AP News Summary at 11:44 p.m. EDT (2024)

After smooth campaign start, Kamala Harris faces a crucial week ahead

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crowds are psyched. The campaign donations are flooding in. Volunteers are showing up at field offices in droves. After a mostly smooth two weeks of campaign startup, Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing for a crucial week that includes her most critical decision yet — choosing a running mate. She's also grappling with how to keep that early political momentum alive. Harris effectively has a deadline of Tuesday to select who will be her No. 2. It’s a high-pressure decision that usually spans several months, but in this case compressed into a matter of just weeks.

Trump again tears into Georgia's Republican governor on the same day he campaigns in the state

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump picked a new fight with Georgia’s Republican governor as he campaigned in the key swing state where he’s looking to reverse his narrow 2020 loss to Joe Biden. In a Truth Social post Saturday just ahead of his Atlanta rally, Trump said Gov. Brian Kemp should turn his focus to fighting crime in his home state, not “fighting Unity and the Republican Party!” Kemp has been the rare national-level Republican who has remained popular after feuding with Trump. Kemp had his backing in 2018 but lost Trump's support after defying the then-president’s demands to help overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss in his state.

Katie Ledecky swims into history with 800 freestyle victory at the Paris Olympics

NANTERRE, France (AP) — Katie Ledecky has capped another stellar Olympics by becoming only the second swimmer to win the same event at four straight Summer Games, holding off Ariarne Titmus to win the 800-meter freestyle. It was Ledecky’s second gold medal in Paris and ninth of her remarkable career, which marked another milestone. She becomes only the sixth Olympian to reach that figure, joining swimmer Mark Spitz, track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi in a tie for second place. The only athlete to win more golds: swimmer Michael Phelps with 23. Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh claimed her third individual gold with a victory in the 200 individual medley. And the U.S. closed the night by setting a world record in the mixed medley relay.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif clinches medal at Olympics after outcry fueled by gender misconceptions

VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria has clinched a medal at the Paris Olympics following days of sharp scrutiny and online abuse as misconceptions about her gender have exploded into a larger clash about identity in sports. Khelif beat Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the quarterfinals of the women’s 66-kilogram bout Saturday. Khelif will win at least a bronze medal after defeating Hamori for the second victory of her tumultuous second trip to the Olympics. Khelif faced outcry after the banned International Boxing Association claimed Khelif failed an unspecified eligibility test for women’s competition last year. She won her opening bout Thursday when opponent Angela Carini of Italy tearfully abandoned the fight after just 46 seconds.

Horror at deaths of 12 children unites Druze across borders. But Mideast's wars tear at their bonds

FARDIS, Lebanon (AP) — The strike a week ago in the Israeli-held Golan Heights that killed 12 Druze children unified Druze across the region in grief. It also laid bare the complex identity of the small, insular religious minority, whose members are spread across Israel, the Golan Heights, Lebanon and Syria. Each part of the community has taken different paths historically. Israeli Druze have a large role in their country's military, while Lebanese and Syrian Druze have fought Israel and backed Palestinians. They always tried to keep a common bond despite their differences, but that has been strained by fighting in Gaza and now by the threat of an all-out regional war.

Opposition leader joins rally calling for Venezuela presidential election results to be overturned

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Thousands of people rallied in the streets of Venezuela’s capital, waving the national flag and singing the national anthem in support of an opposition candidate they believe won the presidential election by a landslide. The government has declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of last Sunday's poll, but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. Opposition leaders say tally sheets they obtained from polling centers nationwide show Maduro clearly lost his bid for a third six-year term. Opposition leader María Corina Machado addressed the ecstatic crowd Saturday, saying “Never has the regime been so weak.”

Trump says he'll skip an ABC debate with Harris in September and wants them to face off on Fox News

CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump says he's pulling out of a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wants them to face off on Fox News. That seems to make it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will confront each other on stage before the November election. In social media posts late Friday, Trump said his agreement to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC “has been terminated” because he'll no longer face President Joe Biden. Trump says he'll appear on Fox News on Sept. 4. Harris' campaign says Trump "is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out.”

Israel kills militants in the West Bank as a nervous region watches latest on cease-fire talks

ZEITA, West Bank (AP) — Israel's army says two airstrikes in the West Bank have killed nine Palestinian militants as violence flares again in the Israeli-occupied territory. An Egyptian official says Saturday an Israeli delegation led by the Mossad chief briefly visited Cairo for cease-fire discussions. The United States has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize the chance for a cease-fire after the killing of Hamas’ political leader in Iran’s capital. Inside Gaza, the death toll in the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas is nearing 40,000. Protesters in various countries marked 300 days of the war.

Tropical Storm Debby moving through Gulf toward Florida with hurricane warnings

MIAMI (AP) — A tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico has strengthened into Tropical Storm Debby. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say the storm now has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as it moves toward Florida. They predict it will become a hurricane before coming ashore. Debby is likely to bring drenching rain and coastal flooding to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast by Sunday night. Forecasters warn it also could drop heavy rains over north Florida and the Atlantic coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina early next week. Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González's double life

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Among the Russians freed in this week's historic exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West was a Russian-born freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019. He had worked for Spanish news agency EFE, the Voice of America and other outlets. Among Warsaw-based reporters, Pablo González was known as a sociable man who liked to drink beer in bars and sing karaoke into the wee hours of the morning. Poland says he was an intelligence agent working for the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, but it's never held a trial or published details of the allegations.