AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Election 2024 Latest: Trump and Harris lean into the campaign’s last leg with less than a week left

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris crisscrossed several swing states on Wednesday, passing each other in Wisconsin, where the former president appeared in Green Bay with a one-time local icon, retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

Mumford & Sons, Gracie Abrams, Remi Wolf and members of the band The National appeared at Harris’ rally Wednesday night in Madison.

Harris on Tuesday sought to remind Americans what life was like under Trump and then offered voters a different path forward if they send her to the White House, in a speech billed as her campaign’s closing argument.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

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Donald Trump boards a garbage truck to draw attention to Biden remark

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.

The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. “This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”

Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.

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Harris promises to ‘represent all Americans’ after Biden’s remark on Trump supporters and ‘garbage’

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage ” and keep the focus on her Republican opponent in the closing days of the race.

“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic nominee said.

Harris held rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.

She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the “closing argument” of her campaign.

“I am not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. “I am looking to make progress.”

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A new push to wind down the Middle East wars faces familiar challenges

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States and other mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict during the Biden administration’s final months.

Negotiations on both fronts have been stalled for months and none of the warring parties have shown any sign of backing down from their demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein are scheduled to visit Israel on Thursday for talks on possible cease-fires in both Lebanon and Gaza, and the release of hostages held by Hamas. CIA Director Bill Burns will go to Egypt to discuss those efforts.

A proposal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah calls for a two-month cease-fire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon, and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the country’s southern border, two other officials familiar with the talks said.

But Israel is unlikely to trust U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops to keep Hezbollah out of a reestablished buffer zone in Lebanon. It wants the freedom to strike the militants if needed. Lebanese officials want a complete withdrawal.

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A Gaza medic realizes he’s carrying his own mother’s body, killed by an Israeli airstrike

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian ambulance worker made a horrific discovery when the bloody sheet was lifted: The corpse on the stretcher was his own mother, killed by an Israeli airstrike Wednesday in central Gaza.

“Oh God, I swear — she’s my mother! I didn’t know it was her!” Abed Bardini sobbed as he leaned over his mother, Samira, cradling her head in his arms. Fellow Red Crescent medics tried to console him.

Bardini had unknowingly sat in the ambulance beside her body, wrapped in a white sheet stained dark with blood, as the vehicle bounced across broken roads for about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) toward Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Three people were killed and at least 10 wounded by the Israeli strike on a car in Maghazi refugee camp, according to Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists. Health officials at the hospital said two of the dead were men sitting in the vehicle, and the blast had fatally injured 61-year-old Samira Bardini as she stood nearby.

Abed Bardini was in one of two ambulances dispatched to the scene. Back at the hospital, he unloaded the stretcher with practiced professionalism, squinting into the late afternoon sun as he wheeled the body across the hospital courtyard.

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North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, US says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving toward Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilizing development.

Austin was speaking at a press conference in Washington with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, as concerns grow about Pyongyang’s deployment of as many as 12,000 troops to Russia.

The U.S. and South Korea say some of the North Korean troops are heading to Russia’s Kursk region on the border with Ukraine, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

Some North Korean advance units have already arrived in the Kursk region, and Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the troops in combat.

North Korea’s move to tighten its relationship with Russia has triggered alarms across the globe, as leaders worry about how it may expand the war in Ukraine and what Russian military aid will be delivered to Pyongyang in exchange.

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North Korea launches long-range missile designed to hit the US that may be a new, more mobile weapon

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in almost a year Thursday in a test of what may be a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland U.S., its neighbors said.

The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war. It also was likely meant to grab American attention days ahead of the U.S. election Tuesday.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that he said “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” Savett said the U.S. will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and South Korean and Japanese allies.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fueled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.

JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the U.S. election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.

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Trial begins in the assassination of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A trial opened Wednesday against two former policemen accused in the 2018 killing of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was Black, bisexual and from humble roots and who has become a major icon of Brazil’s political left.

Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were killed in a drive-by shooting on March 14, 2018. Ronnie Lessa is accused of firing the gun, while Élcio Queiroz is accused of being the driver.

Two brothers with purported ties to criminal groups — one of them a sitting federal lawmaker — have been accused of ordering the killing, allegedly because the councilwoman’s work went against the interests of those gangs, known as militias. They have yet to go on trial.

Lessa and Queiroz, arrested in 2019, have signed plea bargains confessing their roles, but the jury has final word on their guilt. Jurors could technically overrule the plea bargains, but analysts say that is unlikely.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Wednesday in front of the trial venue in Rio de Janeiro, many carrying sunflowers and shouting “Justice!”

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McDonald’s E. coli case count rises as federal officials inspect an onion grower

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials on Wednesday reported more cases of E. coli poisoning among people who ate at McDonald’s, as government investigators seeking the outbreak’s source identified an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state.

The Food and Drug Administration said 90 people across 13 states have fallen ill in the outbreak, up from 75 at the end of last week. The number of people hospitalized increased by five, to 27 people. One death has been tied to the outbreak.

Officials have said raw, slivered onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers are the likely source of the E. coli. McDonald’s said the onions came from a single supplier, the California-based Taylor Farms. The company has since recalled the yellow onions it sent to McDonald’s and other restaurant chains.

The FDA said Wednesday it has begun inspecting Taylor Farm’s processing center in Colorado Springs as well as an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state. It did not name the grower.

More than 80% of people with E. coli interviewed by government investigators reported eating McDonald’s items containing fresh, slivered onions, the FDA noted.

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PHOTO COLLECTION: Spain Floods

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.