By ROB GILLIES and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario (AP) — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies are meeting Ukraine’s foreign minister on Wednesday as Ukraine tries to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across the country ahead of winter.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will participate in a G7 session on Ukraine and defense cooperation.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand is hosting the meeting in southern Ontario as tensions rise between the U.S. and traditional allies like Canada over defense spending, trade and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan in Gaza and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he wants to order 25 Patriot air defense systems from the United States. Combined missile and drone strikes on the power grid have coincided with Ukraine’s frantic efforts to hold back a Russian battlefield push aimed at capturing the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk.

Canada announced additional sanctions on 13 people and 11 entities, including several involved in the development and deployment of Russia’s drone program.

Britain says it will send $17 million to help patch up Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches and Russian attacks intensify. The money will go toward repairs to power, heating and water supplies and humanitarian support for Ukrainians.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who made the announcement before the meeting, said Russian President Vladimir Putin “is trying to plunge Ukraine into darkness and the cold as winter approaches” but the British support will help keep the lights and heating on.

Canada recently made a similar announcement.

The two-day meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake, near the U.S. border, comes after Trump ended trade talks with Canada because the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the U.S. that upset him. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over the Republican president’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

Anand will have a meeting with Rubio, but she noted that a different minister leads the U.S. trade file. The U.S. president has placed greater priority on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies than on collaboration with G7 allies.

The G7 comprises Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Anand also invited the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine to the meeting, which began Tuesday.

Putin has tried to justify Russia’s attack on Ukraine by saying it was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. had predicted he would make as a pretext for his invasion.

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE, Associated Press/Report for America

A federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday about whether a spending law passed in July that ended Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood can remain in effect while legal challenges continue.

President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cut bill targets organizations that both provide abortions and receive more than $800,000 a year in Medicaid reimbursements. Planned Parenthood has argued the law violates the Constitution, while anti-abortion activists applauded the legislation.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the law could go into effect in September while a lower court considered Planned Parenthood’s claims. A three-judge panel of the appeals court was scheduled to preside over the hearing Wednesday.

In a report released ahead of the hearing, Planned Parenthood said the legislation cost $45 million in September alone as clinics across the country paid for treatment for Medicaid patients out of pocket — a rate that the organization says is unsustainable.

Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid for health care aside from abortions, which was already not covered by the federal insurance program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans.

Legal fight

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah, as well as a major medical provider in Maine, filed lawsuits against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in July. The Maine provider has been forced to stop it’s primary care services while its lawsuit works its way through the courts.

In the meantime, seven states — California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Washington — have directed state funds to compensate for lost federal Medicaid reimbursements.

That has covered roughly $200 million of the $700 million that the organization spends annually on Medicaid patients, according to Planned Parenthood.

In light of the shortfall, some clinics will force Medicaid patients to pay out of pocket while others will close altogether, adding to the 20 Planned Parenthood affiliated clinics that have closed since July and the 50 total that have closed since the start of Trump’s second term.

“The consequence is for patients who are going to be forced to make impossible choices between essential services,” Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Abortion at the heart of the debate

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said Trump’s legislation is a step in the right direction. Even though federal tax dollars aren’t used for abortions directly, she said taxpayers are contributing to abortion services even if they are morally or religiously opposed since Medicaid reimbursements help organizations that provide them stay afloat.

“To be forced to pay for that is just very objectionable,” Tobias said.

She suggested Planned Parenthood could stop offering abortions if it wanted to keep providing medical care to vulnerable populations.

Planned Parenthood’s president has doubled down on the organization’s commitment to providing abortions.

“The government should not play a role in determining any pregnancy outcomes,” Johnson said.

A range of services hit

Planned Parenthood is the country’s largest abortion provider, but abortions only constituted 4% of all medical services in 2024, according to the organization’s annual report. Testing for sexually transmitted infections and contraception services make up about 80%. The remaining 15% of services are cancer screenings, primary care services and behavioral health services.

Jenna Tosh, CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, said in an interview that the Medicaid cuts threaten abortion and non-abortion medical care in equal measure. Roughly 70% of patients who use Planned Parenthood California Central Coast rely on Medicaid, she said.

“Many of our patients, we are their primary provider of health care,” Tosh said. “You really start pulling at the thread of the entire health care safety net for the most vulnerable people.”

The story has been corrected to show that the hearing Wednesday is before a judicial panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, not before a federal judge.

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The longest government shutdown in history could conclude as soon as Wednesday, Day 43, with almost no one happy with the final result.

Democrats didn’t get the heath insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame, according to polls and some state and local elections that went poorly for them.

The fallout of the shutdown landed on millions of Americans, including federal workers who went without paychecks and airline passengers who had their trips delayed or canceled. An interruption in nutrition assistance programs contributed to long lines at food banks and added emotional distress going into the holiday season.

The agreement includes bipartisan bills worked out by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund parts of government — food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things. All other funding would be extended until the end of January, giving lawmakers more than two months to finish additional spending bills.

Here’s a look at how the shutdown started and is likely to end:

What led to the shutdown

Democrats made several demands to win their support for a short-term funding bill, but the central one was an extension of an enhanced tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

The tax credit was boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic response, again through President Joe Biden’s big energy and health care bill, and it’s set to expire at the end of December. Without it, premiums on average will more than double for millions of Americans. More than 2 million people would lose health insurance coverage altogether next year, the Congressional Budget Office projected.

“Never have American families faced a situation where their health care costs are set to double — double in the blink of an eye,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

While Democrats called for negotiations on the matter, Republicans said a funding bill would need to be passed first.

“Republicans are ready to sit down with Democrats just as soon as they stop holding the government hostage to their partisan demands,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

Thune eventually promised Democrats a December vote on the tax credit extension to help resolve the standoff, but many Democrats demanded a guaranteed fix, not just a vote that is likely to fail.

Thune’s position was much the same as the one Schumer took back in October 2013, when Republicans unsuccessfully sought to roll back parts of the Affordable Care Act in exchange for funding the government. “Open up all of the government, and then we can have a fruitful discussion,” Schumer said then.

Democratic leaders under pressure

The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has seen more than 200,000 federal workers leave their job through firings, forced relocations or the Republican administration’s deferred resignation program, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Whole agencies that don’t align with the administration’s priorities have been dismantled. And billions of dollars previously approved by Congress have been frozen or canceled.

Democrats have had to rely on the courts to block some of Trump’s efforts, but they have been unable to do it through legislation. They were also powerless to stop Trump’s big tax cut and immigration crackdown bill that Republicans helped pay for by cutting future spending on safety net programs such as Medicaid and SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

The Democrats’ struggles to blunt the Trump administration’s priorities has prompted calls for the party’s congressional leadership to take a more forceful response.

