Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will host Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday for talks about shared economic and security issues, a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity about a meeting that has not been officially announced.

The leftist Lula and Trump have had an up-and-down relationship since the U.S. leader’s return to the White House last year.

Trump hit Brazil with steep tariffs and has pressed Brazilian authorities over their prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro for his involvement in a coup plot.

The Trump administration imposed a 40% tariff on Brazilian products in July on top of a 10% tariff hike earlier. The U.S. president justified the tariffs by saying that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of Bolsonaro constituted an economic emergency.

But Trump later loosened tariffs on Brazil as part of his effort to lower consumer costs for Americans.

Trump and Lula started mending fences at the United Nations’ General Assembly in September, which was followed by their first private meeting in Malaysia in October and subsequent phone conversations.

Bolsonaro was accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 election loss to Lula — similar charges to what Trump faced after a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to stop Democrat Joe Biden from taking the White House.

Last month, Lula came to the defense of Pope Leo XIV during a tense exchange of attacks between the pontiff and Trump over the war in Iran.

The 80-year-old Lula is running for reelection in October.

The Brazilian paper O Globo first reported the planned trip by the Brazilian leader.

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By Ted Hesson, Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a potential motive for the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration at a White House reporters’ gala last month, according to an intelligence report sent to state and local law enforcement nationwide and other federal agencies.

The report, a preliminary assessment by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis dated April 27, assessed that the suspect Cole Allen had “multiple social and political grievances.” It concluded that the Iran conflict “may have contributed to his decision to conduct the attack,” citing social media posts from Allen that criticized U.S. actions in the war. 

The assessment sheds new light on the U.S. government’s search for a motive in the foiled attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25. Its conclusions, while preliminary, offer the most definitive evidence to date that the Iran conflict, which has killed thousands in the Middle East and rattled the global economy, could have been a trigger.  

The report, marked as a “Critical Incident Note,” was obtained through open records requests by the transparency nonprofit Property of the People and shared with Reuters.

Spokespeople for DHS and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department added a charge ‌of assault on a federal officer, accusing Allen of firing at a U.S. Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, in addition to attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, ​and illegal ​transportation of ⁠a firearm and ammunition across state lines. He has not yet entered ​a plea.

FBI EXAMINES SOCIAL MEDIA

U.S. officials have so far said little about Allen’s alleged motivation, pointing only to an email Allen sent to relatives on the night of the attack. The message, which officials have called a manifesto, expressed anger at the administration and referred to his desire to target the “traitor” giving a speech, without mentioning Trump by name.

In court documents, prosecutors have alleged that Allen “disagreed” with Trump politically and “wanted to ‘fight back’ against government policies and decisions that he found morally objectionable.”

The FBI has been carrying out a detailed examination of Allen’s social media activity and digital footprint in searching for a motive for the attack, a senior law enforcement official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s being closely looked at,” the official told Reuters.

The examination includes a review of posts on a Bluesky social media account linked to Allen that posted and shared a range of anti-Trump messages in the weeks leading up to the attack. The posts include criticism of the U.S. actions in Iran but also broadsides against the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, Elon Musk, and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The account shared a post calling for Trump to be impeached over his April 7 threat to destroy Iranian civilization, which came hours before Trump agreed to a ceasefire. It also shared criticism of reporters who planned to attend the press dinner.

The FBI has also reviewed a 2024 post in which an account connected to Allen, while quoting a Bible verse, appears to call Trump “the devil” in response to a message from Trump’s daughter Tiffany. 

The focus on Allen’s online activity is in part to stave off conspiracy theories about the motive and online activity of the suspected shooter, the official said, adding that speculation about the online activity of the man who fired at Trump during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, had sparked widely spread conspiracy theories.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson, Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Nolan D. McCaskill

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans are seeking to give $1 billion in taxpayer funding to the Secret Service this year for security upgrades, including the White House ballroom.

President Donald Trump has said private donations would ​pay for the estimated $400 million ballroom project. The funding package text does not say how much of the new Secret Service funds will pay for the ballroom.

