Headline News from The Associated Press
AP Headline News - May 15 2024 16:00 (EDT)
AP News. I'm pay up and drawing. Two presidential debates are set. AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller reports the Biden and Trump campaigns push for debates to happen before early voting starts. "Both candidates have really expressed a desire to have general election debates take place before people began casting early ballots, which begins in mid-September that there are some overseas and military ballots that get sent out as early as late August, but really to move up the cycle of when they debate so that more voters would get that information before they actually do cast their ballots." In an AP interview, Asia Society China expert Orville Shell says sending an unofficial delegation to Taiwan's presidential inauguration is the right choice by the Biden administration. "Will it also be served as a provocation? Probably. Because I think China is looking for provocations just as Putin needed a provocation and used NATO as an excuse for invading the Ukraine." The move is certain to upset China, but unlikely to draw excessive responses from Beijing. AP pairs bureau correspondent John Lee Chester reports the French government has declared a state of emergency in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia after at least four people were killed in violent unrest. "With the unrest now taking a deadly turn, French government today had a security meeting. It's basically French President Limalia Macon calling together his top and closest ministers to discuss what to do a state of emergency would essentially give the local authorities greater powers that would allow them, for example, to put people on the house arrest if they felt that they were being a threat to public order." A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas today, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a smaller and separate island that is home to a university. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Aerial video showed portions of a rail line that runs parallel to the bridge on top of the barge. Officials said the rail line only serves as protection. This is AP News. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports Senate primaries set up a marquee race in Maryland in a likely Republican flip in West Virginia. Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan claiming the Republican nomination and what will be a marquee race in the state against Angela also Brooks. Meanwhile, another popular Republican governor, Jim Justice, won the Senate nomination in deep red West Virginia, becoming the overwhelming favorite in the race that represents the GOP's best pickup opportunity in the nation. In both states, the Republican nominees represent a serious challenge for Democrats in the general election as they cling to a 51-49 Senate majority. Two people on opposite sides of the January 6 insurrection lost their U.S. House bids. A former Capitol police officer running in Maryland and a former West Virginia state lawmaker who participated in the riot. I'm Julie Walker. I'm Haya Panjwani, AP News.