# Nikki Haley has spent 20 years navigating Republican Party factions. Trump may make that impossible
By **BILL BARROW**
January 20, 2024. 9:52 PM EST

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When Nikki Haley was a South Carolina legislator, she backed budgets boosted by federal aid. Running for governor, she criticized a "bailout culture" and dependence on Washington.

She once called the Confederate battle flag a heritage symbol and sidestepped calls to remove it from statehouse grounds. After a racist massacre in Charleston, Haley moved to take it down.

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, she opposed him before joining his administration as U.N. ambassador. Now, Haley is running against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination saying he is an agent of chaos.

For almost 20 years, Haley has worked to navigate Republicans' rightward march, trying to cultivate both the GOP establishment and the firebrand conservative base that gave rise to Trump. She is seen as either a pragmatic unifier or a finger-to-the-wind politician, and as she seeks the Republican nomination, her political pivots have become her opponents' most persistent line of attack.

"Maybe she can be a bit of a chameleon," said former state Rep. Doug Brannon, a fellow Republican. "The governor and I did not get along," he said, "but that doesn't mean that she isn't a brilliant politician."

Shapeshifting is a long-practiced political art. Bill Clinton earned the nickname "Slick Willie" and won two terms in the White House. Trump went from being emphatically supportive of abortion rights to telling voters he alone was responsible for the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, winning over white evangelicals.

In the 2024 campaign, Haley has leaned into her critics. Trump skipping debates has meant she and the former president have not confronted each other face to face but she has forcefully defended herself against his suggestions that she is out of step with today's Republican Party.

"For those reporting that I'm a moderate, I will ask you or anybody, Trump or anybody in Fox (News) suits saying that I'm not a conservative: Name one thing that I wasn't conservative about," she said Friday in New Hampshire.

She offered a litany of measures she signed as governor to lower taxes, boost voter identification requirements and overhaul public employee pensions, among other matters. "The difference is who is deciding who's conservative and who's moderate," she said.

Rob Godfrey, who served in Haley's administration, said she "has never been an angry candidate or angry in governing" but relishes "using the bully pulpit."

"She prides herself on being willing to call out people she thinks are not serving their constituents well," Godfrey said. He insisted his old boss is less concerned about positioning and ideology than achieving the most conservative, "good government" policy outcome possible.

"That approach rubs some people the wrong way," Godfrey said. "It always has."

Haley, 52, was first elected to the South Carolina legislature from a suburban Columbia district 20 years ago. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she defeated a 30-year legislative veteran in the Republican primary. She once told The New York Times that Hillary Clinton, the Democrats' 2016 presidential nominee, had inspired her to run for office.

Haley quickly rose to a leadership post but collided with colleagues over her push for more recorded votes instead of voice votes that spared lawmakers scrutiny. So she soon aimed for the executive branch. She joined a 2010 gubernatorial primary that included the lieutenant governor, attorney general and a sitting congressman. Haley nearly won the nomination outright, with 48.9% of the primary vote. Haley defeated U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett in a runoff 65% to 35%.

Whit Ayres, a national pollster who worked for Barrett, said the campaign previewed Haley's ability to cast a wide net. "Those margins tell you something about her political skills," he said.

In the legislature, Haley voted to take millions of dollars in federal aid during the financial crisis of 2008-09 to keep the American financial system from collapsing and sending the country into a possible depression.

By 2010, though, there was rising anger about the impact that crisis had on Americans who lost their homes or saw their retirement accounts dwindle as Wall Street titans were rarely held responsible. That gave birth to the tea party, which stoked fires of populism that propelled Trump six years later. Gubernatorial candidate Haley railed against bailouts and trumpeted an endorsement from Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee and tea party favorite.

"When Sarah Palin showed up, that was a turning point," Ayres said. "We knew then she was for real."

Haley paired her Palin endorsement with another from the more moderate Mitt Romney as he geared up for his second presidential bid. She later endorsed Romney in the 2012 Republican presidential primary. In 2014, she expanded her first general election margin to win a second term with 56% of the vote.

"She's managed to be all things to all people," said Kay Koonce, a Democratic National Committee member from South Carolina who acknowledged that Haley's success had frustrated her party.

As governor, Haley had disputes with fellow Republicans that often seemed personal. She vetoed spending measures and threatened to campaign against party members in their primaries. Conservative opponents seized on disclosures that she worked during her time as a legislator for a Columbia-area hospital system that had regulatory requests before state government. She faced ethics charges that were dismissed by a committee dominated by House Republicans.

She successfully courted business investment in the state, including some from China. To recruit firms, she backed subsidies some tea party adherents detested. But she reminds Republican primary voters that the deals were always for non-union shops.

She also made a mark on social issues, signing a 2016 measure outlawing abortions at 20 weeks with exceptions. That would not satisfy many in the GOP's national base now. But Haley has argued against a stricter national ban and said the sound conservative position is to leave the issue to state governments.

Haley burnished her conservative persona beyond policy debates. She told her Instagram followers in December 2013 that she got a handgun for Christmas. "I must have been good Santa gave me a Beretta PX4 Storm," she posted.

Godfrey, who still maintains contact with Haley, said the best example of her approach came after a white supremacist in 2015 killed eight Black worshippers at a Charleston church. Haley had previously said removing the Confederate battle flag from Capitol grounds was not a priority. After the shooting, she quickly convened multiracial, bipartisan conversations that led to the Civil War banner finally being taken down. "She was giving cover" to Republican legislators, Godfrey said, and "building consensus."

Koonce countered: "She deserves some of the credit" but that "should not erase what she had said before it took all those people dying to do the right thing."

As Haley's own ambitions broadened beyond South Carolina, she, like so many Republicans, had to figure out how to run against Trump.

In 2016, she delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama's last State of the Union address. Weighing her party's rightward push, Haley complimented Obama as a barrier breaker and communicator. She urged Republicans to accept shared responsibility for the nation's problems. And she warned conservatives: "During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation." She didn't name Trump but soon endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

After Trump's November victory, she was at Trump Tower in New York talking to the president-elect about jobs.

Early in her 2024 campaign, Haley stepped lightly around Trump. But on the eve of the first contests, her criticisms have become more direct, on issues like Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

"I think what happened on Jan. 6 was a terrible day, and I think President Trump will have to answer for it," she said on a debate stage Wednesday in Iowa. It was perhaps as far as she has gone in criticizing Trump.

Haley has separately confirmed that she will vote for the Republican nominee; she has not ruled out joining Trump on the ticket as his running mate.

Ayres said Haley's approach is pragmatic, like much of her career. About half the party's voters, Ayres said, voted for Trump twice and would again - but are open to someone else.

"Following Chris Christie's lead would cap her at the small percentage of 'Never Trumpers,'" Ayres added, referring to the former New Jersey governor who hammered Trump before dropping out of the race.

Christie was caught on a hot mic predicting Haley "is going to get smoked" by Trump. On that, even a Democrat sided with Haley.

"Chris Christie is exactly right about Trump," Koonce said. "But I'm sitting there listening to him criticize her again and I'm thinking, 'Well, she's the one who's still on the stage.'"


# Democrats believe abortion will motivate voters in 2024. Will it be enough?
By **COLLEEN LONG** and **CHRIS MEGERIAN**
January 21, 2024. 12:24 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - When Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said recently that he was "proud" to have a hand in overturning the abortion protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake took it as a political gift, thinking to herself, "Oh my God, we just won the election."

It may not be that simple, but as the 2024 race heats up, President Joe Biden's campaign is betting big on abortion rights as a major driver for Democrats in the election. Republicans are still trying to figure out how to talk about the issue, if at all, and avoid a political backlash.

"A vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is a vote to restore Roe, and a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to ban abortion across the country," said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden's campaign manager. "These are the stakes in 2024."

Since Roe was overturned in 2022, voters have pushed back by approving a number of statewide ballot initiatives to preserve or expand the right to abortion. Support for abortion rights drove women to the polls during the 2022 midterm elections, delivering Democrats unexpected success. For many people, the issue took on higher meaning, part of an overarching concern about the future of democracy, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 94,000 voters in the midterm elections.

Democrats have since worked to broaden how they talk to voters about the Supreme Court's decision, delivered by a conservative majority that included three justices nominated by Trump, and what it means for people's access to health care and their personal freedoms.

The Biden campaign is launching a nationwide political push this coming week centered on Monday's 51st anniversary of the 1973 decision that codified abortion rights. Vice President Kamala Harris, the administration's chief messenger on this, will hold the first event Monday in Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, Biden, Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff head to Virginia for a campaign stop focused on the issue. More events featuring top Democrats in battleground states are also in the works.

The campaign on Sunday released a advertising campaign scheduled to run all week, including during "The Bachelor" season premiere and the NFL conference championships. The spot features Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Texas who had to leave her state to get an abortion when she learned that her baby had a fatal condition called anencephaly.

"In Texas, you are forced to carry that pregnancy, and that is because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade," she said.

Focusing on abortion will not be a silver bullet for Democrats. The economy, foreign policy, immigration and inflation are major issues, too, as is concern about Biden's age as he tries to overcome low poll numbers. Many voters are simply turned off by the prospect of a likely 2024 Trump-Biden rematch.

