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Insiders predict Rust Belt Republican, possible Trump VP pick, could flip Biden votes in key swing states

Insiders predict Rust Belt Republican, possible Trump VP pick, could flip Biden votes in key swing states

Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a series of profiles of potential running mates for presidential candidate Donald Trump on the 2024 Republican Party ticket. The race to determine who will be Donald Trump’s running mate this November is continuing to heat up, with the former president telling Fox News last week he has “sort of a pretty good idea” who he’ll select. The identity of that person remains a mystery, but a number of prospective contenders were recently asked to provide documents to Trump’s team as part of the vetting process, including firebrand Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who some insiders say could be the key to flipping working-class Democrat voters in a number of consequential battleground states. “J.D. Vance has become a fixture on the road for Donald Trump and is extremely popular with the Trump base,” one top GOP strategist told Fox News Digital, referencing Vance’s frequent appearances with Trump on the campaign trail and beyond. DEMOCRATS ‘FEAR’ THIS POSSIBLE TRUMP VP PICK WHO ‘SOULD SPELL THE END FOR BIDEN’: INSIDERS “He would be a lot of help across the entire Rust Belt and could help pick up working-class Democrat votes in places even outside his own state of Ohio. He would be an asset everywhere, really, but especially in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.” The three states mentioned were all won by Trump in 2016 when they constituted part of the so-called “blue wall” for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton but flipped to President Biden in 2020. All three are once again taking center stage in the presidential race and could be the deciding factor for who wins the presidency this year. Vance’s blue-collar upbringing, which he detailed in his bestselling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” particularly appeals to many voters across those states in the same fashion Trump did during his first presidential run, another insider argued. INSIDERS PREDICT THIS POSSIBLE TRUMP VP PICK POSES ‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’ TO KEY AREA OD BIDEN SUPPORT “[Vance] capably handles hostile media interviews with the poise and precision of a Yale Law School graduate while also sharing an authentic connection with blue-collar voters in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. So, it’s easy to see why he’s on Trump’s list of potential picks,” said GOP strategist Matt Wolking, who served as deputy communications director for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. “A combat veteran and a good friend of Donald Trump Jr., Vance is a fresh face from the populist, noninterventionist, union-friendly wing of the new Republican Party,” Wolking added, referencing Vance’s service in the Marine Corps and deployment to Iraq. Wolking noted some potential downsides to Vance’s selection include that he would be the youngest vice president in 70 years, and, considering he was elected to the Senate in 2022, has only held elected office for 18 months as of June. EXPERTS REVEAL MAJOR ‘DOWNSIDE’ TO POTENTIAL TRUMP VP PICK: ‘NO WOW FACTOR’ “He has only one general election under his belt in a state Trump won by eight points,” he added. Another GOP strategist with experience in presidential campaigns told Fox that because Trump is working hard to court the business community, Vance’s “anti-big business inclinations would give some of those potential donors major heartburn.” Others who have been floated as possibilities to join Trump on the Republican ticket include House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Trump has suggested he will likely wait until July’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to name his pick. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Divers find remains of Finnish WWII plane shot down by Soviets

