AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT

Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat that he insisted didn’t scare him.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

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The Latest: Darline Graham, Ralph Norman advance to GOP runoff to replace late Sen. Lindsey Graham

Primary elections are taking place in six U.S. states on Tuesday — Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary over centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the latest moderate-vs.-progressive contest in the Democratic Party. In the race for governor, state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the GOP primary despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement of opponent Mike Lindell, known as the MyPillow Guy. Sen. Amy Klobuchar won the Democratic nomination with minimal opposition.

The Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor is another high-profile clash between the party’s establishment and progressive wings, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong tries to rise above establishment candidate David Crowley. In a Republican primary for U.S. House, Trump-backed candidate Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, won the GOP nomination for Duffy’s old congressional seat.

And Sen. Darline Graham advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate. The first-time candidate will face U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who also emerged from a 10-way field in Tuesday’s primary. The winner of the Aug. 25 runoff is expected to claim the U.S. Senate seat over the Democratic nominee.

Here’s the latest:

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AP Exclusive: ICE plans to give officers gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals.

ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.

The devices are known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. They have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments.

DHS said Tuesday that it was working on a response to an Associated Press inquiry and offered no immediate comment. Jeff Niklaus, the founder and CEO of Compliant Technologies, wrote in an email, “Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject.”

The notice said the solicitation for a no-bid contract could be published as early as Friday.

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Iranian-backed Houthis kill 6 in attack on vessel, and other developments in the Mideast

Yemeni authorities said six people were killed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, while U.S. forces fired on a ship they said was trying to break a blockade of Iran’s ports.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Six people were killed Tuesday by Houthis firing missiles on a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Yemeni authorities said.

Yemen’s coast guard said the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces. Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to the Transportation Ministry of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

They are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping off Yemen in the latest bout of fighting in the Arab country.

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As search for thousands of missing pushes on, Colombia earthquake tests new president

PEREIRA, Colombia (AP) — Rescue crews and civilians in Colombia painstakingly searched through rubble Tuesday in the hopes of finding survivors trapped under debris after a powerful earthquake left thousands missing in dozens of cities and towns.

The 7.4 magnitude earthquake that hit western Colombia on Monday wreaked havoc, collapsing buildings, buckling roads, crushing cars and leaving devastated residents to console each other among the wreckage of their homes. Excavators and heavy machinery cleared heavy chunks of concrete, while buckets of rubble were passed hand-to-hand along a line of volunteers.

Rescue crews and volunteers picked through flattened concrete buildings in affected cities, searching for signs of life. They raised their hands to call for silence when they thought they heard someone beneath the piles of debris. At least one woman was retrieved — alive — from the rubble.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella said the earthquake killed at least 181 people and left 2,595 more injured. He said at least 195 remained missing, but civilian-run databases suggest that number could be closer to 4,000.

Authorities said the deaths were concentrated in the cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Quibdo, but local leaders and families worried about casualties and damage in rural areas, from where very little information has emerged. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for retrieving people alive, though that threshold can be extended if they have access to food and water.

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Former US Marine held in Russia for more than 4 years on disputed charges has been released

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia released an American military veteran on Tuesday, allowing his return to the U.S. after four years of what his family and U.S. officials allege was wrongful incarceration and abusive treatment that left him near death.

Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old Massachusetts teacher and former Marine, was freed after President Donald Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about his release, which Trump said was “very much on a Humanitarian Basis.”

“We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Arrests of Americans have become increasingly common in Russia in recent years. Concern has risen that Russia could be targeting U.S. nationals to use later as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the U.S. and Europe. Five other Americans remain imprisoned in Russia with deteriorating medical issues, according to a news release from Global Reach, a group that’s been working to free them.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a photo on social media of a gaunt-looking Gilman draped in an American flag and surrounded by his family aboard an airplane.

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FACT FOCUS: Trump makes false claims as he signs order urging revisions around childhood vaccines

While issuing an executive order on Monday aimed at getting states to revise childhood vaccine recommendations, President Donald Trump and others in his administration repeated several false claims about those vaccines, as well as their relationship to autism.

The order recommends separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots and administering childhood vaccines at separate appointments whenever possible.

But many public health experts expressed concern about the recommendations, saying that spacing out the shots could increase the risk that children would become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. They noted that childhood vaccines and how they should be given have been rigorously studied around the world for decades, and continue to prove to be safe and effective at protecting children.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

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Tuesday’s takeaways: No clear direction for Wisconsin Democrats

In the key high-profile primary election contest Tuesday that showcased Democrats’ struggle between the ideological left and center, the outcome suggested that neither side could claim a decisive win. In other contests, experience was rewarded in two governors’ races and voters went for generational change in voting out a House incumbent.

For Republicans, a contest to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham pitted his sister, Darline Graham, against far more experienced candidates. But she also had the endorsement of President Donald Trump, and she secured a spot in a runoff election later this month.

Most attention was focused on the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin, where the insurgent candidacy of the socialist, Francesca Hong, was causing agita among more mainstream leaders in the party. The outcome of that race was not clear Tuesday night.

Here are some takeaways from the night’s elections.

Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor seemed to settle little in the party’s national battle between party establishment candidates and an insurgent, populist movement from the left.

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Western Canada fights growing wildfires as thousands more told to be ready to leave

WEST KELOWNA, British Columbia (AP) — A deadly wildfire in western Canada that has forced some 20,000 people to flee grew overnight even without strong winds, challenging efforts to contain it and fully assess the damage, authorities said Tuesday.

One hundred firefighters from Mexico have joined the effort, bringing the number of firefighters battling the blaze to 193. The fire has destroyed homes and other properties near Okanagan Lake, killed an 80-year-old woman and burned toward Summerland, a community of about 12,000 people roughly 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Vancouver.

The fire showed “quite significant growth” in some areas overnight even without strong winds, said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. He added crews were working around the clock to establish control lines and make it safe for evacuated residents to return home.

“We recognized and we heard even last night that people obviously would like to go home. They would like to see the extent of the damage,” Chapman said.

Kevin Dunbar, British Columbia’s executive director for emergency response and recovery operations, called it one of the largest evacuations in recent British Columbia history.

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Judge again bars Trump administration from implementing order that sought to limit mail voting

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and directly involve the U.S. Postal Service in election operations in a way that would limit mail voting.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani had already halted the order Trump signed in March, his second one attempting to set national election rules. On June 25, she sided with Democratic state attorneys general in granting summary judgment, preventing the core parts of Trump’s order from taking effect.

Tuesday’s ruling creates another legal hurdle for the Trump administration to overcome should it get the initial injunction lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“That it is now less than 90 days before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections underscores the critical need for an injunction to prevent Defendants from changing election rules on the eve of the election,” she wrote.

The Trump administration in late July requested that the Supreme Court halt lower court decisions that have blocked the sweeping changes in nearly half the country.