Still, Democrats believe abortion will be a key motivator for base voters and help expand their coalition. Biden aides and allies point to recent elections that have overwhelmingly shown that, when voters can choose, they have chosen to safeguard abortion rights.

The issue isn't vanishing from the headlines anytime soon, either. The Supreme Court will decide whether to restrict access to medication prescribed for abortion and to treat other reproductive issues. And there is an ongoing stream of stories about the impact of abortion bans, such as the mother who had to sue, then flee, her home state to end her doomed pregnancy.

Democrats spent decades trying to calibrate their message, always defending the right to choose while also making overtures to voters who are conflicted about the issue. President Bill Clinton's mantra was that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare."

But the loss of federal abortion protections has been a catalyst for a broader and bolder message about abortion and reproductive rights after the historic setback from the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe.

"We know that if we talk about this issue as a fundamental freedom, we are able to resonate across demographics - older voters, younger voters, people of color, folks in rural areas," said Mini Timmaraju, head of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Biden aides said the strategy is to let the president be who he is - an 81-year-old Catholic man who doesn't use the word abortion much, preferring to talk instead about the issue in the context of personal freedom.

The White House often frames the fight as part of a larger battle that involves book bans, voting rights and other social issues. For more aggressive talk about abortion and how the ripple effects of the decision are affecting maternal health, there's Harris.

Timmaraju said those "different messages resonate with different parts of the electorate."

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Democrat and vocal advocate for abortion rights, said it would be good if Biden spoke more forcefully on the topic.

"I think people want to know that this is a president that is fighting," Whitmer told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "To use maybe more ... blunt language, maybe that would be helpful."

Since the high court overturned Roe, roughly 25 million women now live in states with some type of ban in effect. The impacts are increasingly felt by women who never intended to end their pregnancies, yet have had emergency medical care denied or delayed because of the new restrictions.

According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, among Democrats, nearly nine in 10 say abortion should generally be legal. Four in 10 say it should be legal in all cases, and nearly half say it should be legal in most cases.

As for Republicans, the topic was largely absent in the lead-up to this year's Iowa caucuses, a remarkable change in a state that has long backed religious conservatives vowing to restrict the procedure. Part of the change is because Republicans achieved a generational goal with the overturning of Roe. But it also underscores a fear among Republican candidates and voters alike that vocalizing their desire to further restrict abortion rights might be politically dangerous.

"I am calling the time period we are in now 'the new fight for life,'" said Benjamin Watson, a former NFL player who is now an anti-abortion advocate. "Roe is done, but we still live in a culture that knows not how to care for life. Roe is done, but the factors that drive women to seek abortions are ever apparent and ever increasing."

Overall, opinions on abortion remain complex, with most people believing it should be allowed in some circumstances and not in others. About two-thirds of U.S. adults say abortion should generally be legal, but only about one-quarter say it should always be legal and only about 1 in 10 say it should always be illegal.

Trump has waffled on the topic. During a recent Fox News town hall, he expressed support for limited exceptions and criticized state laws that ban abortion after six weeks. But he also has promoted his own role.

"For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it and I'm proud to have done it," he said.

The Biden administration is nearing the limits of what it can do to preserve access to abortion absent congressional legislation. In the immediate aftermath June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision, the administration quickly tried to flex its regulatory muscle to fight back against Republican efforts to severely restrict abortion. Many efforts have been challenged in court.

Biden had invited states with robust abortion access to apply for Medicaid waivers that would help pay for women to travel for the care. But so far, only California has applied to unlock federal money for the effort.

The top U.S. health official, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, is on a three-day East Coast tour to talk with doctors and medical students about access to abortion and birth control.

"This is the beginning of an effort to reach out to all Americans," Becerra said, and "say to the American people how important it is that we stand up at a crucial time."


# Trump mocks Nikki Haley's first name. It's his latest example of attacking rivals based on race
By **BILL BARROW**
January 20, 2024. 9:51 AM EST

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**ATLANTA (AP)** - Donald Trump used his social media platform Friday to mock Nikki Haley 's birth name, the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals.

In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as "Nimbra." Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, "Nikki." She took the surname "Haley" upon her marriage in 1996.

Trump, himself the son, grandson and twice the husband of immigrants, called Haley "Nimbra" three times in the post and said she "doesn't have what it takes."

The attack comes four days before the New Hampshire primary, in which Haley is trying to establish herself as the only viable Trump alternative in the Republicans' 2024 nominating contest.

Trump's post was an escalation of recent attacks in which he referenced Haley's given first name - though he's misspelled it "Nimrada" - and falsely asserted she is ineligible for the presidency because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born in 1972.

The attacks echo Trump's "birther" rhetoric against President Barack Obama. Trump spent years pushing the conspiracy theory that the nation's first Black president was born in Kenya and not a "natural born" U.S. citizen as required by the Constitution. That effort was part of Trump's rise among Republicans' most culturally conservative base ahead of his 2016 election that surprised much of the U.S. political establishment.

Haley has dismissed Trump's latest attacks as proof that she threatens his bid for a third consecutive nomination.

"I'll let people decide what he means by his attacks," Haley told reporters in New Hampshire on Friday when asked about Trump's false assertions that her heritage disqualifies her from the Oval Office. "What we know is, look, he's clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he's spending millions of dollars on TV. He's insecure, he knows that something's wrong."

Trump's campaign did not reply to an inquiry about his comments.

Since Monday's Iowa caucuses - which Trump won by 30 points over Ron DeSantis, who placed second - Haley has aimed to portray the rest of the GOP primary battle as a two-way race between Trump and herself despite her narrow third-place finish. Haley's campaign is aiming for a stronger showing in New Hampshire, hoping for a springboard into her home state South Carolina, which holds the South's first presidential primary next month.

For his part, Trump bounces between declarations that the nominating fight is already effectively over and blasting Haley as if the two are indeed locked in a tight contest. Trump still criticizes his other remaining rival, DeSantis, but his preferred pejoratives for the Florida governor, "Ron DeSanctimonious" or "Ron DeSanctus," have nothing to do with race or ethnicity. DeSantis is white.

Trump's focus on Haley's name comes as far-right online forums have for months been littered with mentions of her given name alongside racist commentary and false "birther" claims. Haley's name and family background also have become talking points on the left. Some widely circulating social media posts have called her a hypocrite for saying America was "never a racist country" when she likely experienced racism herself.

Pastor Darrell Scott, a Black man who has led a diversity coalition for Trump's previous campaigns, defended the former president's latest attacks as "slings and arrows" that come in election season.

"You have to dissect politics as politics. It's not personal," said Scott. "He's not intending to demean her or degrade her in any way. He's just doing that to garner votes."

Scott said Trump "has a compassionate side that most people don't see" and defended his aggressive approach as a "goose-and-gander situation" for a public figure constantly "under attack for everything."

Tara Setmayer, senior adviser to the Lincoln Project group that opposes Trump from within the conservative movement, agreed that Trump's rhetoric works in a Republican primary. But she said that's a damning reality for the party and does not excuse his behavior.

"These are the rantings of an incredibly, almost pathetically insecure man who has demonstrated over his entire career his racism and bigotry," said Setmayer, who is multiracial and calls herself a former Republican and now a conservative independent. "Why would anyone expect it to be any different now, when an entire political party has enabled this level of morally questionable behavior?"

Amid the fallout Friday, Trump won the endorsement of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate's only Black Republican and formerly a presidential candidate himself. Haley appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012, during her first term as governor.

Trump has a long history of using race, ethnicity and immigrant heritage as a cudgel.

For years, he has referred to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama," putting an obvious emphasis on the 44th president's middle name. Obama was the son of a white American mother and a Black father from Kenya. He was born in Hawaii, though Trump spent years asserting Obama had manufactured the story and a birth certificate to support it. Trump eventually admitted his claims were false but then, during the 2016 general election, said he did so only to "get on with the campaign."

When David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, encouraged Republican primary voters to back Trump in 2016, Trump responded in a CNN interview that he knew "nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists."

Trump is also among many Republicans who deliberately mispronounce Vice President Kamala Harris's name. Rather than the correct "KA'-ma-la," Trump sometimes says, "Ka-MAH-la." Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, is the first woman to become vice president and the third non-white person as either president or vice president, following Obama and Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's vice president who had Native American ancestry.

Leading up to Trump's 2017 inauguration, civil rights icon John Lewis, then a Black congressman from Georgia, said he would not attend Trump's inauguration because he considered him an illegitimate president. Trump reacted by blasting Lewis's Atlanta-based district as being in "horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)." The district includes downtown Atlanta, Coca-Cola's world headquarters, the Georgia Institute of Technology and principal sites of the 1996 Olympic Games, among other attributes.

During his presidency, Trump questioned during a meeting with lawmakers why the U.S. would accept immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" across Africa instead of countries like Norway. He did not explicitly mention race but the White House followed disclosure of his comments with a statement explaining that Trump supported granting access to the U.S. for "those who can contribute to our society."

He also has said that four congresswomen of color should go back to the "broken and crime infested" countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all of the women are American citizens and three were born in the U.S.

