they said.

Despite the U.S. cold, Earth's global average temperature keeps flirting with daily, weekly and monthly records, as it has for more than seven months. That's because the United States is only 2% of Earth's surface, scientists said.

"A place like Chicago or Denver or Lincoln, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, I mean we're all experiencing it," said Gensini, who said the temperature outside his window Tuesday was 6 below. "We're one isolated pocket if you look globally."


# He warned authorities about the Maine gunman, but they downplayed his texts. Now he's speaking out
By **HOLLY RAMER**, **NICK PERRY**, and **DAVID SHARP**
January 11, 2024. 5:37 PM EST

---

**LEWISTON, Maine (AP)** - Sean Hodgson watched and worried as his best friend of nearly two decades unraveled. His former roommate and fellow U.S. Army reservist's anger and paranoia were mounting, he had access to guns, and he refused to get help. So Hodgson did the hardest thing of his life: He sent a text about Robert Card to their Army supervisor.

"I believe he's going to snap and do a mass shooting," he wrote on Sept. 15.

Six weeks later, Card fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston before killing himself. His body was found in a trailer after a two-day search and regionwide lockdown.

"I wasn't in his head. I don't know exactly what went on," Hodgson told The Associated Press last week in an exclusive interview, his first since the Oct. 25 shootings. "But I do know I was right."

The series of warning signs about Card have been well documented. In May, relatives warned police that Card had grown paranoid, and they expressed concern about his access to guns. In July, Card was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit for two weeks after shoving a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the Army barred him from handling weapons while on duty and declared him nondeployable.

And in September, Hodgson raised the most glaring red flag, telling authorities to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if Card showed up.

"Please," he wrote. "I believe he's messed up in the head."

But authorities declined to confront Card - the clearest example of the missed opportunities to intervene and prevent the deadliest shooting in state history. That's hard to swallow for Hodgson, who's pushing back against an independent report for law enforcement that described him as "over the top" and "alarmist."

"I did my job, and I went over and beyond it, and I literally spelled it out for them," said Hodgson, 43, referred to by only his last name in documents related to the case. "I don't know how clear I could have gotten."

Hodgson's account, taken together with law enforcement documents, videos and other interviews, provides the most comprehensive picture to date of potential missteps leading up to the attack.

In replying to AP's questions about the investigation and Hodgson's warning, the Army Reserve said in a statement this week that no one should jump to conclusions until its own investigation and an independent probe by the Army inspector general are finalized.

"Any speculation at this point without having all the details could affect the outcome of the investigation. More details may become available once the investigation is complete," Lt. Col. Addie Leonhardt, Army Reserve spokesperson, said in the statement. Officials wouldn't comment further.

Sheriff Joel Merry - of Sagadahoc County, where Card lived - didn't respond to AP's questions about whether Hodgson's warning was taken seriously enough but suggested a need for public policy changes. He previously said his office has been "fully transparent" and is cooperating with an independent commission appointed by the governor.

Hodgson said he doesn't know where the failings occurred but believes more could have been done to help his friend and prevent tragedy.

"I understand he did a horrific thing. I don't agree with it. But I loved him," he said. " I didn't want any of this for anybody."

For much of their friendship, Card was "the sensible one," Hodgson said. They met in 2006 in the Army Reserve and became especially close when they both divorced around the same time.

When Hodgson was evicted from his New Hampshire apartment in 2022, Card told him to move to Maine, and they lived together for about a month, he said. When Card was hospitalized in New York in July, Hodgson was the one who drove him back to Maine.

By then, Hodgson said, Card had begun venting to him about his belief that those around him were accusing him of being a pedophile. Hodgson believed some of Card's complaints were true - a case of mistaken identity stemming from the fact that another Robert Card is on the state's sex offender registry - and described an incident at the bowling alley when a father snatched his daughter away from Card after he offered the toddler a hello.

"I always believed him. I always stuck by him," Hodgson said. "I am the closest one to Robert Card. Besides his mother, he pushed everybody away.

"I was the last one he pushed away."

In September, after a night out at the Oxford Casino, Card began "flipping out," Hodgson said - pounding the steering wheel and almost crashing multiple times. After Hodgson begged him to pull over, he said, Card punched him in the face.

"We were having a good night, and he just snapped," he said.

Hodgson told Card to drop him off at a gas station near his house.

"I love you, and I'll always be here for you no matter what," he said he told his friend as he got out of the car.

Hodgson sent his text two days later, telling his training supervisor he feared what Card might do. He didn't speak to Card after that, he said, though they passed each other at work.

"It took me a lot to report somebody I love," he said. "But when the hair starts standing up on the back of your neck, you have to listen."

After his text, Hodgson said, military officials followed up, asking whether Card threatened specific people. He told them he hadn't. But they didn't ask for help in approaching Card, he said, even though they drove trucks for the same company and he knew his friend's schedule and route.

"I could've told them when he was at work, when he was at home, what hours he worked," he said.

Authorities briefly staked out the Army Reserve Center and visited Card's home. They declined to confront him, fearing that would "throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas," according to video released last month by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office.

In the videos, officials downplayed Hodgson's warning, suggesting he might have been drunk when he texted at 2:04 a.m. Speaking to police at the training center, Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer describes Hodgson as "not the most credible of our soldiers" and later tells Sagadahoc Sheriff Sgt. Aaron Skolfield his message should be taken "with a grain of salt."

Hodgson, who was unaware of those comments until contacted by AP, acknowledged in a series of interviews that he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol addiction but said he wasn't drinking that night and was awake because he works nights and was waiting for his boss to call.

Hodgson also acknowledges that he faces two criminal charges, one alleging he assaulted a woman he was dating in 2022 and another alleging that he violated his bail conditions by possessing alcohol last month. He's also in hot water for wrecking a military vehicle last summer, he said. But he said authorities should have taken him more seriously given his relationship with Card, his past training on threat detection and mitigation, and his previous work as a security officer at a nuclear plant.

"That was the most difficult thing I ever had to do, was report him to command, and I did that. And for them to discredit me?" he said. "It pisses me off because all they had to do is listen."

In a text message this week, Reamer declined to comment on questions from AP and referred them to Army Reserve public affairs officers.

According to the independent review for the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office, officers didn't have sufficient grounds the day they staked out Card's house to force the issue and take him into protective custody after he refused to answer the door. That step is necessary to trigger Maine's "yellow flag" law. It allows a judge to temporarily remove someone's guns during a psychiatric health crisis.

But Stephanie Sherman, an attorney who's represented several families of survivors of the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, said police had more than enough information to take to a local judge.

The videos show officers with a disturbingly casual approach to the threat Card posed, Sherman said. She also noted that Skolfield referred to the Cards as a "big family in this area" and said he didn't want to publicize over police radio that officers were visiting the home.

"It was sort of balancing the safety of the public versus this family's reputation," she said. "And that should not be a factor."

Watching the videos was gut-wrenching for Tammy Asselin, who became separated from her 10-year-old daughter during the chaos of the bowling alley shooting. She said it was the first time she knew for sure that steps could have been taken to prevent the massacre.

"Listening to that interaction between the military and the sheriff, it hurt me to hear the giggle and the laughter in their voice," Asselin said, a tear running down her cheek. "Because I don't think they would be giggling and laughing had they been the ones in my shoes that day, not knowing where their daughter was."

For weeks after sending the text about Card to their supervisor, Hodgson said he prayed that it wouldn't come true. But as soon as he heard about the shooting, he called his sergeant.

"I don't believe in coincidences," he said he told him. "I know it's Robert Card."

Hodgson was driving to Massachusetts for work that day. He fielded phone calls to and from multiple law enforcement agencies that didn't seem to be communicating with one another, he said.

He said he told authorities right away that Card likely was headed to the Maine Recycling Corp.

Card had worked there, and it wasn't far from the boat launch where his car was found after the shootings. His body would eventually be found there, after initial unsuccessful searches that critics said were too cautious.

