Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and the nearly two dozen challengers hoping to defeat her are among the candidates who will seek their parties’ nominations for state and federal offices in Tuesday’s primary. Voters will also decide a statewide ballot measure that would raise gas taxes to pay for improvements to the state’s roads and bridges.

National politics cast a long shadow over the primary, as is often the case in a midterm election year, when voters historically have punished the incumbent president’s party at the ballot box. Kotek has made President Donald Trump a top foil in her campaign, while the vote on Measure 120 to raise vehicle fees and gas taxes for transportation infrastructure projects takes place against the backdrop of gas prices that have steadily climbed since the start of the Iran war.

Kotek faces nine Democratic primary challengers in her bid for a second term. The Republican primary field features 14 candidates, including Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell, state Rep. Ed Diehl, state Sen. Christine Drazan and financial planner and former NBA player Chris Dudley. Dudley last ran for governor in 2010, when he received about 48% of the vote in the general election.

Incumbents are also running for reelection for U.S. Senate and all six U.S. House seats, with only one member of Congress facing no opposition for renomination.

The key counties in both Democratic and Republican primaries are Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties in the Portland area and Lane County, which is home to Eugene. Salem-based Marion County, Jackson County and Deschutes County also contribute significant amounts of vote in both parties’ primaries.

Dudley won the 2010 primary for governor with 39% of the vote against eight candidates. Of the most populous counties, he carried Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Washington counties and placed second in Lane County.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Oregon elections are conducted predominantly by mail. Ballots delivered to a ballot drop box or a county elections office must be received by 8 p.m. local time, which is 10 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET. Counties have the option to keep their locations open longer. Almost all of the state observes Pacific time, so the deadline in those areas is 11 p.m. ET. Some of the state observes Mountain time and the deadline there is 10 p.m. ET. Mailed ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. local time and received by May 26 to be counted.

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state Senate and state House, as well as for Measure 120 and the nonpartisan race for state labor commissioner.

Voters must be registered with a political party to participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

As of May 4, there were about 3.1 million registered voters in Oregon, including about 988,000 registered Democrats and about 737,000 registered Republicans.

Registered Democrats cast between 420,000 and 456,000 votes in the 2024 primaries, depending on the contest, while registered Republicans cast just shy of 300,000 votes.

Turnout was higher in the 2022 midterm primaries, when Democrats cast between 478,000 and 492,000 votes and Republicans cast between 347,000 and 370,000 votes.

Oregon has conducted vote-by-mail elections since the 1990s. Ballots may also be delivered to drop boxes and county elections offices.

As of Friday, nearly 513,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

Since Oregon elections are conducted predominantly by mail, results from mail voting are released throughout the night and the following days. A handful of smaller counties release all or most of their results from Election Day voting in their first vote report.

In the 2024 presidential and state primary, the AP first reported results at 11 p.m. ET just as the final polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 5:11 a.m. ET with about 74% of total votes counted.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts in Oregon are automatic in the event of a tie vote or if the vote margin is 0.2% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 168 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

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By Phil Stewart and Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth campaigned on Monday for a former Navy SEAL who is challenging one of President Donald Trump’s top Republican targets in Congress, in a highly unusual appearance for a U.S. military leader.

At a rally in Kentucky, Hegseth endorsed Republican candidate Ed Gallrein and criticized incumbent Representative Thomas Massie, who has been at odds with Trump over major legislation and led the drive to release government files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The two face off on Tuesday in what has become the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history.

  “Too often, Thomas Massie has acted like his job is to stand apart from the movement that President Trump leads instead of strengthening it,” Hegseth said. 

It is highly unusual for defense secretaries to appear at political events, especially during wartime, as the U.S. military is meant to be apolitical. However, Hegseth has challenged norms since taking the job last year by leading Christian prayer services at the Pentagon, comparing news reporters to enemies of Jesus, and seeking to sanction a Democratic senator who had urged service members to reject unlawful orders.

Hegseth, addressing “all the lawyers” listening, said he was attending the event in Kentucky in a personal capacity — an important distinction given legal restrictions on political activities of federal employees.

The Pentagon said Hegseth was not violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their official capacity to affect elections.

