NEW YORK (AP) — To its members, it’s a grassroots army of “joyful warriors” who “don’t co-parent with the government.”

To anti-hate researchers, it’s a well-connected extremist group that attacks inclusion in schools.

And to Republicans vying for the presidency

Moms for Liberty didn’t exist during the last presidential campaign, but the Florida-based nonprofit that champions “ parental rights ” in education has rapidly become a major player for 2024, boosted in part by GOP operatives, politicians and donors.

11 June 2023; MEMO: Iraq has agreed to pay about $2.76 billion in gas and electricity debt to Iran after receiving a sanctions waiver from the United States, a senior Iraqi foreign ministry official said.

(AP) --- State and federal investigators were trying to find out Monday why a tanker fire collapsed a section of the East Coast’s main north-south highway, throwing hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupting commerce for untold numbers of businesses.

Interstate 95 will be closed in both directions for weeks at the start of summer travel season. Motorists should expect extensive delays and street closures, and avoid the northeast corner of the sixth-largest city in the country, transportation officials said.

BEIJING, June 12. /TASS/: China does not spy on the United States from a base in Cuba and cannot provide any information about a rumored possible visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday.

"Regarding the so-called spying that China allegedly carries out from Cuba - this is a falsehood," he told a news briefing, while responding to a Western journalist. Asked for a comment on the outlook for Blinken’s visit to China, Wang replied that "I don't have any information at the moment that I can disseminate."

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq urged countries on Monday to repatriate their citizens from a sprawling camp in Syria housing tens of thousands linked to the extremist Islamic State group, saying it has become a “source for terrorism.”

The statements were made during a conference in Baghdad discussing al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Iraqi officials, the U.N. representative in Iraq, some members of the international coalition fighting IS and ambassadors of several countries were present.

June 12 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday it has signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after Russia's powerful mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to do so.

The signing followed an order that all "volunteer units" should sign contracts by July 1 bringing them under the control of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, as Moscow tries to assert its control over private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine.

VOLKEL AIR BASE, Netherlands June 12 (Reuters) - Ukrainian pilots could begin training to fly U.S.-manufacture F-16 fighter jets as soon as this summer, the Dutch defense minister has told Reuters, a first step toward supplying Kyiv with a powerful, long-term capability in its war with Russia.

BRATISLAVA, June 12. /TASS/: Arms warehouses across Europe have been emptied and it will take from 5 to 10 years to replenish them, former Slovak Prime Minister and leader of the Voice-Social Democracy Party Peter Pellegrini said.

"[Arms] depots have been drained across entire Europe, all armies will replenish <…> supplies. This is 5-10 years’ worth of work," the pravda.sk portal quoted him as saying. The politician thinks that Slovakia will not be able to provide substantial military aid to Ukraine anymore due to the lack of resources.

11 June 2023; MEMO: The European Union is considering over 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in aid for Tunisia to help develop its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with a migration crisis, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Speaking in Tunisia, von der Leyen said 900 million euros in macrofinancial assistance, plus an immediate 150 million euros in budget support could be ready "as soon as the necessary agreement is found", without elaborating.

NEW DELHI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness for Cyclone Biparjoy, which has intensified near the western coastal areas.

Modi advised local authorities to take every possible measure to ensure that people living in vulnerable locations are safely evacuated, and ensure maintenance of all essential services with preparedness for immediate restoration in the event of damages, said an official statement.

ADDIS ABABA, June 12 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Ethiopia has criticised the suspension of food aid to the country by the United States and the UN World Food Program (WFP). 

Government spokesman Legesse Tulu, called the decision “political” saying the suspension “punishes millions of people”. More than 15% of the country’s population depends on food aid.

On Thursday, USAID, the US government’s international aid agency, announced the suspension of its food aid, denouncing a “widespread and coordinated detour operation”.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkey’s president said Monday that any deal resolving Cyprus’ nearly half-century ethnic division must be based on recognition of a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the island nation’s northern third.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks in the north during his first overseas visit after his reelection last month aren’t new, but suggest that Ankara’s policy line on Cyprus remains unwavering, despite international condemnation of the two-state deal proposal that runs contrary to U.N. resolutions calling for a single, federated Cyprus.