The proposed infusion of Secret Service funds was released late Monday as part of a nearly $72 billion package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through 2029 on a party-line vote.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s proposal includes $19 billion for CBP personnel and $7.5 billion for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s bill gives CBP nearly $3.5 billion and ICE nearly $31 billion for immigration enforcement. Additional funds from the bills would go to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, as well as toward border security and technology.

Trump signed a bill on Thursday to fund most of DHS through September, ending a 76-day partial government shutdown over immigration enforcement following the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis.

SENATE REPUBLICANS AVOID 60-VOTE REQUIREMENT

Republicans in Congress have begun a process known as reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP without Democratic votes. Reconciliation allows Senate Republicans to circumvent the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.

Republican lawmakers pushed for legislation to fund and expedite construction of a ballroom days after an alleged gunman was apprehended at last month’s White House Correspondents’ dinner, where Trump was set to speak.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, blamed Democrats for the historic government shutdown, casting them in a statement as “the party of open borders and ‘defund the police.’” Grassley said his panel will “help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families.”

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the judiciary panel, said Republicans are going outside the traditional appropriations process to fund unpopular policies through the end of Trump’s presidency because they are in danger of losing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. He also highlighted a contrast between the parties as Democrats campaign on affordability.

“While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump’s failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the president’s vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign,” Durbin said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Rod Nickel)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) – Former Senator Sherrod Brown is favored to win the Ohio Democratic primary on Tuesday, as his party turns to a seasoned populist in its quest to topple Republicans’ U.S. Senate majority in November’s midterm elections.

Ohio has trended steadily Republican over the past decade, making Brown’s comeback bid – after a 2024 loss – a test of how far President Donald Trump’s declining popularity is reshaping the 2026 midterm map.

Democrats, who entered the 2026 midterm cycle facing long odds of retaking the Senate, now see an increasingly competitive landscape as voters sour on inflation, the war with Iran and other flashpoints of Trump’s presidency.

Brown, 73, lost his 2024 reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno, a former car dealer who capitalized on blue-collar workers fleeing the Democratic Party and was endorsed by Trump.

Brown’s prospective opponent, Senator Jon Husted, 58, was appointed to the seat in January 2025 when then-Senator JD Vance became vice president. He is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

The November special election will fill the remaining two years of Vance’s term. 

The Husted-Brown race is seen as a toss-up by some analysts and a competitive race in recent opinion polls, in striking contrast to Trump’s 2024 romp in Ohio, where he beat Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by 11 percentage points.

The Midwestern state, hit hard in recent decades by massive job losses in the steel and automotive industries, is one of four states Democrats plan to pour resources into for a shot at ending Republicans’ 53-47 seat control of the Senate.

DEMOCRATIC PATH TO FLIP THE SENATE

Recapturing the Senate will be an uphill climb for Democrats, who would have to both defend several competitive seats of their own and flip at least four Republican-held seats.

They think they have momentum nationally, however, as voters gauge Trump’s presidency nearly midway through his second term and are unsettled by rising prices of gasoline and other goods, the U.S. war with Iran and migrant deportations that some view as too extreme.

An April 24 to 27 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s approval rating was 34%, down from 47% at the start of his second term. Only 21% of adults surveyed approved of his handling of inflation, a leading concern of voters. 

Brown’s “economic populism may be uniquely suited to this moment when affordability concerns are paramount,” the non-partisan Cook Political Report said.

Even so, an April 7 to 14 Bowling Green State University poll found that 55% of respondents in Ohio said they considered themselves to be part of Trump’s MAGA movement, which has been embraced by Husted’s Republican Party.

Beyond Ohio, Democrats think they will have a chance of capturing North Carolina’s open Senate seat and a Maine seat held by longtime incumbent Senator Susan Collins, who is likely to face an upstart Democratic progressive with rising national attention.

In a surprise turn, Democrats also hope to be competitive in the heavily Republican state of Alaska, where Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is seen facing former at-large Democratic Representative Mary Peltola, a candidate with proven cross-party appeal.

Meanwhile, Democrats will have to dedicate campaign resources to Michigan, where Democratic Senator Gary Peters is retiring after narrowly winning reelection in 2020. Trump won Michigan in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections.

Tight races could also develop over the next six months in Iowa, where Republican Senator Joni Ernst is retiring, and in Georgia, a swing state where Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is defending his seat.

TURNOUT COULD REFLECT VOTER ENTHUSIASM

Political analysts will be closely monitoring voter turnout in Tuesday’s Ohio primary elections. A strong showing by Brown could hint at whether Democrats might score an upset victory in their battle for the Senate.

At the same time, three U.S. House of Representatives races in Ohio could also provide clues on Democrats’ more likely chances of winning control of that chamber, which Republicans now hold with a narrow majority.

Last year, Ohio approved a redistricting plan that Republicans drew up to gain an added edge in the November elections.

That has put Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur’s four-decade House career in jeopardy. While she is expected to win her party primary, her northwest district in the Toledo area is now composed of significantly more Trump supporters, making her an underdog in the general election, according to analysts. 

Similarly, Democratic Representative Greg Landsman’s Cincinnati district is now more Republican-friendly, although he is seen holding an edge against the likely winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Emilia Sykes’ newly drawn district in the Akron area could boost her prospects in November in a somewhat competitive race with whichever candidate emerges from a crowded Republican primary field. Sykes is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department added a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon to the case against the man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton last month.

The new charge, which formally accuses the suspect, Cole Allen, of firing at a U.S. Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, is part of a new four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington. The other three counts are charges Allen previously faced including attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and illegal transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines.

Prosecutors allege that Allen, 31, of California, was armed with a shotgun and a pistol when he sprinted past security in an attempt to assassinate Trump and other U.S. officials on April 25. Allen has not yet entered a plea on the charges.

The indictment follows confusion over whether the suspect shot the Secret Service agent as the gunman allegedly ran toward the ballroom, where Trump and senior members of his administration were dining with roughly 2,500 journalists, politicians and others. Trump administration officials initially said Allen had fired and the agent was spared serious injury by his ballistic vest.

But the initial set of charges against Allen did not accuse him of shooting the agent, nor was it mentioned in a court document prosecutors filed on April 29 seeking Allen’s detention.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington leading the investigation, released surveillance video on Thursday that she said showed Allen firing the shotgun at the agent, who then returned fire. Pirro told CNN in an interview on Sunday that a pellet that came from Allen’s shotgun recovered at the scene was intertwined with fibers from the vest of the agent.

The four-page indictment accuses Allen of using a “deadly and dangerous weapon” to “forcibly assault, intimidate and interfere” with the U.S. Secret Service agent while he was engaged in his official responsibilities. 

Allen fell down and was subdued by law enforcement before he reached the ballroom, authorities have said. No one else was injured.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Editing by Franklin Paul, David Gregorio and Daniel Wallis)

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Indiana’s primary will test President Donald Trump’s enduring power over the Republican Party as he tries to dislodge state senators who refused to go along with his call to redraw the state’s congressional map.

Twenty-one Republican senators voted against redistricting in December, including eight running for reelection this year. Trump has endorsed primary challengers against seven, and the president’s allies have spent millions of dollars on races that rarely get much attention from Washington.

It’s become a costly and unprecedented intraparty battle that has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said the primary is about how far the party will go to get an edge over Democrats — a contest between “the Republicans who tend to want to avoid the fight and the Republicans who feel like we need to fight.”

“So the only question is, ‘Will you fight or will you get trampled by the other side?’” said Beckwith, who is supporting the Trump-backed challengers.

Trump began leaning on Republican-led states last year to redraw their congressional maps to make it easier for his party to hold its thin majority in the U.S. House. Although redistricting is normally done once a decade, after a new census, Trump wanted to abandon tradition to gain a political edge.

Texas was the first to follow through, and the White House pressured Indiana to go along too. Vice President JD Vance met with state politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.

However, Indiana senators rebuffed the effort, one of the president’s first significant political defeats of his second term.