Schumer experienced that firsthand after announcing in March that he would support moving ahead with a funding bill for the 2025 budget year. There was a protest at his office, calls from progressives that he be primaried in 2028 and suggestions that the Democratic Party would soon be looking for new leaders.

This time around, Schumer demanded that Republicans negotiate with Democrats to get their votes on a spending bill. The Senate rules, he noted, requires bipartisan support to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance a spending bill.

But those negotiations did not occur, at least not with Schumer. Republicans instead worked with a small group of eight Democrats to tee up a short-term bill to fund the government generally at current levels and accused Schumer of catering to the party’s left flank when he refused to go along.

“The Senate Democrats are afraid that the radicals in their party will say that they caved,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at one of his many daily press conferences.

The blame game

The political stakes in the shutdown are huge, which is why leaders in both parties have held nearly daily press briefings to shape public opinion.

Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and Republicans in Congress have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54% say the same about Democrats in Congress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

At least three-quarters of Americans believe each deserves at least a “moderate” share of blame, underscoring that no one was successfully evading responsibility.

Both parties looked to the Nov. 4 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere for signs of how the shutdown was influencing public opinion. Democrats took comfort in their overwhelming successes. Trump called it a “big factor, negative” for Republicans. But it did not change the GOP’s stance on negotiating. Instead, Trump ramped up calls for Republicans to end the filibuster in the Senate, which would pretty much eliminate the need for the majority party to ever negotiate with the minority.

Damage of the shutdown

The Congressional Budget Office says that the negative impact on the economy will be mostly recovered once the shutdown ends, but not entirely. It estimated the permanent economic loss at about $11 billion for a six-week shutdown.

Beyond the numbers, though, the shutdown created a cascade of troubles for many Americans. Federal workers missed paychecks, causing financial and emotional stress. Travelers had their flights delayed and at times canceled. People who rely on safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program saw their benefits stopped, and Americans throughout the country lined up for meals at food banks.

“This dysfunction is damaging enough to our constituents and economy here at home, but it also sends a dangerous message to the watching world,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. “It demonstrates to our allies that we are an unreliable partner, and it signals to our adversaries that we can’t work together to meet even the most fundamental responsibilities of Congress.”

By LISA MASCARO, AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — After refusing to convene the U.S. House during the government shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson is recalling lawmakers back into session — and facing an avalanche of pent-up legislative demands from those who have largely been sidelined from governing.

Hundreds of representatives are preparing to return Wednesday to Washington after a nearly eight-week absence, carrying a torrent of ideas, proposals and frustrations over work that has stalled when the Republican speaker shuttered the House doors nearly two months ago.

First will be a vote to reopen the government. But that’s just the start. With efforts to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and the swearing in of Arizona’s Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the unfinished business will pose a fresh test to Johnson’s grip on power and put a renewed focus on his leadership.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Matthew Green, a professor at the politics department at The Catholic University of America.

“What Speaker Johnson and Republicans are doing, you have to go back decades to find an example where the House — either chamber — decided not to meet.”

Gaveling in after two months gone

When the House gavels back into session, it will close this remarkable chapter of Johnson’s tenure when he showed himself to be a leader who is quietly, but brazenly, willing to upend institutional norms in pursuit of his broader strategy, even at the risk of diminishing the House itself.

Rather than use the immense powers of the speaker’s office to forcefully steer the debate in Congress, as a coequal branch of the government on par with the executive and the courts, Johnson simply closed up shop — allowing the House to become unusually deferential, particularly to President Donald Trump.

Over these past weeks, the chamber has sidestepped its basic responsibilities, from passing routine legislation to conducting oversight. The silencing of the speaker’s gavel has been both unusual and surprising in a system of government where the founders envisioned the branches would vigorously protect their institutional prerogatives.

“You can see it is pretty empty around here,” Johnson, R-La., said on day three of the shutdown, tour groups no longer crowding the halls.

“When Congress decides to turn off the lights, it shifts the authority to the executive branch. That is how it works,” he said, blaming Democrats, with their fight over health care funds, for the closures.

An empty House as a political strategy

The speaker has defended his decision to shutter the House during what’s now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. He argued that the chamber, under the GOP majority, had already done its job passing a stopgap funding bill in September. It would be up to the Senate to act, he said.

When the Senate failed over and over to advance the House bill, more than a dozen times, he refused to enter talks with the other leaders on a compromise. Johnson also encouraged Trump to cancel an initial sit-down with the Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to avoid a broader negotiation while the government was still closed.

Instead, the speaker, whose job is outlined in the Constitution, second in line of succession to the presidency, held held almost daily press conferences on his side of the Capitol, a weekly conference call with GOP lawmakers, and private talks with Trump. He joined the president for Sunday’s NFL Washington Commanders game as the Senate was slogging through a weekend session.

“People say, why aren’t you negotiating with Schumer and Jeffries? I quite literally have nothing to negotiate,” Johnson said at one point.

“As I’ve said time and time again, I don’t have anything to negotiate with,” he said on day 13 of the shutdown. “We did our job. We had that vote.”

And besides he said of the GOP lawmakers, “They are doing some of their best work in the district, helping their constituents navigate this crisis.”

Accidental speaker delivers for Trump

In many ways, Johnson has become a surprisingly effective leader, an accidental speaker who was elected to the job by his colleagues after all others failed to win it. He has now lasted more than two years, longer than many once envisioned.

This year, with Trump’s return to the White House, the speaker has commandeered his slim GOP majority and passed legislation including the president’s so-called “one big beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending reductions that became law this summer.

Johnson’s shutdown strategy also largely achieved his goal, forcing Senate Democrats to break ranks and approve the funds to reopen government without the extension of health care subsidies they were demanding to help ease the sticker shock of rising insurance premium costs with the Affordable Care Act.

Johnson’s approach is seen as one that manages up — he stays close to Trump and says they speak often — and also hammers down, imposing a rigid control over the day-to-day schedule of the House, and its lawmakers.

Amassing quiet power

Under a House rules change this year, Johnson was able to keep the chamber shuttered indefinitely on his own, without the usual required vote. This year his leadership team has allowed fewer opportunities for amendments on legislation, according to a recent tally. Other changes have curtailed the House’s ability to provide a robust check on the executive branch over Trump’s tariffs and use of war powers.

Johnson’s refusal to swear-in Grijalva is a remarkable flex of the speaker’s power, leading to comparisons with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision not to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, said David Rapallo, an associate professor and director of the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. Arizona has sued to seat her.

