# Gov. Kristi Noem endorses Trump as he visits South Dakota
By **JILL COLVIN** and **STEPHEN GROVES**
September 8th, 2023. 11:21 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed former President Donald Trump at a party fundraiser in Rapid City Friday night that doubled as an opportunity for Noem to showcase herself as a potential vice presidential pick.

As his rivals held town halls and meet-and-greets in early voting states, Trump headlined the South Dakota Republican Party's "Monumental Leaders Rally" in Rapid City, where Noem, once considered a potential 2024 candidate in her own right, instead threw her support behind the former president.

"I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country," Noem said as she formally offered her endorsement before Trump took the stage. She said all the other Republican presidential candidates had been invited to the event. "All of them told us that they had better things to do. But when President Trump was invited to come be with you tonight, he said, 'I will be there,'" she said.

Trump, for his part, praised Noem as "one of the most successful governors in the entire nation" and said her endorsement "means a lot."

Trump's decision to headline the event underscores his dominance in the early stages of the GOP presidential primary even as he faces four separate indictments and 91 felony counts. South Dakota holds a late primary and isn't a competitive general election state. But with a huge lead, Trump is skipping much of the traditional primary campaign.

Instead of the large-scale rallies that dominated his past runs, he is this time relying on state party events that offer large, friendly audiences at no cost to his political organization, which is facing millions of dollars in legal expenses. Friday's event looked like a typical Trump rally, but was paid for by the state Republican Party. Those in the audience purchased tickets and paid to attend.

The visit was also something of an audition for Noem. She planned the event as a way to both offer her endorsement and maximize face time with Trump as he considers potential 2024 running mates and cabinet members, according to two senior Republicans familiar with her thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

Noem will be term-limited in 2026 and, after declining to run for president this year, is eyeing her next move to maintain prominence in the GOP.

Allies had hoped her appearance alongside Trump would create an image that looked like a potential presidential ticket. And they seemed to get what they desired: Several people sitting behind Trump held "Trump-Noem 2024" signs and, at one point, their names appeared together on a screen behind the stage at The Monument ice arena, captured in a photo by an NBC reporter.

Voting won't begin until next year and Trump's historic indictments and upcoming criminal trials create an unprecedented situation that many strategists argue could influence the race in unexpected ways. That hasn't stopped those who are keen to be considered as Trump's running mate from openly jockeying for the position and trying to curry favor with him and his aides.

Aides caution it is far too early for serious discussions. But Trump has indicated in conversations that he is interested in selecting a woman this time around. Others whose names have been floated include New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and two of Trump's current rivals, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, have also been mentioned.

"What we're focused on is just locking up this primary and pivoting towards the general election," said campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.

Trump has spent far less time campaigning in early-voting states than most of his rivals. But he will return to Iowa, the first state on the GOP nomination calendar, on Saturday to attend the college football game between Iowa and Iowa State.

Noem was long considered a potential White House contender in her own right and had told The New York Times in November that she didn't believe Trump offered "the best chance" for the party in 2024. But she has since said she saw no point in joining the crowded field running for the nomination given Trump's dominant position.

"Well the fact is, none of 'em can win as long as Trump's in the race. And that's just the facts. So why run if you can't win?" she said in an interview with Fox News in August.

Asked this week whether she would consider joining a potential Trump ticket if invited, Noem told Newsmax she "would in a heartbeat."

"President Trump needs a strong partner if he's going to take back the White House, and he's going to need somebody who knows what it's like to run a business, to be an employee, earn a paycheck, but also having a wife, mom and a grandma isn't bad either," she said.

Michael Card, a longtime observer of South Dakota politics, suggested Noem might make a future National Rifle Association president or conservative commentator, but said her best opportunity may lie with Trump.

"I think Donald Trump has a 50-50 shot of getting elected at this point, so why not hitch your wagon to him if you can?" he said.

The visit was Trump's first to South Dakota since the summer of 2020, when he headlined a fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day. The then-president had been looking for a venue to turn the page after a summer of pandemic lockdowns and racial justice protests, and Noem's event at Mount Rushmore was notably devoid of pandemic restrictions.

She also gifted him a miniature replica of Mount Rushmore with his likeness carved alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

A former member of Congress, Noem rose to national prominence with a mostly hands-off approach to the pandemic. Trump has often praised that approach, cheering her rejection of policies aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 and arguing that she did a better job than his leading rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who often touts his own efforts to reopen businesses and reject mandates.

Despite not running for president, Noem has continued to position herself nationally. She has been an outspoken champion for the NRA, even bragging at a spring convention for the gun-rights group that her 1-year-old granddaughter "already has" firearms. During the first GOP presidential debate, she appeared in an ad to encourage businesses and families to move to what she calls "the freest state in America."

South Dakota GOP chair John Wiik said he had expected about 7,000 people to attend the sold-out fundraiser, which was first envisioned as a Lincoln Day-style dinner commonly held by local Republican groups.

"I did get a lot of questions at first," Wiik said about Trump's decision to travel to his state just as the primary season kicks into its traditional post-Labor Day overdrive.

"But the more you look at it, Trump is a media event wherever he lands," Wiik said. "He could do a rally on the moon and he'd spread his word and get just as many people, so I'm just glad he chose South Dakota."


# Inside the brand new White House Situation Room: Cutting-edge tech, mahogany and that new car smell
By **COLLEEN LONG**
September 8th, 2023. 1:05 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The White House Situation Room - a space of great mystique and even greater secrecy - just got a $50 million facelift.

Actually, "room" is a misnomer. It's a 5,500-square-foot (511-square-meter), highly secure complex of conference rooms and offices on the ground floor of the West Wing.

These are rooms where history happens, where the president meets with national security officials to discuss secret operations and sensitive government matters, speaks with foreign leaders and works through major national security crises.

Where President Barack Obama and his team watched the raid that took down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Where President Donald Trump monitored the 2019 operation that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Where President Lyndon Johnson went over Vietnam War plans.

The latest redo was no small update: The total gut renovation took a year to complete.

The White House opened the classified space to a group of reporters this week for a rare visit to check out the new look. President Joe Biden got a tour on Tuesday and then received an intelligence briefing in the space, said Marc Gustafson, the Situation Room director.

"He loved it, he thought the update was fantastic," Gustafson said.

"Folks, the newly renovated White House Situation Room is up and running," Biden said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "My thanks to everyone who worked on this incredible facility.

The renovated space has a modern-but-vintage vibe. Old floors, furniture, computers and other tech were stripped out and replaced with pristine mahogany paneling from Maryland, stonework from a Virginia quarry, LED lights that can change colors and flat-screen panels. See-through glass offices fade to opaque with the press of a button. The whole space has that new car smell.

But there are still plenty of landline phones: No cellphones are allowed in the secure space for security reasons. (There are cubbies to stow phones near a door leading outside, where a baggie with some cocaine was found earlier this year.)

Access is tightly controlled and generally restricted to the president's national security and military advisers. Anyone listening in on classified briefings needs clearance. Even the contractors working on the renovation had to get temporary security clearances. Illuminated signs flash green for declassified and red for classified.

The hush-hush complex was created in 1961 by the Kennedy administration after the Bay of Pigs invasion. President John F. Kennedy believed there should be a dedicated crisis management center where officials could coordinate intelligence faster and better.

That was an upgrade, to be sure. But it wasn't exactly comfortable: Nixon administration national security adviser and then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described the space as "uncomfortable, unaesthetic and essentially oppressive."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the White House did a significant Situation Room update, along with a broader upgrade to presidential communications on Air Force One and the presidential helicopter. Presidents used the complex for secure video conferences before such tech became more portable. The last renovation was in 2007.

The complex is staffed around the clock by military and civilian personnel who monitor breaking developments worldwide.

It has a reception area with a U.S. seal in stonework. Behind that is the main conference room, known as the "JFK room." To the right are a smaller conference room and two soundproof "breakout rooms." To the left is the "watch floor," a 24-7 operations center.

"It's a marriage of the traditional and the modern," Gustafson said of the new space.

Workers dug five feet underground to make more room and install cutting-edge technology allowing White House officials to bring together intelligence from different agencies with the push of a few buttons.

"Now we have all the capabilities," Gustafson said.

For those in the know, referring to the "sit room" is out. It's the "whizzer," stemming from the complex's acronym: WHSR. (Washington does love a good acronym.)

Gustafson said the goal is to never need a complete renovation again. The new space was designed so panels can be removed and updated and new technology swapped in, usually with less space needs. A room once taken up by computer servers has become a smaller conference room.

The JFK room has a long wooden table with six leather chairs on each side and one at the head for the president. Leather armchairs line the walls. A giant, high-tech screen runs the length of the back wall. A 2-foot (0.6-meter) seal is positioned at the president's end of the room, larger than the old seal.

There aren't many photos of the Situation Room, but one of the most famous is the image of Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Biden and others watching the bin Laden operation.