The redistricting fight divided Republicans in Indiana, a state Trump won three times by no less than 16 points. Republican Gov. Mike Braun, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and organizations such as Turning Point Action have worked alongside Trump to unseat the incumbents.

Jim Bopp, a prominent Indiana attorney who leads a political action committee aligned with Braun, predicted that Trump’s support will carry the day for the challengers.

“Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump, and when they find out Trump has endorsed a particular Senate candidate, they swing their support behind them,” he said.

Opposition to the effort came from anti-Trump Republicans and those wary of the president reaching so deeply into state decision-making. Former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who had stepped away from politics after leaving the governorship in 2015, reemerged to help raise money for targeted incumbents.

The senators who broke with Trump said they were listening to constituents who were overwhelmingly against his redistricting plan. Some said they didn’t like Trump’s aggressive tone in pushing the plan.

“We hate to be told what to do,” said Mike Murphy, a former Republican state representative. “We’re very independent-thinking people. So when Donald Trump and his goons come in and try to tell us that we need to redistrict to help his political future, that’s the worst thing you can do.”

He said Trump and those spending big money to take out the incumbents don’t understand Indiana politics.

“There’s just so many misjudgments on people’s part because they tend to fly at the 50,000-foot level, and they don’t go to the barbecues and the church fish fries and the things that make Indiana politics,” Murphy said.

Bopp, who supports the Trump-backed challengers, said the primary is a chance for Indiana Republicans to express how important it is to redraw the congressional lines there.

“It’s not a matter of Trump’s power,” Bopp said. “It’s about Republican primary voters who support his agenda and don’t want a Democratic House that will be hugely destructive to the Trump presidency and the country.”

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There are primary elections Tuesday in Ohio and Indiana as well as a key state Senate race in Michigan that will decide control of the chamber.

In Ohio, Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is running to reclaim his old job. Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, faces auto-racing engineer and internet personality Casey Putsch for the Republican nomination for governor.

In Indiana, President Donald Trump’s push to gerrymander districts across the country hit a snag last year when half of the state’s Republican senators sided with Democrats to defeat the plan. Now the president has endorsed primary challengers against seven of those state senators.

Here is the latest:

Challengers in Indiana who haven’t kept up fundraising pace are getting help

Outside groups have spent more than $8 million targeting incumbents in Indiana, in some cases outspending the money those candidates raised on their own.

In state Senate District 23, Trump endorsed Paula Copenhaver against state Sen. Spencer Deery. Deery raised $500,000, according to the latest state filings, while Copenhaver raised about $15,000. However, outside groups spent more than $2 million in ad reservations boosting Copenhaver, according to AdImpact.

In state Senate District 1, Trevor de Vries — a challenger endorsed by Trump — raised just over $30,000 as of latest filings, while incumbent Dan Dernulc has raised over $200,000. But AdImpact shows outside groups spending more than $200,000 to help defeat Dernulc.

Polls remain open in 12 counties in northwestern and southwestern Indiana that are in the central time zone.

“I think it might have some bearing on the country, because I know Trump is obviously looking to hold onto the House and Senate and maintain his advantage there, which is pretty razor-thin I think at this point,” said John Hall, a 69-year-old self-described independent who voted for Democrat Chedrick Greene. “So, I’m sure he’s going to be paying close attention to this particular race.”

Hall, a retiree who worked for years at an area radio station, said the economy is a key issue for him. He spent $58 at the gas station before driving to the public library in Bay City to vote.

“It’s taking a bite out of a lot of people’s budgets right now,” Hall said, adding it would have cost between $35 and $40 to fill up his car’s tank two months ago.

In a social media post while voters were headed to the polls, Trump said Republican state senators who voted against redistricting “couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress.”

Trump described the senators who crossed him as RINOs, which means “Republican in name only.” And he hailed “Great Patriots” that he’s endorsed to oust them.

Groups allied to defeat Indiana state Sen. Spencer Deery will have spent $2 million in ads attacking him by the time polls close. That’s more than any other district where incumbents are trying to fend off Trump-backed challengers.

