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The U.S. Supreme Court refused to order the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from presidential election ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin, rejecting a pair of last-ditch requests from the onetime candidate.

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Kennedy, who now supports former President Donald Trump in his race against Vice President Kamala Harris, argued unsuccessfully that the two swing states are violating his constitutional rights by leaving him on the ballot against his wishes.

Officials in Wisconsin and Michigan said Kennedy’s Aug. 23 removal requests came too late under the laws of those states, where voting has already begun. In Wisconsin, Kennedy sought to have stickers placed over his name on millions of ballots that haven’t yet been distributed to voters.

Read More: Inside the Last Weeks of RFK Jr.’s Campaign

The court turned away the requests without explanation, as is its usual practice with emergency matters. Justice Neil Gorsuch said he would have sided with Kennedy in the Michigan case. Lower courts had backed the states. 

Kennedy, who dropped out of the race Aug. 23, has sought to have his name kept on the ballot in some states and taken off in others. Justice Sonia Sotomayor last month refused to place Kennedy on the ballot in New York.

The Wisconsin case is Kennedy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, 24A399. The Michigan case is Kennedy v. Benson, 24A405.

He said Abdullah was almost finished with his two-year pilot training when he was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges

The outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. elections. Lesia Bakalets speaks to several expatriates who live in Ukraine and sends this report from Kyiv.

In Washington, Yermak meets with National Security Adviser; Moscow advances around Selydove, near Pokrovsk; Canada pledges CAD 5 billion for G7 loan to Kyiv; CNN: US asks China to pressure Pyongyang

(NewsNation) — Donald Trump has won North Carolina in each of the last two elections, but Democrats have been gaining ground, particularly in the major population centers: Mecklenburg and Wake counties.

If Harris can improve in those areas, Democrats have a chance to win the state for the first time since Barack Obama in 2008.

How votes will be counted

In North Carolina, the polls close at 7:30 p.m. Counties can start processing mail-in ballots at 5:00 p.m., while some counties with passed measures can begin processing mail-in ballots at 2:00 p.m. on Election Day.

While the North Carolina Board of Elections allows for same-day voter registration for early voting — which runs through November 2 — the state does not allow residents to register to vote if they are casting ballots on the day of the general election.

To register to vote the same day during early voting, residents must have a state identification number from their state-issued driver’s license or must have proof of the last four digits of their Social Security number.

North Carolina Senate race in 2022

In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, Democrat Cheri Beasley took a 20-point lead over Ted Budd when the first batches of votes were released after polls closed. That lead disappeared after about 90 minutes when Budd overtook Beasley in the vote count and went on to win the seat. Mail and early in-person votes accounted for about 59% of all ballots in that election.

In statewide elections, the Democratic strongholds are in the Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Fayetteville areas, while Republicans tend to perform best in the western, eastern and southeastern areas of the state. When Obama carried North Carolina in 2008, he won beyond the safe Democratic areas and picked up an additional 11 counties in what were moderate Republican areas.

More than half of those counties may have moved out of reach for Democrats today, as Trump outperformed Biden by double-digit margins in 2020. But that same year, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper picked up Granville, Pasquotank and Scotland counties in his successful reelection bid and reduced the margin in others.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(NewsNation) — Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly criticized former President Donald Trump‘s campaign staff as “dunderheads” for not vetting a comedian who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” during a Sunday rally.

O’Reilly, while discussing the Madison Square Garden rally, revealed that Trump “didn’t know that comedian who disparaged all Puerto Ricans” and blamed the incident on poor campaign management.

“He’s got a lot of people working for him that are dunderheads. … They’re only there because they kiss his butt, and that’s not what you want,” O’Reilly said on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”

However, O’Reilly noted exceptions to his criticism, praising Lara Trump and campaign executive Susie White as “very powerful” and “very smart” members of the team.

O’Reilly also characterized Vice President Kamala Harris as a “machine candidate” who “does what the machine tells her to do” and criticized her campaign’s performance, particularly noting that “she can’t answer a question.”

“You think she’s got a bunch of geniuses running her campaign? … You think PhDs are running that operation?” O’Reilly said.

What happened at Trump’s MSG rally?

The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, billionaire Elon Musk, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik and an artist who painted a picture of Trump hugging the Empire State Building.

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, one of the featured guests at Trump’s New York City event, sparked a furor after referring to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage,” prompting some members of the GOP, like Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., who is Puerto Rican, to come out against the remarks.

In addition to his remark about Puerto Rico, Hinchcliffe also made a crude joke about Latinos in which he said, “They love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They c– inside. Just like they did to our country.”

Hinchcliffe wasn’t the only one who made controversial remarks about different racial and ethnic groups during the rally. Carlson referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as a “Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor” even though Harris is neither Samoan nor Malaysian but rather Black and Indian American.

Sid Rosenberg, a New York City radio host whose show Trump calls into periodically, blasted Democrats in derogatory and explicit terms.

“She is some sick b——, that Hillary Clinton. What a sick son of a b—-,” he said of the former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee. “The whole fucking party. A bunch of degenerates.”

Trump ally Rudy Giuliani used racist stereotypes about Palestinians in his address at the rally, claiming, “They may have good people. I’m sorry, I don’t take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at 2.”

Trump’s childhood friend David Rem referred to Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris ”and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.

Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

Trump later defended the rally, calling it a “lovefest.”

