Author: Reporter

Trump tries convincing GOP voters that mail balloting is good after falsely blaming it for his 2020 loss

Marta Moehring voted the way she prefers in Nebraska’s Republican primary, in person at her West Omaha polling place. She did not even consider taking advantage of the state’s no-excuse mail-in ballot process. In fact, she would prefer to do away with mail-in voting altogether. She is convinced fraudulent mailed ballots cost former President Donald Trump a second term in 2020. “I don’t trust it in general,” Moehring, 62, said. “I don’t think they’re counted correctly.” But now Republican officials — even, sometimes, Trump — are encouraging voters such as Moehring to cast their ballots by mail. The GOP...

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Words and body language: A look at history-making moments from past presidential debates

It could be a well-rehearsed zinger or an offhand, too-loud sigh. Notable moments from past presidential debates demonstrate how the candidates’ words and body language can make them look especially relatable or hopelessly out-of-touch. They also can showcase candidates at the top of their policy game or suggest they are out to sea. Will past be prologue when President Joe Biden and convicted felon Donald Trump debate in Atlanta on June 27? “Debates, being live television events, without a script, without any way of knowing how they are going to evolve — anything can happen,” said Alan Schroeder, author...

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High stakes: Why the first Biden-Trump televised 2024 debate is crucial for both candidates and for CNN too

President Joe Biden and convicted felon Donald Trump will not be alone at the June 27 debate. Moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper of CNN will be on camera, too, and there is a lot on the line for their network as it fights for relevance in a changing media environment. CNN has hosted dozens of town halls and political forums through the years, but never a general election presidential debate, let alone one so early in a campaign. No network has. “This is a huge moment for CNN,” said former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, now a...

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U.S. cybersecurity agency boosts cooperation with states after detecting threats to election systems

The nation’s cybersecurity agency launched a program in February aimed at boosting election security in the states, shoring up support for local offices and hoping to provide reassurance to voters that this year’s presidential elections will be safe and accurate. Officials with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency introduced the program to the National Association of State Election Directors and National Association of Secretaries of State, which met in the nation’s capital. For state and local election officials, the list of security challenges keeps growing. Among them: potential cyberattacks waged by foreign governments, criminal ransomware gangs attacking computer...

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A dream come true: Ukraine begins EU membership talks a decade after Putin illegally seized Crimea

The European Union on June 25 launched membership talks with Ukraine, a decade after Russian troops seized the Crimean Peninsula to deter the country from moving closer to the West, part of a chain of events that set the two neighbors on the path to war. Ukraine’s accession negotiations were set in motion at an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg. Just a few hours later, Moldova also launched its membership talks. While the events are a major milestone on their European paths, the talks could take years to conclude. In opening remarks presented via video-link, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal...

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will walk free in deal to end U.S. legal saga with guilty plea

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to walk free and resolve a long-running legal saga that spanned multiple continents and centered on the publication of a trove of classified documents. Assange left a British prison on June 24 and will appear in the U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific. He is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, the Justice...

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