More than two months later, Hodgson said, he hates that Card "took the easy way out" and isn't around to answer questions or face the consequences of what he did. It's not the Robert Card he knew and loved for 17 years, he said, and he struggles with that every day.

Hodgson said he wants people to know he did everything he could to save lives.

"I don't know how to express to people how much I loved him, how much I cared about him," he said. "And how much I hate what he did."


# Key moments in the arguments over Donald Trump's immunity claims in his election interference case
By **ERIC TUCKER** and **ALANNA DURKIN RICHER**
January 9, 2024. 10:27 PM EST

---

**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Appeals court judges signaled Tuesday that they will likely reject Donald Trump's claims that he is immune from prosecution in his election interference case. The outcome seemed clear during arguments that touched on a range of political and legal considerations.

The Republican presidential primary front-runner made his first trip in months to Washington's federal courthouse, where his lawyers sought to convince an appeals court to dismiss the case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The defense's argument was met with outright skepticism by the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The judges did not say when they might rule, but the timing of their decision is crucial with a March 4 trial date looming. Trump's lawyers, who are hoping to delay the case beyond the November presidential election, are certain to go to the U.S. Supreme Court if the D.C. court sides with special counsel Jack Smith.

A look at some of the key moments from Tuesday's arguments:

## THE JURISDICTION DEBATE
At the very outset of the arguments - before Trump's lawyer even began making his case for immunity - Judge J. Michelle Childs peppered him with questions about whether it's proper for the court to consider Trump's appeal at this time.

Most issues in criminal cases can't be appealed until after a trial verdict, though there are certain circumstances when a defendant can appeal immediately. Smith's team has not challenged the appeals court's ability to hear the immunity issue ahead of trial. But a watchdog group called American Oversight filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the appeals court should dismiss Trump's challenge because Supreme Court precedent shows that it lacks jurisdiction to consider the issue now. If the appeals court agrees that it lacks jurisdiction, it would send the case back to the trial court before even deciding the immunity issue.

Trump's attorney, D. John Sauer, told the judges that presidential immunity is clearly an issue meant to be resolved before trial. He argued that legal precedent supports the idea that the appeals court is right to consider the immunity claim at this time.

## DRONE STRIKES AND SEAL TEAM SIX
The conduct being argued before the court concerned Trump's efforts to undo the election results, but that didn't stop the judges and lawyers from debating how the concept of presidential immunity could be applied in a range of hypothetical scenarios.

In the telling of Sauer, Trump's attorney, allowing the prosecution of Trump would also mean that a president could be charged with giving false information to Congress to induce the nation into war or for authorizing drone strikes on a U.S. citizen abroad.

When Judge Florence Pan asked Sauer if a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival could be charged, the attorney appeared to equivocate, saying the president would first have to have been impeached and convicted by the Senate in order to be prosecuted. That's in keeping with the defense argument that immunity applies to former presidents who, like Trump, have been impeached but acquitted.

Later, James Pearce, a member of Smith's team, expressed exasperation at that argument, saying, "What kind of world are we living in?" if a president could escape accountability for such an action.

"I think that's an extraordinarily frightening future," he said.

## TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT ACQUITTAL
Part of Trump's argument is that the Constitution prevents his prosecution because he was acquitted by the U.S Senate of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in his historic impeachment trial. The defense argues that the Constitution's impeachment judgment clause suggests that a president can be criminally charged only if he is impeached and convicted of similar conduct.

Judge Pan, however, highlighted comments made by the lawyer who represented Trump during his impeachment trial as he urged senators to acquit. During that trial, attorney David Schoen said there is a judicial and investigative process in this country "to which no former office holder is immune," telling senators: "That's the process that should be running its course."

Pan repeatedly pressed Sauer over whether he believes that Trump could be prosecuted in this case had he been convicted by the Senate. Sauer said that a prosecution could potentially be brought in that situation, though he said he was not conceding that this particular case would be appropriate, telling the judge there are a "tons of other problems" with it.

Pearce, the prosecutor on Smith's team, said Trump's impeachment argument is wrong for a host of reasons, including practical ones.

"It would mean that if a former president engages in assassination, selling pardons, these kinds of things, and then isn't impeached and convicted, there is no accountability for that individual. And that is frightening," he told the judges.

## 'CHIEF POLITICAL OPPONENT'
The arguments mostly focused on the Constitution and the intricacies of case law and legal immunity.

But the politics of the case were never far from the surface, especially with Trump taking a break from the campaign trail so that he could attend in person. His campaign sought ahead of time to fundraise off the appearance, writing in an email solicitation that Trump would be heading "into the belly of the beast."

And speaking later to reporters, he insisted that his prosecution posed a "real threat to democracy."

There is no indication that President Joe Biden has had any influence on the case, and in fact, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in 2022 as a way to try to insulate the Justice Department from claims of political bias.

But at times during Tuesday's arguments, Trump's lawyer echoed the words of his own client.

"We are in a situation where we have the prosecution of the chief political opponent who's winning in every poll ... and it's being prosecuted by the administration that he's seeking to replace," Sauer said.

He added: "That is the frightening future. That is tailor-made to launch cycles of recrimination elimination that will shape our republic for the future."


# With Trump present in court, judges express skepticism of claims that he's immune from prosecution
By **ERIC TUCKER**, **ALANNA DURKIN RICHER**, and **LINDSAY WHITEHURST**
January 9, 2024. 7:48 PM EST

---

**WASHINGTON (AP)** - With Donald Trump listening intently in the courtroom, federal appeals court judges in Washington expressed deep skepticism Tuesday that the former president was immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The panel of three judges, two of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden, also questioned whether they had jurisdiction to consider the appeal at this point in the case, raising the prospect that Trump's appeal could be dispensed with on more procedural grounds.

During lengthy arguments, the judges repeatedly pressed Trump's lawyer to defend claims that Trump was shielded from criminal charges for acts that he says fell within his official duties as president. That argument was rejected last month by the lower-court judge overseeing the case against Trump, and the appeals judges suggested through their questions that they, too, were dubious that the Founding Fathers envisioned absolute immunity for presidents after they leave office.

"I think it's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law," said Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush.

The outcome could carry enormous ramifications both for the landmark criminal case against Trump and for the broader, and legally untested, question of whether an ex-president can be prosecuted for actions taken in the White House. It will also likely set the stage for further appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, which last month declined a request to weigh in but could still get involved later.

A swift decision is crucial for special counsel Jack Smith and his team, who are eager to get the case - now paused pending the appeal - to trial before the November election. But Trump's lawyers, in addition to seeking to get the case dismissed, are hoping to benefit from a protracted appeals process that could delay the trial well past its scheduled March 4 start date, including until potentially after the election.

Underscoring the importance to both sides, Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, attended Tuesday's arguments even though the Iowa caucuses are just one week away and despite the fact that there's no requirement that defendants appear in person for such proceedings. Making his first court appearance in Washington since his arraignment in August, Trump sat at the defense table, watching closely and occasionally taking notes and speaking with his lawyers.

His appearance and his comments afterward underscored his broader effort to portray himself as the victim of a justice system he claims is politicized. Though there's no evidence Biden has had any influence on the case, Trump's argument could resonate with Republican voters in Iowa as they prepare to launch the presidential nomination process.

After the hearing, Trump spoke to reporters at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel, which used to be the Trump International Hotel, calling Tuesday "a very momentous day." He insisted he did nothing wrong and claimed he was being prosecuted for political reasons.

"A president has to have immunity," he said.

Former presidents enjoy broad immunity from lawsuits for actions taken as part of their official White House duties. But because no former president before Trump has ever been indicted, courts have never before addressed whether that protection extends to criminal prosecution.

Trump's lawyers insist that it does, arguing that courts have no authority to scrutinize a president's official acts and that the prosecution of their client represents a dramatic departure from more than two centuries of American history that would open the door to future politically motivated cases.