“No taxpayer dollars will be used to facilitate his visit. His participation has been thoroughly vetted and cleared by lawyers,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement.

At the event, Hegseth said Gallrein would support Trump’s agenda and condemned Massie as an obstructionist. 

“When the movement needs unity, especially at the biggest moment, Massie’s willing to vote with Democrats,” he said. 

Massie, in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” said he gets a fundraising boost each time Trump mentions him on social media and speculated that the president is “desperate” to get rid of him.  

Trump has pursued a retribution campaign against Republicans who have crossed him. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who earned Trump’s ire for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday after Trump endorsed a rival.  

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as U.S. Federal Reserve chief on Friday by President Donald Trump, a White House official said on Monday, capping off the process of installing the 56-year-old lawyer and financier at the helm of the central bank as it grapples with intensifying inflation that may make it hard to push through the interest-rate cuts Trump so deeply desires.

Warsh is succeeding Jerome Powell, whose eight-year run as Fed leader formally expired on Friday, although he plans to remain as a Board of Governors member until he is satisfied that a Trump administration criminal probe of him is fully wound down. Powell was sworn in as chair pro tempore on Friday to bridge the leadership gap until Warsh is formally installed.

The investigation into Powell centering on cost overruns for building renovations at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex became an obstacle for a time to Warsh’s confirmation by the Senate. The probe was settled to the satisfaction of an objecting Republican senator, however, and the full Senate confirmed Warsh on an almost-party-line vote on May 13.

Warsh, who served as a Fed governor through the global financial crisis era, returns at a difficult moment for U.S. monetary policymaking. Annualized inflation is running well above the Fed’s 2% target and likely to keep rising, largely because of policy choices by the president who gave him the job.

The tariffs Trump imposed through his first year in office pushed up prices for a broad range of imported goods, and then this year Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran has triggered a global energy price shock that recent data show is driving up prices across a widening array of goods and services.

The tariffs’ impact on its own had been a factor that a number of Fed policymakers, including Powell, had been willing to look past as a one-time price increase, not persistent inflation, and that could have allowed the central bank to resume interest-rate cuts that were put on hold early this year.

But the now-cascading effects of the Iran-war-induced energy price shock have deepened the inflation concerns of a growing number of the Fed policymakers Warsh must now lead and with whom he must now try to form a consensus over the direction of rate policy.

A run of hotter-than-expected readings of inflation caused upheaval in the bond market as last week ended. Yields on U.S. government bonds shot higher on Friday as investors repositioned for what they now see as sticky inflation and likely Fed rate hikes in response, starting perhaps as early as December.

Warsh’s first rate-setting meeting is just weeks away in mid-June and he is likely to find himself confronted with a growing hawkish bloc of policymakers arguing for the Fed to shift its posture explicitly to guard against inflation. Interest-rate futures markets assign effectively zero probability to a change in the Fed’s current policy rate, 3.50% to 3.75%, at the June meeting.

(Reporting by Dan Burns, Steve Holland, Jasper Ward and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols and Rosalba O’Brien)

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(WASHINGTON) – Israeli officials say a key figure behind the October seventh attacks has been killed. The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency report Izz al-Din al-Haddad was eliminated in a targeted strike in Gaza City on Friday.

According to the IDF, Haddad served as head of Hamas’s military wing and was one of the main planners of the October seventh assault. He had taken over military operations following the deaths of senior Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar.

Israeli officials say Haddad also played a central role in managing Hamas’s hostage system, at times surrounding himself with captives in an effort to prevent being targeted. He was described as one of the group’s longest-serving commanders, with decades of involvement in Hamas leadership.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts in the region remain strained. A senior international official told The Wall Street Journal that Hamas’s refusal to disarm and its control over Gaza’s civilian population continue to hinder progress toward any broader peace agreement. Hamas has denied those accusations.

—

In a separate development, the United States says it has eliminated a top global ISIS leader in Africa.

U.S. officials confirm that American forces, working alongside Nigerian القوات المسلحة, carried out what was described as a highly coordinated operation in northeastern Nigeria. The target, Abu Bilal al-Minuki, was believed to be the second-in-command of ISIS worldwide.