Divers find remains of Finnish WWII plane shot down by Soviets

The World War II mystery of what happened to a Finnish passenger plane after it was shot down over the Baltic Sea by Soviet bombers appears to finally be solved more than 80 years later. The plane was carrying American and French diplomatic couriers in June 1940 when it was downed just days before Moscow annexed the Baltic states. All nine people on board the plane were killed including the two-member Finnish crew and the seven passengers — an American diplomat, two French, two Germans, a Swede and a dual Estonian-Finnish national. A diving and salvage team in Estonia said this week it located well-preserved parts and debris from the Junkers Ju 52 plane operated by Finnish airline Aero, which is now Finnair. It was found off the tiny island of Keri near Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, at a depth of 70 metres (230 feet). “Basically, we started from scratch. We took a whole different approach to the search,” said Kaido Peremees, spokesperson for the Estonian diving and underwater survey company Tuukritoode OU, explained the group’s success in finding the plane’s remains. The downing of the civilian plane, named Kaleva, en route from Tallinn to Helsinki happened on June 14, 1940 — just three months after Finland signed a peace treaty with Moscow following the 1939-40 Winter War. The news about the fate of the plane met disbelief and anger by authorities in Helsinki who were informed it was shot down by two Soviet DB-3 bombers 10 minutes after taking off from Tallinn’s Ulemiste airport. “It was unique that a passenger plane was shot down during peacetime on a normal scheduled flight,” said Finnish aviation historian Carl-Fredrik Geust, who has investigated Kaleva’s case since the 1980s. Finland officially kept silent for years about the details of the aircraft’s destruction, saying publicly only a “mysterious crash” had taken place over the Baltic Sea, because it did not want to provoke Moscow. Though well documented by books, research and television documentaries, the 84-year-old mystery has intrigued Finns. The case is an essential part of the Nordic country’s complex World War II history and sheds light into its troubled ties with Moscow. But perhaps more importantly, the downing of the plane happened at a critical time just days before Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union was preparing to annex the three Baltic states, sealing the fate of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for the next half-century before they eventually regained independence in 1991. Crew of the Kaleva photographed in the spring of 1940 [File: Finnish Aviation Museum via AP] Retrieval by Soviet submarine The USSR occupied Estonia on June 17, 1940, and Kaleva’s doomed journey was the last flight out of Tallinn, though the Soviets had already started enforcing a tight transport embargo around the Estonian capital. American diplomat Henry W Antheil Jr, 27, was on board the plane when it went down. He was on a rushed government mission evacuating sensitive diplomatic pouches from US missions in Tallinn and Riga, Latvia, as it became clear Moscow was preparing to swallow the small Baltic nations. Kaleva was carrying 227kg (500 pounds) of diplomatic post, including Antheil’s pouches and material from two French diplomatic couriers — identified as Paul Longuet and Frederic Marty. Estonian fishermen and the lighthouse operator on Keri told Finnish media decades after the downing of the plane that a Soviet submarine surfaced close to Kaleva’s crash site and retrieved floating debris, including document pouches that had been collected by fishermen from the site. This has led to conspiracy theories regarding the contents of the pouches and Moscow’s decision to shoot down the plane. It still remains unclear why precisely the Soviet Union decided to down a civilian Finnish passenger plane during peacetime. “Lots of speculation on the plane’s cargo has been heard over the years,” Geust said. “What was the plane transporting? Many suggest Moscow wanted to prevent sensitive material and documents from exiting Estonia.” But he said it could have simply been “a mistake” by the Soviet bomber pilots. Various attempts to find Kaleva have been recorded since Estonia regained independence more than three decades ago. However, none of them have been successful. “The wreckage is in pieces and the seabed is quite challenging with rock formations, valleys and hills. It’s very easy to miss” small parts and debris from the aircraft, Peremees said. “Techniques have, of course, evolved a lot over the time. As always, you can have good technology, but be out of luck.” New video taken by underwater robots from Peremees’ company showed clear images of the three-engine Junkers’ landing gear, one of the motors and parts of the wings. Jaakko Schildt, chief operations officer of Finnair, described Kaleva’s downing as “a tragic and profoundly sad event for the young airline”. “Finding the wreckage of Kaleva in a way brings closure to this, even though it does not bring back the lives of our customers and crew that were lost,” Schildt said. “The interest towards locating Kaleva in the Baltic Sea speaks of the importance this tragic event has in the aviation history of our region.” Adblock test (Why?)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 842