That took place around the corner from the JFK room in a smaller conference room that no longer exists. It's been cut out entirely from the space and sent off to Obama's presidential library, Gustafson said. In its place are two smaller rooms.

Another item preserved for history is an old phone booth that stood in the complex. It was sent to storage for Biden's eventual presidential library. Gustafson didn't know if anything had been sent to Trump.

Gustafson said staff members have to be ready to prepare rooms for classified briefings on a moment's notice, and Biden has been known to pop in to meetings unexpectedly, particularly as Russia was invading Ukraine.

While the area was closed for renovation, White House officials used other secure spots on the campus. Gustafson said the renovated Situation Room is having a soft opening of sorts: About 60% of the staff are back in the space with more coming every day.

One cosmetic upgrade Gustafson pointed out is the ability to swap out the different 2-foot-diameter seals that hang on the JFK room wall, depending on who is in the meeting. Seals for the president, vice president and executive staff are kept in a nearby closet and can be quickly subbed.

Gustafson said visitors previously remarked that the room didn't reflect Hollywood's grand imagining of the space.

He said they now declare: "This looks like the movies."


# Biden and Modi working in 'warmth and confidence' to build ties as Chinese leader skips G20
By **AAMER MADHANI** and **JOSH BOAK**
September 8th, 2023. 1:47 PM GMT-4

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**NEW DELHI (AP)** - President Joe Biden opened his visit to India on Friday by meeting privately with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indian leader's home in a session the White House said was marked by "undeniable warmth and confidence" in one another going into the annual Group of 20 summit where climate, economic security and more will dominate the weekend's talks.

Biden spent 52 minutes with Modi after a lavish welcome ceremony at the airport, and Kurt Campbell, a Biden adviser on the Indo-Pacific, told reporters afterward that warm sentiments have replaced a sense of distrust and uncertainty that previously defined relations between the two countries.

"What I have seen grown over time is an undeniable warmth and confidence between the two leaders," Campbell said.

Another adviser, Eileen Laubacher, senior director for South Asia at the White House National Security Council, added that Biden and Modi were "so comfortable discussing, really, the breadth of things that we're trying to accomplish together."

A joint statement issued after the meeting reaffirmed U.S.-India partnerships on several fronts, especially with regard to computer chips, telecommunications, higher education, access to shipping lanes in the Indo-Pacific and the reduction of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Biden also congratulated Modi on India's recent moon landing.

While India was disappointed that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to attend the G20, those absences could give Biden the space to further stitch together U.S. and India ties.

"There are undeniable opportunities here for the United States," Campbell said. "We fully intend to strengthen and deepen our relationship. We leave it to China, in particular, to discuss and explain why they're not here."

Campbell also suggested that a that a major infrastructure and communications project to connect India with the Middle East and Europe will be announced soon.

But when asked if Biden pushed Modi on press access and broader democratic issues in India, Campbell said Biden tries to be clear about issues critical to the health of democracy. Still, Campbell declined to get into specifics, saying the president "has determined that he wants to conduct that dialogue in a dignified, respectful way."

The U.S. president received a Bollywood-style greeting after Air Force One landed, with dancers in flowing purple outfits gyrating to pop music.

Having feted Modi with a state visit to Washington in June, Biden is banking on the idea that successful diplomacy depends on personal connections. But it's a relationship largely being explored in private. White House reporters traveling with Biden were denied access to the leaders' meeting. Indian state media shared visuals of the meeting on social media.

Biden and Modi have had more than a dozen in-person or virtual engagements since 2021 as both look to tighten the U.S.-India partnership amid shared major concerns. Those include an increasingly assertive China and monumental challenges posed by climate change, artificial intelligence, global supply chain resilience and other issues.

Modi has heavily branded the summit as his own. The prime minister has his image posted along the highway from the airport, greeting G20 delegates with quotes about climate change, innovation and India's unique role as an advocate for developing countries. As a result, Biden was something of a houseguest when he met his Indian counterpart.

Modi held the meeting at his residence, "so it is unusual in that respect," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One.

Biden, a center-left Democrat, and Modi, a conservative Hindu nationalist, are hardly ideological soulmates. Yet, both leaders are increasingly drawn together by China's military and economic maneuverings in the Indo-Pacific.

India late last month lodged an objection through diplomatic channels with Beijing over China's new standard map that lays claim to India's territory along their shared border.

The version of the Chinese map published by the Ministry of Natural Resources website shows Arunachal Pradesh and the Doklam Plateau - over which the two sides have feuded - included within Chinese borders, along with Aksai Chin in the western section that China controls but India still claims. The Philippines and Malaysia have also lodged protests over the new Chinese map.

The map was released just days after Modi and Jinping met on the sidelines of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - and agreed to work to de-escalate tensions at their disputed border.

The administration was eager to build on the momentum from Modi's June state visit, which included announcements on climate, health care and space as well as some major private sector projects.

The two sides set the groundwork for U.S.-based General Electric to partner with India-based Hindustan Aeronautics to produce jet engines for Indian aircraft in India and the sale of U.S.-made armed MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones. U.S.-based Micron Technology agreed to build a $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India, with Micron spending more than $800 million and India financing the rest. The administration also plans to discuss civil nuclear issues.

The White House has sought to play down Biden and Modi 's differences over Russia's war in Ukraine. India abstained from voting on U.N. resolutions condemning Russia and refused to join the global coalition against Russia. Since the start of the war, the Modi government has dramatically increased its purchase of Russian oil.

Biden's effort to pull India closer has been shadowed by concerns from activists and some American lawmakers about India's human rights record under Modi.

The prime minister has faced criticism over legislation amending the country's citizenship law that fast-tracks naturalization for some migrants but excludes Muslims, over a rise in violence against Muslims and other religious minorities by Hindu nationalists, and the recent conviction of India's top opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, for mocking Modi's surname.

India also ranks 161st out of 180 countries in this year's Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.


# Biden nominates a former Obama official to run the Federal Aviation Administration
By **DAVID KOENIG**
September 7th, 2023. 10:01 PM GMT-4

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President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated a former Obama administration official to lead the Federal Aviation Administration after his first choice withdrew in March after running into opposition from Republican senators.

The White House said Biden nominated Michael G. Whitaker, a former deputy administrator at the FAA. He is currently the chief operating officer of a Hyundai affiliate working to develop an air taxi aircraft.

Whitaker's nomination had been expected for months, and Biden's announcement was praised by several industry and labor groups.

The FAA, which regulates airline safety and manages the nation's airspace, has been run by back-to-back acting administrators since March 2022.

The agency faces a number of challenges including a shortage of air traffic controllers, aging technology, and alarm over close calls between planes at major airports. In addition, Congress is deliberating over legislation that will direct the agency's operations for the next five years.

Whitaker worked as a lawyer for TWA, which was absorbed by American Airlines, spent 15 years at United Airlines, where he became a senior vice president and oversaw international and regulatory affairs, then moved to InterGlobe, a travel company in India.

He was deputy FAA administrator - a job that does not require Senate approval - from 2013 to 2016. He is currently the chief commercial officer for Supernal, a Hyundai subsidiary that is working on an electric-powered air taxi - which would need FAA certification to fly in the United States.

The White House said Whitaker holds a private-pilot license.

Last year, Biden nominated Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington, but he withdrew in March after his nomination stalled in the Senate Commerce Committee. Republicans and independent Kyrsten Sinema argued that Washington lacked adequate aviation experience - his background is mostly in city transit systems, having held the Denver airport job only since mid-2021.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who led the GOP opposition to Biden's first pick, gave a noncommittal statement about the second choice.

"We must carefully evaluate Mike Whitaker's qualifications, experience, and temperament to determine whether he is the right person to lead the agency at this critical juncture," Cruz said.

The FAA has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader since early last year, when Stephen Dickson, who was chosen by President Donald Trump, quit midway through his five-year term.

Since then, the agency has been run by two successive acting administrators. The first, Billy Nolen, who left FAA in June to join another air taxi company, Archer Aviation, praised Whitaker's nomination in a recent interview. "I can't think of a better choice," he said. "He will do an amazing job."

Earl Lawrence, a former senior official at the FAA who now works for Xwing, which is developing pilotless planes to carry cargo, said Whitaker's appointment would be a win for companies making drones and autonomous aircraft - in part because of Whitaker's time at Supernal.

"He knows how to support the airlines because he worked at the airlines, and he has worked with the drone folks," Lawrence said. He will "create the environment that it's OK to move forward" with new technologies.

A range of industry groups praised Whitaker as somebody they can work with - which could raise questions about FAA independence from the companies it regulates.

Nicholas Calio, president of the trade group Airlines for America, said Whitaker has extensive experience including on modernizing the air traffic system. He said Whitaker appreciates "the collaborative partnership between industry and government" to keep air travel safe.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, urged the Senate to confirm Biden's pick quickly. "Whitaker has the experience to step into the role and immediately lead us forward," she said.


