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

Biden plans public events blitz as White House pushes back on pressure to leave the race

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders and Democratic governors, sit for a network TV interview and hold a press conference in the coming days, a blitz designed to push back against growing pressure for the 81-year-old president to step aside in the 2024 race after his disastrous performance in last week’s debate with Republican Donald Trump.

“We really want to turn the page on this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the intensifying calls for Biden to bow out of the race. She added that the president had no intention of stepping aside, characterizing his debate failings as simply evidence of “a bad night” when he had a cold.

During a campaign event later Tuesday, Biden blamed it on jet lag after two back-to-back European trips. “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,” he said. The president added that he “didn’t listen to my staff” about travel and joked that he “fell asleep on stage” during the debate.

But Democratic leaders were increasingly signaling that they were not buying White House attempts to brush off Biden’s performance in the face-off as a momentary lapse, after he gave halting and nonsensical answers and trailed off at times.

There’s growing anxiety among donors and on Capitol Hill about the president’s ability to win come November, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. And it’s not helping that Biden has yet to reach out to legislators, who are growing increasingly frustrated that the White House has not satisfactorily explained how such a seasoned politician could have performed so badly.

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Big wins for Trump and sharp blows to regulations mark momentous Supreme Court term

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and the conservative interests that helped him reshape the Supreme Court got most of what they wanted this term, from substantial help for Trump’s political and legal prospects to sharp blows against the administrative state they revile.

The decisions reflected a deep and sometimes bitter divide on a court in which conservatives, including three justices appointed by Trump, have a two-to-one advantage over liberals, and seem likely to reinforce the views of most Americans that ideology, rather than a neutral application of the law, drives the outcome of the court’s biggest cases.

The justices also contended with ethics controversies that led to the adoption of the court’s first code of conduct, though one with no means of enforcement. Months later came public statements from Justice Samuel Alito rejecting calls that he step aside from several cases over questions of his impartiality, including following the revelations that two flags associated with rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol flew over Alito’s homes in New Jersey and Virginia.

Chief Justice John Roberts, often viewed with suspicion by Trump and his allies over his concerns about judicial independence and worries about the court’s reputation, delivered the most consequential decisions. Those include the court’s grant of broad immunity from criminal prosecution to former presidents and its reversal of a 40-year-old case that had been used thousands of times to uphold federal regulations.

“He’s got competing inclinations. One is to be the statesman and institutionalist,” University of California at Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen said. The other, Hasen said, is to dig in “when it is something that is important enough to him.”

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Hurricane season 2024 is here. Here’s how to stay prepared

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane season is upon us, known for disastrous flooding and high-speed winds in coastal areas of the United States and in the Caribbean and Central America, and emergency management officials are urging people to stay prepared.

Unlike previous hurricane seasons, this summer brings record hot temperatures nationwide and an early onset of storms. Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30, but usually the most hurricanes occur in September and October, said Jaime Hernandez, the emergency management director for Hollywood, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

“That’s a little bit different this year because of the reality we’re dealing with with global warming, warmer sea surface temperatures, atmosphere conditions that are more favorable to tropical cyclone development,” Hernandez said. “It could develop at any time.”

Since the start of this week, Hurricane Beryl broke records as the first Category 4 storm to form in the Atlantic Ocean in June — abnormally early compared to past trends.

Here’s how to prepare, what to have on hand, and who should evacuate in a hurricane:

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Judge’s order greatly expands where Biden can’t enforce a new rule protecting LGBTQ+ students

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Enforcement of a federal rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students has been blocked in four states and a patchwork of places elsewhere by a federal judge in Kansas.

U.S. District Judge John Broomes suggested in his ruling Tuesday that the Biden administration must now consider whether forcing compliance remains “worth the effort.”

Broomes’ decision was the third against the rule from a federal judge in less than three weeks but more sweeping than the others. It applies in Alaska, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, which sued over the new rule. It also applies to a Stillwater, Oklahoma, middle school that has a student suing over the rule and to members of three groups backing Republican efforts nationwide to roll back LGBTQ+ rights. All of them are involved in one lawsuit.

Broomes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, directed the three groups — Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United — to file a list of schools in which their members’ children are students so that their schools also do not comply with the rule. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who argued the states’ case before Broomes last month, said that could be thousands of schools.

The Biden administration rule is set to take effect in August under the Title IX civil rights law passed in 1972, barring sex discrimination in education. Broomes’ order is to remain in effect through a trial of the lawsuit in Kansas, though the judge concluded that the states and three groups are likely to win.

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FDA approves a second Alzheimer’s drug that can modestly slow disease

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have approved another Alzheimer’s drug that can modestly slow the disease, providing a new option for patients in the early stages of the incurable, memory-destroying ailment.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s Kisunla on Tuesday for mild or early cases of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s. It’s only the second drug that’s been convincingly shown to delay cognitive decline in patients, following last year’s approval of a similar drug from Japanese drugmaker Eisai.

