North America

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Voters in Minneapolis were deciding Tuesday whether to replace the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety, more than a year after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a white police officer launched a movement to defund or abolish police across the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin wavered on his support for President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1.75 trillion domestic policy proposal, but Democratic leaders vowed to push ahead, with initial voting possible on the bill and a related $1 trillion infrastructure package in the House this week.

The West Virginia Democrat’s announcement Monday came as Democrats wanted assurances from Manchin that he will support Biden’s big package. He’s one of two key holdout senators whose votes are needed to secure the deal and push it toward passage.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The first major test of how voters feel about Joe Biden’s presidency is unfolding in Virginia, where a governor’s race that was supposed to be a comfortable win for Democrats is instead ending in suspense.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Both Democrats and Republicans brought out their heavy hitters in the runup to the special congressional election in central Ohio, as the parties sought to boost turnout in one of three off-year contests on the ballot Tuesday.

President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence swung into action to help their parties’ candidates in the race for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, a seat vacated by Republican Steve Stivers in May, when he left to lead the state Chamber of Commerce.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Southwest Airlines said Sunday it is conducting an internal investigation after one of its pilots used a phrase that’s become a stand-in for insulting President Joe Biden during the pilot’s greeting to passengers over the plane’s public address system last week.

The airline announced its investigation after The Associated Press reported the incident in a story about the growing use of the phrase “Let’s go, Brandon,” an aphorism in conservative circles for a vulgarity targeting Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former business partner of presidential son Hunter Biden who was seeking to overturn his criminal conviction for securities fraud.

As is typical, the justices did not comment in leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that reinstated the fraud conviction of Devon Archer. A lower court judge had earlier set aside a jury verdict that found Archer guilty of fraud and ordered a new trial.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was set to open Monday with the challenging task of seating jurors who haven’t already made up their minds about the young aspiring police officer who shot two people to death and wounded a third during a violent night of anti-racism protests last year.

(AP) --- The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 5 million on Monday, less than two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

Together, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Brazil — all upper-middle- or high-income countries — account for one-eighth of the world’s population but nearly half of all reported deaths. The U.S. alone has recorded over 745,000 lives lost, more than any other nation.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — People questioned during jury selection about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery have said he was “racially profiled” by the white men who chased and shot him, singled out “due to his color” and targeted for being “a Black person who was thought to have been stealing things.”

The statements came in response to blunt questions about race from prosecutors and defense attorneys who are trying to seat an impartial jury for the trial over Arbery’s death in the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick. The inquiries elicited some pointed responses.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A series of explosions, apparently caused by an illegal tap on a natural gas line, rocked the central Mexico city of Puebla before dawn Sunday, killing at least one person, injuring 11 and damaging dozens of homes, authorities said.

Puebla state Gov. Miguel Barbosa said an emergency call warning of a gas smell and cloud in the area gave officials about 80 minutes to evacuate some 2,000 people living as far as a kilometer (about s half mile) from the leak before the first of three explosions, which came shortly before 3 a.m.