Trump's mother was born Mary Anne MacLeod in Scotland and came to the United States between the two world wars. His paternal grandfather, Frederick Trump, was a Bavarian-born immigrant from Germany in the 1880s. Trump's first wife, Ivana Zelníčková before their marriage, was born in what is now the Czech Republic. His third wife, former first lady Melania Trump, was born Melanija Knavs in what is now Slovenia. That means four of Trump's five children also are children of immigrants.

Haley frames her family's story as proof that the U.S. "is not a racist country." She sometimes highlights her role in taking down the Confederate battle flag from South Carolina statehouse grounds after a racist massacre in her state - though she had sidestepped requests to remove the banner earlier in her term. And Haley has for years navigated Trump's penchant for racist rhetoric.

"I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK," Haley said during the 2016 primary campaign after she had endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over Trump. "That is not a part of our party; that is not who we want as president."


# GOP Speaker Mike Johnson has a House majority in name only. He's left with daunting choices ahead
By **LISA MASCARO**
January 20, 2024. 9:01 AM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - New Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself leading House Republicans with a majority in name only.

Unable to unite his unruly right flank and commanding one of the slimmest House majorities in history, Johnson is being forced to rely on Democrats for the basics of governing, including the latest bill to prevent a federal shutdown.

Approaching his first 100 days on the job, Johnson faces daunting choices ahead. He can try to corral conservatives, who are pushing rightward in endless hours of closed-door meetings, to work together as a team. Or he can keep reaching out to Democrats for a bipartisan coalition to pass compromise legislation.

So far, rather than the speaker of a dysfunctional GOP majority, Johnson, R-La., has shown he is willing to compile a rare, large supermajority of Democrats and Republicans to get things done with Democratic President Joe Biden.

And that supermajority is exactly what some in Congress want, but others fear is coming.

"Everyone understands the reality of where we are," Johnson said at a weekly news conference.

"The House Republicans have the second-smallest majority in history," he said. "We're not going to get everything that we want. But we're going to stick to our core conservative principles."

Johnson is about as conservative as they come in Washington. He's a "movement" conservative steeped in Christian beliefs who made his way from Louisiana working in the trenches of hard-right social policy, particularly against abortion, gay rights and other issues.

Elected in 2016, Johnson has become aligned with Donald Trump who won the White House that year, and Johnson led a key legal challenge for Trump in 2020 trying to overturn Biden's election.

For now, the far-right forces that ousted Johnson's predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, from the speaker's office, are allowing a grace period. They are frustrated by Johnson's reluctance to take dramatic action such as a government shutdown to win their priorities. But they are heartened that at least Johnson is forthcoming with them.

But the hard-line Republicans are watching and waiting - any single lawmaker can file a motion for a vote to oust the speaker - especially as Johnson confronts the challenges ahead on government spending, U.S. border security and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

"It's a loss for the American people to join hands with Democrats to form a governing coalition," said Virginia Rep. Bob Good, the newly elected chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, after last week's vote to keep government running.

Good complained that passage of the short-term spending bill, which Biden signed into law before the Friday midnight deadline, was "a failure."

Johnson will confront another shutdown threat March 1 when some of the temporary funding again runs out.

More immediately, Johnson and House Republicans are warily watching Senate negotiations over an immigration and border security package designed to reduce the record flow of migrants and expedite the deportations of some of those who have already entered the United States illegally.

Biden is considering the emerging border deal as part of his broader $110 billion national security package, which has grown urgent as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's forces need to replenish weaponry in their fight against Russia's invasion.

But such a deal swapping border policy for Ukraine aid could be politically devastating for Johnson, whose Trump-aligned Republicans want an even harder line against the migrants at the U.S-Mexico border and a more isolationist approach to U.S. foreign policy that rejects Ukraine aid.

Biden hosted congressional leaders at the White House this past week, surrounding the new speaker with prominent and influential voices, including the chairmen of the national security committees, to impress on Johnson the weight of the challenges ahead.

It put the speaker in a central seat of U.S. power.

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, spoke up at one point during the White House meeting. He made a pitch to Johnson.

"The argument I made to him was, 'You know, the border is not going to be 'solved,'" Smith recalled.

Smith told Johnson there is no "magic piece of legislation" that will suddenly end the countless numbers of migrants pouring northward.

"But we can make it better," Smith said.

"So make it better," Smith went on. "And I said, 'You know, politically, you are still going to be in a position to bash Democrats on the border. That's not going away.'"

Smith added, "So why don't you do something good for the border, do something good for Ukraine, and you still got your politics. And it's a win, win win."

And Johnson's response?

"He didn't say anything," Smith said.

Hovering over Johnson's speakership is Trump, the former president who elevated McCarthy to the speakership but then did not save him from removal. Trump is now the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination in 2024 to challenge Biden for the White House.

Johnson and Trump talk often, but some of Trump's strongest allies in the House are those conservatives pushing the speaker rightward and denying him a governing majority.

Trump signaled his skepticism of the emerging border deal but also his trust, for now, in the speaker's ability to drive the hardest bargain possible for Republicans.

In many ways, Johnson finds himself living day to day, much the way McCarthy was, trying to keep Congress functioning, and hold on to his job.

"Speaker Johnson is in a 24-hour survival mode," said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a key Democratic negotiator on the border package. "He needs to say whatever he needs to say in order to survive Wednesday to Thursday, and Thursday to Friday."

The vote late last week to prevent a shutdown exposed the limits of Johnson's grasp on his majority.

Republicans control the House by just a few seats, 220-213. That number will drop over the weekend, when one of the many lawmakers who have already announced their retirements leaves early. Absences, illnesses and weather delays trim the numbers further.

When voting was underway, 107 Republicans were voting against the temporary spending bill and 106 voted for it, which would have been a politically embarrassing outcome if not even a majority of Johnson's majority was on board.

By the time the gavel struck closing the voting, the bill was overwhelmingly approved, with Democrats and Republicans, 314-108. The final tally was 107 Republicans in favor of the bill, 106 Republicans against.

"He's doing the best he can," said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a failed rival for the speaker's gavel. "Mike's a good guy, a friend, and it's a tough position but he's doing the best he can."


# Movie Review: Ava DuVernay's 'Origin' is a powerful, artful, interpretation of 'Caste'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
January 17, 2024. 9:26 AM EST

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Words like "important" and "vital" are thrown around possibly a little too much in film criticism. It's not that we don't mean it - it's just that sometimes we (ok, I) can get a bit excited. And when watching and reviewing good films in real time, it's impossible to know what is yet to come. Will there be something else that makes that superlative seem silly in retrospect? Often times, yes.

Ava DuVernay's new film "Origin" is that something else. It is a powerful and artistic interpretation of an academic book that was anything but an obvious candidate for a narrative feature.

The book in question is "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," in which Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson offers an overriding theory about power and hierarchy and systemic dehumanization in social structures, connecting the Black experience in America to the Dalits of India and Jewish people in Nazi Germany. The New York Times reviewer called it one of the most powerful non-fiction books he'd ever encountered and "the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."

That "Caste" was appealing to DuVernay, who has made documentaries like "13th," connecting slavery to mass incarceration of Black men, is not surprising. What's she's done with it is. Instead of rehashing the facts of the book, DuVernay has turned "Caste" into an investigative, fictionalized drama in which we follow the character Isabel Wilkerson as she puts the pieces together while her life crumbles.

With an unconventional structure, in which we are often transported to different stories in different times, in the American South, Nazi Germany and early 20th century India, "Origin" is nonetheless alarmingly effective, a riveting and haunting journey to a kind of enlightenment.

Wilkerson is played beautifully by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, an actor deep enough to engage with the academic and intellectual inquiries of the film, and charismatic enough to make what sounds like homework absorbing. Hers is the kind of 360-degree Black woman that we don't see leading films very often: She is at once confident and full of doubt and vulnerability, accomplished but searching, determined and still wary. And she's unafraid to pursue her hunch that everyone, civilians and book editors alike, seems to be telling her isn't worth it.

This is a character who is surrounded by love when we meet her, with a fairly perfect and supportive husband (Jon Bernthal), her aging mother Ruby (Emily Yancy) and a cousin/confidant in Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts). She is not immediately interested in an assignment about Trayvon Martin, and is a bit stuck knowing that whatever she does, she'll have to give herself over fully to it. In "Origin," a push comes in the form of loss and her research takes on a vital urgency to, not to be too hyperbolic, figure out why everything is rotten before she too leaves the earth.

DuVernay takes us into her findings as Wilkerson learns about a group of Harvard students, two Black, two white, who integrate themselves into a segregated Southern community to study it, a Nazi party member who fell in love with a Jewish woman, and an Indian intellectual who rose out of his lowly caste and advocated for Dalit rights. They feel a bit like different movies. But while it might not be the most elegantly stitched together anthology, it works on a gut level. DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor commit to the big swing, and audiences who give it a chance may find themselves changed - or at least a little more curious, a little more alert - because of it.

Is it premature to say that "Origin" might just be DuVernay's magnum opus? Well, perhaps. But hopefully it's the start of a vibrant and bold new era of storytelling for her, with those pesky wrinkles in time firmly in the rearview mirror.