"To authorize the prosecution of a president for official acts would open a Pandora's box from which this nation may never recover," said D. John Sauer, a lawyer for Trump, asserting that, under the government's theory, presidents could be prosecuted for giving Congress "false information" to enter war or for authorizing drone strikes targeting U.S. citizens abroad.

He later added, "If a president has to look over his shoulder or her shoulder every time he or she has to make a controversial decision and wonder if 'after I leave office, am I going to jail for this when my political opponents take power?' that inevitably dampens the ability of the president."

But the judges were skeptical about those arguments. Judges Henderson and Florence Pan noted the lawyer who represented Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial suggested that he could later face criminal prosecution, telling senators at the time: "We have a judicial process in this country. We have an investigative process in this country to which no former office holder is immune."

"It seems that many senators relied on that in voting to acquit" Trump, Pan told Sauer.

Judge J. Michelle Childs also questioned why former President Richard Nixon would need to be granted a pardon in 1974 after the Watergate scandal if former presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution. Sauer replied that in Nixon's case, the conduct did not involve the same kind of "official acts" Trump's lawyers argue form the basis of his indictment.

Aside from the merits of the immunity claim, the judges jumped right into questioning Trump's lawyer over whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the appeal at this time. Sauer said presidential immunity is clearly a claim that is meant to be reviewed before trial. Smith's team also said that it wants the court to decide the appeal now.

Smith's team maintains that presidents are not entitled to absolute immunity and that, in any event, the acts Trump is alleged in the indictment to have taken - including scheming to enlist fake electors in battleground states won by Biden and pressing his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021 - fall outside a president's official job duties.

"The president has a unique constitutional role but he is not above the law. Separation of powers principles, constitutional text, history, precedent and immunity doctrines all point to the conclusion that a former president enjoys no immunity from prosecution," prosecutor James Pearce said, adding that a case in which a former president is alleged to have sought to overturn an election "is not the place to recognize some novel form of immunity."

When Judge Henderson asked how the court could write its opinion in a way that wouldn't open the "floodgates" of investigations against ex-presidents, Pearce said he did not anticipate "a sea change of vindictive tit-for-tat prosecutions in the future." He called the allegations against Trump fundamentally unprecedented.

"Never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has, with private individuals and using the levers of power, sought to fundamentally subvert the democratic republic and the electoral system," he said. "And frankly, if that kind of fact pattern arises again, I think it would be awfully scary if there weren't some sort of mechanism by which to reach that criminally."

It's not clear how quickly the panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from the D.C. Circuit will rule, though it has signaled that it intends to work quickly.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the immunity arguments, ruling last month that the office of the presidency does not confer a "'get-out-of-jail-free'" pass. Trump's lawyers appealed that decision, but Smith's team, determined to keep the case on schedule, sought to leapfrog the appeals court by asking the Supreme Court to fast-track the immunity question. The justices declined to get involved.

The appeal is vital to a Trump strategy of trying to postpone the case until after the November election, when a victory could empower him to order the Justice Department to abandon the prosecution or even to seek a pardon for himself. He faces three other criminal cases, in state and federal court, though the Washington case is scheduled for trial first.


# Armed men storm an Ecuador TV studio during a live broadcast as attacks in the country escalate
By **GONZALO SOLANO** and **ALLEN PANCHANA**
January 9, 2024. 10:58 PM EST

---

**GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP)** - Masked men broke onto the set of a public television channel in Ecuador waving guns and explosives during a live broadcast Tuesday, and the president issued a decree declaring that the violence-plagued country had entered an "internal armed conflict."

The men armed with pistols and what looked like sticks of dynamite entered the set of the TC Television network in the port city of Guayaquil during a news program that was airing live in thousands of homes across the nation and shouted that they had bombs. Noises similar to gunshots could be heard.

No one was killed in the attack, and authorities later said that all the masked intruders had been arrested, 13 in all, and would be charged with terrorism.

Authorities have not said who was behind the television station occupation, or a series of other attacks that have shaken the South American country recently, but they follow the apparent escapes from prison of two leaders of Ecuador's most powerful drug gangs.

Alina Manrique, the head of news for TC Television, said she was in the control room at TC Television, across from the studio, when the masked men burst into the building. One of them pointed a gun at her head and told her to get on the floor, Manrique said.

The incident was aired live, although the station's signal was cut off after about 15 minutes. Manrique said some of the assailants ran from the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.

"I am still in shock" Manrique told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Everything has collapsed .... All I know is that its time to leave this country and go very far away."

Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks, including the abductions of several police officers, in the wake of a notorious gang leader's apparent weekend escape from prison. President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a national state of emergency, a measure that lets authorities suspend people's rights and mobilize the military in places like prisons.

Shortly after the gunmen stormed the TV station, Noboa issued another decree designating 20 drug trafficking gangs operating in the country as terrorist groups and authorizing Ecuador's military to "neutralize" them within the bounds of international humanitarian law. It also said the country had entered an internal armed conflict.

Ecuador's attorney general's office said the 13 people arrested will be charged with terrorism. It tweeted that it will present the charges in coming hours. Ecuadorian law establishes a penalty of up to 13 years in prison for anyone convicted of terrorism.

The government has not said how many attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macías, alias "Fito," was discovered missing from his cell in a low security prison Sunday. He was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security facility that day.

On Tuesday, Ecuadorean officials announced that another gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the town of Riobamba. Colón Pico was captured on Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and has also been accused of trying to murder one of the nation's lead prosecutors.

Other attacks have included an explosion near the house of the president of the National Justice Court and the Monday night kidnappings of four police officers. Police said one officer was abducted in the capital, Quito, and three in Quevedo city.

Will Freeman, a political analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while gangs in Ecuador have previously assassinated a presidential candidate and set off car bombs in front of government buildings, Tuesday's events marked a new peak in violence in the country.

"This is a turning point," Freeman said. "Depending on how the government responds it will set the precedent for these kinds of incidents to continue, or it will use this as a catalyst and make some very necessary structural reforms so that the state can start to win its war against crime."

Located on South America's Pacific coast between Peru and Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a key transit point for the drug in recent years. Much of the violence suffered by the country comes as drug gangs fight each other and the government for control of ports and smuggling routes.

Freeman said that Ecuador's government will have to find ways to control prisons, from where gang leaders continue to lead their operations and might have to consider extraditing some of the top criminal leaders to the United States. The nation of 20 million people might also have to make judicial reforms to give judges greater safety and enable them to anonymously rule over cases involving the drug gangs.

"If these guys can storm a TV station or kill a presidential candidate you as a judge will not go up against them unless you really have strong assurances of your safety," Freeman said.

Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs that authorities consider responsible for a spike in violence, much of tied to drug trafficking, that reached a new level last year with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The gang has links with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities.

The whereabouts of Macías are unknown. Prosecutors opened an investigation and charged two guards in connection with his alleged escape, but neither the police, the corrections system, nor the federal government confirmed whether the prisoner fled the facility or might be hiding in it.

In February 2013, he escaped from a maximum security facility but was recaptured weeks later.

Noboa said in a message on Instagram that he wouldn't stop until he "brings back peace to all Ecuadorians," and that his government had decided to confront crime. The wave of attacks began a few hours after Noboa's announcement.

States of emergency were widely used by Noboa's predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, as a way to confront the wave of violence that has affected the country.

Macías, who was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime, was serving a 36-year sentence in La Regional prison in the port of Guayaquil.

Los Choneros and other similar groups linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels are fighting over drug trafficking routes and control of territory, including from within detention facilities, where more than 450 inmates have died since 2021, according to authorities.


# Sprawling storms wallop US with tornado reports, damage and heavy snow, closing roads and schools
By **SCOTT McFETRIDGE** and **KATHY McCORMACK**
January 9, 2024. 9:41 PM EST

---

**DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)** - A sprawling storm hit the U.S. South, with tornado warnings and high winds that blew roofs off homes, flipped over campers and tossed about furniture in Florida on Tuesday, while another storm buried cities across the Midwest in more than a half a foot of snow, stranding people on highways as it headed to the Northeast.

