Major funders bet big on rural America and ‘everyday democracy’

Someone may need to tell Carlton Turner that he’s working to save democracy. Turner is co-director of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production in the town of Utica, population 600, where his family has lived for eight generations. The organization, better known as Sipp...

Head of Cambodia's top opposition party hit with $1.5 million judgement for defaming government

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian court on Thursday found the president of the country’s main opposition party guilty of defamation and ordered him to pay $1.5 million in damages to the government, his lawyer and legal observers said. Teav Vannol, president of the...

Transcript: Biden's speech explaining why he withdrew from the 2024 presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transcript of President Joe Biden’s address to the nation on July 24, 2024: My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American...

Biden delivers solemn call to defend democracy as he lays out his reasons for quitting race

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Insisting that...

Biden to tell nation the 'defense of democracy is more important than any title' as he explains dropping 2024 bid

EU executive criticizes rule of law issues in Hungary, Slovakia, Italy; lauds reforms elsewhere

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive commission Wednesday criticized rule of law developments in Hungary, Italy and Slovakia, but welcomed reforms in Poland and Spain in its latest democracy health check across the 27-nation bloc. Across the board, EU countries had fully...

Federal judge tosses Ohio voting restrictions on voters with disabilities

CLEVELAND (AP) — A federal judge has struck down part of Ohio’s sweeping 2023 election law, which voting rights groups said restricted people from helping voters with disabilities cast absentee ballots. Voting advocates argued that the Republican-backed law went too far by...

Far-right leader Le Pen says France is in a political 'quagmire' 9 days before Olympics start

PARIS (AP) — With nine days to the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Wednesday that the deeply divided country is "in a quagmire” after chaotic legislative elections produced a fragmented parliament. France has been on the brink...

Tunisia's opposition says politically motivated arrests and gag orders are chilling election efforts

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Leading opposition parties in Tunisia asserted Wednesday that politically motivated arrests and gag orders are creating impossible conditions for holding democratic elections later this year. Members of the National Salvation Front, a coalition of secular and...

French president accepts prime minister's resignation but keeps him as head of caretaker government

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron accepted the prime minister’s resignation Tuesday but kept him on as head of a caretaker government, as France prepares to host the Paris Olympics at the end of the month. The president's office said in a statement that Macron...