# Nancy Pelosi says she'll seek House reelection in 2024, dismissing talk of retirement at age 83
By **LISA MASCARO**
September 8th, 2023. 5:27 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she will seek reelection to Congress in 2024 as Democrats try to win back the majority.

Pelosi, 83, made the announcement before volunteers and labor allies in the San Francisco area district she has represented for more than 35 years.

"Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery," Pelosi said in a tweet. "Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection - and respectfully ask for your vote."

Republicans now control the House, but just narrowly, with a 222-212 majority and one vacancy. Democrats believe they have a chance to regain power as President Joe Biden runs for a second term.

Pelosi's announcement quells any talk of retirement for the long-serving leader, who, with the honorific title of speaker emeritus, remains an influential lawmaker, pivotal party figure and strong fundraiser for Democrats.

It also unfolds as Washington is grappling with the sunset of a political era as an older generation of leaders, including Biden, 80, face questions about their age. This past week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, 81, said he would finish his term as leader and senator despite concerns about his recent health episodes.

Pelosi has long charted her own course, from her arrival in Congress as one of few women elected to the House to her tenure as one of the most powerful women in U.S. politics.

First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi made history becoming the first female speaker in 2007, and in 2019 she regained the speaker's gavel.

Pelosi led the party through substantial legislative achievements, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, as well as turbulent times with two impeachments of Republican President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Her announcement comes as House Republicans are preparing to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden over the business dealings of his son, Hunter.

Pelosi stepped away from the day-to-day political limelight after a younger generation of Democrats led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took charge in 2023, but she remains a political force and keeps a robust schedule of public and private events.

According to a person familiar with Pelosi's thinking about her 2024 decision, Pelosi believes democracy hangs in the balance in the upcoming election as she works to reelect Biden and make Jeffries the next House speaker.

"Our Democracy is at stake. I just say that, very sadly, with no fear of exaggeration of it," Pelosi told supporters in San Francisco. "We have in the Congress right now, a Congress that is determined to shut government down."

Pelosi is among the party's most prolific fundraisers for the House and key political strategists. She has said she does not intend to hover over the new Democratic House leadership team, but she and Jeffries are often seen huddling quietly on the House floor.

It's rare, but not unprecedented, for former party leaders to continue in Congress as members.

Back in California, Pelosi's decision to seek another term is sure to disappoint other Democrats who have wanted a run for the congressional seat.

But Pelosi has priorities she is trying to secure for her home state and especially San Francisco as the city works to recover from the coronavirus pandemic-era closures that have also dimmed other metro downtowns.

San Francisco faces a delicate moment, Pelosi believes, and needs federal resources to continue its recovery, said the person familiar with her thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Pelosi said certain stretches of the city's downtown, such as the Tenderloin District, have been inflicted with crime, violence and drugs and said she would fight for the resources to address them, but also pushed back on broad portrayals of San Francisco as unsafe and crime-ridden.

"Our city has been through a lot, will come through this very well, but it's confined to a certain part of town, and I wish people would recognize that because our city is beautiful and clean and we would love for them to visit," she told Nicole Wallace on MSNBC.

One of the state's long-serving leaders, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, has announced she would not seek another term.

Pelosi has long been portrayed as a political villain by Republican critics, who view her as a far-left liberal and raise vast sums of their own using her image and actions.

Last year, her husband, Paul Pelosi, was seriously injured when an attacker broke into the family's San Francisco home, seeking the Democratic leader at a highly divisive time in American politics. A trial is expected.


# Hundreds of military promotions are on hold as a Republican senator demands end to abortion policy
By **KEVIN FREKING** and **TARA COPP**
September 7th, 2023. 12:53 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Top defense officials are accusing Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville of jeopardizing America's national security with his hold on roughly 300 military promotions, raising the stakes in a clash over abortion policy that shows no signs of easing.

Tuberville brushed off the criticism, vowing he will not give in. "We're going to be in a holding pattern for a long time," he said, if the Pentagon refuses to end its policy of paying for travel when a servicemember goes out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.

It's a classic Washington standoff with rippling effects across the country, placing the lives of servicemembers effectively on hold as they await what has traditionally been routine Senate approval for their promotions.

Frustration mounting, the secretaries of the Navy, Air Force and Army wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post this week saying Tuberville's efforts were not only unfair to the military leaders and their families but also "putting our national security at risk."

They noted that three military branches - the Army, Navy and Marine Corps - have no Senate-confirmed chiefs in place. Those jobs are being performed without the full range of legal authorities necessary to make decisions that will sustain the United States' military edge, they wrote.

In a CNN interview, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro accused Tuberville of "playing Russian roulette with the very lives of our servicemembers by denying them the opportunity to actually have the most experienced combat leaders in those positions to lead them in times of peace and in times of combat."

Looking ahead, the secretaries said in their op-ed that prolonged uncertainty and political battles over military nominations "will have a corrosive effect on the force."

"The generals and admirals who will be leading our forces a decade from now are colonels and captains today," they wrote. "They are watching this spectacle and might conclude that their service at the highest ranks of our military is no longer valued by members of Congress or, by extension, the American public."

Tuberville took umbrage with the three defense secretaries. He said they should have spoken with him first "if you're gonna run your mouth in the paper."

"I have not heard from any of them," he said.

If they were truly worried about readiness at such a dangerous time for the world "you would think they would be calling, 'Coach, let's work this out.' Zero," said Tuberville, a former college football coach.

However, there have been multiple attempts by both the department's top civilian leaders and its top uniformed personnel to try and show Tuberville how the holds are doing harm, a senior military official and defense official said.

A senior military official familiar with previous meetings with Tuberville said that despite telling the senator about the real-world and personal challenges that his hold has created on servicemembers, Tuberville has not seemed willing to change his position.

Tuberville said that during the August break, he visited six states, and "I didn't have one negative comment from anybody. I had questions, but I didn't have any negative comments."

He insisted that he would lift his hold on the military nominations only after the Pentagon rescinds the policy that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put into place in October, after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

Once the Pentagon returns to pre-memo policies on travel reimbursement, Democratic leaders could bring up for a Senate vote whatever replacement policy they want to enact, he said.

"Move it back," Tuberville said of the current reimbursement policy. "And then have them write up what they want to vote on, and I will accept whichever way it goes. The holds are off. Let's go to work."

Tuberville's blockade is unique because it affects hundreds of military nominations and promotions. Democratic leaders would have to hold roll call votes on every one to get around the hold, an unwieldy and time-consuming process in a chamber that already struggles to finish its basic business.

It's a decades-long tradition for the Senate to group military nominations and approve them by voice vote, avoiding lengthy roll calls and reserving valuable floor time for other important issues.

But, while unusual, Tuberville's office notes that lawmakers from both parties have threatened holds on military promotions over the years. What's truly unprecedented is the length of time it has gone on with Tuberville.

Austin has called Tuberville three times about the holds, the last time was on July 18, and the Pentagon's legislative affairs staff continues to engage, a defense official said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. Also, Defense Department staff met with Senate Armed Services Committee staff in July to go over the details of DOD's reproductive healthcare policy.

But Steven Stafford, a spokesman for Tuberville, said there has been no contact with the Biden administration about the holds at the principal or staff level since July 18, and no further communications are planned.

The Pentagon to date has not provided data on the number of servicemembers who have relied on the new policy to get access to an abortion citing privacy issues. It emphasizes that the new policy was in response to the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which created a situation where federal troops serving in one state may not have access to the same type of reproductive services available in others.

As many as 650 nominations could be affected by the end of the year if the impasse continues. But if Republican leaders are pressuring Tuberville to end his holds, they are not doing so publicly.

"I'm hoping that the conversations that occur this week and the conversations that Senator Tuberville has had with the military leadership will lead to a breakthrough at some point," said Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

The Pentagon said the number of promotions on hold in the Senate has reached 98 in the Air Force, 91 in the Army, 86 in the Navy, 18 in the Marines and 8 in the Space Force.

Some Republicans have suggested that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could hold votes on some of the most critical nominations. But Schumer rejected that approach.

"The bottom line is this is a problem created by Republicans and it's up to them to solve it," Schumer said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he would like for Schumer to schedule a vote on the Pentagon reimbursement policy, but if it fails, which it most assuredly would, "it's now time to get these people promoted."

"I'd like to vote to rescind the policy, but I'm not going to hold the military up in perpetuity," Graham said.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services committee, was asked if he had any recommendations or guidance for Tuberville that could resolve the impasse.

"I'm out of ideas," Wicker said.