The weather has already affected campaigning for Iowa's Jan. 15 precinct caucuses, where the snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below zero degrees (minus 18 Celsius). It forced former President Donald Trump's campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trump's behalf Monday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Tuesday's briefing that winter storms continue to be a threat across the country.

"We are closely monitoring the weather, and we encourage all Americans to do the same," she said.

## THE SOUTH IS HIT WITH DEADLY STORMS AND TORNADO WARNINGS
At least three deaths were attributed to the storm pummeling the South, where 55 mph (88 kph) winds and hail moved through the Florida Panhandle and into parts of Alabama and Georgia by sunrise Tuesday, along with several reports of radar-confirmed tornadoes, the National Weather Service said. A wind gust of 106 mph (171 kph) was recorded before dawn near the coast in Walton County, Florida.

Near Cottonwood, Alabama, a small city near the Georgia and Florida borders, 81-year-old Charlotte Paschal was killed when her mobile home was tossed from its foundation, the Houston County coroner said. A suspected tornado had touched down in the area.

Police in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, say a man died during heavy rain when a tree fell on his car on a state highway in Jonesboro.

Storm-related injuries were reported in Florida, but no deaths. A section of Panama City Beach, Florida, showed parts of roofs blown away, furniture, fences and debris strewn about, and a house that appeared tilted on its side, leaning on another home. About 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in Panama City, police early Tuesday asked residents to stay indoors and off the roads "unless absolutely necessary." Both cities are in Bay County, where multiple tornadoes were reported, Sheriff Tommy Ford said in a brief Facebook Live post.

The Walton County sheriff's department in the Florida Panhandle posted photos of power lines draped across a road, damage to a gas station and large pieces of building materials littering the area. About 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast, in Jackson County, Florida, photos showing damage to a campground and RV park in Marianna were posted.

The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee is planning to send out three tornado survey teams on Wednesday to examine suspected tornado damage in Walton, Bay and Jackson counties in Florida, and two more on Thursday to look at Houston County, Alabama, and Calhoun County, Georgia.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who gave his State of the State address Tuesday as tornado warnings were active outside the Capitol, issued an executive order to include 49 counties in North Florida under a state of emergency.

Heavy rain across Georgia stopped air traffic at Atlanta's busy airport for a time Tuesday morning and caused flash flooding, blocking some lanes on freeways around Atlanta during the morning commute. More than 80 public school systems across Georgia called off classes entirely while others taught students online or delayed the start of in-person classes.

Rain and high winds extended into the nation's capital Tuesday night, forcing Vice President Kamala Harris' aircraft to divert from Joint Base Andrews to Dulles International Airport near Washington when it encountered wind shear - a sudden shift in wind direction or speed - as Harris returned from a trip to Georgia.

More than 200,000 customers were without power in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, while nearly 150,000 people in North Carolina lacked electricity, according to the PowerOutage.us website.

In North Carolina, one person has died and two others were in critical condition after a suspected tornado struck a mobile home park in the town of Claremont, north of Charlotte, said Amy McCauley, a spokesperson for Catawba County. And in Rocky Mount, downed power lines shut down both directions of I-95, one of the nation's busiest highways, the North Carolina's Department of Transportation said in a statement

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency before the storm arrived. Some schools canceled classes or shut down early.

A possible tornado knocked down several old brick storefronts in downtown Bamberg, South Carolina, blocking the main intersection through the city about 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Columbia. Thousands of bricks blocked U.S. 301, the main road through that part of the state, and about 40 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, said Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg, who represents the area.

## UP TO A FOOT OF SNOW POSSIBLE FOR LARGE SWATH OF THE MIDWEST
In the Midwest, where a snowstorm started Monday, up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That includes western Kansas, eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

In Des Moines, Iowa, Laura Burianov had nearly finished shoveling her driveway Tuesday morning. But with snow still falling, she acknowledged she likely would have to shovel again later in the day.

"It's going to get harder. I shoveled last night and you can't really tell, but I can pretend that three less inches makes a difference," she said.

The storm dumped around 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of snow across Kansas, eastern Nebraska and South Dakota, western Iowa, and southwestern Minnesota on Monday. In North Sioux City, South Dakota, the National Weather Service reported 15 inches (38 centimeters) of snow. Lower amounts fell over central Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

Madison, Wisconsin, was under a winter storm warning until early Wednesday, with as much as 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow and 40 mph (64 kph) winds on tap.

Poor road conditions contributed to a fatal crash early Tuesday in southeastern Wisconsin, Jefferson County Sheriff Paul Milbrath said in a news release. An SUV driver was killed following a head-on collision with a semitrailer on state Highway 18 around 5:40 a.m. The driver of the semitrailer was not hurt. Sheriff's Capt. Travis Maze said in a telephone interview that layers of slush and snow covered the center and fog lines on the highway.

In western Michigan, a 35-year-old woman died Tuesday after she lost control of her minivan on a slushy highway and it collided with an SUV, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said. The ambulance taking her to a Grand Rapids hospital, where she was pronounced dead, was struck by another vehicle en route there, and a second ambulance was needed to finish the transport to the hospital.

Northwestern Illinois was also under a winter storm warning with forecasts calling for 7 to 12 inches (18 to 30 centimeters) of snow by early Wednesday. The Chicago area as well as Gary, Indiana, were under winter storm advisories, with forecasts calling for up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow and wind gusts of up to 30 mph (48 kph).

It was the first major winter storm of the season for the Kansas City metro area in Kansas and Missouri, where the National Weather Service predicted 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow by the time the storm moved on later Tuesday.

Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska closed a long stretch of Interstate 80, while Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central city of Russell all the way west to the Colorado border. Several vehicles slid off I-70 in the northeastern part of the state, authorities said.

## WINTER WEATHER EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO NORTHEAST TUESDAY NIGHT
From the Midwest, the storm was expected to head east, bringing a combination of snow, rain and strong winds to the Northeast by Tuesday night, as well as concerns about flooding in areas such as New England, parts of which got more than a foot of snow Sunday.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy already declared a state of emergency as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, ahead of what's expected to be heavy rain and wind that will exacerbate the effects of bad weather conditions since December. He encouraged people Monday not to underestimate the storm.

In New York City, officials began evacuating nearly 2,000 migrants who had been housed at a sprawling white tent complex at a former airport located in a remote corner of Brooklyn. An aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams pointed to predicted wind speeds of more than 70 mph (112 kph) Tuesday night.

In western New York, an empty tractor trailer blew over on the state Thruway on Tuesday morning, temporarily blocking all westbound traffic, state police said. The state banned empty trucks and trailers on numerous major roadways.

In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills has delayed the opening of all state offices until noon Wednesday due to the storm.

Massachusetts electricity provider National Grid said they were prepared for possible hazardous wind gusts and heavy rains and have additional crews and personnel to respond to any power outages.

## COLD FRONT IN SOUTHWEST BRINGS FREEZING TEMPERATURES AND SNOW
In parts of Arizona, a cold front brought below-freezing temperatures early Tuesday, with the National Weather Service reporting a minus-17 reading at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona. In northeastern New Mexico, the state Department of Transportation said snowplows spent hours Monday afternoon clearing U.S. Highway 56 to free more than 25 stranded vehicles.


# Austin kept prostate cancer, surgery complications a secret from everyone, even Biden
By **LOLITA C. BALDOR** and **TARA COPP**
January 9, 2024. 6:56 PM EST

---

**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has prostate cancer, and his recent secretive hospitalization was for surgery and later to treat a urinary tract infection related to that operation, his doctors said Tuesday.

The cancer revelation answers the main question about Austin's hospitalization, which has now lasted eight days. But it may only add to questions of accountability, since President Joe Biden only learned about the cancer diagnosis on Tuesday, even though it was made about a month ago.

"Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning," said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman. "And the president was informed immediately after."