Marc Short, who headed up the White House’s legislative affairs office during the first Trump administration, said of Johnson, “It’s impressive how he’s held the conference together.”

But said Short, “The legislative branch has abdicated a lot of responsibility to the executive under his watch.”

Tough decisions ahead for the Speaker

As lawmakers make their way back to Washington, the speaker’s power will be tested again as they consider the package to reopen government.

Republicans are certain to have complaints about the bill, which funds much of the federal government through Jan. 30 and keeps certain programs including agriculture, military construction and veterans affairs running through September.

But with House Democratic leaders rejecting the package for having failed to address the health care subsidies, it will be up to Johnson to muscle it through with mostly GOP lawmakers — with hardly any room for defections in the chamber that’s narrowly split.

Jeffries, who has criticized House Republicans for what he called an extended vacation, said, “They’re not going to be able to hide this week when they return.”

By Melissa Nann Burke, MediaNews Group

Michigan is resuming the process of getting full monthly benefits to residents who receive federal assistance to pay for food, state officials said Monday.

The announcement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services came after a federal appeals court on Monday declined to block the decision of a lower court judge who had ordered the Trump administration to finance benefits in full this month for those eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it directed its EBT vendor to “once again” begin issuing full SNAP benefits to Michigan’s 1.4 million participants. Taxpayer-funded food aid in Michigan is distributed to recipients through electronic debit cards known as Bridge Cards.

The agency said SNAP recipients who normally receive their benefits on the ninth of the month should receive their full SNAP allotment within 48 hours, and all other SNAP recipients should receive full benefit payments on their normally scheduled date.

“We are glad to be able to provide assistance to Michigan families to help them put food on the table,” said Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director, in a statement.

“The uncertainty, confusion, and frustration caused by the USDA’s request to block SNAP payments for the more than one million Michigan residents who rely on food assistance has been unfair, and in Michigan, we will continue to do everything we can to help those affected.”

However, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday indicated it would appeal to the Supreme Court to try to avoid paying out full benefits, seeking a stay of the order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

In a filing with the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer noted in part that the U.S. Senate appeared on track to passing legislation to end the record-setting 41-day government shutdown.

The legislation under consideration includes full-year funding for SNAP, and if that’s adopted and signed into law, the application to the Supreme Court wouldn’t be needed. If it doesn’t pass, the government “still intends to pursue a stay” to stop the order requiring full SNAP payments.

Trump’s administration at first said SNAP benefits would not be issued in November due of the shutdown. But a couple dozen states and nonprofit groups sued, prompting judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to rule that the administration could not entirely skip November’s benefits for SNAP participants.

The administration said it would tap a contingency fund to provide 65% of the maximum monthly allotments, but U.S. District Judge John McConnell last week said that wasn’t sufficient and ordered full funding for SNAP benefits.

Michigan moved quickly and directed their EBT vendor to disburse full benefits to SNAP recipients on Thursday, so those who receive monthly benefits on the third, fifth and seventh days of the month already received their benefits last week, according to MDHHS.

The state halted benefits payments over the weekend after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put McConnell’s order on hold Friday night, pending further consideration by an appeals court.

Last week, local food pantries in Michigan were tracking a 30% to 50% increase in the number of individuals seeking aid, according to the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Families can find local food pantries as needed by calling 2-1-1.

SNAP serves about 1 in 8 Americans, including about 1.4 million Michiganians. In the state, the average household assisted by the program receives about $335 in benefits a month, or about $5.68 per person a day. SNAP benefits support more than 492,000 Michigan children.

Across nearly every part of Michigan, households with children were far more likely to receive SNAP benefits than households overall, based on Census data. In almost every county, at least a quarter of households with children participated in SNAP, including more than half of those households in counties like Ottawa, Clinton and Gratiot.

About 78% of SNAP households in Michigan are working households, half of households have someone with a disability and 36% of households have seniors, according to state data.

Staff Writer Ben Warren contributed to this report.

Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield ran on several promises: creating job opportunities for young people, improving schools, and investing in neighborhoods. 

It’s no question that her platform was appealing, as the candidate won 77% of the vote. Detroit has a lot of poverty, a significant amount of crime, and many residents are in need of better job opportunities. 

How are residents reacting to Sheffield’s victory? What do they hope she accomplishes? And, what kinds of organizing and coalition building will the new mayor have to do to live up to her promises?

Donna Givens Davidson, the president of the Eastside Community Network and a co-host of the Authentically Detroit podcast, joined The Metro to discuss.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

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By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The pardons of dozens of Republicans accused of participating in efforts to overturn the 2020 election are a continuation of President Donald Trump’s attempts to rewrite the history about his election loss.

They come months after Trump’s sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was the culmination of the campaign to reverse Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Unlike the Jan. 6 pardons, the newer ones will have little legal effect. None of the people on the new pardon list had faced federal prosecution for their actions in 2020. The presidential pardon has no impact on state or civil cases.

But they send a signal to those thinking of denying future elections in Trump’s favor.

Here’s a look at some of the more prominent names who were pardoned:

Rudy Giuliani

The former New York City mayor, who was celebrated as “America’s mayor” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, played a pivotal role in pushing Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud as the Republican’s personal lawyer in 2020. He has faced a slew of legal woes and financial setbacks for his advocacy of Trump’s false claims, including losing his law license in Washington and New York. He was criminally charged in cases brought by state prosecutors in Georgia and Arizona and pleaded not guilty. Those cases have hit roadblocks but remain unresolved and are not impacted by Trump’s pardon. Giuliani was ordered in 2023 to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers who sued him over lies he spread about them and a reached a deal in January to resolve the debt and retain some of his property. The amount the women were set to receive was not disclosed. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing and said he was right to challenge an election he believed was tainted by fraud.

Mark Meadows

Trump’s chief of staff during the 2020 election and its aftermath, Meadows was charged in Arizona and Georgia cases and pleaded not guilty in both states. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his effort to move his case in Georgia to federal court, where a pardon would nullify his jeopardy. Meadows has contended his post-election actions were taken in his official capacity as White House chief of staff, though prosecutors and judges have disagreed. Meadows was on the phone when Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, to “find” him enough votes to be declared the winner of the state.

Kenneth Chesebro

Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, alleged that Chesebro, an attorney, worked with Georgia Republicans at the direction of Trump’s campaign to organize 16 people to sign a certificate falsely claiming that Trump won the state and that they were his “duly elected and qualified” electors. Chesebro pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count in the state case but unsuccessfully tried to withdraw his plea as the massive case against him and 17 others, including Trump, collapsed due to legal issues. Chesebro’s law license in New York state was suspended after his plea.

