Kamala Harris invites voters to chart a 'new way forward' as she accepts Democratic nomination
CHICAGO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris told voters they have a chance to chart a "new way forward" as Americans this November, as she looked to introduce herself to voters and prosecute her case against Republican Donald Trump as she accepted her party's nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention.
Harris walked onstage to thunderous applause and a long standing ovation as convention-goers chanted her name, before beginning her remarks.
“Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past,” Harris said, as she accepted the nomination. “A chance to chart a New Way Forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
Harris' address in Chicago caps a whirlwind eight weeks in American politics and manifests the stunning reversal of Democratic fortunes just 75 days until Election Day. Party leaders, who had publicly despaired over President Joe Biden's candidacy after his disastrous debate against Trump, were jubilant both at the historic nature of Harris' candidacy and their buoyed hopes for this November.
“America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys," she said.
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The Latest: Kamala Harris accepts the Democratic presidential nomination
The Democratic National Convention's fourth and final night Thursday is crescendoing with a speech from Vice President Kamala Harris.
After a week of Democrats’ most prominent figures rallying the party faithful, Harris has accepted her party’s nomination for president during a speech in which she's widely expected to offer her vision and policy agenda to the American people.
The theme of the final night is “For Our Future,” according to convention organizers.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the Latest:
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Harris' big moment, Dems' rising stars, Gaza protesters shut out. Takeaways from DNC's last night
CHICAGO (AP) — The Democratic National Convention wraps up Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting her party's presidential nomination. She is the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be nominated, and supporters turned out in white to mark the moment.
Ahead of Harris' appearance in the convention hall, rising Democratic stars were to address the crowd, along with survivors of mass shootings and others who were showcasing different issues. Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Donald Trump and sat on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack, also spoke.
The crowded lineup reflects the immense work Democrats have before them as they've stood up a fresh presidential campaign in just under a month since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race.
Here are some takeaways from the Democrats' final night.
The convention didn't just formally mark the exit of 81-year-old Biden from the campaign. It served as a showcase for the younger Democrats in the political talent pool.
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'The answer is no': Pro-Palestinian delegates say their request for a speaker at DNC was shut down
CHICAGO (AP) — Leaders of an “Uncommitted” movement, which garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries across the nation in protest of the Israel-Hamas war, have been negotiating for weeks to secure a speaking slot for a Palestinian American at the Democratic National Convention this week.
The negotiations stalled late Wednesday when leaders with the Uncommitted National Movement say a Democratic National Committee official called and delivered a firm response: “The answer is no.”
The leader, Abbas Alawieh, an “Uncommitted” delegate to the convention and co-founder of the movement, described the call as shocking after weeks of talks that he felt were positive. In response, he and other delegates decided to stage a sit-in outside Chicago’s United Center, where the convention is being held. They spent the night on the sidewalk on Wednesday, and vowed to remain until their request was granted or the convention ended Thursday night.
“When we ran out of options — doing everything we can and working from the inside, when we ran out of options as uncommitted delegates, we just sat down,” Alawieh said in an interview Thursday.
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
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Trump uses a stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams in Arizona to contrast with Democrats
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) — On a dirt road below the shrub-dotted hills of Arizona, Donald Trump used a stretch of wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a visual contrast between his approach to securing the border and that of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump brought along grieving mothers, the sheriff of Cochise County and the head of the Border Patrol union to echo his tough-on-border security message at Thursday's visit, which was themed “Make America Safe Again.”
“To my right is what we call Trump wall. This was wall that was built under President Trump,” said Paul Perez, the president of the Border Patrol union. “To my left, we have what we call Kamala wall. It's just sitting there doing nothing, lying down.”
The visit was the fourth in a series of events held in battleground states this week to try to draw the focus away from Democrats’ celebration of Harris’ presidential nomination in Chicago. Speakers at the convention on Wednesday night accused Trump of using the border to stir up his base by demonizing immigrants.
Joining Thursday’s border visit were the mothers of children who were killed during the Biden administration in cases where the suspects are immigrants in the country illegally. Trump frequently highlights attacks involving immigrants to fuel concerns about the Biden administration policies, though some studies have found that people living in the U.S. illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.
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The US is sending $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, officials say
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will send about $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as Washington works to get a better understanding of Kyiv's incursion into Russia and how it advances the broader battlefield goals more than two years into the war.
U.S. officials said the latest package of aid includes air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armor missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, vehicles and other equipment.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not been publicly announced. The formal announcement could come as soon as Friday, which is the eve of Ukraine's Independence Day.
The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which means they are taken from Pentagon stockpiles and can be delivered more quickly.
The aid comes as Ukrainian forces continue to broaden their surprise offensive into Russia, where officials say they have taken about 100 square kilometers (62 square miles) of territory around Kursk. Russian troops, meanwhile, are making gains in the east, around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub.
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Zelenskyy makes 1st visit to border area where Ukrainian forces launched offensive into Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his first visit Thursday to the border area where his forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia, saying that Kyiv's military had taken control of another Russian village and captured more prisoners of war.
While in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, Zelenskyy said the new POWs from the Russian region of Kursk would help build an “exchange fund” to swap for captured Ukrainians.
“Another settlement in the Kursk region is now under Ukrainian control, and we have replenished the exchange fund,” Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X after hearing a report from his country's top military commander, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Zelenskyy did not name the newly captured village and did not cross over into Russia, which would been regarded by Moscow as a provocation. He previously has said that Ukraine has no plans to occupy the area long term but wants to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks from that area into Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said the Kursk operation launched Aug. 6 has reduced Russian shelling and civilian casualties in the Sumy region.
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Surprise text focuses murder trial of ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas reporter
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A surprise text ended a prosecutor’s questioning Thursday of a former Las Vegas-area politician standing trial in the killing of a veteran investigative reporter, after a long day of sometimes rambling testimony during which the defendant declared that he never killed anyone.
In a hushed courtroom, before a rapt jury with a murder conviction on the line, prosecutor Christopher Hamner asked defendant Robert Telles to read a message showing that Telles’ wife wondered where he was about the time reporter Jeff German was ambushed and killed outside his home nearly two years ago.
“It says, ‘Where are you?’” Telles responded.
Telles testified earlier that he ignored several text, email and voice messages while he was at home, went for a walk and then to a gym the day German was killed. Prosecutors have suggested he left the phone at home as he executed a meticulously planned fatal attack on the journalist.
Hamner zeroed in on cellphone records presented Wednesday by a defense witness that included no listing of the text from Telles' wife. The prosecutor said it was found separately, on her Apple watch device.
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Canada forces arbitration in freight train labor dispute to avert economic crisis. Union cries foul
TORONTO (AP) — Freight trains in Canada could be running again within days after the government forced the country’s two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union Thursday, a move aimed at averting potentially dire economic consequences across the country and in the U.S. if the trains are sidelined for a long period.
The government’s action came more than 16 hours after Canadian National and CPKC locked out workers over a labor agreement impasse. Both railroads said they would work to get trains moving again as soon as possible.
The union representing 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers responded angrily to the order, accusing the railroads of intentionally creating a crisis to force the government to intervene. It also said it would keep its picket lines in place while reviewing the decision.
The government ordered the railroads into arbitration with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference to end the lockout that began at 12:01 a.m. Thursday after the two sides were unable to resolve the contract dispute.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the decision to order the arbitration at a news conference Thursday. MacKinnon said he expects the trains will resume moving within days. Ending the lockouts is the first step.
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US government indicts Guatemalan suspect on smuggling charges over deaths of 53 migrants in trailer
A suspect arrested in Guatemala has been charged with helping coordinate the 2022 smuggling attempt that ended in the deaths of 53 migrants in Texas, the Justice Department announced Thursday, marking what U.S. officials called a significant expansion of their investigation into the horrific discovery inside an abandoned tractor-trailer on a back road.
U.S. authorities they will seek the extradition of Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, who is charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury in the deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. Authorities alleged he can be connected to four Guatemalan migrants in the trailer, three of whom died, and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
“We will pursue you, whether you are hiding in the United States or you’re hiding elsewhere,” U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza said at a news conference in San Antonio.
Miranda Orozco, 47, is the first person arrested outside of the country to face charges in the U.S. in connection with the investigation. Esparza said seven people have been arrested in the U.S. Guatemalan officials announced the arrests of Miranda Orozco and six more people accused of helping smuggle the migrants Wednesday. Of those, only Miranda Orozco faces extradition to the U.S. and the others will be tried in Guatemala, Esparza said.
Carlos Merida, a lawyer for Miranda Orozco in Guatemala, said his client did not accept the charges, instead saying he was a regular citizen “who was a migrant in the north (U.S.) for 15 years.”
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