"Origin," a Neon release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for "scenes of violence." Running time: 135 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Still trying to make 'fetch' happen, now in song: 'Mean Girls' gets a musical update
By **JOCELYN NOVECK**
January 12, 2024. 7:08 PM EST

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The first "Mean Girls," that compulsively watchable high-school based social satire by Tina Fey, came out in 2004. The Broadway musical opened in 2018. Now it's 2024, and we have a screen adaptation of the theater adaptation. How long will this reconfiguring go on? Is there a limit?

Or ... does the limit not exist?

Forgive us that utterly blatant setup for one of the original's most famous lines. It's just that some of them are so darned memorable. Like, "You can't sit with us!" - screeched. Or when Regina, the haughtiest queen bee ever to carry a cafeteria tray, scathingly tells her minion Gretchen, who's trying out her new word "fetch," to "Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen. It's NOT going to happen!!"

But even in "Mean Girls 17," should it come to that, someone will still be trying to make "fetch" happen. And it's actually not a bad word to describe the experience of watching the new "Mean Girls" - a slick, fizzy bit of entertainment that's occasionally delightful and usually fun, even if the translation to 2024 definitely has its rough spots.

If you've recently re-watched the first film, you may be surprised here at how many lines remain, word for word. What's impressive is how many still work - unlike some social comedies that felt right 20 years ago but have scenes that fall with a thud now (see "Love Actually").

There are exceptions, though. I'll confess to feeling queasy throughout about the "dumb girl" character who remains in the Plastics, Regina's social group. There is, thankfully, no more reference to a coach sleeping with a student, which would not have been funny, even with Jon Hamm as the coach. Slut-shaming has been conspicuously toned down - the insult in Regina's famous Burn Book is now "cow" and not "slut."

On the other hand, fat-shaming? That's still there, as when the camera zooms in rudely on the rear end of a character who's gained a few pounds.

As for the casting, some of it works wonderfully, particularly the duo who introduce the film, which is again written by Fey, with music by Jeff Richmond (her husband), and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Damian, the beloved character described affectionately by Janis as "almost too gay to function" (but that's only OK when she says it), and Janis, his best friend, a talented artist whose fallout with Regina left her in the dirt socially, function almost as quasi-narrators. Jaquel Spivey, of Broadway's "A Strange Loop," is hilarious and also moving as Damian - you wait for each new line, and he wastes none of them. And Auli'i Cravalho as Janis has a gorgeous voice and charismatic screen presence. (And a huge song, though from the trailer, you wouldn't know anyone has songs at all.)

Angourie Rice is the new Cady, the Lindsay Lohan role, a home-schooled math whiz who arrives in suburban Chicago straight from Kenya, where her mother was doing zoological research, into the snake pit of high school. Rice is a sweet presence but not as convincing in the "bad Cady" moments as Lohan. As for the Plastics, singer Reneé Rapp, formerly Regina on Broadway, imbues the role with powerhouse vocals and an angrier edge than the excellent Rachel McAdams did - when she's enraged, boy, you feel it.

Once again, Cady begins her first school day in math class with Ms. Norbury, once played by Fey - and again by Fey! Tim Meadows is also back as the principal; both look older but certainly not two decades.

Cady has a rough entry and ends up eating lunch in a bathroom stall, but is rescued by Janis and Damian. In the cafeteria, she has her first encounter with Queen Bee Regina. "My name is Regina George," sings Rapp, in some of the show's best lyrics, "I am a massive deal. I don't care who you are, I don't care how you feel."

The Plastics - Regina, needy Gretchen (Bebe Woods) and intellectually challenged Karen (Avantika) - adopt Cady and teach her the rules: Wear pink on Wednesdays. No tank tops two days in a row. A ponytail? Once a week. Also: You can't date someone's ex-boyfriend, because those are "the rules of feminism." At such moments, one can literally hear Fey writing the line. (Side note: Please come back to the Golden Globes, Tina, and bring Amy Poehler.) (Speaking of Poehler, she is missed as Regina's "cool" mom, but aptly replaced by Busy Philipps.)

Things go south quickly when Cady falls for Regina's ex, Aaron, who sits in front of her in AP Calculus (leading to the excellent lyric "Calcu-lust.") Regina isn't going to give up Aaron without a dirty fight. So Cady, aided by Damian and Janis, plots to bring Regina down from inside, pretending to be a loyal Plastic.

But at what point does Cady stop pretending and BECOME a Plastic? (Ask Janis.)

Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. keep the action moving briskly. A key visual difference is technology. In the 2004 film, friends spoke to each other on the telephone, in split screens. Now, of course, gossip and bullying take place via social media. In some ways this makes it all seem more vicious. When Regina takes an embarrassing tumble onstage at the Christmas performance, we witness a social media shaming that is much crueler than anything that happened in the 2004 version.

And yet, it's believable, of course. One comes away from this latest "Mean Girls" thinking that in some ways things may have gotten better for high schoolers than they were in 2004 - but in other ways, things have only gotten meaner.

"Mean Girls," a Paramount Pictures release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association "for sexual material, strong language, and teen drinking. " Running time: 105 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.


# Review: In the bonkers 'The Beekeeper,' Jason Statham has more than a bee in his bonnet
By **JAKE COYLE**
January 10, 2024. 6:44 PM EST

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Secret agents and murderous assassins seem to lurk in increasingly mundane places.

Remember "The Accountant" with Ben Affleck? Or "The Tax Collector" with Shia LaBeouf? Or more recently, how about "The Bricklayer" with Adam Eckhardt? You probably don't - none of these films were exactly Oscar winners. But there's probably a notary public somewhere wondering when he's going to get his Liam Neeson treatment.

"The Beekeeper," the new Jason Statham revenge thriller, may have them all beaten - or at least bee-ten. The film, directed by David Ayer (who also did "The Tax Collector") has found probably the widest disparity yet between innocuous occupation and savage killer. As bodies accrue, so do the double takes from those confused by the source of all the mayhem. Again and again they utter in disbelief: "A beekeeper?"

Believe it, honey. "The Beekeeper" carries that ludicrous premise as far as it can, and then well beyond. If you've been searching for a movie where Jason Statham gravely vows to "protect the hive" an implausible number of times, you have found it.

The bee metaphors - there is even, rather impressively, a "To bee or not to bee" reference - come fast and furious in "The Beekeeper," a movie that flirts with a so-bad-it's-good vibe but is too serious to quite pull it off. It can be divertingly bonkers, but ends up a rather grim and slipshod "John Wick" ripoff.

The film, scripted by Kurt Wimmer, begins the action with one of the more absurd inciting incidents in recent memory. Statham is a humble beekeeper for Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) on a New England farm. She soon falls victim to a phishing scam that robs her of all her money, including the $2 million charity fund she manages. Eloise calls a number that pops up on her screen and is talked into sharing her passwords by a smarmy scammer (David Witts) who's simultaneously using the call as a lesson to a room full of hackers who cheer him on like the predatory stock brokers of "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Eloise doesn't press CTRL-ALT-DELETE or even call the fraud department of her bank. She kills herself. And guess who's mad? The beekeeper.

Eloise's daughter, Verona (a good Emmy Raver-Lampman), is an FBI agent who throws herself into the case. But meanwhile Statham's beekeeper, after a well-placed call, gets the location of the call center. He turns up with a few tanks of gasoline and some terse words about, you know, the hive, and burns down the place, killing a few people along the way.

That brings the attention of higher-ups. Only the guy in charge is a 28-year-old twerp named Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson, enjoying himself) who brashly underestimates his new enemy at every step of the way. His entitlement is owed to his rather good connections. He's protected by the former head of the CIA, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons) and happens to be the son of the U.S. president (Jemma Redgrave).

Fingers get cut off and bodies accumulate as our man - his name turns out to be Adam Clay - tears through the criminal apparatus with ruthless blunt force. Statham, who has both the look and personality of a bullet, dispatches anyone in his path with the kind efficiency I dream of bringing to opening a pickle jar. A few twists of the wrist and he's done.

Clay, brace yourselves, isn't just an actual beekeeper. He's a retired Beekeeper, an elite, clandestine secret service that operates well off the government books and that adopts a surprising amount of its mission statements from the natural way of bees. They have a whole secret order and stuff, bringing "The Beekeeper" into plainly "Wick"-ian - and less fun - territory.

Yes, this silly beekeeper thriller goes all the way to the top. As the movie's renegade protagonist makes his way closer and closer to the White House, with blood and chaos in his wake, "The Beekeeper" begins to feel like an uncomfortable B-movie crosspollination of today's conspiracy theory-marred political landscape, with a violent, self-appointed guardian of America slashing his way toward the president. Most of the dead bodies are secret service.

Disquieting thoughts, maybe, for a beekeeper movie. Ayer's movie is mostly just having some cynical world-building fun, even if its hero feels like a part more suited to Mr. Bean. And, besides, while John Wick was first propelled into action by the death of his dog, Clay doesn't bat an eye when his honeycombs get blown to smithereens. This guy doesn't even really care about bees.

"The Beekeeper" an MGM release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for strong violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexual references and drug use. Running time: 105 minutes. Two stars out of four.


# Movie Review: In 'I.S.S.,' war on Earth disrupts life aboard the International Space Station
By **JAKE COYLE**
January 17, 2024. 5:16 PM EST

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With war raging in Ukraine and U.S.-Russia relations below freezing, the Cold War movie may be alive, again, too.