The 70-year-old Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 22 and underwent surgery to treat the cancer. He developed the infection a week later. Biden and other senior administration officials were not told for days about his hospitalization or his cancer.

According to the doctors, the cancer was detected when Austin had a regular screening in early December. They said he "underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure" and went home the next day. But on Jan. 1 he reported nausea and severe abdominal, hip and leg pain due to the infection.

They said his prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent.

The cancer revelation comes after days of persistent questions about Austin's hospitalization and the delays in notifying key leaders. And it raises more questions about the transparency and truthfulness of the Defense Department, which for the past four days said he was initially at Walter Reed for an "elective medical procedure," and not prostate surgery.

Asked about that choice of wording, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a briefing on Tuesday that it was developed in consultation with Austin's doctors.

When pressed on the delays in public notification, Ryder said, "Despite the frequency of prostate cancer, discussions about screening, treatment and support are often deeply personal and private ones." It was still not clear Tuesday how this will affect Austin's job, travel or other public engagements going forward. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is expected to take on some of his day-to-day duties as he recovers.

The lack of transparency about Austin's hospitalization -- including the failure to tell Biden and other top officials about it or the reason for it for days - has triggered sharp criticism.

Austin spoke with Biden on Saturday, the same day he issued a public statement saying he recognized he could have done a better job insuring the public was informed about his hospitalization, and said "I commit to doing better." He did not, however, tell the president in that phone call that he had cancer.

Several Republican lawmakers even said Austin should be ousted. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, launched a formal inquiry into the situation. And, earlier Tuesday, the White House chief of staff ordered Cabinet members to notify his office if they ever can't perform their duties.

Dr. John Maddox, trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the Center for Prostate Disease at Walter Reed, provided the first details of Austin's prognosis in a statement put out by the Pentagon. They said he was under anesthesia during the initial surgery, and when he went to intensive care on Jan. 2 the infection had triggered an intestinal backup and his stomach had to be drained with a tube in his nose.

Medical experts said it's likely Austin had urine leak into his abdomen, a rare complication of prostate surgery, and that led to a bowel problem.

"All of this is temporary and reverses relatively quickly," said Dr. Benjamin Davies, a professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"We anticipate a full recovery, although this can be a slow process," Maddox said. They noted that prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men, and it affects 1 in every 8 men - and 1 in every 6 African American men - during their lifetime.

The doctors said Austin underwent a surgical procedure called a prostatectomy. That is a common procedure to remove all or part of the prostate gland and is often used to treat prostate cancer, but is not the only option. Some men and their doctors choose radiation treatment or actively monitoring the disease, which involves watching it closely but no immediate treatment.

Prostate surgery can be done with small incisions and the aid of a tiny camera. It's not minor surgery, experts said, but "it's not as big a deal as it once was," said Dr. David Penson, who chairs Vanderbilt University's urology department. "It's not all that different than, say, having your gallbladder removed with a laparoscope."

Meanwhile, the Biden administration, reeling from learning of Austin's surprise, is mounting a policy review. And the Pentagon has also begun its own review.

Chief of staff Jeff Zients sent a memo to Cabinet secretaries directing them to send to the White House by Friday any existing procedures for delegating authority in the event of incapacitation or loss of communication.

Biden and other top officials weren't informed for days that Austin had been hospitalized and had turned over power to his deputy. A Pentagon spokesman blamed the lapse on a key staffer being out sick with the flu.

"Agencies should ensure that delegations are issued when a Cabinet Member is traveling to areas with limited or no access to communication, undergoing hospitalization or a medical procedure requiring general anesthesia, or otherwise in a circumstance when he or she may be unreachable," Zients said in the memo. He also directed agencies to document when any such transfer of authority occurs and that the person serving in the acting role promptly establish contact with relevant White House staff.

A copy of the memo was obtained by The Associated Press.

During Austin's two hospitalizations, he transferred some of his authorities to Hicks, but she was not told why. The White House was not informed Austin was in the hospital until Jan. 4, and the public and Congress didn't learn of it until a day later.

The Pentagon issued a memo Monday on its internal review, and broadened the circle of leaders who would be informed of any delegation of authorities by the defense secretary to ensure that, in the future, "proper and timely notification has been made to the President and White House and, as appropriate, the United States Congress and the American public."

Going forward, any time authority is transferred, a wider swath of officials will also be notified, to include the Pentagon's general counsel, the chair and vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commanders, service secretaries, the service chiefs of staff, the White House Situation Room, and the senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense.


# DeSantis and Haley go head to head: How to watch the fifth Republican presidential debate
By **MEG KINNARD**
January 10, 2024. 5:55 PM EST

---

**DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)** - The fifth Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election season will also be its first head-to-head matchup.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are the only candidates taking part in Wednesday night's debate in Iowa. President Donald Trump, widely considered the GOP field's front-runner, will again be skipping the event.

Other previous debate participants, including conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, didn't make the cut. Hours before the debate was set to begin, Christie dropped out of the race.

Here's how to watch the debate:

## What time is the Republican debate?
The debate will start at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday. It's being moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

## What channel is the Republican debate on?
CNN is carrying the debate live on its broadcast network, as well as on CNN International, CNN en Español and CNN Max. It's the first debate of the 2024 election cycle that CNN is hosting.

## Where is the Republican debate?
The setting for the fifth GOP debate is Des Moines' Drake University, which has played host to presidential debates in each of the four-year cycles since 2007.

The debate comes just five days before the Iowa caucuses kick off the 2024 voting calendar.

## Which candidates will be on stage?
Three candidates - Trump, DeSantis and Haley - qualified for the debate stage, but only DeSantis and Haley have committed to attend.

Instead of joining his rivals, Trump is participating in a town hall on Fox News, airing at the same time and taking place about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the debate site.

Haley and DeSantis were both scheduled to take part in their own Fox News town halls earlier this week in Des Moines. The rivalry between the two has only increased as they vie to be the leading GOP alternative to Trump.

DeSantis has said he expects to win Iowa despite trailing far behind Trump in polls. He has portrayed Haley, a former South Carolina governor who was Trump's U.N. ambassador, as a puppet of wealthy donors and someone who has flip-flopped on key issues.

Haley, who hopes to edge out the better-organized DeSantis in Iowa, has accused him of misrepresenting her record, especially on taxes, and of falsely portraying himself as tough on China.

To qualify for CNN's Iowa debate, candidates needed to register at least 10% support in three separate polls, either nationally or in Iowa.

Ramaswamy, who qualified for other debates but not this one, said he would be participating in a podcast with Tim Pool instead.

## What's up next?
There are already other debates on the books in the next state to cast GOP votes: New Hampshire, on Jan. 23.

ABC has announced plans for a debate on Jan. 18 at Saint Anselm College. CNN also intends to hold another debate on Jan. 21 at New England College.

Candidates who finish in one of the top three spots in the Iowa caucuses will be invited to participate in CNN's New Hampshire debate, as well as those who meet the network's polling qualification, which includes a 10% polling threshold in New Hampshire.


# A US citizen has been arrested in Moscow on drug charges
January 9, 2024. 12:00 PM EST

---

**MOSCOW (AP)** - A U.S. citizen has been arrested on drug charges in Russia, officials said Tuesday, a move that comes amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions over Ukraine.

The arrest of Robert Woodland Romanov was reported by the press service of the Moscow courts. It said the Ostankino District Court ruled on Saturday to keep him in custody for two months on charges of preparing to get involved in illegal drug trafficking pending an official investigation. It didn't offer any details of the accusations.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of the recent detention of a U.S. citizen and noted that it "has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," but refrained from further comment, citing privacy considerations. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a similar statement.

Russian media noted that the name of the accused matches that of a U.S. citizen interviewed by the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020.

In the interview, the man said that he was born in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in 1991 and adopted by an American couple when he was two. He said that he traveled to Russia to find his Russian mother and eventually met her in a TV show in Moscow.

