Voters split on whether Harris or Trump would do a better job on the economy: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — Going into November's election, neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has a decisive edge with the public on the economy, turning an issue that was once a clear strength for Trump into the equivalent of a political jump ball.

About 4 in 10 registered voters say Republican Trump would do a better job handling the economy, while a similar number say that about the Democratic vice president, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 1 in 10 voters don’t trust either candidate, and a similar share has equal faith in them.

The finding is a warning sign for Trump, who has tried to link Harris to President Joe Biden’s economic track record. The new poll suggests that Harris may be escaping some of the president’s baggage on the issue, undercutting what was previously one of Trump’s major advantages.

The economy has long been a weak issue for Biden: A separate AP-NORC poll conducted in late June, before Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump, found that about 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy. Earlier this year, Americans were much more likely to say that Trump's presidency helped the country on cost of living and job creation, compared to Biden's.

The new poll found that the economy is one of the most important issues for about 8 in 10 voters as they consider which candidate to support, dwarfing other top issues like health care and crime.

___

Harris looks for boost from Oprah as part of digital-first media strategy

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris looked for a boost with persuadable and less-motivated voters as she participated in a livestream Thursday evening with former talk show host Oprah Winfrey to focus on her plans to cut costs for the middle class, restore a national right to abortion and address gun violence.

The event, billed as “Unite for America,” and hosted by Winfrey from suburban Michigan, one of this election’s key battlegrounds, sought to tap into the same energy as long-running Winfrey’s talk show, which drove bestseller lists and allowed celebrities to share their softer side and everyday people to share stories of struggle and inspiration.

It leaned on celebrities like Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Lopez and Meryl Streep, but also the stories of ordinary voters to promote Harris' message over the course of 90 minutes and to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee. More than 300,000 people were watching the Harris campaign livestream on YouTube alone and the event was also being streamed on other major social media platforms.

“We each have those moments in our lives when it’s time to step up,” Harris said when Winfrey asked about her overnight transformation as she went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to being the Democratic nominee in her own right after he suddenly dropped out in July. “I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you, and with that comes a sense of purpose."

Winfrey told Harris it looked as if a “veil dropped” and she “stepped into your power."

___

Thousands of exploding devices in Lebanon trigger a nation that has been on edge for years

BEIRUT (AP) — Chris Knayzeh was in a town overlooking Lebanon's capital when he heard the rumbling aftershock of the 2020 Beirut port blast. Hundreds of tons of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrates had exploded, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands.

Already struggling with the country’s economic collapse, the sight of the gigantic mushroom cloud unleashed by the blast was the last straw. Like many other Lebanese, he quit his job and booked a one-way ticket out of Lebanon.

Knayzeh, now a lecturer at a university in France, was visiting Lebanon when news broke Tuesday of a deadly attack in which thousands of handheld pagers were blowing up in homes, shops, markets and streets across the country. Israel, local news reports said, was targeting the devices of the militant Hezbollah group. Stuck in Beirut traffic, Knayzeh started panicking that drivers around him could potentially be carrying devices that would explode.

Within minutes, hospitals were flooded with bloodied patients, bringing back painful reminders of the port blast four years ago that left enduring mental and psychological scars for those who lived through it.

A day later, a similar attack struck walkie-talkies. In total, the explosions killed at least 37 people and injured more than 3,000. Israel is widely believed to be behind the blasts, although it has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

___

Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from roofs during a West Bank raid

QABATIYA, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene and video obtained by AP.

An AP journalist in the town of Qabatiya witnessed three soldiers push the bodies off the roofs of adjacent multi-story buildings, sending them falling out of view. It was the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians.

“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values ??and the expectations from IDF soldiers," the military said in a statement, using the acronym it goes by. "The incident is under review.”

Israel said its troops had killed four militants during operations in Qabatiya on Thursday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah did not immediately confirm multiple deaths, but said one person had been killed in the town and that Israeli gunfire sent 10 Palestinians to the hospital.

___

Western nations were desperate for Korean babies. Now many adoptees believe they were stolen

Yooree Kim marched into a police station in Paris and told an officer she wanted to report a crime. Forty years ago, she said, she was kidnapped from the other side of the world, and the French government endorsed it.

She wept as she described years spent piecing it together, stymied at every turn to get an answer to a simple question: How was she, a bright, diligent schoolgirl, with known parents whom she loved, documented as an abandoned orphan in South Korea in 1984 and sent to strangers in France? She believes the government of France — along with many Western nations — allowed families to “mail order children” through international adoption, and did nothing to protect them.

“They were reckless,” she said. “They never questioned anything. They never checked where I was from. They never checked whether my parents existed or not.”

Kim was caught in an adoption machine that sent hundreds of thousands of Korean children to families in the United States, Europe and Australia. Now adults, many have since discovered that their adoption paperwork was untrue, and their quest for accountability now has spread far beyond South Korea’s borders to the Western countries that claimed them.