After decades when fears of mutual destruction and nuclear fallout filtered into movies from "Fail Safe" to "WarGames," anxiety over current Russian-American geopolitics plays a provocative role in the new space thriller "I.S.S."

Gabriela Cowperthwaite's film, opening in theaters Friday, is set aboard the International Space Station, which the opening credits note is a symbol of post-Cold War U.S.-Russia collaboration. The astronauts and cosmonauts are a friendly band of fellow scientists, but that harmony is significantly challenged when bombs begin falling across the Earth's surface. Gazing down below, bioengineer Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) initially thinks the bright flashes all over North America are volcano eruptions.

It's an intriguing premise that "I.S.S." can't translate into a coherent thriller. But it's striking that exactly 60 years after "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," we are again offered the chance to sit in the dark and contemplate the horror of a speculative U.S.-Russia war. History may not repeat itself, but movie genres might.

One reason why "I.S.S." isn't successful, though, is that it feels more cribbed from past Cold War movies than it does any current reality. It was penned by Nick Shafir, whose script landed on the Black List in 2020, several years before the war in Ukraine began. And its chamber-piece framework - the space station is essentially the film's sole setting - carries over many of the dynamics that defined Cold War movies of the late 20th century. Among the three Americans and three Russians on board are hawks and doves; each nationality mirrors the other.

Kira is the new arrival at the space station. Nearly everything is shared, she's told, and talking politics is a no-no. "We definitely don't talk about what's going on down there," she's told. From space, it's said, there are no visible borders on the planet below.

Commander Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina) heads up the American group. It's he who gets an urgent transmission from Houston after the war has started. It's mildly charming to think that amid nuclear fallout, someone will be immediately concerned with the fate of a floating science lab. ("Abort the experiments!") But the message also supplies an ominous new mission: Take control of the space station.

A new suspicion grips the I.S.S. The Russian contingent - Weronika (Masha Mashkova), Alexey (Pilou Asbaek) and Nichola (Costa Ronin) - likewise grows more wary of their cohabitants. Allegiances get tested, particularly in the case of Gordon and Weronika, who seem more than colleagues. Cowperthwaite ( "Blackfish,""Our Friend" ) doesn't have the knack for close-quarters suspense that might have led to something more like a low-budget, geopolitical "Gravity." But she's also not done favors by the script's clumsy twists. Is a zero-gravity repair mission outside the space station the best thing for Gordon to do moments after the onset of global warfare?

But "I.S.S." will suffice as a high-concept B-movie. And given how much mileage the movies once got out of Soviet villains, it may just be the beginning of a new cycle. It's notable that of the film's plot machinations, all-out warfare wasn't the least implausible invention.

"I.S.S.," a Bleecker Street release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for some violence and language. Running time: 95 minutes. Two stars out of four.


# Nikki Haley tries to draw New Hampshire's independents without alienating voters who backed Trump
By **HOLLY RAMER**
January 21, 2024. 10:20 AM EST

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**CONCORD, N.H. (AP)** - Richard Anderson drove through a snowstorm last week to see his preferred candidate in New Hampshire's Republican primary. But he's not sure how far he'll go to support her if she wins the nomination.

Anderson, a 73-year-old independent voter from Jackson, liked what he heard from Nikki Haley at the Mount Washington Hotel. But he disagrees with the former U.N. ambassador's plan to pardon former President Donald Trump if he is convicted of any of the crimes he's been charged with.

"That bothers me," he said. "I'll still vote for her in the primary, but I'll wait to see if she's still saying that in the general election."

Haley's best shot at shaking Trump's grip on the Republican nomination rests with her ability to attract New Hampshire's independent voters - including some who might not stick with her in November - without alienating too many conservatives. Other Republicans have hit the right balance here, notably John McCain in two GOP primary victories. But those wins came long before Trump's rise in politics and the Republicans' rightward shifts both in the state and nationally.

"It's a very difficult needle to thread," said Nathan Shrader, an associate professor of politics at New England College, "because if she makes too much of an overt play for the independent voters, that could be a turnoff for some of the Republicans who we know in the Trump era are more conservative than they might have been a generation ago."

Democrats can't vote in the GOP primary, but voters unaffiliated with a party - who make up nearly 40% of registered voters in New Hampshire - can. That makes them a key target, though they aren't a monolith.

A CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released Sunday found that a majority of registered Republicans likely to vote in the primary - 67% - said they planned to vote for Trump. But a majority of those registered as undeclared - 58% - said they support Haley.

The poll, taken Tuesday through Friday, also found more registered Republicans in the state view Haley unfavorably (47%) than favorably (31%). Trump, meanwhile is viewed favorably by 76% of registered Republicans and unfavorably by just 16%.

Haley was viewed favorably by 42% of people who have registered themselves as undeclared, while 32% viewed her unfavorably. Just 34% of the same group, by contrast, views Trump favorably, compared with 59% unfavorably.

Some Haley supporters interviewed at her events are left-leaning voters who have little ideological overlap with Haley but are intent on stopping Trump. Others lean Republican and agree with her policies.

Corinne Pullen is a blend of both. Pullen, a retired 68-year-old nurse from Canterbury, said she's impressed with Haley's "strict and strong" foreign policies and her plans to decrease federal spending. She considers Trump a "narcissistic braggadocio buffoon."

"When I compare these two candidates, it is a no-brainer who I would feel comfortable and safe having in the White House," she said.

Trump has turned that crossover appeal into an attack line, suggesting that Haley is being propped up by "radical left Democrats." The former president's campaign argues Haley will struggle with conservatives in closed primaries like that of her home-state South Carolina, where the Feb. 24 primary is the next big matchup for her and Trump.

"Her entire focus at this point in time ... has been about turning out Democrats and behavioral Democrats to hijack the Republican primary in New Hampshire," Trump senior advisor Chris LaCivita told reporters this month.

As if to underscore that point, Trump on Saturday arranged for South Carolina's current governor, lieutenant governor, and several other elected leaders to come to New Hampshire to campaign with him. The day before, he won a rousing endorsement from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, whom Haley appointed to the Senate when she was governor.

Haley, however, dismissed that move.

"I won South Carolina twice as governor," she said recently. "I think I know what favorable territory is in South Carolina. We are going to South Carolina. We're going to be strong in South Carolina." She added: "The road is never going to stop here in New Hampshire, that's always been the plan."

Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, is skeptical that Haley can pull together a strong and diverse enough coalition to top Trump in Tuesday's primary. Even if she did, "how do you duplicate that elsewhere?" he asked. "The answer is, you don't. I don't think you can pull off that magic trick in state after state."

Unlike McCain, who openly appealed to "Republicans, independents, Democrats, Libertarians, vegetarians, all of them," Haley doesn't mention independents in her stump speech. But the super PAC backing her is filling its mailboxes with fliers citing her endorsement from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Trump critic, and her plans on the economy and debt reduction.

Haley described herself to reporters Thursday as "a conservative that knows how to talk to moderates and independents and not make them feel bad, but make them feel included."

At the same time, she pushed back against criticism from Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that she isn't conservative enough.

"Show me where I'm moderate, because I'm not," she said.

That didn't stop Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican who voted for Biden in 2020, from endorsing her on Saturday and urging New Hampshire voters to "showcase their deep-rooted independent streak." And it doesn't bother independent voter Kristen Mansharamani, who described herself as "further left" than Haley on abortion, education and other issues but said she believes Haley would be a unifying leader.

"I told my 12-year-old son that I am looking for the person who I think is going to get rid of some of the standstill and the polarization in politics and I think she can do that better than anyone else out there right now," said Mansharamani, 48, of Lincoln.

In Iowa, Haley was the top candidate for the most anti-Trump Republicans, including those who said the former president did something illegal in one of the pending criminal cases against him, according to data from AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of likely Iowa voters before they entered the caucuses.. Two-thirds of Haley's caucusgoers said they would not ultimately vote for Trump in the general election.

In New Hampshire, some anti-Trump independents supporting Haley say they aren't sure whether they'd back her in a general election either.

Amy Watson, a 59-year-old oral surgeon from Hollis, praised Haley's tenure as U.N. ambassador and governor but said Haley's views on environmental issues may be a dealbreaker in November.

"As things transpire, I think I'm going to consider what she has to say," she said. "I'm very much concerned about global warming, so that's one area where she may lose me."


# Latest EPA assessment shows almost no improvement in river and stream nitrogen pollution
By **MELINA WALLING** and **MICHAEL PHILLIS**
January 21, 2024. 9:40 AM EST

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**ST. LOUIS (AP)** - The nation's rivers and streams remain stubbornly polluted with nutrients that contaminate drinking water and fuel a gigantic dead zone for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment.

It's a difficult problem that's concentrated in agricultural regions that drain into the Mississippi River. More than half of the basin's miles of rivers and streams were in poor condition for nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer that drains into waterways, the agency found. For decades, federal and state officials have struggled to control farm runoff, the biggest source of nutrient pollution that is not typically federally regulated.

It's a problem only expected to get harder to control as climate change produces more intense storms that dump rain on the Midwest and South. Those heavy rains flood farm fields, pick up commercial fertilizers and carry them into nearby rivers.