The delay seen with both drugs amounts to a matter of months — about seven months, in the case of Lilly’s drug. Patients and their families will have to weigh that benefit against the downsides, including regular IV infusions and potentially dangerous side effects like brain swelling.

Physicians who treat Alzheimer’s say the approval is an important step after decades of failed experimental treatments.

“I’m thrilled to have different options to help my patients,” said Dr. Suzanne Schindler, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s been difficult as a dementia specialist — I diagnose my patients with Alzheimer’s and then every year I see them get worse and they progress until they die.”

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Beryl heads toward Jamaica as a major hurricane after ripping through southeast Caribbean

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) — Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 storm heading toward Jamaica after earlier crossing islands in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least six people.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. Beryl was losing intensity but was forecast to still be near major-hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A hurricane watch was in effect for Haiti’s southern coast and the Yucatan’s east coast. Belize issued a tropical storm watch stretching south from its border with Mexico to Belize City.

Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 165 mph (270 kph) Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. On Tuesday night, the storm was about 360 miles (580 kilometers) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It had top winds of 150 mph (240 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (35 kph), the center said.

Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica, where officials warned residents in flood-prone areas to prepare for evacuation.

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Judge delays Trump’s hush money sentencing until at least September after high court immunity ruling

In a major reprieve for former President Donald Trump, sentencing for his hush money convictions was postponed Tuesday until at least September — if ever — as the judge agreed to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11, just before the Republicans’ nominating convention, on his New York convictions on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing.

The postponement sets the sentencing for Sept. 18 at the earliest — if it happens at all, since Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the Supreme Court ruling merits not only delaying the sentencing but tossing out his conviction.

“The impact of the Immunity Ruling is a loud and clear signal for Justice in the United States,” Trump crowed on his Truth Social media site after the sentencing was delayed.

Using all capital letters, he claimed the Supreme Court’s decision netted him “total exoneration” in this and other criminal cases he faces.

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Giuliani is disbarred in New York as court finds he repeatedly lied about Trump’s 2020 election loss

NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, was disbarred in New York on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss.

The Manhattan appeals court ruled Giuliani, who had his New York law license suspended in 2021 for making false statements around the election, is no longer allowed to practice law in the state, effective immediately.

“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” the decision reads. Giuliani “flagrantly misused” his position and “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”

“In so doing, respondent not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant,” the court wrote.

Giuliani said Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised to lose his law license in his hometown, claiming in a post on the social media platform X that the case was “based on an activist complaint, replete with false arguments.”

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Strike kills family as Israeli evacuation order sparks panicked flight from southern Gaza city

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Hamdan family — around a dozen people from three generations — fled their home in the middle of the night after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

They found refuge with extended relatives in a building further north, inside an Israeli-declared safe zone. But hours after they arrived, an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday afternoon hit their building in the town of Deir al-Balah, killing nine members of the family and three others.

In all, five children and three women were among the dead, according to hospital records and a relative who survived.

Israel’s order on Monday for people to leave the eastern half of Khan Younis — the territory’s second-largest city — has triggered the third mass flight of Palestinians in as many months, throwing the population deeper into confusion, chaos and misery as they scramble once again to find safety.

About 250,000 people live in the area covered by the order, according to the United Nations. Many of them had just returned to their homes there after fleeing Israel’s invasion of Khan Younis earlier this year — or had just taken refuge there after escaping Israel’s offensive in the city of Rafah, further south.

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AI is learning from what you said on Reddit, Stack Overflow or Facebook. Are you OK with that?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Post a comment on Reddit, answer coding questions on Stack Overflow, edit a Wikipedia entry or share a baby photo on your public Facebook or Instagram feed and you are also helping to train the next generation of artificial intelligence.

Not everyone is OK with that — especially as the same online forums where they’ve spent years contributing are increasingly flooded with AI-generated commentary mimicking what real humans might say.

Some longtime users have tried to delete their past contributions or rewrite them into gibberish, but the protests haven’t had much effect. A handful of governments — including Brazil’s privacy regulator on Tuesday — have also tried to step in.

“A more significant portion of the population just kind of feels helpless,” said Reddit volunteer moderator Sarah Gilbert, who also studies online communities at Cornell University. “There’s nowhere to go except just completely going offline or not contributing in ways that bring value to them and value to others.”

Platforms are responding — with mixed results. Take Stack Overflow, the popular hub for computer programming tips. First, it banned ChatGPT-written responses due to frequent errors, but now it’s partnering with AI chatbot developers and has punished some of its own users who tried to erase their past contributions in protest.

The Associated Press