The man told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he liked living in Russia and decided to move there. The newspaper reported that he settled in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow and was working as an English teacher at a local school.

The news about the arrest come as Washington has sought to win the release of jailed Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich. The State Department said last month that it had put multiple offers on the table, but they had been rejected by the Russian government.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was detained in March while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. He has remained behind bars ever since on espionage accusations that he and the Journal have denied. The U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, has been jailed in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage-related charges that both he and the U.S. government dispute. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Analysts have pointed out that Moscow could be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips amid U.S.-Russian tensions that soared when Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years - including WNBA star Brittney Griner - have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.


# Moon landing attempt by US company appears doomed after 'critical' fuel leak
By **MARCIA DUNN**
January 8, 2024. 10:15 PM EST

---

**CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)** - The first U.S. moon landing attempt in more than 50 years appeared to be doomed after a private company's spacecraft developed a "critical" fuel leak just hours after Monday's launch.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology managed to orient its lander toward the sun so the solar panel could collect sunlight and charge its battery, as a special team assessed the status of what was termed "a failure in the propulsion system."

It soon became apparent, however, that there was "a critical loss of fuel," further dimming hope for what had been a planned moon landing on Feb. 23.

Late Monday, the company said the leak was continuing and estimated that the lander would start losing solar power in about 40 hours.

The trouble was reported about seven hours after Monday's predawn liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket provided the lift for Astrobotic's lander, named Peregrine, putting it on a long, roundabout path to the moon.

A propulsion system problem "threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon," the company said. The lander is equipped with engines and thrusters for maneuvering, not only during the cruise to the moon but for lunar descent.

Astrobotic released a photo from a lander-mounted camera, which the company said showed a "disturbance" in a section of thermal insulation. That aligns with what is known so far of the problem, the company said.

Astrobotic was aiming to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month. NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers.

The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the place before astronauts arrive while delivering tech and science experiments for the space agency, other countries and universities as well as odds and ends for other customers. Astrobotic's contract with NASA for the Peregrine lander was $108 million and it has more in the pipeline.

Before the flight, NASA's Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, noted that while using private companies to make deliveries to the moon will be cheaper and quicker than going the usual government route, there will be added risk. He stressed that the space agency was willing to accept that risk, noting Monday: "Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow."

The last time the U.S. launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA's pinnacle.

The space agency's new Artemis program - named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology - looks to return astronauts to the moon's surface within the next few years. First will be a lunar fly-around with four astronauts, possibly before the end of the year.

Highlighting Monday's moonshot was the long-delayed initial test flight of the Vulcan rocket. The 202-foot (61-meter) rocket is essentially an upgraded version of ULA's hugely successful workhorse Atlas V, which is being phased out along with the company's Delta IV. Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, provided the Vulcan's two main engines.

ULA declared success once the lander was free of the rocket's upper stage, nearly an hour into the flight and before the spacecraft's propulsion system malfunctioned and prevented the solar panel from properly pointing toward the sun.

Landing on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses. The Soviet Union and the U.S. racked up a string of successful moon landings in the 1960s and 70s, before putting touchdowns on pause. China joined the elite club in 2013 and India in 2023. But last year also saw landers from Russia and a private Japanese company slam into the moon. An Israeli nonprofit crashed in 2019.

Next month, SpaceX will provide the lift for a lander from Intuitive Machines. The Houston company's Nova-C lander takes a more direct one-week route to the moon.

Besides flying experiments for NASA, Astrobotic drummed up its own freight business, packing the 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) Peregrine lander. On board the lander: a chip of rock from Mount Everest, toy-size cars from Mexico and ashes and DNA of deceased space enthusiasts, including "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.

The Navajo Nation recently sought to have the launch delayed because of the human remains. saying it would be a "profound desecration" of a celestial body revered by Native Americans. Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said the December objections came too late but promised to try to find "a good path forward" with the Navajo for future missions.

One of the spaceflight memorial companies that bought room on the lander, Celestis, said in a statement that no single culture or religion owns the moon and should not be able to veto a mission. More remains are on the rocket's upper stage, which was boosted into a perpetual orbit around the sun reaching as far out as Mars.

Cargo fares for Peregrine ranged from a few hundred dollars to $1.2 million per kilogram (2.2 pounds), not nearly enough for Astrobotic to break even. But for the first flight, that's not the point, according to Thornton.

"A lot of people's dreams and hopes are riding on this," Thornton said days before the flight.


# 'Soldiers of Christ' killing unsettles Korean Americans in Georgia and stokes fear of cults
By **SUDHIN THANAWALA**
January 8, 2024. 12:24 PM EST

---

**LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP)** - Just days into the admission process for Soldiers of Christ, Sehee Cho was faint and feeble.

The 33-year-old had come to the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville from South Korea in July to heal from a traumatic experience. Instead, police say, the Soldiers group led by two Korean American brothers held her captive for weeks, torturing and starving her until she died.

Officers discovered her decaying body, weighing just 70 pounds (32 kilograms), in September in the trunk of a car, and prosecutors have charged the brothers, their mom, a third brother and three others with murder.

The gory details - covered widely in Korean news outlets in the U.S. - have shocked the large Korean community in metro Atlanta. Community leaders say the case is a wake-up call for Korean Americans to be more vigilant about religious cults and potential threats to new arrivals from South Korea.

"It really kind of alerted people that we should not be so comfortable," said Sarah Park, president of the Atlanta chapter of the Korean American Coalition.

The proximity of the slaying to the heart of Korean social and cultural life in the region was unsettling, she added.

The brothers and mother lived in a part of Gwinnett County dubbed "The Seoul of the South" for its abundance of Korean restaurants, bakeries, and other establishments. The car with Cho's body was left in the parking lot of a popular Korean spa on a main thoroughfare in the Korean business district.

"Usually, Koreans are good people, so they don't guard themselves or watch strangers," said Sunny Park, a prominent Korean American businessman. "But now they will."

Community leaders say what's even more unsettling is the relatively young ages of most of the defendants - five are in their 20s and one is 15 - and their religious ties. The mom and brothers, at least for a time, attended church locally, and the father is a pastor in the area. He has not been charged.

The church is a respected and essential part of Korean life in the U.S, and some local pastors worry the slaying could indicate broader cult-like activity that has gone undetected. Religious cults have been a concern in South Korea.

"Korean Christians in the United States need to be aware of their existence and their reality," said the Rev. Byeong Cheol Han, senior pastor of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.

Investigators have not been able to find any Soldiers of Christ members or affiliates outside of the small group of defendants, police say. Still, Han and other pastors organized a seminar in November to alert local college students about Korean cults and how they operate.

Prosecutors say Joonho Lee - the founder of Soldiers of Christ - wanted 12 disciples and met a Korean American student at Georgia State University after Cho's death to try to recruit her. David Boyle, an attorney for another defendant in the case, Eric Hyun, 26, has said his client was also recruited by the group and tortured.

One of the defendants told police Joonho Lee received instructions directly from God, investigators say.

A Gwinnett County police detective testified at an Oct. 19 hearing that the group made video recordings of themselves beating Cho with a belt and putting her in ice baths - once when she appeared weak and a second time when she looked like she was close to death. Five of the defendants sat stoically in the courtroom, listening through headsets to a Korean translation of the lurid evidence.

Lee's attorney, Scott Drake, said outside the hearing that he was still gathering information and could not immediately comment. He did not respond to multiple phone messages and emails.

Lee, 26, told investigators that Cho went through the initiation voluntarily, according to prosecutors. Cho's mother knew Lee's mother in South Korea and brought Cho to the Lee family home on July 21 to "find God" and ease her depression, Gwinnett County police Det. Angela Carter said at the hearing.

Messages the defendants exchanged, however, show Cho tried to quit the training almost immediately after it began, but the group would not let her go, prosecutors say. "There is no quitting this program," the 15-year-old defendant, Junyeong Lee, told investigators, according to police.