Jenna Ellis

A prominent conservative media figure and an attorney, Ellis also pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in the Georgia case. She apologized in court for advising the Trump campaign on how to overturn its loss and was censured and barred from practicing law for three years in her native Colorado for her conduct in 2020.

John Eastman

A prominent conservative law professor, Eastman wrote a key memo outlining the Trump strategy of trying to reverse the president’s election loss by presenting a slate of alternate electors to Congress. Eastman faces charges in a state case filed by Arizona’s Democratic attorney general over that scheme. He was also charged in Fulton County, and the disciplinary board of the California State Bar has recommended he lose his California law license. Eastman has pleaded not guilty in the criminal cases and appealed his license suspension to California’s Supreme Court. He argues he is being punished for simply giving legal advice.

Jeffrey Clark

Clark, as a Justice Department official in the first Trump administration, drafted a letter that said the department was investigating “various irregularities” and had identified “significant concerns” that may have impacted the election in Georgia and other states. Clark wanted the letter sent to Georgia lawmakers, but Justice Department superiors refused. A Washington attorney disciplinary panel in July recommended that he be stripped of his law license, finding he made “intentionally false statements” when he continued to push for the Justice Department to issue the letter after being told by superiors that it contained falsehoods. Clark, who is now overseeing a federal regulatory office in the second Trump administration, said in a post on X on Monday: “I did nothing wrong when I questioned the 2020 election in Georgia.”

Sidney Powell

A lawyer and staunch Trump ally, Powell filed in battleground states a series of lawsuits that were rejected by courts and played a pivotal role in pushing unsubstantiated claims of fraud. Emails and documents obtained through subpoenas in one lawsuit showed Powell was involved in arranging for a computer forensics team to travel to rural Coffee County, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, to copy data and software from elections equipment there in January 2021. She pleaded guilty in 2023 to reduced charges in the Georgia case, becoming the second defendant to reach a deal with prosecutors. She was initially charged with racketeering and six other counts but ultimately received probation after pleading guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.

By GERALD IMRAY, Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump says that his government will boycott the Group of 20 summit this month in South Africa over his claims that a white minority group there is being violently persecuted. Those claims have been widely rejected.

Trump announced Friday on social media that no U.S. government official will attend the Nov. 22-23 summit in Johannesburg “as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.” South Africa’s Black-led government has been a regular target for Trump since he returned to office.

In February, Trump issued an executive order stopping U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, citing its treatment of the Afrikaner white minority. His administration has also prioritized Afrikaners for refugee status in the U.S. and says they will be given most of the 7,500 places available this fiscal year.

The South African government — and some Afrikaners themselves — say Trump’s claims of persecution are baseless.

Descendants of European settlers

Afrikaners are South Africans who are descended mainly from Dutch but also French and German colonial settlers who first came to the country in the 17th century.

Afrikaners were at the heart of the apartheid system of white minority rule from 1948-1994, leading to decades of hostility between them and South Africa’s Black majority. But Afrikaners are not a homogenous group, and some fought against apartheid. There are an estimated 2.7 million Afrikaners in South Africa’s population of 62 million.

Afrikaners are divided over Trump’s claims. Some say they face discrimination, but a group of leading Afrikaner business figures and academics said in an open letter last month that “the narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-apartheid South Africa” is misleading.

Afrikaners’ Dutch-derived language is widely spoken in South Africa and is one of the country’s 12 official languages. Afrikaners are represented in every aspect of society. Afrikaners are some of South Africa’s richest entrepreneurs and some of its most successful sports stars, and also serve in government. Most are largely committed to South Africa’s multiracial democracy.

Trump claims they’re being ‘killed and slaughtered’

Trump asserted that Afrikaners “are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.” The president’s comments are in reference to a relatively small number of attacks on Afrikaner farmers that he and others claim are racially motivated.

Trump has also pointed to a highly contentious law introduced by the South African government that allows land to be appropriated from private owners without compensation. Some Afrikaners fear that law is aimed at removing them from their land in favor of South Africa’s poor Black majority. Many South Africans, including opposition parties, have criticized the law, but it hasn’t led to land confiscations.

Trump first made baseless claims of widespread killing of white South African farmers and land seizures during his first term in response to allegations aired on conservative media personality Tucker Carlson’s former show on Fox News. Trump ordered then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look into the allegations, but nothing came of any investigation.

South Africa rejects the claims

The South African government said in response to Trump’s social media post that his claims were “not substantiated by fact.” It has said that Trump’s criticism of South Africa over Afrikaners is a result of misinformation because it misses the context that Black farmers and farmworkers are also killed in rural attacks, which make up a tiny percentage of the country’s high violent crime rate.

There were more than 26,000 homicides in South Africa in 2024. Of those, 37 were farm murders, according to an Afrikaner lobby group that tracks them. Experts on rural attacks in South Africa have said the overriding motive for the violent farm invasions is robbery and not race.

Other pressure on South Africa

Trump said it is a “total disgrace” that the G20 summit — a meeting of the leaders of the 19 top rich and developing economies, the European Union and the African Union — is being held in South Africa. He had already said he wouldn’t attend, and Vice President JD Vance was due to go in his place. The U.S. will take on the rotating presidency of the G20 after South Africa.

Trump also said in a speech last week that South Africa should be thrown out of the G20.

Trump’s criticism of Africa’s most developed economy has gone beyond the issue of Afrikaners. His executive order in February said South Africa had taken “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies,” specifically with its decision to accuse Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza at the United Nations’ top court.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted a G20 foreign ministers meeting in South Africa in February after deriding the host country’s G20 slogan of “solidarity, equality and sustainability” as “DEI and climate change.”

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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Melissa Nann Burke, Max Reinhart, Anne Snabes and Ben Warren, MediaNews Group

About 1.4 million Michigan residents eligible to receive federal assistance to pay for food should get 65% of their monthly benefits for November, federal officials clarified Thursday morning.

But hours later, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration must fully cover November benefits, reportedly saying the government had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it moved earlier this week to only partially fund the program.

The competing orders added another day of confusion for Michigan residents who receive government assistance to pay for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as the ongoing federal government shutdown passed its record-setting 37th day.

“These benefits are a vital lifeline for many Michigan families, especially with the rising cost of food.”

Hertel’s agency said Michigan recipients who normally get their benefits on the third, fifth, or seventh day of the month will receive their partial SNAP allotment on Saturday. All other SNAP recipients would get their partial benefits on their normally scheduled date.