President Trump, in a statement, called the mission “flawlessly executed,” saying al-Minuki had been one of the most active террорист leaders globally, involved in planning attacks and directing hostage-taking operations.

U.S. Africa Command says the strike also killed additional high-value ISIS figures and is part of a broader effort to maintain pressure on remaining террорист networks.

—

And in the United States, a suspected international terror planner is now in federal custody.

The FBI says an Iraqi man, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, has been brought to New York to face charges linked to nearly twenty planned attacks across Europe.

Authorities allege that al-Saadi coordinated operations for a pro-Iranian extremist group, targeting Jewish schools, synagogues, and charities, as well as American and Israeli interests.

FBI Director Kash Patel called the arrest a major international success, saying it reflects ongoing efforts to bring high-level terror suspects to justice.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics within the Republican Party, faces a tough primary challenge Tuesday in Kentucky’s state primary. It’s the latest example this primary season of the president trying to purge the party of Republicans he perceives as disloyal.

Kentucky voters will also pick nominees for U.S. Senate, five other U.S. House seats and the state General Assembly. Voters in Louisville will winnow down a crowded field for mayor.

The Commonwealth’s marquee race on Tuesday is in the 4th Congressional District, where Massie seeks the GOP nomination for an 8th full term. His opponent is Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL who entered the race at Trump’s urging.

Massie is the rare Republican in Washington who has clashed with Trump on his key domestic and foreign policy initiatives, opposing both his signature tax package and the war with Iran. He has also been a leader in Congress of the effort to release the files of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Massie has a fundraising advantage, but Gallrein has remained competitive. The incumbent more than doubled his opponent’s spending over the course of the campaign, but the two began the month on comparable footing in terms of funds in the bank.

The 4th Congressional District in northern Kentucky stretches along the Ohio River and shares a border with Indiana and Ohio. Trump received about 67% of the district vote in the 2024 general election, carrying all 21 counties with at least 59% of the vote. Massie ran unopposed in 2024 and received 65% of the vote in his 2022 reelection bid. Although Massie also carried every county in 2022, Trump outperformed him two years later in all but two counties.

In the U.S. Senate primaries, nearly 20 candidates are competing to succeed longtime GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is retiring after seven terms. Among the 11 candidates for the Republican nomination are U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who has Trump’s endorsement, and former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a former McConnell aide who has criticized his ex-boss on the campaign trail.

Seven candidates seek the Democratic nomination, including former state Rep. Charles Booker, military veteran and 2020 U.S. Senate nominee Amy McGrath and state House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson.

In Louisville, Mayor Craig Greenberg is running for a second term against 10 other candidates. The top two vote-getters in the nonpartisan primary will advance to the general election.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 6 p.m. local time, which is 6 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET. Polls in most of Kentucky are in Eastern time and close at 6 p.m. ET, but polls in the Central Time Zone close at 7 p.m. ET.

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and Louisville mayor.

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

As of April 24, there were about 3.4 million registered voters in Kentucky, including about 1.6 million registered Republicans and about 1.4 million registered Democrats.

In the 2022 primaries for U.S. Senate, about 386,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary and about 292,000 in the Democratic primary.

About 21% of the Democratic vote and about 17% of the Republican vote in the 2023 state primaries was cast before primary day.

As of Wednesday, about 27,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, including about 14,000 from Republicans and about 12,000 from Democrats.

Vote release practices vary from county to county. Results from early and absentee voting tend to be released from medium-to-large sized counties as part of the first vote update, usually before any in-person Election Day results are released.

In the 2024 primary, the AP first reported results at 6:06 p.m. ET, or 6 minutes after polls closed in most of the state. The last vote update of the night was at 9:47 p.m. ET with more than 99.9% of total votes counted.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Kentucky requires an automatic recount for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, state General Assembly and nearly all statewide offices if the vote margin is 0.5% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 168 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday called a “rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”

Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event’s Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation’s founders alongside a white cross.

Several speakers celebrated Christianity’s ties to American history, a blending of ideas that critics flagged ahead of the prayer gathering as supporting Christian nationalism.