Prosecutors have charged him as an adult. He, Joonho Lee and a third defendant whom police have also described as a leader of the group, Joonhyun Lee, 22, are brothers. Their mother, Mihee Lee, 54, was arrested about a month after they were taken into custody in September.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages with an attorney for Junyeong Lee, David Whitman. Attorney Jason Park, who is representing Joonhyun Lee, said he was limited from speaking about a case that is still active.

Mihee Lee's attorney, John Burdges, declined to comment. At the Oct. 19 hearing, however, he questioned Cho's mental state and the claim that she was held against her will.

The initiation took place at the Lee family's modest stucco and stone home in a subdivision in Lawrenceville about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. No one answered the door there on a recent afternoon, though windows were open and the front lawn was mowed and cleared of leaves.

Jung Wook Lee, an attorney of Korean descent in nearby Duluth, said acquaintances of hers had met the Lee family at church and didn't think anything was wrong.

"We're just kind of curious how did it start and how did it unravel in such an evil way," she said during a networking event and talk for Asian Americans in Norcross, Georgia, on Dec. 11.

Jongwon Lee, another attorney, recalled receiving help from a Korean church in Doraville, Georgia, when he arrived in the U.S. with limited English skills more than a decade ago.

"Korean people are shocked that some people did a horrible thing in the name of religion," he said.

The other two defendants are Gawon Lee, 26, a cousin of the Lee family who was visiting from South Korea, and Hyunji Lee, 25, Joonho Lee's fiancee. Gawon Lee's attorney, John Kim, did not respond to calls and emails. In addition to murder, all seven defendants are charged with false imprisonment and concealing death.

Ashley McMahan, Hyunji Lee's attorney, said her client was treated like an "indentured servant" by the other defendants. She was also in South Korea for some of the time that prosecutors say Cho was held and did not know what was happening, McMahan added.

Prosecutors, however, say Joonho Lee told Hyunji Lee in a chat message shortly after the initiation started around July 27 that Cho had apparently not even had water for three days and kept fainting, according to an indictment filed on Nov. 29.

On Aug. 17, Cho was screaming for food, Junyeong Lee reported in a chat message. His other brother, Joonhyun Lee, instructed him to beat her if she screamed again, the indictment says.

Two days later, prosecutors say Joonhyun Lee authored a chat message to himself with dates that he said Cho began "fasting" and was assaulted. The final date in the message was 8/18: "1 AM time of death (estimated time)."


# How an animated character named Marlon could help Trump win Iowa's caucuses
By **HANNAH FINGERHUT**
January 9, 2024. 11:14 AM EST

---

**SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP)** - Well before Donald Trump takes the stage, a waiting audience of hundreds of supporters sits captivated as dramatic music begins to swell throughout the room. On projector screens, a rotating Planet Earth appears.

"Making America Great Again starts one place on Earth, and one place only," a deep-voiced narrator begins as the image zooms into the middle of the U.S. "Right here in Iowa."

It's the beginning of a nearly three-minute "Schoolhouse Rock!"-like video featuring an animated character named Marlon, who informs viewers of "everything you need to know about how to successfully caucus for President Trump."

The goal is to turn out a wave of first-time caucusgoers and generate a commanding win for the former president in Iowa's leadoff voting contest on Jan. 15, setting the stage for a romp through the Republican primary and a strong start to the general election campaign. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are battling for a notable finish in Iowa that could propel one of them to a head-to-head challenge with Trump for the GOP nomination.

Most campaigns use face time at events to encourage Iowans to caucus for the candidate, and they rely on pledge cards with names, addresses and phone numbers to contact supporters again later. But the Trump campaign doesn't wait until after the voters leave the venue -- they are filling in any gaps in knowledge of how the caucuses work on site.

The civics lesson, with its easy-to-follow instructions, is a reflection of just how quirky the caucus process is. Unlike primaries, which allow voters to cast their ballots throughout the day, Iowa caucusgoers are required to show up at a specific time - 7 p.m. Central time on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday - and at a site that may be different from their usual polling place. Caucusgoers also have to stay put for what can be a lengthy process of protocol and supporting speeches.

And it's often cold, sometimes snowing. Below-zero temperatures are forecast across Iowa on caucus day.

"We'd love bad weather," Trump said Saturday in Newton, arguing that it will dissuade other candidates' supporters but not his. "My people will walk on glass."

But it's not only the weather that may make it challenging for people to participate.

Marin Curtis, 25, from North Liberty stood in line for a Trump rally in Coralville, but she has never been to a caucus before and she doesn't know much about it. Besides, she said, she has a toddler and might not be able to make it.

Ron Wheeldon, 64, an undecided truck driver from Newton, Iowa, was scoping out candidates at several campaign events, even though he'll have to work the night shift on the day of the caucuses.

And in Sioux Center last month, Steve and Shari Rehder of Hawarden were attending a forum of some major candidates, including DeSantis and Haley. They said they were interested in an alternative to Trump. But whoever they like won't be getting their vote on caucus night - they'll be out of state on vacation.

The get-out-the-vote efforts by Trump's 2024 campaign are a nod to the lessons learned since 2016, when the political novice acknowledged not knowing the first thing about caucuses. Trump finished second to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that year in Iowa's leadoff voting, though he would go on to win the next three early states, the GOP nomination and ultimately the presidency.

This year, the former president has been touting his lead in national and early state polls, but he has also warned his supporters not to get complacent and says he isn't taking Iowa for granted. In Sioux Center last Friday, he kicked off the first of at least eight "commit to caucus" events and noted he plans to be back in Iowa on caucus day.

"Look, we gotta get out and vote because, you know, bad things happen when you sit back," Trump said, encouraging the crowd to "really show the strength" of support. "We're voting now, but it's going to make a big difference in November."

Wrapped in a blanket waiting in line for Trump's rally, Josie Zeutenhorst, a 20-year-old from Sioux Center who attends Dordt University, said she wanted to hear from Trump in person instead of on TV. She recognizes how much of an impact voters can have on election results but wasn't planning on participating in a caucus.

"I don't know enough, I guess," she said. "I don't really know how it works."

In a follow-up interview after the rally, Zeutenhorst said she found the caucus instructional video "very helpful" and felt more comfortable having learned the process.

"I really am considering it," she said of participating in the caucuses, though she still isn't sure it'll work with her schedule.

Regan Ronning, 52, who attended a Trump rally back in 2016, said the Trump campaign called him a few months ago to ask if he'd be a caucus captain. Now he's door knocking and making phone calls to people in his area.

"Education's a big part of it," he said. Ronning thinks the videos and volunteers help, since some of the people he talks to are confused about what a caucus is. "I just try to tell them what the process is, that it's nothing scary."

Trump's team has said they've held hundreds of trainings for their volunteers and precinct captains, the individuals representing the campaign within a given precinct on caucus night.

The campaign also has had captains prioritize a new assignment - to bring 10 people to the caucuses who have never participated in one before. The campaign has identified several hundred thousand Trump supporters across Iowa who fit the bill.

It's an approach they hope to replicate in the general election, as they seek to chip away at the Biden coalition and win over voters who have generally supported Democrats.

Meanwhile, Trump's competitors are trying to persuade voters in Iowa that the race isn't over yet.

"This is the most impactful vote you can cast. The number of people that go to these caucuses is 150-, 200,000 people," DeSantis told a crowd in Sioux Center last week. "So if you're coming and you bring neighbors or family members, all that, you're packing a big punch."


# Haley accuses Biden of giving 'offensive' speech at the church where racist mass shooting occurred
By **MEG KINNARD**
January 8, 2024. 9:32 PM EST

---

**DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)** - Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim Monday night at the Democrat she'd like to face in the November election, calling it "offensive" that President Joe Biden gave "a political speech" at the South Carolina church where nine Black parishioners were slain in a 2015 racist attack.

"For Biden to show up there and give a political speech, it's offensive in itself," the former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor said during a town hall on Fox News in Des Moines, Iowa. "I don't need someone who palled around with segregationists in the '70s and has said racist comments all the way through his career lecturing me or anyone in South Carolina about what it means to have racism, slavery, or anything related to the Civil War."