# Congress returns to try to prevent a government shutdown while the GOP weighs an impeachment inquiry
By **STEPHEN GROVES** and **MARY CLARE JALONICK**
September 5th, 2023. 7:02 AM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - After months of struggling to find agreement on just about anything in a divided Congress, lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill to try to avert a government shutdown, even as House Republicans consider whether to press forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

A short-term funding measure to keep government offices fully functioning will dominate the September agenda, along with emergency funding for Ukraine, federal disaster funds and the Republican-driven probe into Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

Time is running short for Congress to act. The House is scheduled to meet for just 11 days before the government's fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, leaving little room to maneuver. And the deal-making will play out as two top Republicans, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, deal with health issues.

The president and congressional leaders, including Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, are focused on passage of a months-long funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, to keep government offices running while lawmakers iron out a budget. It's a step Congress routinely takes to avoid stoppages, but McCarthy faces resistance from within his own Republican ranks, including from some hardline conservatives who openly embrace the idea of a government shutdown.

"Honestly, it's a pretty big mess," McConnell said at an event in Kentucky last week.

Here are the top issues as lawmakers return from the August break:

## KEEPING THE GOVERNMENT OPEN
When Biden and McCarthy struck a deal to suspend the nation's debt ceiling in June, it included provisions for topline spending numbers. But under pressure from the House Freedom Caucus, House Republicans have advanced spending bills that cut below that agreement.

Republicans have also tried to load their spending packages with conservative policy wins. For example, House Republicans added provisions blocking abortion coverage, transgender care and diversity initiatives to a July defense package, turning what has traditionally been a bipartisan effort into a sharply contested bill.

But Democrats control the Senate and are certain to reject most of the conservative proposals. Senators are crafting their spending bills on a bipartisan basis with an eye toward avoiding unrelated policy fights.

Top lawmakers in both chambers are now turning to a stopgap funding package, a typical strategy to give the lawmakers time to iron out a long-term agreement.

The House Freedom Caucus has already released a list of demands it wants included in the continuing resolution. But they amount to a right-wing wish list that would never fly in the Senate.

The conservative opposition means McCarthy will almost certainly have to win significant Democratic support to pass a funding bill - but such an approach risks a new round of conflict with the same conservatives who in the past have threatened to oust him from the speakership.

Democrats are already readying blame for the House GOP.

"The last thing the American people deserve is for extreme House members to trigger a government shutdown that hurts our economy, undermines our disaster preparedness, and forces our troops to work without guaranteed pay," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

In a letter to his colleagues Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote that the focus when the Senate returns Tuesday will be "funding the government and preventing House Republican extremists from forcing a government shutdown."

It leaves McCarthy desperate to get the votes to keep government offices running and avoid the political blowback. As he tries to persuade Republicans to go along with a temporary fix, McCarthy has been arguing that a government shutdown would also halt Republican investigations into the Biden administration.

"If we shut down, all of government shuts it down - investigations and everything else - it hurts the American public," the speaker said on Fox News last week.

## IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Since they gained the House majority, Republicans have launched a series of investigations into the Biden administration, with an eye towards impeaching the president or his Cabinet officials. They have now zeroed in on the president's son, Hunter Biden, and his overseas business dealings, including with Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

The inquiries have not produced evidence that President Biden took official action on behalf of his son or business partners, but McCarthy has called impeachment a "natural step forward" for the investigations.

An impeachment inquiry by the House would be a first step toward bringing articles of impeachment. It is not yet clear what that may look like, especially because the speaker does not appear to have the GOP votes lined up to support an impeachment inquiry. Moderate Republicans have so far balked at sending the House on a full-fledged impeachment hunt.

But Donald Trump, running once again to challenge Biden, is prodding them to move ahead quickly.

"I don't know how actually how a Republican could not do it," Trump said in an interview on Real America's Voice. "I think a Republican would be primaried and lose immediately, no matter what district you're in."

## UKRAINE AND DISASTER FUNDING
The White House has requested more than $40 billion in emergency funding, including $13 billion in military aid for Ukraine, $8 billion in humanitarian support for the nation and $12 billion to replenish U.S. federal disaster funds at home.

The request for the massive cash infusion comes as Kyiv launches a counteroffensive against the Russian invasion. But support for Ukraine is waning among Republicans, especially as Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism of the war.

Nearly 70 Republicans voted for an unsuccessful effort to discontinue military aid to Ukraine in July, though strong support for the war effort remains among many members.

It is also not clear whether the White House's supplemental request for U.S. disaster funding, which also includes funds to bolster enforcement and curb drug trafficking at the southern U.S. border, will be tied to the Ukraine funding or a continuing budget resolution. The disaster funding enjoys wide support in the House, but could be tripped up if packaged with other funding proposals.

## LEGISLATION ON HOLD
The Senate is expected to spend most of September focused on funding the government and confirming Biden's nominees, meaning that major policy legislation will have to wait. But Schumer outlined some priorities for the remaining months of the year in the letter to his colleagues.

Schumer said the Senate would work on legislation to lower the costs of drugs, address rail safety and provide disaster relief after floods in Vermont, fires in Hawaii and a hurricane in Florida.

Senators will also continue to examine whether legislation is needed to address artificial intelligence. Schumer has convened what he is calling an "AI insight forum" on Sept. 13 in the Senate with tech industry leaders, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the CEO of X and Tesla, as well as former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

## HEALTH CONCERNS
Senate Republicans will return next week to renewed questions about the health of their leader, McConnell.

McConnell, 81, faces questions about his ability to continue as the top Senate Republican after he has frozen up twice during news conferences in the last two months since falling and suffering a concussion in March. During the event in Kentucky last week, he fell silent for roughly 30 seconds as he answered a question from a reporter.

Dr. Brian Monahan, the Capitol's attending physician, said Thursday that McConnell is cleared to work. But the question of whether McConnell - the longest-serving party leader in Senate history - can continue as Republican leader has sparked intense speculation about who will eventually replace him.

Meanwhile, the health of California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, has visibly wavered in recent months after she was hospitalized for shingles earlier this year. She suffered a fall at her San Francisco home in August and visited the hospital for testing.

And in the House, Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican, disclosed last week that he has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is undergoing treatment.

Scalise, 57, said he will continue to serve and described the cancer as "very treatable."


# No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise is diagnosed with blood cancer and undergoing treatment
August 29th, 2023. 10:57 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, said Tuesday he has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is undergoing treatment.

Scalise, 57, said he will continue to serve in the House. He described the cancer as "very treatable" and said it was detected early.

The Louisiana Republican was among several people wounded in 2017 when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Scalise was shot in the hip and endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation.

The cancer diagnosis came, Scalise said, after he had not been feeling like himself in the past week. Blood tests showed some irregularities and after additional screening, he said he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

"I have now begun treatment, which will continue for the next several months," Scalise said in a statement. "I expect to work through this period and intend to return to Washington, continuing my work as Majority Leader and serving the people of Louisiana's First Congressional District."

Scalise also thanked his medical team and said he was "incredibly grateful we were able to detect this early and that this cancer is treatable."

"I will tackle this with the same strength and energy as I have tackled past challenges," Scalise said.

The White House said President Joe Biden called Scalise Tuesday afternoon to express his best wishes for a swift recovery.

Colleagues in the House and members of Louisiana's congressional delegation offered Scalise and his family their encouragement in response to the announcement, some recalling his determination following the 2017 shooting.

"The same faith, family support, and internal strength that made Steve such an inspiration to others after he was shot will bring him through this illness and once more inspire us all," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

"I spoke with him today and he's in good spirits, as nothing - not a gunshot and certainly not cancer - will stop him from accomplishing what he sets his mind to," said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif..

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the diagnosis "devastating news."

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the congressman and his family," Jean-Pierre said. "Clearly, he's gone through a lot over the past couple of years."


# Judge denies Mark Meadows' request to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court
By **KATE BRUMBACK**
September 8th, 2023. 8:28 PM GMT-4

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**ATLANTA (AP)** - A judge on Friday denied Mark Meadows' request to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court, ruling that the Trump White House chief of staff must fight the charges in state court instead.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta wrote in a 49-page ruling that Meadows "has not met even the 'quite low' threshold" to move his case to federal court, noting that the question was whether the actions at issue were related to his role as a federal official.

"The evidence adduced at the hearing establishes that the actions at the heart of the State's charges against Meadows were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and procedures," Jones wrote. "Meadows himself testified that working for the Trump campaign would be outside the scope of a White House Chief of Staff."

The ruling is a big early win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who spent 2 1/2 years investigating and building the case against former President Donald Trump, Meadows and 17 others before obtaining the sweeping indictment under Georgia's anti-racketeering law. She has said she wants to try all the defendants together.

Trump has indicated that he is considering asking for his trial to be moved to federal court, and several other defendants have already made the request. The ruling by Jones against Meadows could signal that the others may struggle to meet the burden required to win removal when their lawyers make their arguments before the judge later this month, though Jones made clear that he will assess each of those cases individually.

