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

Trump’s influence tested in S.C., Nevada GOP primaries

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s influence over the Republican Party was being tested in a Nevada primary Tuesday while his attempts to shape GOP contests across the country in South Carolina were having mixed results.

Nevada Republicans were deciding Tuesday between a candidate with a political pedigree and Trump’s backing or a political newcomer as their choice to try to unseat one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators in the country this fall.

The primary race was originally expected to be a cakewalk for Adam Laxalt, one of Nevada’s most prominent Republicans who has already won statewide office and attracted support from both Trump and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Yet in the final weeks before Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary, Nevada’s former attorney general faced a surprisingly spirited challenge from Sam Brown. A retired Army captain and Purple Heart recipient, Brown has appeared before swelling crowds drawn to his profile as a political outsider. He bolstered his campaign with strong fundraising numbers, particularly among small-dollar donors who often represent the party’s grassroots.

Long lines kept some polling places open more than an hour late in Clark County, where about three-quarters of the state’s population lives, after polls were officially slated to close at 7 p.m. local time.

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Jan. 6 hearings: What we’ve learned, and what’s next

WASHINGTON (AP) — House investigators are trying to make a methodical case that President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election led directly to his supporters’ insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The House panel investigating the attack has held the first two in a series of hearings providing its initial findings after a yearlong probe and more than 1,000 interviews. The committee has shown clips not only from the violent attack on the Capitol, but also from its own closed-door interviews with Trump aides and associates who were trying to dissuade him from spreading falsehoods about an election he lost.

A rundown of what we’ve learned so far from the public hearings of the select Jan. 6 committee — and what’s next:

REBUFFED ON ELECTION NIGHT

One after one, video excerpts have been played of Trump’s aides describing their conversations with the just-defeated president as returns came in on election night and in the days afterward, as it became increasingly obvious that he had lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The committee is trying to establish that Trump pushed lies about widespread election fraud despite hearing clear evidence that it didn’t happen.

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Yellowstone flooding forces 10,000 to leave national park

RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — More than 10,000 visitors were ordered out of Yellowstone as unprecedented flooding tore through the northern half of the nation’s oldest national park, washing out bridges and roads and sweeping an employee bunkhouse miles downstream, officials said Tuesday. Remarkably, no one was reported injured or killed.

The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry.

Yellowstone National Park, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, could remain closed as long as a week, and northern entrances may not reopen this summer, Superintendent Cam Sholly said.

“The water is still raging,” said Sholly, who noted that some weather forecasts include the possibility of additional flooding this weekend.

The Yellowstone River hit historic levels after days of rain and rapid snowmelt and wrought havoc across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it washed away cabins, swamped small towns and knocked out power. It hit the park just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up.

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Stocks dip deeper into bear market ahead of big Fed news

NEW YORK (AP) — Most stocks on Wall Street dipped Tuesday in their first trading after tumbling into a bear market on worries that high inflation will push central banks to clamp the brakes too hard on the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 14.15, or 0.4%, to 3,735.48 as investors braced for the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday about how sharply it will raise interest rates. It wobbled between losses and gains through the day after a couple big companies flexed financial strength with stronger profits and payouts to shareholders.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 151.91 points, or 0.5%, to 30,364.83. The Nasdaq composite rose 19.12, or 0.2%, to 10,828.35 after swinging between a a loss of 0.7% and a gain of 1.1%.

Despite the swings, trading across markets was still calmer than during Monday’s worldwide rout, which sent the S&P 500 down 3.9%. Stocks fell more than 1% in Tokyo and Paris but rose that much in Shanghai. A measure of nervousness among investors on Wall Street eased, even as Treasury yields again pierced their highest levels in more than a decade.

“No one’s going to take meaningful positions today ahead of what could be a rip-roaring day” with the Fed’s announcement, said Katie Nixon, chief investment officer for Northern Trust Wealth Management.

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Russians control 80% of key Ukraine city, cut escape routes

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops control about 80% of the fiercely contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and have destroyed all three bridges leading out of it but Ukrainians were still trying to evacuate the wounded, a regional official said Tuesday.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, acknowledged that a mass evacuation of civilians from Sievierodonetsk now was “simply not possible” due to the relentless shelling and fighting. Ukrainian forces have been pushed to the industrial outskirts of the city because of “the scorched earth method and heavy artillery the Russians are using,” he said.