Deery is completing his first term and was the first Republican senator to publicly oppose redistricting.

Paula Copenhaver is challenging him. She’s a close ally of Republican Lieutenant Gov. Micah Beckwith and is Fountain County GOP chair in rural, western Indiana. Deery beat Copenhaver in a four-way Republican primary for the seat four years ago.

The super PAC run by Indiana U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, Hoosier Leadership PAC, will have spent more than $1.1 million on ads attacking Deery through Election Day, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact. Gov. Mike Braun’s American Leadership PAC will have spent more than $900,000 doing the same, according to the group.

Deery is on track to have spent more than $745,000 on this year’s primary, far more than last time.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch is making a long-shot bid for Ohio governor against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.

After the last-minute disqualification of another candidate’s ticket, the 44-year-old from northwest Ohio ended up as Ramaswamy’s only primary opponent.

Putsch has attracted fans and critics with his provocative YouTube videos, which often — subtly or overtly — take aim at Ramaswamy’s Indian heritage or Hindu faith.

On the campaign trail, he’s also been critical of President Donald Trump, energy guzzling data centers and national Republicans’ support for Israel and handling of the Epstein files.

Trump is throwing his name behind Republican challengers to GOP senators who opposed redistricting. But Braun is carrying out much of the work.

After Trump’s pledge last year to rally against GOP senators who blocked the effort and are seeking reelection, Braun picked the candidates.

Frustrated by Rodrick Bray, the Senate GOP leader who opposed redistricting, Braun recruited the seven Republicans challengers on the pledge that they oppose Bray for leader.

In his break with party orthodoxy, Braun has also committed $3 million to advertising from his American Leadership PAC attacking those incumbents on the wishes of the president, according statistics collected by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

That includes almost $900,000 alone in ads attacking Republican state Sen. Spencer Deery of West Lafayette, the first Republican senator to oppose redistricting and a protege of former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is an opponent of the redistricting measure.

The Republican-controlled Indiana Senate in December rejected the measure that would have shaded all nine of the states congressional districts as favorable to the party, and halted progress on the party’s effort nationally.

The move defied months of urging by the White House led by Vice President JD Vance, who traveled twice to Indianapolis and hosted many in the caucus in Washington, where Trump phoned in to address the group.

While Indiana was considering the measure, voters in Democratic-leaning California approved Proposition 50, which allowed the state Legislature to bypass the independent commission to redraw districts for the next three biennial elections.

Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. But Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia, though legal challenges remain in both Missouri and Virginia.

Emily Bohall Board, 37, an occupational therapist in Columbus, Indiana, said she had never voted in a Republican primary before Tuesday. But the issue of redistricting compelled her to cast a ballot for Sen. Greg Walker.

“Greg Walker is the only option not supported by Donald Trump, and I have been very upset about everything Trump has done,” Board said.

Madison Long, 28, an attorney, who also voted for Walker, criticized Michelle Davis, Walker’s opponent, for her ties to Trump.

“She doesn’t have any promises of her own or any agenda of her own. Her goal is to just follow Trump,” Long said. “I find that extremely concerning given the nature of the nationwide politics.”

The race will determine whether Democrats maintain a majority in the state Senate for the final months of the year.

Democrats currently control the state Senate 19-18. If Democrat Chedrick Greene wins, Democrats keep their majority.

If Republican Jason Tunney wins, the Senate would be tied, making it tougher for Democrats to advance Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s agenda. While Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II would serve as the tie-breaking vote, Republicans could effectively block any measure from passing by not having all members vote.

There’s another reason people are watching the race: The swing district in a battleground state could give clues to what will happen in November’s midterms..

Vance backed Vivek Ramaswamy for governor and Jon Husted for Senate. Husted was appointed to fill Vance’s seat after he became vice president.

“Well, I think Jon’s going to do a great job. He’s a good guy, and he’s been good for Ohio,” Vance said.

Vance was with his son Vivek, who filled out a paper ballot for children.

“He voted for the Easter bunny over the tooth fairy,” the vice president said.

