AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
GOP voters told to hold onto mail ballots until Election Day
ATLANTA (AP) - Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year's midterm elections.
The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or - for voters who receive a mailed ballot - hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8.
The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud.
If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots. Those ballots likely would not get counted until the next day or later.
'œIt just slows everything down,'ť said Noah Praetz, the former election clerk in Cook County, Illinois, who now advises local election offices on best practices and security. 'œIn many places, if you don't get mail ballots in hand until Election Day, you are not counting them until after Election Day.'ť
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Military think tank: Russia withdraws officers from Kherson
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia's military leadership has withdrawn its officers in the Russian-annexed city of Kherson across the Dnieper River in anticipation of an advance of Ukrainian troops, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said Sunday.
To delay the Ukrainian counteroffensive as the Russians complete their retreat, Moscow has left newly mobilized, inexperienced forces on the other side of the wide river, it added.
The troop movements come as the Ukrainian military said its forces have continued their counteroffensives in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
On Saturday, Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all Kherson residents to leave immediately ahead of the expected action by Ukrainian troops to take back the city.
Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the eight-month-long war in Ukraine. The city is the capital of a region of the same name, one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday.
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Ukrainian woman's quest to retrieve body of prisoner of war
CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) - In the last, brief conversations Viktoria Skliar had with her detained boyfriend, the Ukrainian prisoner of war was making tentative plans for life after his release in an upcoming exchange with Russia.
The next time Skliar saw Oleksii Kisilishin, he was dead - one of several bodies in a photo of people local authorities said were killed when blasts ripped through a prison in a part of Ukraine's Donetsk region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
For months, Skliar had held out hope she would reunite with her partner, who had been one of the defenders of the Azovstal steel plant, the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Now, she has retrained her focus on getting his body back. Against enormous odds, Ukraine has now received the remains of dozens of prisoners who were held at the prison in Olenivka. But with experts still needing months to identify all the bodies - and no guarantee Kisilishin is among them - Skliar's quest is far from over.
That she even knows her boyfriend is dead is remarkable. She recognized his tattoos in a photo shared on social media following the July 29 blasts. It showed him laid out, semi-naked, on the ground in a line with eight other bodies.
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China's Xi expands powers, promotes allies
BEIJING (AP) - President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance Sunday when he was named to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.
Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.
The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party's informal retirement age of 68.
'œPower will be even more concentrated in the hands of Xi Jinping,'ť said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. The new appointees are 'œall loyal to Xi,'ť he said. "There is no counterweight or checks and balances in the system at all.'ť
On Saturday, Xi's predecessor, 79-year-old Hu Jintao, abruptly left a meeting of the party Central Committee with an aide holding his arm. That prompted questions about whether Xi was flexing his powers by expelling other leaders. The official Xinhua News Agency later reported Hu was in poor health and needed to rest.
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Illegal border crossings to US from Mexico hit annual high
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.
Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden's presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump's presidency in 2019.
Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow.
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Iran protests trigger solidarity rallies in US, Europe
WASHINGTON (AP) - Chanting crowds marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington DC and Los Angeles on Saturday in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of that country's morality police.
On the U.S. National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages - wearing green, white and red, the colors of the Iran flag - shouted in rhythm. 'œBe scared. Be scared. We are one in this,'ť demonstrators yelled, before marching to the White House. 'œSay her name! Mahsa!'ť
The demonstrations, put together by grassroots organizers from around the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington D.C. area, with some travelling down from Toronto to join the crowd.
In Los Angeles, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside of Iran, a throng of protesters formed a slow-moving procession along blocks of a closed downtown street. They chanted for the fall of Iran's government and waved hundreds of Iranian flags that turned the horizon into a undulating wave of red, white and green.
'œWe want freedom,'ť they thundered.
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Hurricane Roslyn forecast to bring dangerous surge to Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Hurricane Roslyn was expected to deliver a treacherous storm surge to parts of Mexico Sunday after plowing over the Pacific as a powerful Category 4 storm just offshore from the resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Sunday that Roslyn had become 'œextremely dangerous'ť with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph).
The storm was forecast 'œto bring damaging winds, a life-threatening storm surge and flooding rains to portions of west-central Mexico today,'ť the hurricane center said at 12 a.m. Sunday.
The center placed Roslyn's core about 45 miles (75 kilometers) west of Cabo Corrientes - the point of land jutting into the Pacific south of Puerto Vallarta - and moving north at 12 mph (19 kph).
Forecasters said Roslyn likely would pass close to Cabo Corrientes and the Puerto Vallarta region during the night, but warned that those areas would still see high winds, heavy rains and rough surf.
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Fears over Russian threat to Norway's energy infrastructure
STAVANGER, Norway (AP) - Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don't see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.
With Norway replacing Russia as Europe's main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow's doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.
The Norwegian government has sent warships, coastguard vessels and fighter jets to patrol around the offshore facilities. Norway's national guard stationed soldiers around onshore refineries that also were buzzed by drones.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has invited the navies of NATO allies Britain, France and Germany to help address what could be more than a Norwegian problem.
Precious little of the offshore oil that provides vast income for Norway is used by the country's 5.4 million inhabitants. Instead, it powers much of Europe. Natural gas is another commodity of continental significance.
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Alaska asylum seekers are Indigenous Siberians from Russia
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Two Russian Indigenous Siberians were so scared of having to fight the war in Ukraine, they chanced everything to take a small boat across the treacherous Bering Sea to reach American soil, Alaska's senior U.S. senator said after talking with the two.
The two, identified as males by a resident, landed earlier this month near Gambell, on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait, where they asked for asylum.
'œThey feared for their lives because of Russia, who is targeting minority populations, for conscription into service in Ukraine,'ť Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Saturday during a candidate forum at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.
'œIt is very clear to me that these individuals were in fear, so much in fear of their own government that they risked their lives and took a 15-foot skiff across those open waters,'ť Murkowski said when answering a question about Arctic policy.
'œIt is clear that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is focused on a military conquest at the expense of his own people,'ť Murkowski said. 'œHe's got one hand on Ukraine and he's got the other on the Arctic, so we have to be eyes wide open on the Arctic.'ť
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Analysis: Year post-coup, cracks in Sudan's military junta
CAIRO (AP) - On his return home from the U.N. General Assembly this year, Sudan's top general descended an airplane stairway in the country's capital to a flurry of cameras.
Waiting to greet Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan with a smile and handshake was his deputy and paramilitary leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. It was a choreographed moment between Sudan's most powerful men, a show of unity amid rumors of discord.
A year after the two generals launched a military coup that upended the country's short-lived transition to democracy, their struggle for individual gain threatens to further destabilize the country.
'~'~While the fear of a civilian government brought Burhan and Hemedti together, there remain many divisions between them,'~' said Amjad Farid, a Sudan analyst and former aid to the country's prime minister deposed in the coup, Abdullah Hamdok. He used Dagalo's nickname, by which he is widely known.
The coup, and disharmony between its leaders, has meant the future of Sudan's governance looks increasingly unsure. It has left a power vacuum that allowed the paramilitary force led by Dagalo, known as the Rapid Support Forces, to assume a growing role.