"It's really worrying that we are clearly not meeting the goals that we've set for ourselves," said Olivia Dorothy, director of river restoration with the conservation group American Rivers.

The assessment is based on samples collected in 2018 and 2019 and it allows experts to compare river conditions from previous rounds of sampling, although different sampling sites were used. It takes years for the agency to compile the results and release the report, which is the most comprehensive assessment of the nation's river and stream health. Phosphorus levels dipped slightly while nitrogen levels remained almost exactly the same.

About half of all river miles were found to be in poor condition for snails, worms, beetles and other bottom dwelling species that are an important indicator of biological health of the river. About a third were also rated as having poor conditions for fish based on species diversity.

"Controlling pollution is a big job. It is hard work," said Tom Wall, director of watershed restoration, assessment and protection division at EPA. "Things are not getting worse, despite the tremendous pressures on our waterways. And we would like to see more progress."

Water pollution from factories and industry is typically federally regulated. The Biden administration recently proposed toughening regulations on meat and poultry processing plants to reduce pollution, Wall said.

When nutrient pollution flows into the Gulf of Mexico, it spurs growth of bacteria that consume oxygen. That creates a so-called "dead zone," a vast area where it's difficult or impossible for marine animals to survive, fluctuating from about the size of Rhode Island to the size of New Jersey, according to Nancy Rabalais, professor of oceanography and wetland studies at Louisiana State University.

That affects the productivity of commercial fisheries and marine life in general, but nutrient pollution is also damaging upstream. Too much nitrate in drinking water can affect how blood carries oxygen, causing human health problems like headaches, nausea and abdominal cramps. It can especially affect infants, sometimes inducing "blue baby syndrome," which causes the skin to take on a bluish hue.

The EPA established the hypoxia task force in the late 1990s to reduce nutrient pollution and shrink the dead zone, but it relies on voluntary efforts to reduce farm runoff and hasn't significantly reduced the dead zone.

Anne Schechinger, Midwest director with the Environmental Working Group, said new regulations are needed, not voluntary efforts. She said the Biden administration has done a lot to improve drinking water, but not enough to reduce agricultural runoff.

Methods to prevent runoff include building buffers between farmland and waterways, creating new wetlands to filter pollutants and applying less fertilizer.

It's a politically fraught issue, especially in major Midwest farming states that significantly contribute to the problem. Many of those states cite their voluntary conservation programs as evidence they're taking on the problem, yet the new EPA data shows little progress.

Minnesota is one of the few states that has a so-called "buffer law" that requires vegetation to be planted along rivers, streams and public drainage ditches. But because groundwater and surface water are closely connected in much of the Upper Midwest, nutrient pollution can end up leaching underground through farm fields and eventually bypass those buffers, ending up in streams anyway, said Gregory Klinger, who works for the Olmsted County, Minnesota soil and water conservation district.

There should also be a focus on preventing over-fertilizing - about 30% of farmers are still using more than the recommended amounts of fertilizer on their fields, said Brad Carlson, an extension educator with the University of Minnesota who communicates with farmers about nutrient pollution issues.

Martin Larsen, a farmer and conservation technician in southeast Minnesota, said he and other farmers are interested in practices that reduce their nutrient pollution. He's broken up his typical corn and soybean rotation with oats and medium red clover, the latter a kind of plant that can increase nitrogen levels in the soil naturally. He's been able to get by with about half as much fertilizer for a corn crop that follows a clover planting as compared to a corn-corn rotation.

Growing oats and red clover as cover crops improves soil, too. But Larsen said it's difficult for many farmers to plant them when they often rely on an immediate payback for anything they grow. Cover crops are planted on just 5.1% of harvested farmland, according to 2017 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Larsen said since regulations are so unpopular, more should be done to incentivize better practices. For example, he said that could include companies shifting the makeup of feed they use for animals, giving farmers an opening to plant some crops that use less fertilizer. Or government programs that do more to subsidize things like cover crops.

He said that many farmers in his community acknowledge the need to do things differently. "But we also feel very trapped in the system," he said.


# Much of US still gripped by Arctic weather as Memphis deals with numerous broken water pipes
By **TRAVIS LOLLER**
January 21, 2024. 2:28 PM EST

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**NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)** - Much of the U.S. remained gripped by deadly Arctic weather Sunday - with subfreezing conditions reaching as far south as Texas and Florida. But the numbing cold is expected to ease up in the coming days.

Nationally, winter storms this month have claimed at least 67 lives around the U.S., many involving hypothermia or road accidents.

On Sunday, crews in Memphis, Tennessee continued to work around the clock to find and fix broken pipes that were causing low water pressure throughout the system. Some residents have been without running water for days, and all of the utility's 400,000 customers continued to be under a boil water notice.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water President and CEO Doug McGowen said in a video posted to social media on Saturday evening that he hopes to have an estimate of when pressure will be restored on Sunday afternoon.

"Hang in there," McGowen said. "Neighbors help neighbors."

As of Saturday afternoon, the utility had repaired 36 broken water mains and more than 2,000 leaks in homes and businesses. As temperatures began to rise above freezing on Sunday, more leaks were expected to become apparent. McGowen asked residents to stop dripping faucets once things warmed up, a measure that would add 5 to 10 million gallons a day to the system and help restore water pressure.

Rhodes College, in Memphis, began sending residential students home on Saturday and moving those who could not return home to hotels. The school was planning virtual classes on Monday and Tuesday.

"We ask that you NOT come to campus either day due to the ongoing water situation and the hazards that creates," the school announcement said.

Sam Roth is a junior majoring in politics, philosophy and economics who drove back home to Nashville rather than staying in a hotel where he would still be required to boil water.

"Our faucets stopped working, and they said not to use any of the restrooms on our floor, and our showers were not working very well either," he said of the situation in his dormitory.

"It's a little annoying, but the school's doing everything they can to accommodate everyone," he said. "I just feel worse for the people that are without water in the city that don't have a hotel they can go stay at."

Restaurants and bars were using bottled water to serve customers on Sunday. Some restaurants remained closed, citing the water issue, while others had a modified menu. Cafe Eclectic was open but not serving espresso drinks.

Memphis was the largest, but not the only, water system in Tennessee to experience problems from the unusually cold weather. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said on Saturday night that 28 water systems have issued boil water notices.

In Tipton County, the fire department in Mason warned residents on Saturday to be prepared for a multiday water outage. Firefighters were helping to distribute bottled water to residents throughout the town of 1,300 residents.

Fire officials said in a Facebook post that water crews were working at all hours to try to isolate and repair leaks. The department said that there remains enough water pressure to operate fire hydrants if they are needed for firefighting.

The mayor acknowledged in an interview with WMC-TV that the town has had water issues in the past due to a system that needs updates.

"Honestly, we have a bad system. Nobody took care of it for a long time and everything is falling apart," Mayor Eddie Noeman said.

"The whole town has been without water for five days," said exasperated Mason resident Christina Ray. The fire department is handing out water but limiting it to one case per day, per household. That's not enough for her family, which was collecting snow to flush the toilets.

"It's hard to cook. It's hard to flush toilets. It's hard to do dishes. We can't wash laundry," she said.

Ray managed to find the last seven gallons of water at a grocery store, she said, but if her 15-year-old daughter has school on Monday, Ray is considering getting a hotel room in a neighboring town so that she can take a shower and get clean clothes.

With warmer temperatures predicted this week, Ray has another worry.

"I have not been sleeping very well because I've been wondering if my pipes are going to burst," she said.

The continued cold weather is also responsible for at least 25 deaths in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. Nationally, winter storms this month have claimed at least 67 lives around the U.S., many involving hypothermia or road accidents.

Elsewhere, freezing rain, sleet and high wind gusts later Sunday would make traveling in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma particularly treacherous, the National Weather Service said. Wind chills in Iowa made it feel like minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 degrees Celsius) in some parts.

But the end of subzero temperatures - which blasted into the U.S. on Friday - was in sight for parts of the country. The daily high temperatures in Iowa's capital of Des Moines, for example, were expected to stay above freezing starting Monday.

"With no additional replenishment of arctic air from Canada, a steady warm-up is in store for the mid-section of the country," the weather service said.

In western New York, Buffalo Bills fans were getting ready for another home playoff game Sunday evening against the Kansas City Chiefs, with temperatures forecast around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 degrees Celsius), winds around 10 mph (16 kph) and a slight chance of snow showers. On Friday and Saturday, hundreds of people showed up at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park to help shovel snow out of the stands for the second week in a row, earning $20 an hour.

The Erie County Sheriff's Office was urging fans Sunday to not throw snowballs in the stadium or trespass on the new stadium construction site.

On the West Coast, more freezing rain was forecast in the Columbia River Gorge and the area was expected to remain near or below freezing through at least Sunday night. Trees and power lines already coated with ice could topple if they get more, the National Weather Service warned.

"Stay safe out there over the next several days as our region tries to thaw out," the weather service said. "Chunks of falling ice will remain a hazard as well."


# Amid tough reelection fight, San Francisco mayor declines to veto resolution she criticized on Gaza
January 20, 2024. 8:47 PM EST

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**SAN FRANCISCO (AP)** - Amid a tough reelection fight, Mayor London Breed has declined to veto a non-binding resolution from the San Francisco supervisors calling for an extended cease-fire in Gaza, a measure she blamed for inflaming tensions in the city.

The first-term Democrat posted her decision online Friday, faulting the board for veering into foreign policy in which its members have no legal authority or expertise. She said the debate over the resolution left the city "angrier, more divided and less safe."

"Their exercise was never about bringing people together," Breed wrote in a statement. "It was about choosing a side."

A divided board approved the resolution earlier this month, which also condemned Hamas as well as the Israeli government and urged the Biden administration to press for the release of all hostages and delivery of humanitarian aid. Cease-fire advocates in the audience erupted into cheers and chants of "Free Palestine."

Breed earlier criticized the supervisors, saying "the process at the board only inflamed division and hurt."

San Francisco joined dozens of other U.S. cities in approving a resolution that has no legal weight but reflects pressure on local governments to speak up on the Israel-Hamas war, now in its fourth month following a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.

Breed said she mostly refrains from commenting on nonbinding resolutions from the board, but in this case she made an exception. Her decision came in the run-up to the March 5 primary election, in which she is telling voters she is making progress against homelessness, public drug use and property crime in a city that has seen a spate of unwelcome publicity about vacant downtown offices and stratospheric housing prices.

Reaction to the ongoing Israeli military action in Gaza is shaking campaigns from the White House to City Halls. A poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in early November found 40% of the U.S. public believed Israel's response in Gaza had gone too far.

Breed lamented the suffering in Gaza and the loss of life on both sides. But she chastised activists who jeered when a man spoke of family members killed in the Hamas attack, and she wrote that a Jewish city employee was surrounded by protesters in a restroom.

Breed wrote that "abject antisemitism" had apparently become acceptable to a subset of activists.

"The antisemitism in our city is real and dangerous," she wrote, adding that vetoing the resolution likely would lead to more divisive hearings and "fan even more antisemitic acts."

Breed said she had spoken to numerous Jewish residents "who tell me they don't feel safe in their own city. ... They are fearful of the growing acts of vandalism and intimidation."

Supervisor Dean Preston, who introduced the cease-fire resolution, told the San Francisco Chronicle he was happy that the mayor did not veto the resolution, which is now final.

Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, an organization that has planned protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, told the newspaper that Breed's statement amplified "dangerous, racist, well-worn anti-Arab tropes that seem to completely disregard our community."


# 911 calls from Maui capture pleas for the stranded, the missing and those caught in the fire's chaos
By **REBECCA BOONE**, **CLAUDIA LAUER**, and **LINDSAY WHITEHURST**
January 21, 2024. 11:43 AM EST

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The day after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century destroyed a seaside community on Maui, the barrage of 911 calls didn't stop: Reports of missing people, stranded family members and confused tourists trapped without food or water lit up the emergency lines every few minutes, interspersed with reports of new fires starting and older ones flaring back up.

The 911 recordings from the morning and early afternoon of Aug. 9 were the third batch of calls released by the Maui Police Department in response to a public record request. They show how first responders and emergency dispatchers - many of whom had already worked long hours during what was likely the most harrowing experience of their lives - continued to be hindered by limited staffing and widespread communication failures.

Several callers reached out to 911 throughout the morning asking for wellness checks for relatives or friends they couldn't reach. Cell communications were still down in some areas. Authorities told people to call the nonemergency police number to file missing person reports or so that police could check with the Red Cross and other volunteers who had registered evacuees at the shelters.

But callers who couldn't get through on the nonemergency line, turned to 911.

"My house is in Lahaina, in the fire area. And I have not been able to contact my husband. Is there any way that I can get someone to drive by the house?" a woman asked just after 1:30 p.m.

Another caller at about 9:45 a.m. called to report that his wife was missing.

"She should be in Lahaina. She went to work yesterday," the caller told a dispatcher.

In one case, a 911 caller reported that a family missing their 15-year-old son had been "ignored."

The operator answers were the same each time. Emergency responders weren't able to help find missing people because they were still trying to get everyone to safety, still working hotspots and responding to fires. There weren't enough officers to do house checks or wellness checks, but most of the town had been evacuated to the shelters.

They told callers to wait for cellphone communications to return and to keep trying the nonemergency line.

"I'm really sorry, that's all I can give you right now," one operator said.

Maui County and police officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Saturday.

One hundred people died because of the Lahaina fire, and thousands of survivors remain displaced because their homes were destroyed or badly damaged.

Callers turned to 911 when information was scarce or when they heard contradicting information.

A handful of residents called to ask if the Lahaina Bypass had reopened, saying they had heard an announcement on the radio that it had opened for traffic. Emergency dispatchers repeatedly batted down the misinformation.

Early in the morning dispatchers rebuked some callers asking how to get to the airport, or what roads would be open, saying the line was for emergencies only.

One caller retold how he and his family while evacuating had grabbed an elderly couple to help them also get out of Lahaina. But he said the husband had gone with him and the wife had gone with his uncle, and they could not contact each other to reunite the couple.

"We don't know what to do with him," the caller said.

"You can bring him to one of the emergency shelters so he can rest and get something to drink," the dispatcher told him, adding that once communications were back up, the volunteers there could help find his wife.

Dispatchers were forced to deal with sometimes impossible situations, trying to reassure people while also knowing resources were scarce.

An exhausted Lahaina survivor, walking along the highway south of town, called asking for help just before 1 p.m.

"Our house is all burned down and everyone is just passing us by. We're dying out here. There's like 12 of us, all like walking along the Pali," he said, using a nickname for a coastal, cliffside portion of the Honoapiilani Highway. He asked for someone to pick the group up, saying he feared dying of heat exhaustion.

The dispatcher said there were no buses to come get them, but they could send ambulances if they needed.

Just before 11 a.m., someone from another island called on behalf of some Lahaina residents who lost their home and vehicles but had fled up the mountain, away from the burning town.

"She's got her husband and their two children and then some neighbors," the caller said. The group was safe from the fire, but had no food and water and no way to evacuate.

"I'm going to let the fire department know," the dispatcher said, "but we are really short on resources. And they're going to see what they can do."

At that point, fire crews were still trying to extinguish the flames that had destroyed much of Lahaina, as well as fighting three other fires in and around the towns of Kula and Kihei. People living near those blazes continued to report flames at their properties and fires reigniting like they had in Lahaina.

In one case, a 911 caller reported seeing flames and hotspots on their property and trying to put them out with a garden hose that was rapidly losing pressure. Another reported that her husband and son were fighting a fire that had broken out on their ranch in the Upcountry region of Maui, but they feared they'd need help from a helicopter.

Some areas were still dotted with potentially dangerous downed power lines. One person who called several times in the morning reported that lines were sparking and smoking at her home in the Kula area and she and her husband were unable to turn the power off. They eventually did so with the help of a friend that worked at the power company.

Callers had trouble controlling their frustration at times. A woman called in tears saying her family had left their resort when the power went out the previous day.

"We slept in our car. We can't get ahold of the hotel. My medication, my car keys, everything is there. My kid has autism. His medication is there. I just don't know what to do," she said.

The dispatcher offered to have a medic sent out for the woman's son and also suggested she try to have her doctor call in a prescription. But she said no one was being let back into Lahaina.


# Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpasses 25,000 while Israel announces the death of another hostage
By **NAJIB JOBAIN** and **SAMY MAGDY**
January 21, 2024. 1:48 PM EST

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**RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP)** - The Palestinian death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas has soared past 25,000, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Sunday, while Israel announced the death of another hostage and appeared far from achieving its goals of freeing more than 100 others and crushing the militant group.

The deaths, destruction and displacement from the war are without precedent in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The war has divided Israelis while the offensive threatens to ignite a wider conflict involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that support the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he stressed in his conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday that he rejects Hamas demands for a cease-fire, Israeli forces' withdrawal and the release of Palestinians held by Israel in exchange for the remaining hostages. He said that agreeing means another devastating Hamas attack "would only be a matter of time."

Netanyahu also rejects calls from U.S, its closest ally, for postwar plans that would include a path to Palestinian statehood. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the refusal to accept a two-state solution unacceptable.

"The Middle East is a tinderbox. We must do all we can to prevent conflict igniting across the region," Guterres added. "And that starts with an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to relieve the suffering in Gaza."

In the latest of near-daily clashes between Hezbollah forces and Israeli troops along the Lebanese border, an Israeli airstrike Sunday hit a car near a Lebanese army checkpoint in the southern town of Kafra, killing one person and injuring several others, Lebanese state media reported. Israel's military said its aircraft and tanks struck a number of Hezbollah targets, and that an anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon hit a house in Avivim in northern Israel. No injuries were reported.

## GAZA DEATH TOLL CLIMBS
The war began with Hamas' attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel's military announced the death of 19-year-old Sgt. Shay Levinson, who was among the hostages. His date of death was given as Oct. 7, but there were no further details. According to Israeli media, his body is still in Gaza.

Israel has responded to the Oct. 7 attack with a bombing campaign and ground invasion that laid waste to entire neighborhoods in northern Gaza and spread south, striking some areas where it told civilians to seek refuge. Ground operations are now focused on the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

"The plumes of smoke from tanks, artillery and the planes of the air force will continue to cover the sky over the Gaza Strip until we will achieve our goals," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Israel's military said the demolition last week of a key building at Israa University in Gaza was under review, and asserted that preliminary findings indicated Hamas had used the compound for military purposes. The university has said the "attack" came weeks after Israeli forces occupied the building.