The practical effects of moving to federal court would be a jury pool that includes a broader area than just overwhelmingly Democratic Fulton County and a trial that would not be photographed or televised, as cameras are not allowed inside federal courtrooms. But it would not open the door for Trump, if he's reelected in 2024, or another president to issue pardons because any conviction would still happen under state law.

Meadows filed a notice of appeal Friday night. In a court filing earlier this week, he asked to separate his case from the other defendants in the case and to halt his proceedings in the state court until a final determination is reached on his attempt to move to federal court, "including through appeal, if an appeal is taken."

A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment.

Meadows, Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty to charges they participated in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump's 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia, even though the state's voters had selected Democrat Joe Biden.

Meadows said his actions were taken as part of his role as chief of staff to the Republican president. He and his lawyers also argued that, since he was a federal official at the time, the charges against him should be heard in federal court and, ultimately, dismissed for lack of merit.

Prosecutors said the actions laid out in the indictment were meant to keep Trump in office after he lost to Biden. They said the acts were explicitly political in nature and are illegal under the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees. As such, they said, the case should stay in Fulton County Superior Court.

Meadows served as Trump's fourth and final chief of staff after being tapped in March 2020 to replace Mick Mulvaney. Before being elevated to the position of the president's top aide, Meadows was a congressman representing North Carolina.

First elected in the post-Tea Party wave of 2012, Meadows quickly established himself as a leader of a new generation of conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill. He served as chairman of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, and his actions in the House helped spur Speaker John Boehner's sudden retirement.

As Trump ascended in 2016, Meadows switched from his earlier backing of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and became a Trump supporter.

Jones wrote that the evidence "overwhelmingly suggests" that most of the actions attributed to Meadows in the indictment did not fall within "his scope of executive branch duties."

"Even if Meadows took on tasks that mirror the duties that he carried out when acting in his official role as White House Chief of Staff (such as attending meetings, scheduling phone calls, and managing the President's time) he has failed to demonstrate how the election-related activities that serve as the basis for the charges in the Indictment are related to any of his official acts," the judge wrote.

Jones also made clear that he was making no judgment on the merits of the case against Meadows or any defense he might offer.


# Supreme Court is asked to reject limits on a drug used in the most common method of abortion
By **MARK SHERMAN**
September 8th, 2023. 6:08 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Supreme Court is being asked to reverse an appellate ruling that would cut off mail-order access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.

The case would be the first major abortion dispute decided by the Supreme Court since it overturned Roe v. Wade last year. That ruling has led to bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy in 15 states, with some exceptions, and once cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks, in two others.

In appeals filed Friday, the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of mifepristone, argued that federal judges should not second-guess the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug or the conditions under which it is dispensed.

A federal appeals court ruling in August would revoke approval for sending the drug through the mail and would shorten, from the current 10 weeks to seven weeks, the time during which mifepristone can be used in pregnancy.

The justices previously intervened in the case in April to assure the availability of mifepristone while a challenge proceeds in the federal courts. The Supreme Court is widely expected to agree to hear the case and have the final word, probably by early summer 2024 and in the middle of presidential and congressional campaigns.

In urging the justices to reverse the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Danco wrote, "For the women and teenage girls, health care providers, and States that depend on FDA's actions to ensure safe and effective reproductive health care is available, this case matters tremendously."

The Justice Department said the appeals court ignored a scientific judgment about mifepristone's safety and effectivness since its approval in 2000.

"To the government's knowledge, the decisions below mark the first time any court has restricted access to an FDA-approved drug based on disagreement with FDA's expert judgment about the conditions required to assure that drug's safe use - much less done so after those conditions had been in effect for years," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote.

Abortion opponents filed their challenge to mifepristone in November and initially won a sweeping ruling in April revoking the drug's approval entirely. The appeals court left intact the FDA's initial approval of mifepristone. But it would reverse changes regulators made in 2016 and 2021 that eased some conditions for administering the drug.

When the high court voted in April to block any changes until a final decision, Justices Samuel Alito, the author of last year's decision overturning Roe, and Clarence Thomas said they would have allowed some restrictions to take effect while appeals played out.

Women seeking to end their pregnancies in the first 10 weeks without more invasive surgical abortion can take mifepristone, along with a second drug, misoprostol. The pills are now used in more than half of all abortions in the U.S.

Misoprostol also is used to treat other medical conditions. Health care providers have said they could switch to misoprostol if mifepristone is no longer available or is too hard to obtain. Misoprostol is somewhat less effective in ending pregnancies.

The FDA has eased the terms of mifepristone's use over the years, including allowing it to be sent through the mail in states that allow access and reducing the dosage that is needed to end a pregnancy.


# Trump lawyers move 'insurrection' clause lawsuit aiming to bar him from the ballot to federal court
By **NICHOLAS RICCARDI**
September 8th, 2023. 6:09 PM GMT-4

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**DENVER (AP)** - Attorneys for former President Donald Trump moved a lawsuit seeking to bar him from running again for the White House from state to federal court in the first step of what promises to be a tangled legal battle that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.

The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed the initial lawsuit on Wednesday in Colorado state court, arguing a Civil War-era clause prohibiting higher office for those who once swore an oath to the Constitution and then engaged in "insurrection" prevents Trump from running in 2024.

The initial state judge in Denver assigned the case recused himself for an unspecified conflict of interest, and then Trump's attorneys on Thursday moved the case to federal court - asserting that the matter should be adjudicated at the federal level since it raises a constitutional issue. The plaintiffs in the case will argue it should first go back to state court, but both sides anticipate that ultimately the top echelons of the federal system will have to consider the issues the lawsuit raises.

"Plaintiffs' challenge to Colorado's ability to place Donald Trump on the presidential ballot depends solely on the Fourteenth Amendment," Trump's lawyers wrote. "Trump's basis for removal of the state court action is federal question jurisdiction under Section 3 of Fourteenth Amendment."

CREW's case is the first of what's expected to be many challenges filed in various states by the group and Free Speech for People, another liberal nonprofit. Activists in other states have filed lawsuits in which they represent themselves, but legal observers contend the more robust complaints by the nonprofits are more likely to end up at the nation's highest court, which has never ruled on the clause.

Trump on Friday slammed the liberal organization, contending it's affiliated with a number of his critics and people with whom he clashed as president. He called the group "TRUMP DERANGED CREW" on his social media network Truth Social said it was "ridiculously" and "Unconstitutionally" trying to disqualify him

CREW said it will ask a federal judge to return the case to state court. It has also requested a speedy ruling on the issues before Colorado's Republican primary ballot is finalized on Jan. 5.


# Gov. DeSantis and Florida surgeon general warn against new COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine
September 7th, 2023. 6:49 PM GMT-4

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**JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)** - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday criticized recent efforts across the U.S. to tamp down a recent jump in COVID-19 cases through temporary restrictions or masking, and his state surgeon general warned against getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected to be available this month.

The criticism from DeSantis at news conference in Jacksonville, Florida, arrived the same day that his campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination sent out an email to supporters vowing to "fight back against every bogus attempt the Left makes to expand government control" when it comes to COVID-19 precautions.

At the Jacksonville news conference in an Irish pub, DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo promised Florida won't be joining states, cities or school districts across the U.S. in temporarily closing schools or mandating mask-wearing because of the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases.

"People are lurching toward this insanity again," DeSantis said. "As we see these things being orchestrated ... there needs to be pushback."

Lapado said there were no arguments for getting the latest vaccine. "There are a lot of red flags," he said.

Ladapo's previous warnings against COVID-19 vaccines merited a public letter from federal health agencies saying his claims were harmful to the public. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent the letter in March to Ladapo, a DeSantis appointee who has attracted national scrutiny over his close alignment with the governor in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other health policies embraced by the federal government.

Ladapo last year released guidance recommending against COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children, contradicting federal public health leaders whose advice says all children should get the shots.

"It is the job of public health officials around the country to protect the lives of the populations they serve, particularly the vulnerable. Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines this effort," said the letter signed by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

DeSantis' news conference in Jacksonville came almost two weeks after three Black people were fatally shot by a 21-year-old white supremacist who authorities say left behind ramblings that read like "the diary of a madman." At a vigil the day after the shootings, DeSantis was booed by the crowd during his speech.

This year, DeSantis signed a bill allowing people to carry guns without getting a state permit. He has antagonized civil rights leaders by deriding "wokeness."

During a question-and-answer period at Thursday's news conference, an unidentified man suggested the governor's policies contributed to the shootings. The governor responded angrily, saying he shouldn't be blamed for the actions of "some madman."

"I'm not going to allow you to accuse me of committing criminal activity," DeSantis said. "I'm not going to take that! I'm not going to take that!"


# Michigan Democrats are lining up to replac
By **JOEY CAPPELLETTI**
September 7th, 2023. 11:51 AM GMT-4

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**LANSING, Mich. (AP)** - A battleground House race in Michigan that national Democrats are eyeing to help them flip the chamber in 2024 is growing increasingly crowded after Carl Marlinga announced Thursday he will again challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John James for the seat.

