Dozens killed as army, rivals battle for control of Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — The Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group battled for control of the chaos-stricken nation for a second day Sunday, signaling they were unwilling to end hostilities despite mounting diplomatic pressure to cease fire.
A doctors' group said that at least 56 civilians were killed and that it believed there were dozens of additional deaths among the rival forces. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said close to 600 people were wounded, including civilians and fighters.
The clashes capped months of heightened tensions between the military and its partner-turned-rival, the Rapid Support Forces group. Those tensions had delayed a deal with political parties to get the country back to its short-lived transition to democracy, which was derailed by an October 2021 military coup.
Heavy fighting raged Sunday in the capital of Khartoum and the adjoining city of Omdurman, There were fierce clashes around the military headquarters, Khartoum International Airport and state television headquarters, said Tahani Abass, a prominent rights advocate.
“The battles have not stopped,” she said from her family home close to the military headquarters. “They are shooting against each other in the streets. It’s an all-out war in residential areas.”
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G-7 talks may measure allies' reaction to US documents leak
HANOI (AP) — While the Biden administration sees minimal damage from the disclosure of highly classified documents related to the war in Ukraine and U.S. views of its allies and partners, that assessment will get its first real test when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets in Japan with counterparts from six of America’s closest foreign friends.
The three days of talks between the Group of Seven foreign ministers, which begin Sunday, may shed light on whether the disclosure has harmed trust between the allies or is only the latest embarrassment for the U.S, which has been grappling with the fallout from leaks of highly sensitive secrets over the past decade.
Blinken said Saturday he had heard no concerns from allies, but the revelations, and the arrest of a relatively low-level suspect in the leaks, will loom over the G-7 meeting, the first major international diplomatic conference since the documents were discovered online and made public.
“We have engaged with our allies and partners since these leaks came out, and we have done so at high levels, and we have made clear our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and our commitment to our security partnerships,” Blinken told reporters in Hanoi before leaving for Japan.
“What I’ve heard so far at least is an appreciation for the steps that we’re taking, and it’s not affected our cooperation,” he said. “I just haven’t seen that, I haven’t heard that. And, of course, the investigation is taking its course.”
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Kamala Harris rallies as high court eyes abortion pill rules
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday urged Americans to take action during “a critical point in our nation’s history” as thousands of protesters demonstrated across the country against new limits to abortion rights making their way through the courts.
Saturday’s nationwide rallies were sparked by the U.S. Supreme Court’s actions the day before, when the high court intervened to delay rule changes that would have limited the way the abortion drug mifepristone could be used and dispensed. The limits were paused while the court reviews the case more thoroughly.
Harris made a surprise stop in Los Angeles at one of the rallies, where she called the latest upheaval over abortion rights a further incursion by conservatives into myriad “fundamental rights” many Americans thought they had.
“And so this is a moment that history will show required each of us — based on our collective love of our country — to stand up, and fight for, and protect our ideals. That’s what this moment is,” she said Saturday, speaking to several hundred demonstrators from the steps of City Hall. “When you attack the rights of women in America, you are attacking America.”
Some of the protesters voiced their anger at the steps of the nation's high court, which took Friday's action at the request of the federal Justice Department. The agency asked the high court to lift restrictions on mifepristone imposed by an appellate court in Texas earlier in the week. The decision by the appellate court reduced the window of time when the drug could be used and prevented the drug from being dispensed by mail.
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Jimmy Carter and Playboy: How 'the weirdo factor' rocked '76
PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter already had drawn months of media scrutiny as a devout Southern Baptist running for president. Then the 1976 Democratic nominee brought up sex and sin as he explained his religious faith to Playboy magazine.
Carter was not misquoted. But he was certainly misunderstood, as his thoughts in the wide-ranging interview were reduced in the popular imagination to utterances about “lust” and “adultery.”
Nearly a half-century later, as the 98-year-old Carter receives hospice care in the same south-Georgia home where he once spoke with Playboy journalists, interviewer Robert Scheer still believes Carter was treated unfairly. He recalls the former president as a “real” and “serious” figure whose intent was smothered by the intensity of a campaign's closing stretch.
“Jimmy Carter was a thoughtful guy,” Scheer, now 87, told The Associated Press. “But that got lost here. I’ve never seen a story like it. It was worldwide. ... It just never went away.”
Political disaster ensued. Rosalynn Carter was suddenly being asked whether she trusted her husband. The fallout, in Carter’s words, “nearly cost me the election.”
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Explosive thrown at Japan PM at campaign event; 1 hurt
WAKAYAMA, Japan (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed Saturday after someone threw an explosive device in his direction while he was campaigning at a fishing port in western Japan, officials said. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air.
One police officer was slightly hurt and Kishida continued campaigning Saturday, but the chaotic scene was reminiscent of the assassination nine months ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which also came on a campaign tour and continues to reverberate in Japanese politics. Kishida was visiting Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture to support his ruling party’s candidate in a local election, and the explosion occurred just before he was to begin his speech.
A young man believed to be a suspect was arrested Saturday at the scene after he allegedly threw “the suspicious object,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Matsuno refused to comment on the suspect’s motive and background, saying police are still investigating.