The Democrat is fighting to get back to the U.S. Senate.

The former three-term U.S. senator, long one of Ohio’s most electable Democrats, briefly left politics after losing a reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.

Brown, 73, faces first-time Democratic candidate Ron Kincaid in his quest to unseat Husted this fall. Husted was appointed to the chamber in January 2025 to fill a seat formerly held by Vice President JD Vance.

Before entering the Senate in 2007 after a surprise victory over now Gov. Mike DeWine, then the incumbent, Brown was a seven-term U.S. representative and a two-term secretary of state. Prior to that, he was the youngest person elected to the Ohio House, where he served eight years.

Brown is married to Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz and has two grown children. The couple lives in suburban Columbus.

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YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment for the Caucasus Mountains nation that has formally declared its ambition to join the bloc and is cautiously loosening its ties with longtime ally Russia.

The EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan follows the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, or EPC, which brought dozens of European leaders to the Armenian capital on Monday to address European defense issues and the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s bilateral meeting saw Armenia and the EU sign a connectivity partnership to strengthen economic ties and deepen security cooperation.

The two events underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence. Armenia’s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decadeslong rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

The war was “a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, told The Associated Press.

Since then, the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the 27-nation EU.

The opening ceremony of the EU-Armenia summit on Tuesday saw European Council President António Costa walk the red carpet side by side with Pashinyan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while a military band played in front of Armenian and EU flags.

In her opening statement, von der Leyen said that Europe was ready to aid Armenia in becoming a regional hub for global trade routes, including the building of physical infrastructure.

“We’re ready to invest in the local energy production and the energy links across the Black Sea, and we are ready to connect your booming digital scene to Europe’s digital market and turn Armenia’s position at the heart of this region into a motor of growth,” she said.

The new EU-Armenia connectivity partnership will focus on strengthening transportation, energy and digital links. Meanwhile, EU investments in Armenia are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) under its global gateway infrastructure program, both sides said in a joint statement.

“Today’s EU-Armenia summit sends a clear signal of the EU’s firm commitment to deepen our relations with Armenia, and to strengthen cooperation across many new areas,” Costa said. “Bringing Armenia and its people closer to the European Union.”

The EU, rather than the United States, has stepped into the vacuum left by Russia, Giragosian said.

“EU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,” he said.

In 2025, Armenia’s parliament passed a law formally declaring the country’s intention to seek EU membership.

However, Giragosian described Tuesday’s summit as “a focus on deepening the preexisting relationship” rather than a step toward candidacy, referencing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that has governed EU-Armenia ties since fully taking effect in 2021.

“The symbolic significance is much greater as a message to Russia,” he said.

Armenia has also taken other symbolic steps. It joined the International Criminal Court in 2023, a move that Moscow condemned as an “unfriendly step.” The court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

Armenia also froze its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024.

However, Armenia remains a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, or EEU, a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capital and labor. The organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — and Putin has made the trade-offs plain.

Speaking at talks with Pashinyan in Moscow earlier this year, Putin warned that Armenia couldn’t simultaneously belong to both the EEU and the EU, noting that Yerevan currently receives Russian natural gas at prices far below European market rates. Pashinyan acknowledged the incompatibility, but said that Armenia could, for now, combine EEU membership with deepening EU cooperation.

Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018 and faces a parliamentary election in June, stands to benefit politically from the international profile of the European meetings. Giragosian said that Pashinyan’s government is likely to be reelected largely by default, with the opposition unable to offer a credible alternative program.

But Giragosian warned against framing Armenia’s foreign policy as purely a pivot from Russia to the West.

“Armenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,” he said, pointing to significant diplomatic investment in Asia, including with Japan, South Korea and China. “This is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.”

The summit also comes at a moment of diplomatic strains between Azerbaijan and the EU. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the EU ambassador last week to protest a European Parliament resolution demanding the release of Armenian prisoners of war and criticizing the treatment of Armenians in Karabakh. Lawmakers in Azerbaijan subsequently voted to suspend all cooperation with the European Parliament.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the EPC conference via video link, accused the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or PACE, of “double standards” for placing sanctions on Azerbaijan’s delegation.