Biden was in Haley's home state Monday, delivering jabs at some of his possible GOP general election opponents without naming them. He took the pulpit at Mother Emanuel, a historic AME church in Charleston where nine Black parishioners were slain in June 2015 by a white gunman as they prayed during a Wednesday night Bible study.

As governor at the time of the shooting, Haley gained national attention for her response, which included signing legislation into law removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. During her previous campaigns, Haley had advocated against removing the flag, portraying an opponent's call to do so as a political stunt.

But Haley has been on the defensive for not explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the Civil War when the question was posed at a campaign event. Her campaign responded Monday with a list of comments attributed to Biden that it said showed he's racially insensitive.

During his speech Monday, Biden called it a "lie" that the war was about states' rights.

"So let me be clear, for those who don't seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War," Biden said. "There's no negotiation about that."

Haley's campaign followed Biden's speech by sending reporters a timeline called "Biden's Racial Comments and Actions," such as a 1974 reference to himself as being "a token Black" in the Senate; saying in 1981 that George Wallace, the segregationist former Alabama governor, was "right about some things"; and, in 2007, saying then-Sen. Barack Obama was "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Biden's reelection campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Haley's town hall came a week ahead of Iowa's kickoff caucuses, the first official votes of the 2024 nominating cycle.

For Haley, the stakes are high. Amid an escalating battle for second place to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, she and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have increasingly traded barbs as they aim to draw lines of distinction between themselves and secure the mantle as the top alternative to Trump.

On Monday, Trump's super PAC released a video with an old clip of the then-South Carolina governor urging an audience not to reference people who entered the U.S. illegally as "criminals." Those comments came a month after Trump's 2015 campaign launch speech, in which he said immigrants from Mexico were bringing drugs and crime with them.

DeSantis' campaign also released its closing argument ad for Iowa caucusgoers, taking Haley to task for her recent comments to New Hampshire voters that they would have the opportunity to "correct" the decision made by Iowa caucusgoers - a comment that could signal that she not only doesn't expect to win Iowa, but that she doesn't expect to place second, ahead of DeSantis.

Haley on Monday repeatedly accused DeSantis of "lying because he's losing" and said Trump's allies were intentionally misconstruing things she had said.


# Biden condemns white supremacy in a campaign speech at a church where Black people were killed
By **COLLEEN LONG**, **ZEKE MILLER**, and **DARLENE SUPERVILLE**
January 9, 2024. 8:00 AM EST

---

**CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP)** - Courting Black voters he needs to win reelection, President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the "poison" of white supremacy in America, declaring at the site of a deadly racist church shooting in South Carolina that such ideology has no place in America, "not today, tomorrow or ever."

Biden spoke from the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church, where in 2015 nine Black parishioners were shot to death by the white stranger they had invited to join their Bible study. The Democratic president's speech followed his blunt remarks last Friday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, in which he excoriated former President Donald Trump for "glorifying" rather than condemning political violence.

At Mother Emanuel, Biden said "the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not just by gunpowder, but by a poison, a poison that has for too long haunted this nation."

That's "white supremacy," he said, the view by some whites that they are superior to other races. "It is a poison, throughout our history, that's ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow or ever."

It was a grim way to kick off a presidential campaign, particularly for someone known for his unfailing optimism and belief that American achievements are limitless. But it's a reflection of the emphasis Biden and his campaign are placing on energizing Black voters amid deepening concerns among Democrats that the president could lose support from this critical constituency heading into the election.

Biden's campaign advisers and aides hope the visit lays out the stakes of the race in unequivocal terms three years after the cultural saturation of Trump's words and actions while he was president. It's a contrast they hope will be paramount to voters in 2024.

Biden also used his second major campaign event of the year to thank the state's Black voters. After an endorsement by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the U.S. House, the state made Biden the winner of its Democratic presidential primary in 2020. That, in turn, set him on a path to become the party's nominee and defeat Trump to win the presidency.

"I owe you," he said.

Biden was briefly interrupted when several people upset over by his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas called out that if he really cared about lives lost he would call for a cease-fire in Gaza to help innocent Palestinians who are being killed under Israel's bombardment. The chants of "cease-fire now" were drowned out by audience members chanting "four more years."

The president also swiped at Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and Trump, without naming either one.

Haley was governor at the time of the shooting and gained national attention for her response, which included signing legislation into law removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol. But she has been on the defensive recently for not explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the Civil War when the question was posed at a campaign event. Her campaign responded Monday with a list of comments attributed to Biden that it said showed he's racially insensitive.

Biden called it a "lie" that the war was about states' rights. "So let me be clear, for those who don't seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There's no negotiation about that."

Haley, speaking at a Fox News Channel town hall on Monday, pushed back that it was "offensive" for Biden to give a political speech at the church. She also raised Biden's ties to Democratic segregationist senators early in his career.

During his successful 2020 run for the White House, Biden faced criticism from fellow Democratic contenders for alluding to his work with Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia while trying to make a point about lost civility in national politics.

"I don't need someone who palled around with segregationists in the '70s and has said racist comments all the way through his career lecturing me or anyone in South Carolina about what it means to have racism, slavery, or anything related to the Civil War," Haley said.

On more current events, Biden noted the scores of failed attempts by Trump in the courts to overturn the 2020 election in an attempt to hold onto power, as well as the former president's embrace of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

"Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It's never appropriate," Biden said. He said "losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he's a loser," meaning Trump.

It was June 17, 2015, when a 21-year-old white man walked into the church and, intending to ignite a race war, shot and killed nine Black parishioners and wounded one more. Biden was vice president when he attended the memorial service in Charleston.

Biden's aides and allies say the shootings are among the critical moments when the nation's political divide started to sharpen and crack. Though Trump, the current Republican presidential front-runner, was not in office at the time and has called the shooting "horrible," Biden is seeking to tie Trump's current rhetoric to such violence.

Two years after the attack, as the "Unite The Right" gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted in violent clashes with counterprotesters. Trump said merely that "there is blame on both sides."

Biden and his aides argue it's all part of the same problem: Trump refused to condemn the actions of the white nationalists at that gathering. He's repeatedly used rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are "poisoning the blood of our country," yet insisted he had no idea that one of the world's most reviled and infamous figures had used similar words.

And Trump continues to repeat his false claims that he won the 2020 election, as well as his assertion that the Capitol rioters were patriotic and those serving prison time are "hostages."

At Mother Emanuel, Biden revisited themes from the Jan. 6 anniversary speech he delivered Friday.

Biden has repeatedly suggested that democracy itself is on the ballot, asking whether it is still "America's sacred cause."

Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other felony cases, argues that Biden and other top Democrats are themselves seeking to undermine democracy by using the legal system to thwart the campaign of Biden's chief rival.

South Carolina is the first official Democratic nominating contest where Biden wants another strong showing.

In an interview with The Associated Press before Biden's appearance, Malcolm Graham, a brother of Charleston church victim Cynthia Graham-Hurd, said the threat of racism and hate-fueled violence is part of a needed national conversation about race and American democracy.

"Racism, hatred and discrimination continue to be the Achilles' heel of America, of our nation," said Graham, a city councilman in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Certainly, what happened to the Emanual Nine years ago is a visible example of that. What happened in Buffalo, years later, where people were killed under similar circumstances, shows that racism and discrimination are still real and it's even in our politics."

After the speech, Biden met privately with religious leaders and family members and survivors of the church shooting. He also dropped in at Hannibal's Kitchen, a soul food restaurant, to shake hands.

Later Monday, Biden flew to Dallas to make a brief stop at a memorial service for Eddie Bernice Johnson, the influential former Texas congresswoman who died on New Year's Eve. Johnson was 89.

Biden said in a statement last week that he and Johnson had worked together during her 30 years in Congress and he was grateful for her friendship and partnership.