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 842

As the war enters its 842nd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Politics and diplomacy World leaders are gathering in Switzerland for the second day of a major peace conference to pursue a consensus on condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and underscoring concerns about the war’s human cost. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced hope of garnering international agreement around a proposal to end the war that he could present to Moscow. The circle of countries participating in the process of working towards a peace plan for Ukraine should be widened, French President Emmanuel Macron said during the opening of the peace summit. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described as “propaganda” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine effectively surrender before any peace talks. United States Vice President Kamala Harris announced another $1.5bn in assistance to Ukraine, as she pledged the US’s full support in backing Kyiv’s efforts to achieve “a just and lasting peace” in the face of the war with Russia. A draft of the final summit declaration reportedly refers to Russia’s invasion as a “war” – a label Moscow rejects – and calls for Ukraine’s control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its Azov Sea ports to be restored, the Reuters news agency reported. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that Qatar had helped to mediate the return from Russia of 30 or more Ukrainian children to their families. Kyiv claims that as many as 20,000 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians since the war began. More than 90 countries are taking part in the summit, but China said it would boycott the event after Russia was frozen out of the process. Fighting The peace summit comes at a perilous moment for Ukraine on the battlefield, with Russian forces advancing against outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian units. Near Ukraine’s embattled eastern front, hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough are nearly nil. “I’d like to hope that it will bring some changes in the future. But, as experience shows, nothing comes of it,” Maksym, a tank commander in the Donetsk region, told the AFP news agency. Outside the peace summit venue in Switzerland, the wife of a Ukrainian soldier captured by Russia said she hoped the leaders could agree to “some exchange process for the prisoners of war”. “I want to see my husband,” Hanna, who fled her home in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and now lives in Sweden, told AFP. Meanwhile, Russian army defectors live in fear of reprisal from Moscow after abandoning their posts in the ongoing war with Ukraine. Many also feel abandoned by the West, as they do not have the necessary passports and only have documents allowing them to reach neighbouring Kazakhstan or Armenia. World leaders pose for a photo at the opening ceremony of the summit on peace in Ukraine held in Stansstad near Lucerne, Switzerland [Denis Balibouse/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)

‘Double attack’: The curse of natural gas and armed groups in Mozambique

‘Double attack’: The curse of natural gas and armed groups in Mozambique

Palma, Mozambique – It was late afternoon and darkness was approaching when Awa Salama* heard pops of gunfire and explosions: The fighters were coming. As her neighbours made frantic telephone calls trying to warn loved ones before running wildly away, Salama locked the door to her house to keep looters out, took her children and fled. After several days of hiding in the wilds encircling Palma – a small town on the northern tip of Mozambique about 2,700km (1,700 miles) from the capital, Maputo – she decided to search for a way out. Salama crept through the forest with her children until she reached the towering gate of the Afungi facility, built to serve the French company TotalEnergies and its natural gas project. For 12 hours, she waited with thousands of other people hoping for passage on a ship that could ferry them away. It never came. A defeated Salama sought shelter at the nearby village of Quitunda, which had been constructed several years earlier to house 557 families displaced by the gas development. She spent the next day waiting at the gates of Afungi again, looking for an escape from Palma, but she still could not find one. That was in March 2021. Police speak to residents in Palma after an attack by armed fighters in the area in 2021 [Marc Hoogsteyns/AP] Three years later, sitting on the veranda of her new home in Quitunda, she is still nervous answering questions about the conflict and gas project and spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition that her name be changed. The 16 other Palma residents we interviewed about the intertwined spectres of the gas development and war also refused to be identified. “It is life-threatening,” Adriano Nvunga, a Mozambican activist and head of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, explained about the dangers of critical expression in the country. Hidden wealth Economists use the shorthand of “the resource curse” to describe how communities who live atop hidden riches not only fail to profit but also face peril. In 2009, prospectors from the Texas company Anadarko found some of the world’s largest stores of natural gas off the coast of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique. The discovery of gas was at first a cause for celebration, especially because it promised to enrich one of the country’s poorest provinces. “You will be happy. You will be satisfied. Even your belly will come in front of you,” Salama said with a glint in her eye, imitating the words of energy workers. She shook her head as if to mourn their broken promises. The sheer volume of natural gas under the sea off Mozambique is dwarfed only by the amount of money that has been poured into getting it out. In 2019, TotalEnergies and its partners unveiled plans to invest $20bn in developing and extracting the gas in the largest foreign venture on the African continent. The Afungi site, where Salama had searched desperately for an escape route, has been cleared of 66sq km (26sq miles) of mudbrick houses, coconut palms and verdant farmland. The people who once made their homes and tended crops there were moved to Quitunda, where construction began in 2018. In place of levelled villages sit a port and an airport along with a power station, street grid, emergency room and hundreds of cabins built to enclose TotalEnergies managers and gas workers within fortress-like walls. Gas itself will be processed at an offshore facility. Named for the slim shape of the cape, Cabo Delgado may as well be a reference to the narrow margins on which people reliant on the land and the sea live. The province is known for its deep ruby pits and the illegal trade in ivory and timber. It is also where the war for independence against the Portuguese began in the 1960s and was a battleground in the Mozambican Civil War that followed. Another battle The development of the Mozambique Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Project has unfolded against the backdrop of another conflict, the same one that spurred Salama’s dash to the Afungi gate. These combatants call themselves al-Shabab, or “the youth”  in Arabic, although they have no connection to the better known group with the same name in Somalia. The rebels launched a violent campaign in 2017 that has continued since. They say they are angry that Cabo Delgado’s people have been cut off from wealth and opportunity. Al-Shabab is notorious for its brutality, for beheadings and the abduction of women and children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves, according to Amnesty International. More than 6,000 people have been killed and a million have been displaced over the past seven years. The fighters have sworn allegiance to ISIL (ISIS), which often broadcasts its attacks. The presence of a major gas project in Palma contributes to this web of socioeconomic and political frustrations and heightens pressure on the Mozambican army and on international troops stationed in Cabo Delgado to guard the investment. When al-Shabab managed to take Palma in March 2021, more than 1,190 people were killed, making it the deadliest such attack to date on the African continent. In the aftermath, TotalEnergies declared force majeure on its project in Mozambique, enacting an ongoing suspension because of the conflict. The Afungi site, which is not yet operational, is currently guarded by private security companies and a joint task force made up of the Mozambican military and police. Until this year, this task force had a base within the Afungi site. Soldiers are seen near the Afungi natural gas site in 2021 [Baz Ratner/Reuters] The initial 2021 offensive in Palma went on for four days and is the same ambush from which Salama escaped. But the fighters continued to roam the area for several months, attacking anyone who tried to return home. After more than a week spent looking for a way out of the town, Salama said she finally managed to leave by plane going south. She spent a few years sheltering in

Judge rules Missouri abortion ban did not aim to impose lawmakers’ religious views on others

Judge rules Missouri abortion ban did not aim to impose lawmakers’ religious views on others

A judge in Missouri ruled that state lawmakers who passed a bill restricting abortion access were not attempting to force their religious beliefs on everyone in the state, despite claims from religious leaders. The case brought by more than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders who support abortion access was rejected in Judge Jason Sengheiser’s ruling on Friday. The religious leaders sought a permanent injunction last year to prevent Missouri from enforcing its abortion ban and a declaration that provisions of the law violate the state Constitution. One section of the statute that was challenged reads: “In recognition that Almighty God is the author of life, that all men and women are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life.’” MISSOURI’S ABORTION LAW FACES CHALLENGE IN COURT OVER CLAIMS OF RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE Sengheiser wrote in his ruling that there is similar language in the preamble to the Missouri Constitution, which states that there is “profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.” The other challenged provisions do not include any explicit religious language, the judge ruled. “While the determination that life begins at conception may run counter to some religious beliefs, it is not itself necessarily a religious belief,” Sengheiser wrote. “As such, it does not prevent all men and women from worshipping Almighty God or not worshipping according to the dictates of their own consciences.” The Americans United for Separation of Church & State and the National Women’s Law Center, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the religious leaders, said in a joint statement that they were considering their legal options following the judge’s ruling. “Missouri’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious freedom and reproductive freedom,” the statement read. Attorneys representing the state, however, argued that just because some supporters of the law oppose abortion for religious reasons does not mean that the law imposes their beliefs on other people in the state. Sengheiser said that the state has historically attempted to restrict and criminalize abortion, pointing to statutes more than 100 years old. SUPREME COURT RULES IN ABORTION MEDICATION CASE, FINDS GROUP LACKED STANDING TO CHALLENGE FDA APPROVAL “Essentially, the only thing that changed is that Roe was reversed, opening the door to this further regulation,” he said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, which allowed states to make their own abortion laws. Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson, both Republicans, filed paperwork to immediately enact a 2019 law prohibiting abortions except in cases of medical emergency. That law included a provision that made it effective only if Roe v. Wade was overturned. The law makes it a felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion, and doctors who violate the law could lose their medical licenses. Women who undergo abortions cannot be prosecuted under the law. Missouri, which already had some of the more restrictive abortion laws in the U.S., had a significant decline in the number of abortions performed. Residents instead traveled to the neighboring states of Illinois and Kansas to undergo the procedure. The Associated Press contributed to this report.