Marlinga's 2024 campaign in Michigan's 10th Congressional District, which was announced in a news release provided to The Associated Press, comes after the Democrat lost last year by half a percentage point to James, who had a significant fundraising advantage.

In seeking the rematch with James in the suburban district north of Detroit, Marlinga is hoping to extend his party's recent winning streak in Michigan. Democrats have taken control of the governor's office and both chambers of the Legislature for the first time in decades, though they fell 1,600 votes short of claiming the 10th District in 2022.

National Democrats have already said they will target the GOP-held seat next year as they look to flip control of the U.S. House, where Republicans have a 10-seat majority.

A former Macomb County judge and prosecutor, Marlinga beat out four other Democrats last year to win the party's nomination. He said in a statement that his campaign this year will focus on growing the economy, protecting the Great Lakes and standing up for abortion rights. He attacked James, saying the Republican is "out of step with our community."

Before a rematch with James, Marlinga will first need to escape a primary that's expected to grow increasingly crowded. Diane Young, a financial planner from Macomb County, has already secured a number of endorsements, including one from prominent state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, has said the district is one of 31 GOP-held seats they will "aggressively target" in 2024. They are also looking to hold an open seat in Michigan's 7th District after Elissa Slotkin announced a run for the U.S. Senate.

Republicans in Michigan have struggled to win both state and congressional races in recent years. Last year, Democrats swept statewide races, flipped the state House and Senate and won three of four U.S. House races that were expected to be competitive.

While turmoil within the state party is expected to continue, Michigan Republicans hope that a high-profile race for the state's open U.S. Senate seat will help candidates further down on the ticket next year. While Donald Trump won the state in 2016, Joe Biden won it in 2020 by nearly 3%.

James has long been seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and was seen as a prime candidate to run for an open U.S. Senate seat in the state before announcing in February that he would run for the House again.

The 42-year-old Republican, however, has struggled to win elections in a state that has increasingly trended Democrat. James lost U.S. Senate races in 2018 and 2020 before narrowly winning the House race while holding significant advantages in name recognition and fundraising.

In a statement, Will Reinert, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, criticized Marlinga's "disgusting record" as a prosecutor that will "be on full display as voters reject him once again."

Marlinga was Macomb County's elected prosecutor for 20 years until 2004, when he was charged with helping a man obtain a new rape trial in exchange for contributions to Marlinga's failed 2002 congressional campaign. A federal jury acquitted Marlinga in 2006.


# Pence rails against Trump's 'siren song of populism' as he tries to energize his 2024 campaign
By **JILL COLVIN** and **ROBERT F. BUKATY**
September 6th, 2023. 6:43 PM GMT-4

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**MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)** - Former Vice President Mike Pence cast the 2024 election as a fight for the future of conservatism and his party as he called on fellow Republicans to reject the "siren song of populism" championed by former President Donald Trump and his followers.

"Should the new populism of the right seize and guide our party, the Republican Party we've long known will cease to exist and the fate of American freedom would be in doubt," Pence said Wednesday afternoon in what his campaign plugged as a major speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

Pence's plea comes at a critical time for his campaign, which has been struggling to build momentum since its launch. Four months ahead of Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Trump remains the race's undisputed front-runner, while Pence still polls in single digits. Pence, who served four years as Trump's loyal second-in-command, has tried to paint himself as the most conservative candidate in a crowded Republican field. But he is championing policies that have fallen out of favor with many Republican voters who have embraced Trump's anti-establishment rhetoric, protectionist trade policies and isolationist worldview.

"If we are to defeat Joe Biden and turn America around, the Republican Party must be the party of limited government, free enterprise, fiscal responsibility and traditional moral values," Pence argued in his speech. He compared the right's ascendant populism - generally defined as a focus on ordinary people's complaints about big government and so-called elites - to the left's progressivism, calling them "fellow travelers on the same road to ruin."

Pence, who broke with Trump before the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and refused to go along with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, continued the more aggressive posture he has taken in recent weeks. He went after the former president repeatedly by name.

He quipped that the Republican Party "did not begin on a golden escalator in 2015," a reference to Trump's campaign launch in New York, and argued that the former president has abandoned the conservative principles he ran on when Pence was his running mate in 2016.

"When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. And together we did. But it's important for Republicans to know that he and his imitators on this Republican primary make no such promise today," Pence said. "The truth is Donald Trump, along with his imitators, often sound like an echo of the progressives they seek to replace."

"The growing faction would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage," he added.

Trump, responding on his Truth Social site, accused Pence of going to the "Dark Side" after only speaking well of him for years.

"His advisers have led him down a very bad path!" Trump said.

"The conservative movement and the Republican Party have changed for the better, and nobody wants it to go back to the way it was before," added Trump's adviser, Jason Miller.

The ideological shift is, in part, a reflection of changing demographics as the GOP has increasingly become a party of the working class, while Democrats have attracted college-educated voters. Right-wing populism has also been on the rise across Europe and around the globe in response to factors including globalization and mass migration.

Pence, in his speech, called for a course correction, accusing Trump and his followers of abandoning U.S. allies abroad with isolationist policies and ignoring the national debt.

Beyond Trump, he criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is polling in second, for using "the power of the state to punish a corporation for taking a political stand that he disagreed with" in his ongoing feud with Disney, one of the largest employers in the state. And he attacked tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has become a favored punching bag as he has risen in the polls, for his past statements on raising inheritance taxes.

Pence also accused Trump and his "imitators" of trying to "blatantly erode our constitutional norms," referencing Trump's call last year for "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" over his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

"You know there's already a party that embraces appeasement abroad. There's already a party that would ignore our national debt," Pence said, adding that this is "not conservatism. It's Republicanism that prioritizes power over principles."

Instead, Pence repeatedly hailed the example of President Ronald Reagan, arguing the party must return to his model of limited government, strong national defense and traditional social values, including staunch opposition to abortion rights.

Republicans face a "time for choosing," he said, referencing a famous Reagan speech. "The future of this movement, of this great party, belongs to one or the other - not both. That's because the fundamental divide between these two factions is unbridgeable."

The speech comes ahead of the second GOP presidential debate, which will be held in California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Pence has hinged much of his campaign on doing well in Iowa, which will hold the Republicans' first nominating contest next January. But he has also spent significant time campaigning across New Hampshire and South Carolina, which also vote early. Saint Anselm College has long been a popular venue for candidates to deliver major speeches.


# South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem expected to endorse Trump
By **STEPHEN GROVES** and **JILL COLVIN**
September 7th, 2023. 6:37 PM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to endorse Donald Trump's presidential campaign when he travels to her state for a Republican fundraiser on Friday.

Trump will appear in Rapid City for an event hosted by the state's GOP, and Noem is expected to introduce and endorse Trump, according to a senior Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

Noem's spokesman Ian Fury said only that the event should be watched for such a development.

The Republican governor has been coy about her endorsement plans, telling Fox News only that "you'll hear something from me, too.

CNN first reported news of the endorsement.

When Trump was asked Thursday whether Noem will endorse him, he said, "I don't know exactly."

"But I am going," he said. "I like her a lot. I think she's great. Kristi's done a great job."

He praised her for taking a hands-off approach to pandemic restrictions and at times encouraging people to resume mass gatherings. In July 2020, Noem hosted Trump for a fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore.

Noem was long considered a potential candidate in her own right and had told The New York Times in November 2022 that she didn't believe Trump offered "the best chance" for the party in 2024. But she removed herself from presidential consideration this summer, saying there was no point in joining the crowded field running for the nomination, given Trump's dominant position.

Noem, however, has looked for ways to stay in the national conversation. During the first GOP presidential debate, she ran an ad to encourage people to move to South Dakota. In the TV spot, she appeared wearing plumber's overalls and touted the state as "the freest state in America."

The state's senators, John Thune and Mike Rounds, have endorsed one of Trump's rivals, their colleague South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.


# Victims of Michigan dam collapse win key ruling in lawsuits against state
By **ED WHITE**
September 8th, 2023. 3:22 PM GMT-4

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**DETROIT (AP)** - Property owners seeking to hold the state of Michigan responsible for the disastrous failure of a dam in 2020 have won a critical ruling from an appeals court.

In a 3-0 opinion, the court refused to dismiss a series of lawsuits that link the Edenville Dam's collapse to decisions by state regulators.

The court said claims of "inverse condemnation" - state-imposed property damage - can proceed.

Property owners say some blame belongs with the state, after regulators told the private owner of the hydroelectric dam on the Tittabawassee River to raise water levels in Wixom Lake, a reservoir behind the dam.

After three days of rain, the dam collapsed in May 2020, releasing a torrent that overtopped the downstream Sanford Dam and flooded the city of Midland. Thousands of people were temporarily evacuated and 150 homes were destroyed.