From the stage, the Rev. Robert Jeffress embraced the term, which is often taken as a pejorative. “If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” said the prominent Southern Baptist pastor.

President Donald Trump is to address the gathering in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.

Hegseth, who has infused Christian language and worship with his role leading the Pentagon, asked the gathering in a video to pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Referencing George Washington’s faith, he said, “Let us pray without ceasing. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee.”

The event was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the White House.

PHOTO- People worship to Christian music at Rededicate 250, a prayer gathering in honor of the United States’ 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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May 17 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on intraparty critic Representative Thomas Massie reflect a “desperate” attempt to help his opponent in Tuesday’s Kentucky primary, the lawmaker said Sunday.  

• Trump has targeted Massie, a Republican who has defied the president in Congress over major legislation and the Iran war and led his party’s drive to release government files on the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

• Massie is facing Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein, a former U.S. Navy SEAL whom the president hand-picked. Some polls show Massie ahead; others show Gallrein with a lead.

• Trump, who has posted social media attacks on Massie at least four times this weekend, on Sunday called Massie “The Worst Republican Congressman in History” and a “a true negative force!!!”

• The president on Saturday criticized Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, over her support for Massie and said he would welcome a primary challenger to her.

• Trump’s retribution campaign against Republicans who have defied him has been successful. Two-term Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy lost his bid for re-election in Louisiana’s primary on Saturday.

• But Massie poses a new test for Trump’s hold on the Republican Party. Massie, in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s This Week, said he gets a fundraising boost each time Trump mentions him on social media and speculated that the president is “desperate” to get rid of him.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Sergio Non and Chizu Nomiyama)

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MIAMI (AP) — Venezuela’s government said Saturday it deported a close ally of Nicolás Maduro facing several criminal investigations in the U.S. less than three years after the businessman was pardoned by President Joe Biden as part of a prisoner swap.

The decision marks a stark reversal for Alex Saab, who Maduro fought tooth and nail to bring home after his previous international arrest in 2020. Now, the Colombian-born insider, long described by U.S. officials as Maduro’s “bag man,” may be asked to testify against his former protector, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a shock raid by the U.S. military in January.

The Venezuelan immigration authority in a short statement Saturday did not explicitly say where it had sent Saab but said the decision was made based on several ongoing criminal investigations in the U.S. The statement’s reference to Saab only as a “Colombian citizen” appeared to be a nod to Venezuelan law, which prohibits the extradition of its nationals. Following his last arrest, Venezuela’s government submitted a copy of what it said was Saab’s Venezuelan passport to a U.S. court, with then Vice President Delcy Rodríguez — now acting President — claiming he was an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” while on a humanitarian mission to Iran to circumvent the “immoral, imperial blockade” imposed by the United States.

Saab, 54, amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts. But he fell out of favor with the country’s new leadership that took power following Maduro’s ouster. Since taking over from Maduro on Jan. 3, Rodríguez demoted Saab, firing him from her Cabinet and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela. For months conflicting news accounts have circulated that he was imprisoned or under house arrest.

His removal to the United States is likely to deepen divisions inside Rodríguez’s fragile ruling coalition of Chavistas, named for the movement started by the late Hugo Chávez.

Rodríguez has generated enormous goodwill in Washington and successfully stalled any talk of new elections as she bends to the Trump administration’s demands to open up its oil and mining industries to American investment.

But those concessions to what Chavistas have long decried as the U.S. “Empire” have angered many of her more radical, ideologically driven allies, some of whom, like Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, wield great influence inside the Venezuelan security forces and face criminal charges themselves in the U.S.

The Associated Press reported in February that federal prosecutors have been digging for months into Saab’s role in an alleged bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan government contracts to import food.

The investigation stems from a 2021 case the Justice Department brought against Saab’s longtime partner, Alvaro Pulido, a former law enforcement official said. That prosecution, out of Miami, centers around the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples — rice, corn flour, cooking oil — to poor Venezuelans struggling to feed themselves at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.

Saab is identified in the indictment as “Co-Conspirator 1″ and allegedly helped set up a web of companies used to bribe a pro-Maduro governor who awarded the business partners a contract to import food boxes from Mexico at an inflated price.

Saab was first arrested in 2020 after his private jet made a refueling stop in Cape Verde en route to Iran on what the Venezuelan government described as a humanitarian mission to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Rodríguez celebrated Saab’s return in 2023 as a “resounding victory” for Venezuela over what she called a U.S.-led campaign of lies and threats. But several Republicans criticized the deal, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, who wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland saying history “should remember (Saab) as a predator of vulnerable people.”

Over the objections of law enforcement, Biden in 2023 agreed to free Saab in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans and Venezuela’s return of a fugitive foreign defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard.” The deal came as part of an effort by the Biden White House to roll back sanctions and lure Maduro into holding a free and fair presidential election.

Biden’s pardon of Saab was narrowly tailored to a 2019 indictment — the case number is cited in the pardon itself — related to a contract he and Pulido allegedly won through bribes to build low-income housing units in Venezuela that were never built.

Should Saab be returned to U.S. custody, he could become a valuable witness against Maduro.

The businessman secretly met with the Drug Enforcement Administration before his first arrest and, in a closed-door court hearing in 2022, his lawyers revealed that the businessman, for years, helped the DEA untangle corruption in Maduro’s inner circle. As part of that cooperation, he forfeited more than $12 million in illegal proceeds from dirty business dealings.

Saab’s Miami-based attorney, Neil Schuster, declined to comment. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report from Washington.

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This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Crisis in Venezuela,” which aired Feb. 10, 2026, on PBS. Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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By David Hood-Nuño and Julio-Cesar Chavez

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) – A Trump administration-backed celebration of U.S. religious heritage on Sunday is highlighting conservative Christian leaders’ ties to the president as critics say the gathering does not reflect the country’s diverse faith landscape.  

The nine-hour program, called “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” mostly features speakers from two Christian traditions — evangelical Christianity and conservative Catholicism.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a video message while senior Republicans including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will speak on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, the event is meant to “prepare for the nation’s 250th birthday with Scripture, testimony, prayer, and rededication of our country as One Nation to God.”

The gathering is organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership created by the White House to coordinate 250th anniversary celebrations alongside federal agencies.

Advocates of church-state separation say the event blurs government and religion.

“This government-sponsored prayer fest is the epitome of exactly what our secular Constitution forbids our government from doing,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a statement.

“It is a fusion not only of church and state, but also of our federal government with Christian nationalism,” said Gaylor, whose organization advocates for the separation of church and state.

Some critics have pointed to the absence of religious groups such as mainline Protestant churches including Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians. Also not represented are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

More than a quarter of all U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to figures from the Pew Research Center. About 23% and 19% identify as evangelical Protestant and Catholic, respectively, and about 11% identify as mainline Protestant.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged the organizers to include speakers from other religious groups. Muslims arrived in North America before U.S. independence, said Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at the organization.

“The reality is that the religious landscape in the United States was more diverse than many people think of, and it certainly means today we have a religious landscape that deserves to be looked at and respected,” Saylor told Reuters.

‘SCREENSHOT’ OF EARLY AMERICA

Faith leaders slated to speak include Bishop Robert Barron, from the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester; Jonathan Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, a school established by Christian evangelicals; and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City.

Among the political speakers are Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Senator Tim Scott. No prominent Democrats are due to appear.

One of Sunday’s speakers, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference leader Samuel Rodriguez, said in an interview that the mostly Christian speaker list reflects what the American colonies looked like after the Great Awakening religious revival of the 18th century.

“It’s pretty much a depiction, a screenshot of our foundation,” Rodriguez told Reuters.

The event is one of 16 planned by the administration for the 250th anniversary of the United States, and the first in 2026. According to the event’s website, it is meant to give “praise to God for 250 years of His Providence for the United States, in praying that God Bless and Protect America for the next 250 years, and in solemnly rededicating our country as One Nation under God.”

Critics say the Freedom 250 events downplay or ignore troubling elements of the nation’s past such as slavery and violence toward Indigenous people.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, have criticized Pope Leo and other faith leaders who disagree with the administration’s policies. After feuding with the pope, Trump briefly posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure before deleting it following criticism from some administration supporters.