“I would say that that’s wonderful that they will be getting something,” said Christopher Ivey, a spokesperson for Metro Detroit food rescue organization Forgotten Harvest, of the SNAP news. “It’s unfortunate that that won’t be the full amount.”

The update came as local food pantries are tracking a 30% to 50% increase in the number of individuals seeking aid, according to the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Hertel noted that families can find local food pantries as needed by calling 2-1-1.

The USDA had planned to suspend payments starting Nov. 1 amid the federal government shutdown, but federal officials said Monday the program would be partially funded after two judges required the government to keep SNAP benefits flowing.

The reduction in food aid, while a partial restoration, is “diabolical,” said Natasha Bell, a downtown Detroit resident.

“What they give us is not enough already, and then for them to give us partial … it’s just not right, you know,” Bell said Thursday. “It’s just not right.”

Bell said she has cancer, so she can’t work. Amid the delay in SNAP benefits, she said she has been making more side items to accompany the meat in a meal, which allows her to stretch the meat out over more days.

Bell is also relying on food pantries and preparing meals that last more than one day, such as spaghetti or soup, she said.

“Something is better than nothing,” said Bell of the partial November SNAP benefits.

Brother Gary Wegner, executive director of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, said he thinks the USDA announcement is “good news.” Sixty-five percent is “certainly better” than 0%, he said.

“One hundred percent would be even better, but for now, at least, it’s going to give the people we serve who depend upon the SNAP benefits a better chance to fulfill what they need,” Wegner said.

Who is affected?

SNAP serves about 1 in 8 Americans, including about 1.4 million Michiganians. In the state, the average household assisted by the program receives about $335 in benefits a month, or about $5.68 per person a day. SNAP benefits support more than 492,000 Michigan children.

In Wayne County, 22.3% of households received food stamps last year, a figure amplified by the nearly 100,000 households in Detroit that benefit from the SNAP program.

A smaller share of the households in Macomb (11.9%) and Oakland (7.6%) received SNAP benefits, according to the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey, which is the most recent year when full county-level data is available.

Outside of Metro Detroit, Genesee and Saginaw counties outstripped the state average for SNAP participation, with just under 20% of households. On the other end of the spectrum were Leelanau and Livingston counties, which each had 5% or fewer of their households enrolled in the program.

Across nearly every part of Michigan, households with children were far more likely to receive SNAP benefits than households overall. In almost every county, at least a quarter of households with children participated in SNAP, including more than half of those households in counties like Ottawa, Clinton and Gratiot.

About 78% of SNAP households in Michigan are working households, half of households have someone with a disability and 36% of households have seniors, according to state data.

Kate Bauer, a University of Michigan public health professor, said partial funding is better than nothing when it comes to SNAP benefits. It would “ward off, hopefully, the physical experience of hunger,” but leave families already stretched thin to fill the gap, she said.

“Under the current circumstances, what we need to know is that SNAP is critical to our families having enough food, and even the full benefit amounts are not enough,” Bauer said.

“I’m super glad our families are going to get something, but that is not the end of the story,” she added.

SNAP benefits are crucial for families with children, according to Bauer, “because they have more mouths to feed, and mouths that don’t earn an income.” With less money to buy food this month, she said, parents will likely make additional sacrifices, foregoing meals so their kids can eat.

One saving grace for families with children, she said, was free school meals.

“Many families are breathing a sigh of relief that their kid is getting, potentially, up to 10 meals a week.”

Joyce Bowens, a Detroit resident who uses SNAP, said Thursday that she’s “not too happy” with the government’s decision because 65% of benefits is “not enough.” She said some women have seven to 10 children.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right.”

Bowens, who went grocery shopping at the Capuchin Services Center in Detroit on Thursday, said the past week has been “stressful.” The pause in benefits has affected how she plans meals. She said, “Everything changed just that fast.”

“OK, you would normally cook a meal, don’t worry about making it stretch,” she said. “Now, we have to think about making it stretch to the T.”

Eartha Harris, 45, who is friends with Bowens, said she thinks the government needs to give people their “full amounts when it comes to food.”

“But at least you could give somebody food, so no one go hungry, regardless of what’s going on,” said Harris, a Detroit resident.

The state Department of Health and Human Services said new applications for SNAP benefits filed in October and November still will be processed, but it is unclear whether those applicants will receive any benefits for November.

State aid to last 2 weeks

To help feed families amid the government shutdown, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week said the state would provide $4.5 million to the Food Bank Council of Michigan.

Phil Knight, executive director for the Food Bank Council, said Thursday he expects that $4.5 million released by the state to last about two weeks. The $4.5 million allotment represents roughly 6 million meals, Knight said.

Local pantries have seen between a 30% and 50% jump in individuals seeking aid, he said.

“One of the things I think we kind of miss about this population that’s struggling … is that they’re very resilient,” Knight said. “They’re trying to resolve the problem on their own first. They’re turning inward to themselves, their family, whatever, and then they turn out to find resources.”

Gleaners Community Food Bank reported Thursday that its drive-up mobiles and partner network of 350 local pantries in five counties are seeing an increase of up to 50% in requests for help.

A partial restoration of SNAP support is a “positive development,” Gleaners spokeswoman Kristin Sokul said, “but we expect to continue seeing heightened community need while partial benefits catch up and full benefits remain unavailable, as well as while workers’ incomes are impacted by the prolonged government shutdown.”

Ivey, the Forgotten Harvey spokesman, said the last week has been “very difficult” for his organization. He said Detroit alone gets $58 million a month in SNAP benefits.

“Forgotten Harvest is doing everything they can do to fill that gigantic void that’s out there,” he said. “I mean, we’re never going to be able to be the complete supplement for all of that. It’s just too large for any organization to take on.”

He said Forgotten Harvest is receiving around 600 to 1,000 phone calls a day. Some are from people asking where they can find food. Others are from organizations that partner with Forgotten Harvest or are interested in partnering with it.

Knight of the Food Bank Council said he intends to submit a report next week to the governor and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, on how the money was used and what might still be needed.

Hall said Thursday he and Whitmer will review that report and the federal situation to determine whether to release additional funding to the Food Bank Council for distribution to local pantries.

“We’re going to take this from week to week, working with the governor to assess the need,” Hall said.

The Democratic-controlled Senate last week approved a stopgap proposal that would target $50 million to aid low-income individuals and households in buying food and $21 million to food banks and other assistance programs that are expecting an onslaught of food requests.

The Republican-controlled House has not acted on the legislation.