At this early stage of the litigation, the appeals court said it must give more weight to allegations by property owners, although the state disputes them.

The court noted a 2020 Michigan Supreme Court decision about state liability in the Flint water crisis. The state's highest court said Flint residents could sue over decisions that ultimately caused lead contamination in the city.

"Plaintiffs allege that, after conducting a cursory inspection of the Edenville Dam in 2018, EGLE reported that the dam was structurally sound when it was not," the appeals court said Thursday, referring to the state's environment agency.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked experts to study what happened at the Edenville and Sanford dams. The 2022 report said failure was "foreseeable and preventable" but could not be "attributed to any one individual, group or organization."


# Prominent activist's son convicted of storming Capitol and invading Senate floor in Jan. 6 riot
By **MICHAEL KUNZELMAN**
September 9th, 2023. 12:02 PM GMT-4

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The son of a prominent conservative activist has been convicted of charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, bashed in a window, chased a police officer, invaded the Senate floor and helped a mob disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory.

Leo Brent Bozell IV, 44, of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, was found guilty Friday of 10 charges, including five felony offenses, after a trial decided by a federal judge, according to the Justice Department.

Bozell's father is Brent Bozell III, who founded the Media Research Center, Parents Television Council and other conservative media organizations.

U.S. District Judge John Bates heard testimony without a jury before convicting Bozell of charges including obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress convened to certify the Electoral College vote that Biden won over then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Bozell was "a major contributor to the chaos, the destruction, and the obstruction at the Capitol on January 6, 2021," prosecutors said in a pretrial court filing.

The judge is scheduled to sentence Bozell on Jan. 9.

Bozell's lawyer, William Shipley Jr., did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

Prosecutors said that before the riot, Bozell helped plan and coordinate events in Washington in support of Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement. They said that after Trump's rally near the White House on Jan. 6, Bozell marched to the Capitol and joined a mob in breaking through a police line. He smashed a window next to the Senate Wing Door, creating an entry point for hundreds of rioters, according to prosecutors.

After climbing through the smashed window, Bozell joined other rioters in chasing a Capitol Police officer, Eugene Goodman, up a staircase to an area where other officers confronted the group.

Later, Bozell was captured on video entering office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He appeared to have something in his hand when he left, prosecutors said.

Entering the Senate gallery, Bozell moved a C-SPAN camera to face the ground so it could not record rioters ransacking the chamber on a live video feed. He also spent several minutes on the Senate floor.

Bozell roamed thorough the Capitol for nearly an hour, reaching more than a dozen different parts of the building and passing through at least seven police lines before police escorted him out, prosecutors said.

In a pretrial court filing, Bozell's lawyer denied that Bozell helped overwhelm a police line or engaged in any violence against police.

"In fact, video evidence will show that Mr. Bozell assisted in some small way law enforcement officers that he thought could be helped by his assistance," Shipley wrote.

Shipley also argued that Bozell "was - for the most part - simply lost and wandering from place-to-place observing events as they transpired."

Bozell was arrested in February 2021. An FBI tipster who identified Bozell recognized him in part from the "Hershey Christian Academy" sweatshirt that he wore on Jan. 6.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 650 of them have pleaded guilty. Approximately 140 others have been convicted by judges or juries after trials in Washington.


# Texas begins flying migrants from southern border to Chicago. The 1st plane carried over 120 people
By **PAUL J. WEBER**
December 20, 2023. 10:03 PM EST

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**AUSTIN, Texas (AP)** - Texas sent a plane with more than 120 migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Chicago in an escalation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's busing operation that has given more than 80,000 migrants free rides to Democratic-led cities across the country since last year.

The first flight, which left from El Paso and arrived Tuesday, was arranged a week after Chicago's city council took new action over the busloads of migrants that have drawn sharp criticism from Mayor Brandon Johnson. The city has said bus operators began trying to drop off people in neighboring cities to avoid penalties that include fines, towing or impoundment.

Bus operators could now face tougher penalties in Chicago for not unloading new arrivals at a designated location or failing to fill out city paperwork. Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said Wednesday that the flights were the result of Johnson "targeting migrant buses" from Texas.

The flight took off a day after Abbott signed a new law this week that would allow police in Texas to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border, ratcheting up a series of aggressive measures the state has taken in protest of President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

"Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue taking historic action to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis," Mahaleris said.

The White House criticized the flight and accused Abbott of using migrants for politics.

"Yet again, Governor Abbott is showing how little regard or respect he has for human beings," White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement. "This latest political stunt just adds to his tally of extreme policies which seek to demonize and dehumanize people."

More than 23,000 migrants have been sent to Chicago on buses as part of Abbott's border mission known as Operation Lone Star, according to the governor's office.

The multibillion-dollar operation has also included stringing razor wire along the frontier, installing buoy barriers in the Rio Grande and deploying more officers. On Tuesday a federal appeals court ordered the Biden administration to temporarily halt cutting the concertina wire on the border while a legal challenge plays out.

Johnson's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the flights to his city.

Concerns have arisen about the living conditions and medical care provided for asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago, spotlighted by the death last weekend of a 5-year-old boy living at a temporary shelter for migrants.


# What we know about Texas' new law that lets police arrest migrants who enter the US illegally
By **VALERIE GONZALEZ**
December 20, 2023. 12:05 AM EST

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**McALLEN, Texas (AP)** - How far can a state go to keep migrants out of the U.S.?

The answer may soon come out of Texas, where a new law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this week will allow police to arrest migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and give local judges the authority to order them to leave the country.

Acting quickly, civil rights groups and a Texas border county filed a lawsuit Tuesday that seeks to stop the measure from taking effect in March, calling it unconstitutional. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also blasted the Texas law but wouldn't say whether the Justice Department would challenge it.

Here are some things to know:

## WHO CAN BE ARRESTED?
The measure allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people who are suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a Texas judge's order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don't leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.

Arresting officers must have probable cause, which could include witnessing the illegal entry themselves or seeing it on video.

The law cannot be enforced against people lawfully present in the U.S., including those who were granted asylum or who are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"The goal of these laws is to make sure that when they see somebody crossing over the border, as the National Guard see, as the Texas Department of Public Safety see, they know they're not profiling. They are seeing with their own eyes people who are violating the law," Abbott said Monday.

However, critics, including Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, worry the law could lead to racial profiling and family separation. American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Texas and some neighboring states issued a travel advisory this week warning people of a possible threat their civil and constitutional rights violations when passing through Texas.

During a news briefing Tuesday, López Obrador said Abbott was looking to score political points with people's lives.

"The Texas governor acts that way because he wants to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate and wants to win popularity with these measures," López Obrador said. "He's not going to win anything. On the contrary, he is going to lose support because there are a lot of Mexicans in Texas, a lot of migrants."

## WHERE WILL THE LAW BE ENFORCED?
It can be enforced anywhere in Texas.

Republican state Rep. David Spiller, who carried the bill in the Texas House, says he expects the vast majority of arrests will occur within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Some places are off-limits. Arrests can't be made in public and private schools; churches, synagogues or other established places of worship; hospitals and other health care facilities, including those where sexual assault forensic examinations are conducted.

Under the Texas law, migrants ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the border with Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens.

## IS THE LAW CONSTITUTIONAL?
Legal experts and immigrant rights group have said the measure is a clear conflict with the U.S. government's authority to regulate immigration.

A key claim in Tuesday's lawsuit filed by the ACLU and other groups is that it violates the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause. The suit accuses Texas of trying "to create a new state system to regulate immigration that completely bypasses and conflicts with the federal system."

Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law - denounced by critics as the "Show Me Your Papers" bill - that was largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court's 2012 decision on the Arizona law stated the federal government has exclusive power over immigration.

Abbott and other Republicans have said President Joe Biden is not doing enough to control the 1,950-mile (3,149-kilometer) southern border.

"In his absence, Texas has the constitutional authority to secure our border through historic laws like SB 4," Abbott said in a statement.

The U.S. government has not said whether it will challenge the Texas law, as it did with Arizona's measure.

Mexico's president has indicated his country will intervene.

## WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE BORDER?
Abbott signed the law Monday amid an increase in border crossings that has stretched U.S. Customs and Border Protection resources. Troy Miller, the agency's acting commissioner, has called the number of daily arrivals "unprecedented," with illegal crossings topping 10,000 some days across the border in December.

Thousands of asylum-seekers who have crossed are sleeping outside along the border overnight as they wait for federal agents to process them. Most are released with notices to appear in immigration courts, which are backlogged with more than 3 million cases.

Many are crossing at the Texas cities of Eagle Pass and El Paso, where federal officials suspended cross-border rail traffic in response to migrants riding freight trains through Mexico, hopping off just before entering the U.S.