(Reporting by David Hood-Nuño and Julio-Cesar Chavez; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, continued into a second day on Sunday after unionized workers went on strike for the first time in three decades a day earlier.

The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight Friday after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has urged commuters to work from home, planned a news conference for late Sunday morning.

The unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public agency that runs the railroad, have been negotiating for months on a new contract, with talks stalled over the question of workers’ salaries and healthcare premiums. President Donald Trump’s administration tried to broker a deal, but the unions were legally allowed to strike starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, has said no new negotiations have been scheduled.

“We’re far apart at this point,” Sexton said early Saturday. “We are truly sorry that we are in this situation.”

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said the agency “gave the union everything they said they wanted in terms of pay” and that to him it was apparent the unions always intended to walk out.

The MTA was not expected to provide an update on the strike before the governor’s news conference, which was scheduled for 11 a.m.

The walkout, the first for the LIRR since a two-day strike in 1994, promises to cause headaches for sports fans planning to see the Yankees and Mets battle this weekend or to watch the Knicks’ playoff run at Madison Square Garden, which is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan.

The station was devoid of its usual weekend bustle in the afternoon Saturday. Only a few dozen people were seen traversing the main concourse, many dragging rolling luggage from departing or arriving Amtrak trains, which are not affected by the strike.

Departure boards normally showing upcoming trains by destination instead listed ghost trains marked “No Passengers.” A few signs affixed to customer service windows explained that the railroad was shut down because of a strike.

Access to platforms was blocked off with bicycle-rack style barricades and roll-down gates as MTA police officers stood sentry, directing people to alternative transportation.

If the stoppage continues into the workweek, the roughly 250,000 people who ride the system each weekday will be forced to find other routes to the city from its Long Island suburbs. For many that likely means navigating the region’s notoriously congested roads.

Hochul, a Democrat, blamed the Trump administration for cutting mediation short and pushing the negotiations toward a strike. Trump, a Republican, responded on his Truth Social platform, saying he had nothing to do with the strike and “never even heard about it until this morning.”

“No, Kathy, it’s your fault, and now looking over the facts, you should not have allowed this to happen,” Trump said, renewing his endorsement of Long Island politician Bruce Blakeman, who is challenging Hochul’s reelection bid. “If you can’t solve it, let me know, and I’ll show you how to properly get things done.”

The MTA has said it would provide limited shuttle buses to New York City subway stations, but that contingency plan was not envisioned to handle all the riders the system normally carries on a workday.

And while remote work options greatly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people still need to show up in person, said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, a commuter advocacy group.

“You work in construction, you work in the healthcare industry, you work at a school or you’re about to graduate from school, that’s not always possible,” she said. “People need to get where they need to go.”

Dave Sumner, a locomotive engineer of 32 years, said he anticipates that Trump or Congress will step in before the strike goes on much longer.

“We’re pretty vital to this area,” he said.

The MTA has said the unions’ initial demands to raise salaries would have led to fare increases and impacted contract negotiations with other unionized workers.

The unions, which represent locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers, have said more substantial raises were warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs.

Duane O’Connor, who picketed Saturday morning at Penn Station, said that while he regrets the impact on commuters, workers are simply asking for fair pay.

“I feel terrible. Terrible. This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt the island, this is going to hurt the city. … All we are asking for is fair wages,” he said.

“We’re pretty much three years without a contract,” said Karl Bischoff, a locomotive engineer with LIRR for 29 years. “If they did their contracts for their construction stuff like that, this place would be in worse condition.”

If the unions get the pay increases they are looking for, “it will come at the expense of our riders who will see next year’s 4% fare increase doubled to 8%,” Gerard Bringmann, chair of the rider advocacy group LIRR Commuter Council, said in a statement. “Like the union workers, we too are burdened by the increase in the cost of living here on Long Island.”

With Hochul running for reelection, the pressure might be on the MTA to strike a deal to end the shutdown, said William Dwyer, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where commuter rail workers staged a three-day strike last year.

“She’s up for reelection, and Long Island is a critical vote for her,” Dwyer said. “So if there’s a significant fare hike, that does not bode well for her on Election Day.”

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

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