Putin basks in electoral victory that was never in doubt even as Russians quietly protest

Russian President Vladimir Putin basked in a victory early Monday that was never in doubt, as partial election results showed him easily securing a fifth term after facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices.

With little margin for protest, Russians crowded outside polling stations at noon Sunday, on the last day of the election, apparently heeding an opposition call to express their displeasure with Putin. Still, the impending landslide underlined that Russian leader would accept nothing less than full control of the country's political system as he extends his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.

Putin hailed the early results as an indication of “trust” and “hope” in him — while critics saw them as another reflection of the preordained nature of the election.

“Of course, we have lots of tasks ahead. But I want to make it clear for everyone: When we were consolidated, no one has ever managed to frighten us, to suppress our will and our self-conscience. They failed in the past and they will fail in the future,” Putin said at a meeting with volunteers after polls closed.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.”

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Commenting on Navalny's death for first time, Putin says he supported prisoner swap for his foe

Russian President Vladimir Putin said early Monday that he supported an idea to release opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prisoner exchange just days before the man who was his biggest foe died.

In his first comments to address Navalny's death, Putin said of the dissident's demise: “It happens. There is nothing you can do about it. It's life.”

The remarks were unusual in that he repeatedly referenced Navalny by his name for the first time in years — and that they came at a late-night news conference as results poured in from a presidential election that is certain to extend his rule.

Early returns showed him leading with over 87% of the votes in a race with no competition, after years of ruthlessly suppressing the opposition and crippling independent media.

Navalny's allies last month also said that talks with Russian and Western officials about a prisoner swap involving Navalny were underway. The politician's longtime associate Maria Pevchikh said the talks were in their final stages just days before the Kremlin critic's sudden and unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

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Netanyahu snaps back against growing US criticism after being accused of losing his way on Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”

In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer’s “good speech," and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.

Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.

“We’re not a banana republic," he said. “The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us.”

When asked by CNN whether he would commit to a new election after the war ends, Netanyahu said: “I think that’s something for the Israeli public to decide.”

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First charter flight with US citizens fleeing Haiti lands in Miami

MIAMI (AP) — A charter flight carrying dozens of U.S. citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed Sunday in Miami, U.S. State Department officials said.

More than 30 U.S. citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in the Miami International Airport after the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged U.S. citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti.

Passenger Avlot Quessa, who lives in Boston, traveled from the center of the country to board the charter flight after going to Haiti last month for was supposed to be a weeklong trip to visit his mother.

“It’s just terrible ... The suffering, you can only imagine,” Quessa told the Miami Herald of the nearby Caribbean nation. “Haiti is my homeland and it’s very stressful to see the homeland going through this act of violence, destruction ... and they are our neighbors.”

Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed following gang attacks that have raged through Haiti in recent weeks, pushing many people to the brink of famine. Government and aid agencies this weekend reported looting of aid supplies as the situation worsened.

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'There's no agenda here': A look at the judge who is overseeing Trump's hush money trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Judge Juan M. Merchan looked across his high-ceilinged courtroom, facing the defendant in a complicated case.

Not the one everyone knows about.

Yes, Merchan could become the first judge ever to oversee a former U.S. president's criminal trial: Donald Trump's hush money case. But on a recent morning, the judge was attending to much less conspicuous cases in Manhattan’s once-weekly Mental Health Court, where selected mentally ill offenders agree to closely monitored treatment in hopes of getting charges dismissed and their lives on track.

As Merchan talked with defendants about their progress, stumbles, jobs, families and even workouts, it was a far cry from the upcoming trial in which Trump will be at the defense table, but the judge also will be in a hot seat.

The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee has called Merchan a “Trump-hating” judge, and defense lawyers unsuccessfully asked him to exit the case. Merchan received dozens of death threats after Trump slammed him on social media last year.

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AP PHOTOS: Boston celebrates St. Patrick's Day; Biden holds White House brunch with Irish leader

BOSTON (AP) — While some American cities celebrated St. Patrick's Day a day early this weekend, Boston, one of the most Irish cities in the country, held its parades and festivities on Sunday, or March 17.

Crowds of green-clad revelers lined the streets for the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which typically draws about 1 million people. It not only celebrates the city’s Irish heritage but also Evacuation Day, commemorating the evacuation of British troops from Boston during the Revolutionary War.