The U.S. government also recently shut down the nearby international crossing between Lukeville, Arizona, and Sonoyta, Mexico, to free Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the port of entry to help with transportation and other support. The agency also has partially closed a few other border ports of entry in recent months, including a pedestrian crossing in San Diego.


# Death of 5-year-old boy prompts criticism of Chicago shelters for migrants
By **CLAIRE SAVAGE**
December 18, 2023. 4:11 PM EST

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A 5-year-old boy living at a temporary shelter for migrants in Chicago died over the weekend after being transported to a hospital after suffering a medical emergency, the city's mayor said Monday.

The boy's death on Sunday revived community organizers' complaints about conditions at shelters and questions about how Chicago is responding to an influx of people unaccustomed to the city's cold winters and with few local contacts.

Chicago and other northern U.S. cities have struggled to find housing for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, many of whom have been bused from Texas throughout the last year. Earlier this month, hundreds of asylum-seekers still awaited placement at airports and police stations in Chicago, some of them still camped on sidewalks outside precinct buildings.

Although the city reports that police stations have been mostly cleared, massive shelters are not necessarily a safe alternative, said Annie Gomberg, a volunteer with the city's Police Station Response Team who has been working with Chicago's new arrivals since April. Gomberg said about 2,300 people have been staying at the shelter where the boy was living.

"The shelters are completely locked down to outside access. They're doing this allegedly in order to protect the residents inside," Gomberg said. But she said she suspects part of the reason for tight security is so the public cannot see how the shelters are being run.

"The people who live inside are coming to us and saying, 'please give us blankets, give us clothing for our children, we need bottles, we need diapers,'" she said.

Jean Carlos Martinez, 5, was a resident at a shelter in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood when he suffered a medical emergency, then died shortly after arriving at Comer Children's Hospital on Sunday afternoon, said an emailed statement from Mayor Brandon Johnson.

"City officials are providing support to the family and are still gathering information on this tragedy," Johnson said. "My heart and my prayers go out to the Martinez family."

City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the conditions at the shelter played a role in the child's death.

Nearly 26,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Chicago since August 2022. The city has resettled or reunited over 10,000 migrants and is providing shelter for nearly 14,000 others in 27 temporary shelters, according to a statement from the mayor's office Monday afternoon.

Chicago's spending on resources for new arrivals totals $137 million, according to a city dashboard. The city says it has been ticketing and impounding buses trying to drop off migrants outside of designated zones.

"As temperatures continue to fall, the City is enacting stricter penalties to discourage bus companies from flouting these protocols. The inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers, and adds additional strain to City departments, volunteers and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition," the statement said.

Martinez was "not feeling well" when EMS transported him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, Chicago police said, adding that detectives are investigating the incident.

Gomberg sent The Associated Press videos taken by shelter residents showing coughing and crying children in the crowded Pilsen shelter where Martinez was staying. One video showed water leaking from the ceiling onto the cots below.

Gomberg said people staying there told her mold is visible in the shelter, and lack of insulation makes the repurposed warehouse very cold. One of the photos shows a toddler wearing a snow suit and winter hat indoors.

"If you know Chicago at all, this is really when the rubber meets the road," she said. "We could very easily have paralyzing snowstorms. We could very easily have below zero temperatures."


# Israel uncovers major Hamas command center in Gaza City as cease-fire talks gain momentum
By **WAFAA SHURAFA**, **SAMY MAGDY**, and **JOSEF FEDERMAN**
December 20, 2023. 7:34 PM EST

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**JERUSALEM (AP)** - The Israeli military on Wednesday said it had uncovered a major Hamas command center in the heart of Gaza City, inflicting what it described as a serious blow to the Islamic militant group as pressure grows on Israel to scale back its devastating military offensive in the coastal enclave.

The army said it had exposed the center of a vast underground network used by Hamas to move weapons, militants and supplies throughout the Gaza Strip. Israel has said destroying the tunnels is a major objective of the offensive.

The announcement came as Hamas' top leader arrived in Egypt for talks aimed at brokering a temporary cease-fire and a new deal for Hamas to swap Israeli hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israeli leaders have vowed to press ahead with the two-month-old offensive, launched in response to a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas in October that killed some 1,200 people and saw 240 others taken hostage.

The offensive has devastated much of northern Gaza, killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, and driven some 1.9 million people - nearly 85% of the population - from their homes. The widespread destruction and heavy civilian death toll has drawn increasing international calls for a cease-fire.

Hamas militants have put up stiff resistance lately against Israeli ground troops, and its forces appear to remain largely intact in southern Gaza. It also continues to fire rockets into Israel every day.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, has continued to support Israel's right to defend itself while also urging greater effort to protect Gaza's civilians.

But in some of the toughest American language yet, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on Israel to scale back its operation.

"It's clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower intensity phase," Blinken said. He said the U.S. wants to see "more targeted operations" with smaller levels of forces focused on specific targets, such as Hamas' leaders and the group's tunnel network.

"As that happens, I think you'll see as well, the harm done to civilians also decrease significantly," he said.

His comments were more pointed than statements by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who in a visit to Israel this week said the U.S. would not dictate any timeframes to its ally.

## TUNNEL NETWORK
The Israeli military escorted Israeli reporters into Palestine Square in the heart of Gaza City to show off what it described as the center of Hamas' tunnel network.

Military commanders boasted that they had uncovered offices, tunnels and elevators used by Hamas' top leaders. The military released videos of underground offices and claimed to have found a wheelchair belonging to Hamas' shadowy military commander, Mohammed Deif, who has not been seen in public in years.

The army's chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the army had located a vast underground complex. "They all used this infrastructure routinely, during emergencies and also at the beginning of the war on Oct. 7," he said. He said the tunnels stretched across Gaza and into major hospitals. The claims could not be independently verified.

Hagari also indicated that Israel was winding down its operations in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, where it has been battling Hamas militants for weeks. He said the army had moved into a final remaining Hamas stronghold, the Gaza City neighborhood of Tufah.

But the army also acknowledged a significant misstep. An investigation into its soldiers' mistaken shooting of three Israelis held hostage in Gaza found that, five days before the shooting, a military search dog with a body camera had captured audio of them shouting for help in Hebrew.

Hagari said the recording was not reviewed until after the hostages were killed while trying to make themselves known to Israeli forces.

The incident has sparked an uproar in Israel and put pressure on the government to reach a new deal with Hamas. The military chief has said the shooting was against its rules of engagement.

The Israeli military campaign now is largely focused on southern Gaza, where it says Hamas' leaders are hiding.

"We will continue the war until the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed, until victory," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement. "Whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality."

## CEASE-FIRE TALKS GAIN MOMENTUM
As Netanyahu vowed to continue the war, there were new signs of progress in cease-fire talks.

Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, traveled to Cairo for talks on the war, part of a flurry of diplomacy. In recent days, top Israeli, American and Qatari officials have also held cease-fire talks.

"These are very serious discussions and negotiations, and we hope that they lead somewhere," the White House's national security spokesman, John Kirby, said aboard Air Force One while traveling with President Joe Biden to Wisconsin.

Biden, however, indicated a deal was still a ways off. "There's no expectation at this point, but we are pushing," he said. Asked about the rising death toll in Gaza, Biden said: It's tragic."

Hamas says no more hostages will be released until the war ends. It is insisting on the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, including high-level militants convicted in deadly attacks, for remaining captives.

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, said the efforts right now are focused on how to "stop this aggression, especially that our enemy now knows that it cannot achieve any of its goals."

Israel has rejected Hamas' demands for a mass prisoner release so far. But it has a history of lopsided exchanges for captive Israelis, and the government is under heavy public pressure to bring the hostages home safely.

Egypt, along with Qatar and the U.S., helped mediate a weeklong cease-fire in November in which Hamas freed over 100 hostages in exchange for Israel's release of 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas and other militants are still holding an estimated 129 captives, though roughly 20 are believed to have died in captivity.

U.N. Security Council members are negotiating an Arab-sponsored resolution to halt the fighting in some way to allow for an increase in desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.

A vote on the resolution, first scheduled for Monday, was pushed back again on Wednesday in the hopes of getting the U.S. to support it or allow it to pass after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.

## HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Mobile phone and internet service was down across Gaza again on Wednesday. The outage could complicate efforts to communicate with Hamas leaders inside the territory who went into hiding after Oct. 7.

The war has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Tens of thousands of people are crammed into shelters and tent camps amid shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies. Israel's foreign minister traveled to Cyprus to discuss the possibility of establishing a maritime corridor that would allow the delivery of large amounts of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

At least 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded early Wednesday after Israel bombarded the urban Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, according to Munir al-Bursh, a senior Health Ministry official.

At least five people were killed and dozens injured in another strike that hit three residential homes and a mosque in Gaza's southern city of Rafah Wednesday, health officials said.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel's military says 134 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 militants, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas.