MADISON, Wisconsin: Voters lined up across battleground Wisconsin to cast their ballots Tuesday on the first day of early, in-person voting, as former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz urged supporters in the liberal capital city to do the same.
Donald Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin, and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early.
Walz, the governor of neighboring Minnesota, called Harris the underdog and encouraged voters to do all they can to get people to the polls.
“Even one or two extra votes per precinct will be enough to win this thing and send Kamala to the White House,” Walz said.
Obama, the only president to carry Wisconsin by more than a percentage point in the past six elections, said he drove to the event from Chicago after his plane was leaking oil. Obama mocked Trump, calling him “loonier” than he was in 2016.
“We know this election is going to be tight,” Obama said when urging early voting. “It’s going to be tight here in Wisconsin, its going to be tight all across our country.”
Obama was headed to neighboring Michigan later Tuesday, among the several stops the former president is making in battleground states to encourage early voting.
Voters lined up Tuesday in communities across Wisconsin, including in the liberal strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison and in conservative suburban Milwaukee communities. Hours and locations for early voting varied across the state.
Trump has been highly critical of voting by mail during past elections, falsely claiming it was ripe with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are embracing all forms of voting, including by mail and early in-person. Trump himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month.
Higher turnout from Republicans has led to breaking records for ballots cast before November in key states such as Georgia and North Carolina.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said given the new push from Trump and Republicans in support of early voting, “Democrats should expect Republicans to vote in massive numbers.”
“Across the country, the bigger question is how many Republicans are voting early for Trump and how many who voted for him in the past are voting for Harris,” Wikler said.
Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said Monday that Trump and Republicans have been “very clear” in their support for voting early. Schimming even put in a plug for using absentee ballot drop boxes, a method of returning ballots that Trump once opposed and that some Wisconsin Republicans still do.
“We need to avail ourselves of every imaginable way to get votes in,” Schimming said on a press call.
Numerous Republican officeholders and candidates voted Tuesday. One of them, Republican US Senate candidate Eric Hovde, said after casting his ballot at the village hall in Shorewood Hills, a Madison suburb, that early voting is part of the election process now.
Hovde encouraged others to vote early because it’s impossible to predict what might happen on Election Day.
Harris has been spending a lot of time in the ” blue wall ” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign, including stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs on Sunday.
The Wisconsin Democratic Party was also staging events across Wisconsin to encourage early voting, as were liberal advocacy groups including Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee-based organization that targets Black voters. That is a key demographic for Democrats in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also the source of the highest number of Democratic votes.
Early voting in Wisconsin began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. Voters do not need to give a reason for voting absentee. Ballots started being sent by mail in late September, but beginning Tuesday voters can request one at designated voting locations and cast their ballot in person.
As of Monday, more than 360,000 absentee ballots had already been returned in Wisconsin. Voters can continue to return them by mail, in person, or at absentee ballot drop boxes in communities where those are available. All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Obama and Walz urge Democrats to vote early in battleground Wisconsin
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Obama and Walz urge Democrats to vote early in battleground Wisconsin
- Walz called Harris the underdog and encouraged voters to do all they can to get people to the polls.
Man accused of trying to assassinate Trump apologizes to potential jurors
- Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania
FORT PIERCE, Florida: The man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump while he played golf last year in South Florida stood before a group of potential jurors in a Florida courtroom on Monday and said he was “sorry for bringing you all in here.”
Ryan Routh, wearing a gray sports coat, red tie with white stripes and khaki slacks, is representing himself in the trial that began with jury selection on Monday in the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
“Thank you for being here,” Routh told the first group of 60 jurors who were brought into the courtroom after US District Judge Aileen Cannon introduced prosecutors and Routh to the panel.
Cannon signed off on Routh’s request to represent himself but said court-appointed attorneys needed to remain as standby counsel.
During a hearing earlier to go over questions that would be asked of jurors, Routh was partially shackled. But he did not appear to be restrained when the first of three batches of 60 potential jurors were brought into the courtroom on Monday afternoon.
Cannon dismissed the questions Routh wanted to ask jurors as irrelevant earlier Monday. They included asking jurors about their views on Gaza, the talk of the US acquiring Greenland and what they would do if they were driving and saw a turtle in the road.
The judge approved most of the other questions for jurors submitted by prosecutors.
The panel of 120 potential jurors filled out questionnaires on Monday morning and the first group was brought into the courtroom during the afternoon session. The judge inquired about any hardships that would prevent them from sitting as jurors during a weeks-long trial. Twenty-seven noted hardships and the judge dismissed 20 of them on Monday.
The other two groups of jurors will return to the courtroom on Tuesday morning for similar questioning. Those who are not dismissed will then return at 2 p.m. Tuesday for further questioning about the case and their views.
The court has blocked off four weeks for Routh’s trial, but attorneys are expecting they’ll need less time.
Jury selection was expected to take three days in an effort to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements were scheduled to begin Thursday, and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that.
Cannon told Routh last week that he would be allowed to use a podium while speaking to the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free rein of the courtroom.
Cannon is a Trump-appointed judge who drew scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. The case became mired in delays as motions piled up over months, and was ultimately dismissed by Cannon last year after she concluded that the special counsel tapped by the Justice Department to investigate Trump was illegally appointed.
Routh’s trial begins nearly a year after prosecutors say a US Secret Service agent thwarted Routh’s attempt to shoot the Republican presidential nominee. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.
Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear, before being shot by a Secret Service counter sniper.
Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.
Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who prosecutors said informed officers that he saw a person fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witnesses confirmed it was the person he had seen, prosecutors have said.
The judge last week unsealed the prosecutor’s 33-page list of exhibits that could be introduced as evidence at the trial. It says prosecutors have photos of Routh holding the same model of semi-automatic rifle found at Trump’s club.
Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he was arrested in 2002 for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.
Trump note to Epstein that he denies signing is released by Congress
- The White House said US President Donald Trump did not sign or draw an alleged birthday note to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that was released on Monday by Democratic lawmakers
- Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and held as an article of faith that “deep state” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood
WASHINGTON: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Monday a sexually suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein purportedly signed by President Donald Trump, which he has denied.
The letter was included as part of a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier who was once a friend of Trump’s. The full House committee on Monday night released a copy of the entire album, which bore names of some other prominent figures such as former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz in a “friends” section, and included other letters with sexually provocative language.
Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter, and he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for earlier reporting on his link to the letter.
“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement posted on X. “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted various pictures on X of Trump’s signature over the years and wrote, “it’s not his signature.”
As House Republicans left the Capitol on Monday night, many waved off questions about the letter, echoing a similar theme.
“It’s not his signature. I’ve seen Donald Trump sign a million things,” said Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.
Rep. Thomas Massie, who is leading a bipartisan push for a House vote to force the Justice Department to release its Epstein files, downplayed the letter’s relevance entirely.
“It doesn’t prove anything. Having a birthday card from Trump doesn’t help the survivors and the victims,” Massie said.
The release of the drawing comes as the president has for months faced increasing pressure to force more disclosure in the case of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them, while Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by him.
It also once again puts a spotlight on Trump’s former friendship with Epstein, which the president has said ended two decades ago after a falling-out. Trump said recently that he cut ties with Epstein because he “stole” young women — including Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers — who worked for the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The case against Epstein was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Trump had suggested during the presidential campaign that he’d seek to open the government’s files into Epstein, but much of what the government has released so far had already been out there.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee received a copy of the birthday album on Monday as part of a batch of documents from Epstein’s estate.
Trump has denied writing the letter and creating the drawing, calling The Wall Street Journal report on it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said.
The letter released by the committee looks exactly as described by The Wall Street Journal in its report.
The letter bearing Trump’s name and what appears to be his signature includes text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a curvaceous woman.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter says.
The letter’s disclosure comes amid a bipartisan push in Congress for the release of the so-called Epstein files amid years of speculation and conspiracy theories. Calls for the release of the records came from Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, before he was sworn into the country’s No. 2 position.
The Justice Department in August began turning over records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
The committee subpoenaed the Epstein estate for documents last month. In addition to the birthday book, lawmakers requested Epstein’s last will and testament, agreements he signed with prosecutors, his contact books, and his financial transactions and holdings.
Russian-installed official reports Ukrainian attacks on Russian-held parts of Donetsk region
- Russia has formally annexed four regions, including Donetsk, and is engaged in a slow drive westward to capture the rest of the area
The Russia-installed head of occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region said late on Monday that Ukrainian forces had launched heavy drone and missile attacks on two cities in the area, killing two people and injuring 16.
Denis Pushilin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Ukrainian forces had struck targets in the region’s main city, also called Donetsk, and in Makiivka, an industrial town further north.
There was no comment from Ukrainian officials on the attacks.
Russian news agencies quoted security officials in the occupied areas as saying that at least 20 drones had been deployed in the two assaults and that air defense units were in action. They said explosions had resounded throughout the city of Donetsk and the air was hanging heavy with smoke.
The popular Russian war blog Rybar said there had also been explosions in Yenakiievo, another Russian-held industrial town, where it said at least one apartment block had been hit.
Russian forces, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, control a little less than 20 percent of all of Ukraine’s territory and about 75 percent of Donetsk region.
Russia has formally annexed four regions, including Donetsk, and is engaged in a slow drive westward to capture the rest of the area.
Nepal lifts ban on social media platforms after protests where police killed 19 people
- The Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak also resigned late Monday at an emergency Cabinet meeting called by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli
KATMANDU: Nepal’s government lifted ban on social media platforms Tuesday a day after violent street protests that left at least 19 people killed.
Some of the world’s largest platforms, including Facebook, X and YouTube were blocked last week, followed by a massive protest rally in the capital Kathmandu on Monday.
Police in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu opened fire Monday on demonstrators protesting a government attempt to regulate social media.
The Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak also resigned late Monday at an emergency Cabinet meeting called by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.
Rallies swept the streets around the Parliament building, which was surrounded by tens of thousands of people angry at authorities who said the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.
The gunfire unfolded as the government pursues a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable.” The proposal has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.
About two dozen social networks that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to register their companies officially in the Himalayan nation, the government said. Those that failed to register have been blocked since last week.
Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Elon Musk’s X platform did not respond either.
The video-sharing app TikTok, Viber and three other platforms have registered and operated without interruption.
The government imposed a curfew around Parliament, the government secretariat, the presidential house and key parts of the city and in two other cities of Nepal.
Seven of those killed and scores of the wounded were received at the National Trauma Center, the country’s main hospital in the heart of Kathmandu.
“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” said Dr. Badri Risa. Families waited anxiously outside for news of their relatives while people lined up to donate blood.
“Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” the crowds outside Parliament chanted, waving the red and blue national flags. Monday’s rally was called the protest of Gen Z, which generally refers to people born between 1995 and 2010.
The government’s proposed bill includes asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the country. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.
Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting “social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials.” The ban was lifted last year after TikTok’s executives pledged to comply with local laws, including a ban of pornographic sites that was passed in 2018.
Armed group linked to Al-Qaeda sets fuel trucks ablaze as it blockades imports to Mali
- Remadji Hoinathy, a security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, told the AP the blockade will cause a shortage, which will exacerbate economic difficulties and deter fuel transporters in the region from delivering to Mali
BAMAKO, Mali: A West African armed group affiliated to Al-Qaeda set fire to fuel tankers in Mali over the weekend, videos showed, as the militants sought to tighten their grip on the country’s economy by banning fuel imports from neighboring countries.
The trucks were coming from Ivory Coast and were attacked in Sikasso region in the south of the country, according to a security source in Sikasso who confirmed the videos to The Associated Press.
Last week, the spokesperson for the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) announced the blockade on Mali in a video posted online.
Mali’s transport ministry is meeting with representatives of transportation associations to discuss “these threats and find solutions,” a ministry spokesperson said.
JNIM is one of several armed groups operating in the Sahel, a vast strip of semi-arid desert stretching from North Africa to West Africa, which has been a site for a rapidly growing insurgency that has made the region a hot spot for militant attacks.
The group, which is considered the deadliest in the region, controls key cities in Mali and Burkina Faso. It has also carried out large-scale attacks in coastal countries along the Gulf of Guinea, including attacks on soldiers in Benin and Togo.
Experts say the fuel blockade is a significant development for the landlocked Sahelian country, which depends entirely on imports, mostly from neighboring Senegal and Ivory Coast, for its fuel needs.
Remadji Hoinathy, a security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, told the AP the blockade will cause a shortage, which will exacerbate economic difficulties and deter fuel transporters in the region from delivering to Mali.
The tactic could spread across the region as the deadly armed group is now focusing on regional economic infrastructure to put more pressure on governments, Honaithy warned.
“This is to bring more pressure on the military, the state, and their Russian partner,” Honaithy said. “It is a way of JNIM saying they are on the ground and have the capabilities of wreaking havoc.”
The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, fractured over a sharp rise in Islamist attacks across the region. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger withdrew from the bloc following coups in the three countries. They formed a separate multilateral security alliance in 2023, ditching long-term Western partners such as France for Russia. But data shows attacks have only increased since then.