Those governments turned a blind eye to rampant fraud and sometimes pressured the South Korean government to keep the kids coming, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. Documents show that at the peak of adoptions from South Korea, Western diplomats processed papers like an assembly line, despite evidence that adoption agencies were aggressively competing for babies to send abroad, pressuring mothers and paying hospitals. Governments focused on satisfying intense demand from Western families desperate for children.

___

The EU's chief is trying to help Ukraine prepare for winter. Half its energy network is destroyed.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Ukraine on Friday focused on helping the country to repair and reconnect its war-damaged electricity grid and boost its heating capacity as winter approaches.

Around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed during its war with Russia, and rolling electricity blackouts leave parts of the east in darkness for four hours at a time. Von der Leyden said it was as though all of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had lost electricity.

Meanwhile, winter is approaching.

“Heating season starts in two weeks and Russia’s relentless attacks on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure aims to inflict maximum damage,” von der Leyen said as she arrived in Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We will help Ukraine in its brave efforts to overcome this.”

The main aim is to help Ukraine decentralize its power grid, and to become less reliant on the big power stations that make easier targets for Russian forces. Around 260 missiles rained down in a major attack on energy infrastructure late last month.

___

Shohei Ohtani surpasses 50-50 milestone in spectacular fashion with a 3-homer, 2-steal game

MIAMI (AP) — Shohei Ohtani looked up at a visiting crowd that turned out to cheer him and the Los Angeles Dodgers — and ended up getting to witness one of the greatest individual performances, and seasons, in major league history.

Fans lifted their phones to capture the moment and chanted “M-V-P!” as Ohtani rounded the bases after he cleared the fence for the 50th time, becoming the first major league player with at least 50 home runs and and 50 stolen bases in a season.

The most amazing thing about it? Ohtani's day wasn't even finished.

Ohtani raced past the 50-50 milestone in the most spectacular game of his history-making career, becoming the first big league player to hit three homers and steal two bases in a game during a 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins on Thursday that also secured a playoff spot for the Dodgers.

“I almost cried, to be honest,” Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “It was a lot of emotions because of everything that happens behind the scenes that we got to witness every single day.”

___

It's been a decade since 43 students disappeared in Mexico. Their parents still fight for answers

TIXTLA, México (AP) — Clemente Rodríguez has been documenting the long search for his missing son with tattoos.

First, it was an ink drawing of a turtle — a symbol of 19-year-old Christian Rodríguez's school — with a smaller turtle on its shell. Then, an image of Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, accompanied by the number 43. Later, a tiger for strength and a dove for hope.

“How else is my son going to know that I have been looking for him?” asked Rodríguez. To the heartbroken father, the body art is evidence that he never stopped searching — proof he could perhaps one day show to his boy.

On Sept. 26, 2014, Christian Rodríguez, a tall boy who loved to folk dance and had just enrolled in a teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero, disappeared along with 42 classmates. Every year since, on the 26th of each month, Clemente Rodríguez, his wife, Luz María Telumbre, and other families meet at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa and take a long bus ride to the capital, Mexico City, to demand answers.

They will do so again next week, on the 10th anniversary of their sons’ disappearance.

___

Brazil drought punishes coffee farms and threatens to push prices even higher

CACONDE, Brazil (AP) — Silvio Almeida’s coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir.

Lately, though, water is scarce on Almeida's modest farm in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key growing regions. He can’t get his coffee to grow the way it should.

In Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, Almeida and other farmers have started grappling with the nation's worst drought in more than seven decades and above-average temperatures. Almeida expected to harvest 120 sacks of coffee beans this harvest season, but instead managed just 100.

“Given the conditions here, the 2025 crop is already affected," he told The Associated Press, pointing to a part of his plantation where flower buds died before blooming. "I won’t say it’s doomed, because with God anything is possible. But based on the situation, it’s already compromised."

Brazil's harvest season that ends this month was virtually flat from last year, and exports surged, but the ongoing drought is already complicating the start of the 2025/2026 season, according to a report Monday by the Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics at the University of Sao Paulo’s agribusiness school.

___

Protests ousted Sri Lanka's last president. Ahead of new election, many are still waiting for change

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Two years ago, tens of thousands of Sri Lankans rose up against their president and forced him to flee the country. As the country prepares for its first election since then, many say they’re still waiting for change.

As Sri Lanka sank into economic collapse in 2022, people from various walks of life rallied to change a long-entrenched government they saw as responsible. The unprecedented island-wide public uprising they led was a moment of hope for the country long been fatigued by war and economic instability.

Days ahead of Saturday’s presidential election, many still complain of corrupt leaders, economic mismanagement, and the entrenched power of the political old guard, but former protesters are having a hard time coming together behind a candidate.

They agree on one thing: Sri Lanka needs a new political system that can take it out of economic and political turbulence.

Days after Rajapaksa fled the country, Sri Lanka’s parliament replaced him with then-prime minister Ranil Wickremensignhe in a vote that many protesters saw as a victory for the status quo.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024