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Pence says Trump and DeSantis do not understand broader importance of US military aid to Ukraine

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis do not grasp the broader implications of their call for limited military assistance to Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence told The Associated Press in Iowa Wednesday.

USA: Mayor Suarez launches an artificial intelligence chatbot for his presidential campaign

NEW YORK (AP) — A super PAC supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ‘s run for the Republican presidential nomination has launched an artificial intelligence chatbot to answer questions about him, marking yet another example of how generative AI tools are being used in 2024 presidential campaigns.

The bot unveiled Wednesday by SOS America PAC listens to a user’s questions and matches them to video answers, created with an AI-powered avatar made to look and sound like Suarez.

USA: Trump valet charged in classified documents case set again for arraignment after earlier delays

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump accused of helping the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities is due back in a Florida court on Thursday after an earlier appearance was postponed because of a canceled flight.

Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents, is set to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Miami. That was to have happened twice before already, but he has struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida to represent him.

USA: Meta takes aim at Twitter with the launch of rival app Threads

(AP) --- Meta has unveiled an app called Threads to rival Twitter, targeting users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk.

Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

Guantanamo detainees tell first independent visitor about scars from torture and hopes to leave

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — At the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the aging men known by their serial numbers arrived at the meeting shackled. Every single one told the visitor — for many the first independent person they had talked to in 20 years — “You came too late.”

But they still talked, about the scant contacts with their families, their many health problems, the psychological and physical scars of the torture and abuse they experienced, and their hopes of leaving and reuniting with loved ones.

Study says drinking water from nearly half of US faucets contains potentially harmful chemicals

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Drinking water from nearly half of U.S. faucets likely contains “forever chemicals” that may cause cancer and other health problems, according to a government study released Wednesday.

The synthetic compounds known collectively as PFAS are contaminating drinking water to varying extents in large cities and small towns — and in private wells and public systems, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

USA: Wisconsin probes how 8 roller-coaster riders became trapped upside down for hours

CRANDON, Wis. (AP) — State officials are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster — some of them for more than three hours — at a festival in Wisconsin.

The roller coaster’s cars got stuck near the top of a loop around 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Crandon International Offroad Raceway. Rescue workers arrived to find eight passengers hanging upside down from their safety harnesses. Firefighters used ladder trucks to reach them, securing each one before releasing their over-the-shoulder safety bars, the Crandon Fire Department said.

USA: Biden is heading to South Carolina to show his economic agenda is keeping even red states humming

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to South Carolina on Thursday to make the case that economic measures he pushed through Congress despite stiff Republican opposition are helping to keep the deep red state — and others that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 — humming.

Ahead of Biden’s visit to a state that he lost by nearly 12 percentage points in 2020, White House officials argued that if Republicans had their way, South Carolina, like many other Republican-controlled states, would have lost out on billions of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs.

USA: Trump posted what he said was Obama’s address, prosecutors say. An armed man was soon arrested there

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was the home address of former President Barack Obama on the same day that a man with guns in his van was arrested near the property, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in revealing new details about the case.

USA: World headed for climate disaster without urgent action: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 05 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the world has the power to “seek and unite for solutions” — even when beset by growing divisions and rising geopolitical tensions — to deal with three major challenges, including climate change, facing the humanity.

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