There were also protests outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by tight security. Demonstrators held photos of Armenian prisoners being held in Azerbaijan.

Opposition leader Aram Sargsyan, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told the Armenian Press Agency that the European officials were voicing support for Pashinyan before the election and have “forgotten about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.”

___

Elise Morton reported from London. Avet Demourian in Yerevan, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump’s campaign to politically punish Republicans who stand in his way moves through Indiana on Tuesday, when seven state senators face Trump-backed primary challengers.

In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications.

And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state.

Here’s what to watch for.

Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House.

Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile.

The races are a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November.

The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they’ll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.

The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.

The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.

The state’s primary is the wind up to the big show. Although Ohio has become increasingly conservative, Democrats believe their path back to a U.S. Senate majority runs through the state.

They’re putting their hopes behind former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost Ohio’s other Senate seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024.

He’s expected to face off with Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when JD Vance became vice president.

The race is a special election to fill the last two years of Vance’s term.

In the campaign for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with Trump into a record fundraising haul. He’s largely ignoring Republican rival Casey Putsch, focusing his rallies and television ads on the general election.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She played a key role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The special election for a state Senate seat in central Michigan carries outsized importance.

It’s another test of enthusiasm in a series of special elections that have swung almost universally toward Democrats since Trump returned to the White House. It also could affect the balance of power in the Michigan State Capitol. A Democratic victory would give the party a firm majority in the state Senate, while a Republican win would deadlock the chamber in a 19-19 tie.

The district is closely matched. Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump there by less than 1 point in the 2024 presidential election.

The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.

Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.

There’s no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.

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By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a recent ruling that gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act to take effect ahead of schedule, bolstering Louisiana Republicans as they pursue a new congressional voting map ahead of the November midterm elections.

The action by the justices, though procedural, is likely to undercut legal challenges to Louisiana Republicans’ decision to delay the state’s congressional primary elections and seek a new electoral map that could be beneficial to Republicans.

President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans are fighting to maintain their control of the House, as well as the Senate, in the November elections.

The court’s move, which came in an unsigned order, granted a request from a group of Louisiana voters who described themselves in court papers as “non-African American”. Their lawsuit led to the 6-3 ruling on April 29 striking down an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority U.S. ​congressional district. The ruling gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that had barred electoral maps if they would result in diluting the clout of minority voters.

To give the losing side of a decision the chance to ask for a rehearing, the Supreme Court typically waits 32 days before its formal judgment is issued. But the prevailing party can ask the court to issue its judgment more quickly, as the “non-African American” voters did here.

Governor Jeff Landry responded to the court’s ruling by declaring an emergency and announcing he would postpone his state’s congressional primary elections that had been scheduled for May 16.

Landry’s move prompted lawsuits. Some challengers have argued, among other things, that the governor exceeded his authority to declare an emergency because the Supreme Court’s ruling had not yet taken effect.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the court’s move to bypass its usual waiting period, saying the decision “has spawned chaos in the State of Louisiana.”

The rapid developments underscored how the court’s decision on April 29, which severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, has injected more uncertainty into what had already been a dizzying national fight over redistricting.

Black people make up roughly a third of the population of Louisiana, which has six U.S. House districts. Black voters tend to support Democratic candidates. 

The state legislature in 2024 ​drew a map with a second majority-Black district in response to a judge’s decision that an earlier map, with just one majority-Black ​district, illegally harmed Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. 

But the Supreme Court ruled that the redrawn map relied too heavily on race, in violation of the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law.

In a process called redistricting, the boundaries of legislative districts across the United States are reconfigured to reflect population changes as measured by the national census conducted every 10 years. Redistricting typically has been carried out by state legislatures once per decade.

Republicans and Democrats have been waging a multistate redistricting fight ignited last year by an unprecedented mid-decade effort by Trump to redraw maps in Republican-led states, starting with Texas.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham and Edmund Klamann)

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