Headline News from The Associated Press
AP Headline News - Jul 04 2024 22:00 (EDT)
Pee Pee News, I'm Ben Thomas. Works to salvage his re-election campaign, President Biden hosted a July 4th barbecue on the White House South Lawn, praising American military personnel in attendance. "In the history of the world, there's never been another military as powerful, as decent, and as giving, as our military. I'm so damn proud to be your commander-in-chief. Happy 4th of July!" This is tell AP, some financial backers have been holding off or canceling fundraisers, but California Governor Gavin Newsom maintains President Biden has the record and energy to win. "Look at his schedule. Look at the fundraising things that, you know, see, all that work, the work you're doing behind the scenes, the phone calls you're making, all the times of night, the alliance management of the museum prepared for NATO this week, work they're doing a land of deal with the Hamas in Israel, so that's called human, and God bless, I like what a president acknowledges they're human." Britain's election a next-it poll suggests a landslide victory for the Labour Party. Hurricane barrels chugging toward Mexico's Caribbean coast, now a category two storm, Jackie Quinn has the latest. "Businesses closed early in Playa del Carmen. In Tulum, beachside hotels are already evacuated, but Miriam Sietra, from Dallas, decided to stay." "It's just going to be hunkered down and to stay indoors until hopefully it passes." The powerful hurricane leaving a trail of destruction in Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Senior Hurricane Specialist Jack Bevin says after a second Mexican landfall, the Texas Gulf Coast could get a punch from barrel next week. "We're at the eastern Mexico and possibly portions of the Texas coast. We're talking four to five days before the storm would get there." Forecasters are also watching a Pacific storm, Aleda. "I'm Jackie Quinn." The National Weather Service says some 134 million Americans are under heat alerts. This is AP News. In South Africa, scientists have found some ancient termite mounds. Donna Warder has the story. Researchers at Stellenbosch University say the radio carbon dating, they found some of the mounds to be 34,000 years old and they're still inhabited. They're near the Buffalo River in Namakwaland. Senior lecturer Michelle Francis says the mounds existed while saber-tooth cats and woolly mammoths roamed other parts of the earth. And the mounds are a termite version of an apartment complex, having been consistently inhabited by termite colonies. Francis says the southern harvester termites are experts at capturing and storing carbon by collecting twigs and other dead wood and putting it back deep into the soil. And that has benefits in offsetting climate change by reducing the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere. I'm Donna Warder. Thank you, Donna. And I'm Ben Thomas, AP News. Thank you for listening.