“There is still an opportunity for the evacuation of the wounded, communication with the Ukrainian military and local residents,” he told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that Russian soldiers have not yet completely blocked off the strategic city.

About 12,000 people remain in Sievierodonetsk, from a pre-war population of 100,000. More than 500 civilians are sheltering in the Azot chemical plant, which is being pounded by the Russians, according to Haidai.

In all, 70 civilians were evacuated from the Luhansk region in the last day, the governor said.

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Brazil police arrest 2nd suspect for Amazon’s missing pair

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s federal police said Tuesday they arrested a second suspect in connection with the disappearance of an Indigenous expert and a British journalist in a remote area of the Amazon.

The suspect, Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, 41, is a fisherman and a brother of the man so far considered by police as the main suspect in the case, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also 41, nicknamed Pelado.

Federal police also said in a statement that they seized ammunition and an oar, but did not say why the items were confiscated, who they belonged to or where they were found.

De Oliveira told The Associated Press on Friday that he had visited Pelado in jail and was told that local police had tortured Pelado on his own boat, which was also seized by authorities.

Federal police did not immediately respond to an AP request asking why Oseney da Costa de Oliveira was named in its statement, which is not a standard procedure of the force.

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In a boost, McConnell backs Senate bipartisan gun deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his support Tuesday for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement, boosting momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that’s deadlocked lawmakers for three decades.

The Kentucky Republican said he hoped an outline of the accord, released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, would be translated into legislation and enacted. McConnell’s backing was the latest indication that last month’s gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP after years of steadfastly opposing even incremental tightening of firearms curbs.

“If this framework becomes the actual piece of legislation, it’s a step forward, a step forward on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell told reporters. He said the proposal “further demonstrates to the American people” that lawmakers can work together on significant issues “to make progress for the country.”

McConnell’s comments were striking, coming five months before midterm elections in which Republicans hope to win control of the Senate and seem likely to win a majority in the House. For years, GOP candidates could risk their careers by defying the views of the party’s loyal gun-owning and rural voters, who oppose moves seen as threatening their ownership and use of firearms.

McConnell seemed to suggest that backing this gun measure might even help some Republicans’ prospects in November. While he said senators should take a position “based upon the views of their states,” he said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a chief architect of the deal, presented GOP polling data at a closed-door senators’ lunch saying support among gun owners for the agreement’s provisions is “off the charts, overwhelming.”

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Southern Baptists agree to keep list of accused sex abusers

ANAHEIM, California (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a new task force to oversee further reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

The vote came three weeks after the release of a blockbuster report by an outside consultant on the long-simmering scandal, revealing that Southern Baptist leaders mishandled abuse cases and stonewalled victims for years.

Thousands of Southern Baptists are here in Anaheim for their big national meeting.

They elected a new SBC president, Texas pastor Bart Barber, who is a staunch proponent of Southern Baptists’ conservative views but who says he has a track record of dialogue with those who disagree.

He has called for an “army of peacemakers” amid bitter political battles in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

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WNBA star Griner’s Russia detention extended for third time

MOSCOW (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner will remain in Russian custody through at least July 2, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported Tuesday.

The 31-year-old American basketball player has been held in Russia since February when she was detained at a Moscow airport after authorities there claimed she was carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. The U.S. Department of State last month reclassified her as wrongfully detained.

The Khimki district court of the Moscow region extended Griner’s detention for a third time, according to the Tass report, which also cited a top Russian diplomat as saying that Moscow will not consider including Griner in a detainee swap “until a court investigation into her case is completed.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, according to Tass, was responding to US media reports that the Biden administration had offered to exchange convicted arms trader Viktor Bout for Griner. Ryabkov gave no timeline for the proceedings in the player’s case.

Griner’s supporters continue to advocate for her release, with some raising concerns that Moscow might use her as a bargaining chip amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.

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So long, Internet Explorer. The browser is finally retiring

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Internet Explorer is finally headed out to pasture.

As of Wednesday, Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of web surfers loved to hate — and a few still claim to adore. The 27-year-old application now joins BlackBerry phones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots in the dustbin of tech history.

IE’s demise was not a surprise. A year ago, Microsoft said that it was putting an end to Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing users to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.

The company made clear then it was time to move on.

“Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications,” Sean Lyndersay, general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote in a May 2021 blog post.

The Associated Press