When Aidan Richardson began attending school in Worcester, Massachusetts, friends insisted they had to attend the Boston parade.

“It’s a great time so far,” said the native of Rochester, New York. “When I grew up I was told I was Irish, then all of the sudden last year I found out I was Scottish. I still love it.”

In Washington, President Joe Biden held a St. Patrick’s Day brunch for Catholic leaders in the East Room on Sunday. The room was decked out for the holiday, with an Irish flag, shamrocks and green and gold tablecloths. Guest seating cards were written in Celtic-looking green lettering.

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Trump ramps up dark rhetoric in Ohio stump speech for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno

VANDALIA, Ohio (AP) — Former President Donald Trump claimed that he — not President Joe Biden — will protect Social Security and warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November as he campaigned for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio.

Trump, speaking on a wind-whipped airfield outside of Dayton Saturday, praised his chosen candidate in the race as an “America first champion" and “political outsider who has spent his entire life building up Ohio communities."

“He's going to be a warrior in Washington," Trump said, days after securing enough delegates to clinch the 2024 Republican nomination.

Moreno faces Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Tuesday’s GOP primary. LaRose and Moreno have aligned themselves with the pro-Trump faction of the party, while Dolan is backed by more establishment Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman.

Saturday's rally was hosted by Buckeye Values PAC, a group backing Moreno’s candidacy. But Trump used the stage to deliver a profanity-filled version of his usual rally speech that again painted an apocalyptic picture of the country if Biden wins a second term.

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Wales' first Black leader is a testament to Britain's political diversity, but racism persists

LONDON (AP) — Vaughan Gething's election as the next leader of Wales marks a milestone: For the first time, none of the U.K.’s four main governments is led by a white man.

It’s a striking moment in a country still grappling with racism and the legacy of empire.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has Indian heritage and is Britain’s first Hindu leader. Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf – who, like Gething, heads a semi-autonomous government -- comes from a Pakistani Muslim family. Northern Ireland’s regional administration is jointly led by two women, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly.

Gething, son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, said his election on Saturday as the first Black leader of the governing Welsh Labour Party marked a moment when “we turn the page in the book of our nation’s history, a history that we write together.”

There’s no denying British politics has changed, and quickly.

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March Madness is here. UConn, Purdue, Houston and North Carolina get top seeding in NCAA Tournament

Even before the brackets came out Sunday, March Madness was a muddled mess.

About the closest thing to a sure thing: UConn.

The defending champion Huskies earned the top seed in the NCAA Tournament, joined by Houston,Purdue and North Carolina as No. 1 seeds in a bracket that started going haywire even before the pairings were announced Sunday evening.

Of those top teams, only UConn heads into the tournament coming off a win. The others lost in their conference tournaments, yet those were hardly the only surprises over the final weekend of hoops before the sport's main event hits center stage.

Unexpected titles placed teams like Oregon, North Carolina State and even Duquesne, none of whom were projected to make the tournament, into the field of 68 via the automatic bid that goes to conference champions. The teams they beat gobbled up a handful of the 34 at-large bids, thus shrinking the number of spots available to teams on the so-called bubble.

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South Carolina, Iowa, USC and Texas are the top seeds in the women's NCAA Tournament

Dawn Staley and South Carolina could see some familiar faces on their path to trying to finish off an undefeated season.

The Gamecocks, who are the No. 1 overall seed in the women's NCAA Tournament, are looking to become the 10th women’s basketball team to go unbeaten for an entire season.

They had a chance last season before falling just short against Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Final Four. The Hawkeyes received the other No. 1 seed in the Albany Regional. The two teams wouldn't potentially face off until the national championship game this time. Iowa is a one-seed for the first time since 1992.

USC and star freshman JuJu Watkins earned the Trojans' first No. 1 seed since 1986 as the top choice in a Portland Regional. Texas earned the fourth No. 1 seed, its first since 2004, and will play Drexel in the other Portland Regional opener. There was debate whether Texas or Stanford would get the fourth No. 1 seed.

"To say we talked about it more than once was an understatement,” said NCAA selection committee Chair Lisa Peterson. “What it came down to was Texas had to play three tournament teams to get to the (Big 12) championship.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2024