Since the war started, 25,105 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, while another 62,681 have been wounded, the Health Ministry said. The toll included the 178 bodies brought to Gaza's hospitals since Saturday, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.

The overall toll is thought to be higher because many casualties remain buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot reach, Al-Qidra said.

The Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says about two-thirds of the people killed in Gaza were women and minors. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but its casualty figures from previous wars were largely consistent with those of U.N. agencies and even the Israeli military.

The Israeli military says it has killed around 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it positions fighters, tunnels and other militant infrastructure in dense neighborhoods. The military released footage of a tunnel under a residential neighborhood in Khan Younis where the army believes at least 20 hostages were kept at different times.

The war has displaced some 85% of Gaza's residents, with hundreds of thousands packing U.N.-run shelters and camps in the south. U.N. officials say a quarter of the population of 2.3 million is starving as a trickle of humanitarian aid reaches them because of the fighting and Israeli restrictions.

Israel said 260 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday, the highest number since the war began. About 500 entered daily before that, according to the U.N.

"Bread does not suffice for one hour," said Ahmad Al-Nashawi, who accepted donated food at a tent camp in the southern city of Rafah. "You can see how many children we have other than women and men. What matters most for a child is to eat."

## ISRAELIS INCREASINGLY DIVIDED
Some top Israeli officials have begun to acknowledge that Netanyahu's goals of "complete victory" over Hamas and returning the remaining hostages might be mutually exclusive.

A member of Israel's War Cabinet, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, said last week that the only way to free the hostages was through a cease-fire.

But Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners push him to step up the offensive, with some calling for the "voluntary" emigration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements there.

Hamas is believed to be using the hostages as shields for its top leaders. Israel has rescued one hostage, and Hamas says several have been killed in Israeli airstrikes or during failed rescue operations.

Israel's government faces growing pressure from hostages' families, who want an exchange like the one during a weeklong November cease-fire. Other Israelis are frustrated by the security failures ahead of the Oct. 7 attack and by Netanyahu's handling of the war.

Near the site of an Oct. 7 massacre during a music festival, families of Israeli victims planted trees.

"What happened after 109 days? Nothing. We're just still waiting," said one father, Idan Bahat.


# Across Germany, anti-far right protests draw hundreds of thousands - in Munich, too many for safety
January 21, 2024. 11:59 AM EST

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**BERLIN (AP)** - A protest against the far right in the German city of Munich Sunday afternoon ended early due to safety concerns after approximately 100,000 people showed up, police said. The demonstration was one of dozens around the country this weekend that drew hundreds of thousands of people in total.

The demonstrations came in the wake of a report that right-wing extremists recently met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship. Some members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, were present at the meeting.

In the western city of Cologne, police confirmed "tens of thousands" of people showed up to protest on Sunday, and organizers spoke of around 70,000 people. A protest Sunday afternoon in Berlin drew at least 60,000 people and potentially up to 100,000, police said, according to the German news agency dpa.

A similar demonstration Friday in Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, drew what police said was a crowd of 50,000 and had to be ended early because of safety concerns. And Saturday protests in other German cities like Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Hannover drew tens of thousands of people.

Although Germany has seen other protests against the far right in past years, the size and scope of protests being held this weekend - not just in major cities, but also in dozens of smaller cities across the country - are notable. The large turnout around Germany showed how these protests are galvanizing popular opposition to the AfD in a new way.

The AfD is riding high in opinion polls: recent surveys put it in second place nationally with around 23%, far above the 10.3% it won during the last federal election in 2021.

In its eastern German strongholds of Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, the AfD is leading the polls ahead of elections this fall.

The catalyst for the protests was a report from the media outlet Correctiv last week on an alleged far-right meeting in November, which it said was attended by figures from the extremist Identitarian Movement and from the AfD. A prominent member of the Identitarian Movement, Austrian citizen Martin Sellner, presented his "remigration" vision for deportations, the report said.

The AfD has sought to distance itself from the extremist meeting, saying it had no organizational or financial links to the event, that it wasn't responsible for what was discussed there and members who attended did so in a purely personal capacity. Still, one of the AfD's co-leaders, Alice Weidel, has parted ways with an adviser who was there, while also decrying the reporting itself.

Prominent German politicians and elected officials voiced support for the protests Sunday, joining leaders from major parties across the spectrum who had already spoken out.

"The future of our democracy does not depend on the volume of its opponents, but on the strength of those who defend democracy," German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a video statement. Those turning out to protest, he added, "defend our republic and our constitution against its enemies."


# North Korea stresses alignment with Russia against US and says Putin could visit at an early date
By **KIM TONG-HYUNG**
January 21, 2024. 10:02 AM EST

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**SEOUL, South Korea (AP)** - North Korea said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his willingness to visit the North at an unspecified "early date" as the countries continue to align in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry highlighted Putin's intent for a visit following North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui's meetings with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last week. The ministry said in a statement published by state media that the two countries agreed to further strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to establish a "new multi-polarized international order," a reference to their efforts to build a united front against Washington.

Putin had already confirmed his willingness to visit the capital, Pyongyang, at a convenient time during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Russia's Far East in September. One of the few world leaders openly supporting Putin's war on Ukraine, Kim has been actively boosting the visibility of his ties with Russia in an attempt to break out of diplomatic isolation and strengthen his footing, as he navigates a deepening nuclear standoff with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the North's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.N. Security Council for calling an emergency meeting over the country's latest ballistic test, which state media described as a new intermediate-range solid-fuel missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead. The ministry said the test-firing on Jan. 14 was among the country's regular activities to improve its defense capabilities and that it didn't pose a threat to its neighbors.

South Korea on Thursday urged the Security Council "to break the silence" over North Korea's escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, have blocked U.S.-led efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, underscoring a divide deepened over Russia's war on Ukraine.

The alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow has raised international concerns about alleged arms cooperation, in which the North provides Russia with munitions to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for badly needed economic aid and military assistance to help upgrade Kim's forces. Both Pyongyang and Russia have denied accusations by Washington and Seoul about North Korean arms transfers to Russia.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry, in comments published by state media, said Choe and the Russian officials in their meetings expressed a "strong will to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the core interests of the two countries and establishing a new multi-polarized international order."

Russia expressed "deep thanks" to North Korea for its "full support" over its war on Ukraine, the North Korean ministry said. It said Choe and the Russian officials expressed "serious concern" over the United States' expanding military cooperation with its Asian allies that they blamed for worsening tensions in the region and threatening North Korea's sovereignty and security interests.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, after Kim in recent months used Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to ramp up his weapons tests and military demonstrations. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by strengthening their combined military exercises, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, and sharpening their deterrence plans built around nuclear-capable U.S. assets.

In the latest tit-for-tat, North Korea on Friday said it conducted a test of a purported nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week, as it continued to blame its rivals for tensions in the region.

Choe's visit to Moscow came as Kim continues to use domestic political events to issue provocative threats of nuclear conflict.

At Pyongyang's rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim declared that North Korea is abandoning its long-standing goal of a peaceful unification with war-divided rival South Korea and ordered the rewriting of the North's constitution to cement the South as its most hostile foreign adversary. He accused South Korea of acting as "top-class stooges" of the Americans and repeated a threat that he would use his nukes to annihilate the South if provoked.

Analysts say North Korea could be aiming to diminish South Korea's voice in the regional nuclear standoff and eventually force direct dealings with Washington as it looks to cement its status as a nuclear weapons state.


# Two opposition leaders in Senegal are excluded from the final list of presidential candidates
By **BABACAR DIONE**
January 21, 2024. 11:19 AM EST

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**DAKAR, Senegal (AP)** - Senegal's highest election authority has excluded two top opposition leaders from the final list of candidates for the West African nation's presidential election next month. The party of the main challenger called the move a "dangerous precedent" on Sunday.

The list published Saturday by Senegal's Constitutional Council named 20 candidates, including Prime Minister Amadou Ba, who has the backing of outgoing President Macky Sall and is seen as a major contender.

Opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who finished third in the country's 2019 presidential election,was disqualified from the ballot because he faces a six-month suspended sentence following his conviction for defamation, the Constitutional Council said.

"This conviction renders him ineligible for a period of five years," the council said.

Sonko, who currently is imprisoned on a different charge, was widely seen as the politician with the best chance of defeating Sall's ruling party. His PASTEF party, which authorities dissolved last year, called Sonko's disqualification "the most dangerous precedent in the political history of Senegal."

The council also deemed Karim Wade, another opposition leader and the son of former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, as ineligible for the ballot. It said Wade had dual citizenship at the time he formally declared his presidential candidacy, although he had renounced his French nationality three days earlier.

"The recent decision of the Constitutional Council is scandalous, it is a blatant attack on democracy (and) violates my fundamental right to participate in the presidential election," Wade wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Constitutional Council's decision could further complicate preparations for the Feb. 25 election. Opposition supporters accused Sall's government last year of clamping down on their activities, and some protests in support of Sonko turned deadly.