TV footage shows Kishida standing with his back to the crowd. His security detail suddenly points to the ground near him, and the prime minister whips around, looking alarmed. The camera quickly turns to the crowd just as several people, including uniformed and plainclothes police officers, converge on a young man wearing a white surgical mask and holding what appears to be another device, a long silver tube.
As they collapse on top of the man, working to remove the tube from his hands, a large explosion is heard near where Kishida had been standing. The crowd scatters in panic as police roughly drag the man away.
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What to know about 1st test flight of SpaceX's big Starship
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship.
It's the biggest and mightiest rocket ever built, with the lofty goals of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.
Jutting almost 400 feet (120 meters) into the South Texas sky, Starship could blast off as early as Monday, with no one aboard. Musk's company got the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday.
It will be the first launch with Starship's two sections together. Early versions of the sci-fi-looking upper stage rocketed several miles into the stratosphere a few years back, crashing four times before finally landing upright in 2021. The towering first-stage rocket booster, dubbed Super Heavy, will soar for the first time.
For this demo, SpaceX won’t attempt any landings of the rocket or the spacecraft. Everything will fall into the sea.
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Young people drive bullfighting's resurrection in Spain
MADRID (AP) — Álvaro Alarcón plays out the moment when he will enter Madrid's Las Ventas bullring for his final challenge as a “novillero,” or apprentice bullfighter.
The 24-year-old has been training in the dusty countryside outside the Spanish capital, and his skintight suit, delicately woven with beads and gold embroidery, is back from the tailor. If he can triumph this last time, he will be considered for the highest rank of “matador" — bullfighters who take on beasts weighing more than half a ton.
“From the moment you get up until you go to bed, and even when you are asleep, you are dreaming about what you want to do in the bullring,” he said. “Being a bullfighter is a way of life.”
The death of Spanish bullfighting has been declared many times, but the number of bullfights in the country is at its highest level in seven years, and the young are the most consistent presence as older groups of spectators drop away.
On a Sunday afternoon, Alarcón must kill two young bulls by driving a sword through their shoulder blades, puncturing the animals' aortas. He is cheered on by hundreds of children and teenagers among the 8,700 people who turn out to watch from the stands. In an age of almost unlimited entertainment choices, it's a serious statement.
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China auto show highlights intense electric car competition
SHANGHAI (AP) — Global and Chinese automakers plan to unveil more than a dozen new electric SUVs, sedans and muscle cars this week at the Shanghai auto show, their first full-scale sales event in four years in a market that has become a workshop for developing electrics, self-driving cars and other technology.
Automakers are competing to roll out faster, more luxurious, more feature-drenched electric vehicles in the technology’s biggest, most crowded market. The ruling Communist Party has invested billions of dollars in subsidies to buy an early lead in an emerging industry. Established global brands face intense competition from Chinese rivals.
For the first time since 2019, executives are flying in from the United States, Europe and Japan for the world’s biggest auto show after anti-virus curbs that blocked most travel into China were lifted in December. Auto shows in the industry’s biggest market went ahead during the pandemic, but on a smaller scale. Global brands were represented by employees of their China operations.
Drivers in the world's biggest auto market bought 5.4 million pure-electric vehicles last year, or about two-thirds of the global total of 8 million, plus 1.5 million gasoline-electric hybrids. That was more than one-quarter of total auto sales of 23.6 million. This year’s EV sales are forecast to rise another 30%.
“Consumers lost interest in gasoline cars. That is the biggest challenge for foreign brands to compete in China,” said industry analyst John Zeng of LMC Automotive. “They are going to have to show their best EV products.”
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NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence
IMATRA, Finland (AP) — The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia - primarily meant to curb illegal migration - has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.
The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building of the initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence to be erected in Pelkola near a crossing point off Imatra, a quiet lakeside town of some 25,000 people.
Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.
Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government amid wide political support last year. The main purpose of the three-meter (10-foot) high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities, Finnish border officials say.
In 2015-2016, Moscow attempted to influence Finland by organizing large numbers of asylum-seekers to northern Finnish crossing points in the Arctic Lapland region. Russian authorities were seen deliberately ushering thousands of asylum-seekers - mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East nations - to those border crossing points.
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Fox leads Kings past Warriors 126-123 in playoff return
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — De'Aaron Fox finished off a dazzling playoff debut that was years in the making and had one more task to do.
With the home crowd counting down following an exhilarating return to the postseason, Fox pressed the button and lit the ceremonial beam, letting out 17 seasons of frustration for Sacramento.
“Sacramento showed out tonight,” Fox said. “But doing this for the fans, just knowing the way that they support this team through thick and thin — really thin. It’s just a testament to the way they are."
Fox was the biggest reason why, scoring 38 points to tie for the second highest playoff debut in NBA history to lead the Kings to a 126-123 victory over the defending-champion Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
Fox scored 29 points in the second half after taking time to adjust to the playoff physicality and hit the 3-pointer that gave Sacramento the lead for good late in the fourth quarter.
The Associated Press