Hall told reporters last week that the Senate bill was “political” since there was no way to act on the legislation before the Nov. 1 cutoff because of a rule requiring a five-day waiting period between chambers. There is not enough state funding to patch every hole that will develop as the federal shutdown continues, the speaker said.

“There’s a time for disagreements in politics,” Hall said then. “It’s not right now when literally people are about to lose their ability to feed their families.”

Beth LeBlanc contributed to this report.

A federal judge Wednesday ordered the release of video taken during an hourslong deposition given last week by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.

The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Public Media petitioned U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to release the recordings, which were filed under seal as part of a lawsuit led by the Chicago Headline Club, a nonprofit journalism advocacy organization, and a consortium of other media groups. The journalism organizations allege federal immigration enforcement officials have systematically violated the constitutional rights of protesters and reporters during President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mission, which began in early September and shows no sign of slowing down.

Ellis, who issued a temporary restraining order last month, announced Thursday that she will put longer-term restrictions on federal agents’ use of chemical agents on crowds and provide enhanced protections for protesters and members of the media.

The released videos can be seen in their entirety on the Tribune’s YouTube channel, but here are some of the highlights:

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in Chicago

Bovino, who is leading Trump’s immigration enforcement effort in the Chicago area, testified that he is leading roughly 220 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents as part of the so-called Operation Midway Blitz. He said he reports directly to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

‘More than exemplary’

Asked by veteran Chicago civil rights attorney Locke Bowman if he stood by remarks he made to CBS that the use of force at the Broadview ICE facility has been “exemplary,” Bovino at first surprised everyone by saying, “No.”

“The uses of force have been more than exemplary,” Bovino clarified.

In placing longer-term restrictions Thursday, Ellis disagreed.

“The use of force shocks the conscience,” she said.

‘Violent rioters’

During the deposition, Bovino said he had not witnessed his agents using tear gas or pepper-spray balls against protesters in Broadview, but chemical agents were used against “violent rioters” and “assaultive subjects.”

Definition of a protester

When asked to define “protester,”  Bovino said it’s a person “exercising their constitutional rights to speak — to speak their opinion, to speak their mind in a peaceful fashion … in accordance with laws, rules and with the Constitution.”

“We get protesters on both sides of the issue. Sometimes they protest against, say, a Title 8 immigration enforcement mission, tell us they don’t like it, we shouldn’t be there, we need to go home, use very foul language oftentimes,” he said. “And then there’s also protesters on the other side of the issue that say ‘hey, you should be there. We’re glad you’re here. Continue to be here.’ So, I look at those as peaceful individuals exercising their right to, one, be there and, two, speak their mind. It’s freedom of assembly, freedom of speech.”

Bovino then rattled off a list of public actions he said his agents have experienced, actions he uses to draw a distinction between protesters and “violent rioters” or “assaultive subjects”: “Removing masks, kicking agents, grabbing agents’ groins, assisting and abetting prisoners from escaping, shooting fireworks, knifing and slashing tires with weapons, throwing rocks through windows of vehicles to hurt agents and/or detainees.”

‘Not a reportable use of force’

On the video, Bovino is asked about an Oct. 3 arrest he made involving a man protesting outside the Broadview facility. According to the complaint, Bovino ordered a man to move down the street after the man told him, “you love to be on television.” As the man started to move, the complaint states, Bovino “stepped across a barrier,” tackled the man and arrested him.

During the Nov. 4 deposition, Bovino said the arrest “was not a reportable use of force. I placed him under arrest. I didn’t tackle him.”

More about Bovino’s interaction with the protester

Bovino was asked about an encounter with the man, Scott Blackburn, who was protesting at Broadview. The lawyer and Bovino disagreed over whether he used force when he tackled the protester.

“He doesn’t like the fact that you are instructing him to move down,” the lawyer said to Bovino.

Bovino objected to the lawyer’s characterization, saying instead, “That individual is failing to follow instructions to vacate the area.”

The video shows Bovino tackling the protester. But Bovino characterized it a different way.

“I’m imploring Mr. Blackburn, or whoever that individual was, to comply with leaving the area and to comply with instructions,” Bovino said.

Asked if he was “making physical contact,” Bovino said he was. But he denied that it was a use of force, saying it was different than using deadly force or “open-hand strikes.”

But he disputed that he used force against the protester.

“The use of force was against me,” Bovino said.

The judge, however, said she did not believe Bovino’s testimony about force that his agents and he personally inflicted in incidents across the Chicago area.

“In one of the videos, Bovino obviously attacks and tackles the declarant, Mr. Blackburn, to the ground,” Ellis said. “But Mr. Bovino, despite watching this video (in his deposition) says that he never used force.”

Pastor struck in the head

In video taken at a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, the Rev. David Black walks toward the building and appears to talk with someone on the roof. A fellow demonstrator offers Black a bullhorn, which the Presbyterian pastor appears to ignore.

Seconds later, Black begins dodging pepper-spray projectiles fired at him, as another protester lifts his shirt and dances a jig as if daring someone to shoot at him. Black initially takes a few steps back, then moves forward with his arms outstretched, looking up toward the building and talking.

On the video, pepper-spray balls can be seen striking the ground in front of Black. He is then struck in the right arm by one. He appears to try and turn away before he is struck again, this time in the head.

Other protesters quickly gather around him as he kneels or falls to the ground, the recording shows. Bystanders lift him and help spirit him away.

Struck again

On the video, Black returns to sidewalk in front of the detention center with a megaphone in hand. As he appears to speak to someone on the roof, pepper-spray balls are fired in his direction.

A protester appears to try to shield him with a sign, but it doesn’t work. Black is hit in the head again.

Bovino on the incident with Pastor Black

Bovino was asked about Rev. David Black, a Presbyterian pastor who was shot in the head by a federal agent. He declined to answer the question, which was framed as a hypothetical, saying he was “unable to comment on that use of force.”

Pressed further, Bovino said: “I don’t know what the use of force was here. I can’t make a judgment either way because I don’t know.”

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday confirmed it had been hacked, potentially disclosing important government data to malicious actors.

The small government office, with some 275 employees, provides objective, impartial analysis to support lawmakers during the budget process. It is required to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill approved by a House or Senate committee and will weigh in earlier when asked to do so by lawmakers.

Caitlin Emma, a spokeswoman for the CBO said in a written statement that the agency “has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward.”

The Washington Post first wrote the story on the CBO hack, stating that the intrusion was done by a suspected foreign actor, citing four anonymous people familiar with the situation.

The CBO did not confirm whether the data breach was done by a foreign actor.

“The incident is being investigated and work for the Congress continues,” Emma said. “Like other government agencies and private sector entities, CBO occasionally faces threats to its network and continually monitors to address those threats.”

The CBO manages a variety of massive data sources that relate to a multitude of policy issues — from the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans, to the unprecedented implementation of sweeping tariffs on countries around the world, to massive tax and spending cuts passed into law this summer.

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is speeding up the implementation of new rules that would give the agency tasked with protecting federal government facilities greater authority to charge people for a broader array of offenses on or off those properties.

The changes outlining the powers of the Federal Protective Service, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, were put forward in early January under the Biden administration and were slated to take effect on Jan. 1 of next year but instead went into effect Wednesday. The administration said the rules were being changed ahead of time so they could address a “recent surge in violence.”

They come as protests have surged against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, especially near buildings associated with immigration enforcement, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices or facilities. They also come as the Trump administration is facing lawsuits in both Chicago and Portland against what critics say is the excessive use of force by federal officers against protesters and others or unjustified attempts to bring in federal forces to protect facilities.

Activists and many political leaders have accused Homeland Security of aggressively suppressing peaceful protests and targeting activists trying to hold them accountable. Critics said the new rules could be used to target protesters.

“DHS is using every tool possible to protect the lives of our law enforcement as they face a surge in violence and lawlessness at many of our federal facilities,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a news release announcing the sped-up schedule. The release cited a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility, an incident that killed two detainees.

The new rules empower officers from the Federal Protective Service to make arrests and charge people for actions near the federal property, and they include new rules regulating unauthorized use of drones and tampering with digital networks.

The Homeland Security news release gave some examples of conduct that the Federal Protective Service could now charge someone for, both on federal property and off, including wearing a mask while committing a crime, obstructing access to federal property and tampering with government IT systems like card readers.

Spencer Reynolds, a former intelligence and counterintelligence lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security who’s now with the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank, said Congress gave the Federal Protective Service the ability to work and carry out arrests off of federal property as necessary. But he’s concerned that the new regulations codifying these powers will be used as a way to target protesters.

“I see this as being guidance to go after peaceful protests where they are happening in the vicinity or even not in the vicinity of federal property,” he said.

In a report last year issued by the Brennan Center, Reynolds said the FPS expanded dramatically after Sept. 11 and that’s led to “overreach under political pressure.”

In Chicago, a federal judge overseeing a case alleging federal agents carrying out an immigration crackdown there are using excessive force against journalists and protesters said Thursday that she’s going to restrict federal agents’ use of force to prevent the “chilling of First Amendment rights.” U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis said she didn’t feel federal agents’ use of force was justified and that she didn’t find their “version of events credible.”

In Portland, the Trump administration has argued that protests at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building have gotten so out of control that it justifies sending in National Guard troops to protect federal personnel and property where protests are occurring or likely to occur.

U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut Sunday barred the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, until at least Friday, saying she “found no credible evidence” that protests in the city grew out of control before the president federalized the troops earlier this fall.

The Federal Protective Service is tasked with protecting federal properties. The agency used to fall under the U.S. General Services Administration, which is responsible for purchasing and managing federal real estate, but when the Department of Homeland Security was created in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the FPS was transferred to Homeland Security.

Political junkies have their minds on the elections that just happened this past week. But one year ahead, there are a lot more elections in the state.

That’s true for the governor’s race, where a slate of Democratic and Republican candidates, in addition to an independent candidate, are running for the seat. 

Currently, Congressman John James and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox are in the lead for the Republican nomination. Why? And, what do they need to do to win?

Producer Sam Corey spoke to longtime Michigan Republican strategist Jeff Timmer to find out.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

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For the first time, a woman is mayor-elect for the City of Detroit.

Mary Sheffield is a 38-year old Black woman and the current Detroit City Council President. In becoming mayor, she’ll have a much brighter spotlight flashing on her. And many agree that that light, because of her gender, will carry scrutiny that Mayor Duggan never had to face. 

Notably, Detroit already has many women leading organizations and departments across the city. So how significant is Sheffield’s win? And, what kinds of things might she need to be concerned about that a man wouldn’t?

To discuss all this now, we have Raquel Constañeda-Lopez served on Detroit City Council at the same time as Sheffield. Now she runs an organization called Restorative Democracy, which supports women of color who hold public office. 

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

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Dearborn voters have elected Mayor Abdullah Hammoud for a second term. 

Hammoud won with more than 70% of the votes in his bid against challenger Nagi Almudhegi.

He told a crowd of about 250 people at the Bint Jebail Cultural Center Tuesday night that the city is built on coexistence across faiths, backgrounds, and political views. 

“To our Arab American community, to our Polish, Irish, and Italian American families, to every new neighbor and every long time resident, white, Black or brown, to every faith and every background, Dearborn is a place where you are seen, where you are valued, and where you belong.” 

Hammoud became the city’s first Arab American and Muslim mayor in 2021 after mobilizing volunteers for clean-up efforts from catastrophic floods. 

Hammoud ran on a bid to continue the work he started four years ago. He said, “The way to win re-election campaigns is to treat people with dignity, to meet them in their homes and in their communities, listen to their needs, and deliver change that their families can see and can feel. That’s what we’re doing in Dearborn.” 

Also in Dearborn, voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to create a ward system for districted city council seats. 

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In Northwest Detroit, District 7 went to Denzel McCampbell.

He defeated Democratic Michigan State Representative Karen Whitsett, who angered many in her party by caucusing with Republicans during last year’s lame duck session.

McCampbell is a former communications director for Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and a Democratic Socialist. He says his message resonates with Detroit voters.

“When we’re talking about delivering on basic needs, making sure that folks can have housing, that they can have food on the table in there, and have what they need to thrive, I think that’s what this moment is about, and we have to make sure that we not only build on it, but work together to deliver on that as well.”

McCampbell says he has a good relationship with Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield after working with her on the Detroit charter commission.

“When I was on the charter Commission, we worked on the Detroiter Bill of Rights, and I really look forward to meeting and coming together on how we can really make sure we’re serving our neighborhoods and really delivering for our neighborhoods, especially in District 7.”

McCampbell is now the second Democratic Socialist on city council after Gabriela Santiago-Romero won re-election.

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WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

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It’s Election Day in America, and once again, the question is what kind of country do we want to be?

In state after state, new voting laws have made it harder to cast a ballot. Meanwhile, election workers across the country face threats and trust in the process is eroding.

But there is also new energy and a strong current of change moving through the country. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, leads the mayor’s race. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed and Mallory McMorrow are pushing bold, grassroots campaigns. Progressives like Omar Fateh and Katie Wilson are gaining traction in Minneapolis and Seattle, respectively.

Their popularity says something: voters want affordable housing, clean water, buses that run, health care that works, food that is fresh and cheap. And that demand, more than any single race, may be democracy’s last line of defense.

So today, as Americans vote, The Metro’s Robyn Vincent turns to E.J. Dionne, a New York Times columnist and Brookings scholar, to help read this moment and unpack what it tells us about the future of American democracy.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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RICHMOND, Va. — Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to give Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and make history as the first woman ever to lead the commonwealth.

Spanberger’s victory will flip partisan control of the governor’s office when she succeeds outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

“We sent a message to every corner of the commonwealth, a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country,” Spanberger told cheering supporters Tuesday night in Richmond. “We sent a message to the whole word that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos.”

Also Tuesday, Democrat Ghazala F. Hashmi won the race for lieutenant governor and will succeed Earle-Sears, and Democrat Jay Jones defeated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in the race for attorney general. Jones is set to become the first Black attorney general in Virginia, while Hashmi is the first Muslim woman to win a statewide office in the U.S.

Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA case officer, won by emphasizing economic issues, a strategy that may serve as a model for other Democrats in next year’s elections as they try to break President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ hold on power in Washington and gain ground in statehouses.

Campaigning, Spanberger often sidestepped the historic potential of her candidacy. In victory, she embraced it.

“Just a few minutes ago, Adam said to our daughters, your mom’s going to be the governor of Virginia. And I can guarantee those words have never been spoken in Virginia ever before,” she said

“It’s a big deal that the girls and the young women I have met along the campaign trail now know with certainty that they can achieve anything.”

Spanberger’s eyes welled up as she told her family she loved them, as her husband and three daughters, standing behind her, wiped tears from their cheeks.

Spanberger was intentional in how she criticized Trump

Throughout the campaign, Spanberger made carefully crafted economic arguments against Trump’s policies, while she spent considerable sums on ads tying Earle-Sears to the president. She campaigned across the state, including in Republican-leaning areas, and in her first appearance as governor-elect she wore a bright red suit.

Yet Spanberger also emphasized her support for abortion rights in the last Southern state that has not enacted new restrictions or bans on the procedure, and she railed against Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, the U.S. government shutdown and their negative impact on a state with several hundred thousand federal employees.

That approach helped corral Democrats’ core supporters while attracting the kinds of swing voters who elected Youngkin four years ago. It also continued a historical trend for Virginia: Since Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has backed a governor from the opposite party of every first-term president in the following year. This year is a special case, given the gap between Trump’s terms.

Republicans, meanwhile, must grapple again with a battleground loss by an arch-conservative from the president’s party.

Trump never campaigned for Earle-Sears, though he did give her his tepid support. Their uneasy alliance raises questions about the ideal Republican nominee for contested general elections and how the president’s volatile standing with voters might affect GOP candidates next November. The midterm elections will settle statehouse control in dozens of states and determine whether Republicans maintain majorities in Washington for the final years of Trump’s presidency.

Earle-Sears 61, would have become the first Black woman to be elected as a governor in the U.S.

In her concession speech, she said she hoped Spanberger would support policies that unite Virginians.

“My opponent, Abigail, ran as a moderate. If she governs as one, then she will unite us, and she’ll heal our divide and win our support,” Earle-Sears said. “I hope and pray she does.”

Spanberger balanced policy and biography

Spanberger, 46, ran on a pledge to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of Trump’s second administration, which has culled the civil service, levied tariffs and shepherded a reconciliation bill curtailing the state’s already fragile health care system.

Accountant Sherry Kohan, 56, who cast her ballot at the Aurora Hills Library in Arlington, said she used to think of herself as a Republican but hasn’t felt aligned with either party since Trump’s first term. She said her vote for Spanberger was a vote against Trump.

Stephanie Uhl, 38, who also said she voted for Spanberger, had the federal government shutdown on her mind when casting her ballot at the library in Arlington, just across the river from Washington.

Uhl was working without pay for the Defense Department and though she said, “I can afford (it) just fine,” she was bothered “that it affects so many other people.”

Spanberger’s background also figured heavily into her victory. As a former CIA case officer, she noted her public service and national security credentials. And she pitched herself as the mother of daughters educated in Virginia’s public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who represented a swing district and worked across the aisle.

The pitch helped the Democratic nominee withstand Earle-Sears’ attacks on cultural issues, notably the Republican’s assertion that Spanberger is an extremist on civil rights and health care for transgender people. Spanberger, who consistently argued that local school districts should decide whether transgender students can participate in competitive sports, cast her opponent as the candidate more out of step with the middle of the Virginia electorate.

Her strategy echoed the approach Democrats used to flip U.S. House control in the 2018 midterms, halfway through Trump’s first presidency. Spanberger was among several high-profile women who brought national security or military credentials to campaigns in battleground districts. Another of those women, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, was vying Tuesday to become New Jersey’s Democratic governor.

Together, they were held up as examples of successful mainstream Democrats at a time when the party’s left flank has been ascendent, most notably Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the party’s nominee in Tuesday’s New York mayoral contest.

In Congress, Spanberger was a quiet workhorse

When she first got to Washington, Spanberger concentrated on lower-profile issues: bringing broadband to rural areas, fighting drug trafficking and veterans’ services. And she quickly established a reputation for working with colleagues across the political spectrum.

In her new role, she will face tightening economic projections, rising utility costs and growing unemployment — in part because of the Trump administration’s federal contraction. But she could have the advantage of a friendly Legislature if Democrats are able to maintain their majority in the House of Delegates. All 100 seats in that chamber were on the ballot Tuesday, as were other statewide offices, including lieutenant governor and attorney general. The state Senate, also controlled by Democrats, was not on the ballot this year. If Democrats have the so-called trifecta in Richmond, as Republicans do now in Washington, they could enact many policy priorities that lawmakers advanced to Youngkin only for him to veto the bills.

Spanberger won despite a late surprise that threatened Virginia’s Democratic ticket. In October, news reports revealed that Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, sent texts in 2022 suggesting the former Republican House speaker get “two bullets to the head.”

Republicans across the U.S., including Trump and Earle-Sears, demanded Jones drop out. He apologized and said he was ashamed of the messages but declined to leave the race.

The controversy dogged Spanberger. She condemned the text messages but stopped short of asking Jones to withdraw from the race, and she notably did not withdraw her endorsement.

“I have denounced political violence, political rhetoric,” Spanberger said in her lone debate with Earle-Sears, “no matter who is leading the charge.”

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Barrow reported from Atlanta. Helen Wieffering contributed from Arlington, Virginia.