NewsNation partner The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Russia bombed and partially destroyed one of Ukraine’s most recognizable national landmarks on Monday evening in the heart of the country’s second city. The targeted bombing of the iconic Derzhprom building in central Kharkiv was the latest in a series of attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites that many regard as evidence of a deliberate Kremlin campaign to erase Ukraine’s national identity.

The Derzhprom building stands at one end of Kharkiv’s vast central square and serves as a prominent symbol of the city. Built in the 1920s at a time when Kharkiv served as the capital of Soviet Ukraine, the Derzhprom building was the first modern skyscraper in the USSR. When it was unveiled in 1928, the building was promoted as a flagship project showcasing the innovation of the Soviet Union. It remains an internationally important example of the Constructivist architectural school.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday’s bombing had “severely damaged” the Derzhprom building and called for international solidarity. “Appeasement never brings peace; it simply feeds the aggressor’s appetite,” he commented. “Instead, we must isolate the aggressor and increase the pressure on him until he ceases terror. Adhering to shared principles saves human lives and cultural heritage. Compromising them brings death and ruin.”

Others noted that while the Derzhprom building had managed to emerge relatively unscathed from the carnage of World War II when Kharkiv repeatedly witnessed intense battles between Nazi and Soviet forces, it had now joined the long list of Ukrainian landmarks and sites of cultural significance to be damaged or destroyed by Russia’s invasion. “If we look back at World War II, even Hitler couldn’t do what the Russians have done,” commented Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Stay updated

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has included hundreds of targeted attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites across the country. By the middle of October 2024, UNESCO officials had verified damage to 457 sites including churches, museums, monuments, and libraries. This figure may only represent a fraction of the real total, however. Crucially, it does not include the systematic destruction of Ukrainian heritage sites throughout regions of Ukraine currently under Russian occupation.

Attacks on Ukraine’s heritage sites are one element of the Kremlin’s broader efforts to erase Ukrainian national identity. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the tone with his regular denials of Ukraine’s right to exist and insistence that Ukrainians are in fact Russians (“one people”). Since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2014, areas that have fallen under Kremlin control have been declared “historically Russian” and subjected to ruthless policies of russification. This has included the exclusion of the Ukrainian language, the suppression of Ukrainian history, and the methodical removal of all symbols of Ukrainian statehood.

Russia’s war on Ukrainian identity has included the abduction and indoctrination of large numbers of Ukrainian children. Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and sent to camps where they are subjected to Soviet-style “re-education” to rob them of their Ukrainian heritage and impose a Russian imperial identity. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges related to these mass abductions.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the international community has become increasingly aware of Russia’s intention to eradicate Ukrainian identity. The goals of Russia’s invasion go far beyond capturing Ukrainian territory and extend to the “gradual destruction of a whole cultural life,” United Nations special rapporteur for cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki told the New York Times in December 2022. “One of the justifications of the war is that Ukrainians don’t have a distinct cultural identity,” she noted.

By targeting Ukrainian heritage sites, Moscow is underlining its determination to not only reestablish political control over Ukraine, but to erase the very markers of a separate Ukrainian identity that challenge the Kremlin’s imperialistic vision of the country as a core part of Russia itself. Throughout his reign, Putin has championed the “historical unity” of Russia and Ukraine, and has described today’s Ukraine as “an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” Continued attacks on prominent Ukrainian landmarks are a reminder that the Kremlin dictator remains committed to realizing his chilling goal of a Ukraine without Ukrainians.

Peter Dickinson is editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert service.

Further reading

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

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(NewsNation) — The road to the White House in Nevada must include the growing Hispanic vote.

In Nevada, as well as bordering Arizona, Latinos make up about 25% of registered voters, who hit the ballot box with a swirl of backgrounds, issues and traditions.

To emerge as the successor in the 2024 election, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris need to gain approval from the nearly 1 in 4 voters in Nevada who are Hispanic.

For example, take Alina Gardner, a realtor who moved to the United States from Cuba as a young girl. She’s able to show her listings in English and Spanish.

Gardner is what’s called a “persuadable,” meaning that even though she’s a registered Republican, her vote is not set in stone.

“I get a lot of texts and emails from the Democrats, so I listen to both,” Gardner told NewsNation. “I’m open to both.”

At the same time, while she’s willing to vote for a Republican, Gardner doesn’t believe Trump should be president “at his age.”

“As of right now, it’s going to be Kamala Harris,” Gardner said.

Ivet Aldaba will have her daughters top of mind as she votes this November. The college professor is among the estimated 36 million Latinos eligible to vote this time around nationwide. That’s up from 14 million in the year 2000 — an increase of 153%.

“Having immigrant parents and them not being able to vote — at the time, I felt that civic responsibility even more,” Aldaba said.

For Aldaba, her reason for voting Democrat is reproductive rights.

“I want my daughters to have a voice, to be able to decide what they can do with their own bodies,” Aldaba said.

Meanwhile, retired blackjack dealer David Mendez says when he started showing support for Trump, he lost a lot of friends. He’s voting for Trump because of what he says are the culture wars playing out in his casino.

Rudy Zamora, of the nonpartisan voter engagement group Chicanos Por La Causa, serves a community that mirrors the country as a whole.

There’s young voter apathy he sees as well as distrust in election integrity.

“I’ve heard conversations from my aunts and uncles saying, ‘Oh, back in my country, my vote doesn’t really matter,’ or ‘The election was already bought,'” Zamora said. “That’s not the case here. Every single vote is one vote, one voice, and we have to ensure that our voice is being represented at the polls.”