WASHINGTON (AP) — With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support as a coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend. Friday’s vote produced a seldom-seen outcome in the typically hyper-partisan House, with Democrats helping Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan advance 316-94. Final House approval could come this weekend, when the package would be sent to the Senate.

It was a victory for the strategy Speaker Mike Johnson set in motion this week after he agonized for two months over the legislation. Still, Johnson has had to spend the past 24 hours making the rounds on conservative media working to salvage support for the wartime funding, particularly for Ukraine as it faces a critical moment battling Russia, but also for his own job as the restless right flank threatens to oust him over the effort.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about what we’re doing here and why,” Johnson told the conservative host of The Mark Levin Show.

“Ukrainians desperately need lethal aid right now. … We cannot allow Vladimir Putin to roll through another country and take it,” he said about the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine. “These are very serious matters with global implications.”

After months of delay, the House worked slowly but deliberately once Johnson made up his mind this week to plough ahead. President Joe Biden sent a swift endorsement of the speaker’s plan and, in a rare moment, Donald Trump, the Republican presumed presidential nominee who opposes most overseas aid for Ukraine, has not derailed the speaker’s work.

“The world is watching what the Congress does,” the White House said in a statement. “Passing this legislation would send a powerful message about the strength of American leadership at a pivotal moment.”

In an extremely rare step, the members of the House Rules Committee joined forces late Thursday in a near midnight vote, the four Democrats giving their support on a procedural step, to push past the Republican majority’s three hardline holdouts to send the package to the House floor for debate on a 9-3 vote. It was a moment unseen in recent House memory.

Johnson will need to rely on Democrats again Friday to clear the next procedural vote and turn back amendments Republicans have offered that could kill the package. One from hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would reduce spending for Ukraine to zero.

Greene has filed the “motion to vacate” the speaker from office, and has drawn at least one other Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky as a co-sponsor. It could launch a bid to evict Johnson from the speaker’s office, should she call it up for a vote, much the way Republicans booted Kevin McCarthy from the position last fall.

With one of the most narrow House majorities in modern times, Johnson can only afford to lose a single vote or two from his Republican ranks to pass any bill. That dynamic has thrust him into the arms of Democrats as he searches for votes to pass the package.

Without his Republican majority fully behind him, Johnson cannot shape the package as the ultra-conservatives demand lest he lose Democratic backing. It has forced him to leave behind tough security measures to clamp down on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and other priorities.

At best, Johnson has been able to carve up a Senate-passed version of the bill into separate parts, as is the preference among House Republicans, and the final votes will be on distinct measures — for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies.

The package would also include a fourth provision that includes many Republican priorities that Democrats endorse, or at least are willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl, and potentially ban the video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year.

Passing each bill, in votes expected Saturday, will require Johnson to form complicated bipartisan coalitions on each, with Democrats for example ensuring Ukraine aid is approved, but some left-leaning progressives refusing to back military aid for Israel over the destruction of Gaza.

The components would then be automatically stitched back together into a single package sent to the Senate where hardliners there are also planning procedural moves to stall final approval.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate after a flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was instructed to cross a runway where another flight was starting its takeoff, the agency said.

A JetBlue flight was starting its takeoff roll on runway 4 at the airport in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., around 7:41 a.m. Thursday, when an air traffic controller instructed a Southwest Airlines flight to cross the same runway, the FAA said in a statement. The agency will investigate the event.

Southwest Airlines Flight 2937, which was bound for Orlando, Florida, took off from the airport at 7:47 a.m., according to FlightAware, which tracks flight activity. JetBlue flight 1554 was bound for Boston and according to FlightAware, the flight took off from Reagan National at 1:48 p.m.

JetBlue said in a statement that the flight aborted takeoff because of another aircraft trying to cross the runway, but no injuries were reported. The aircraft was inspected before it left for Boston and JetBlue said it will “work closely with federal officials as this event is fully investigated.” Southwest said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and was “working with the FAA to fully understand the circumstances.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli-occupied West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians.

The Treasury Department announcement comes as the West Bank has seen some of its worst violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began.

There is also friction between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government has reacted angrily to previous sanctions imposed against West Bank settlers.

Included in the Friday sanctions are two entities — Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich — accused of raising funds for sanctioned settlers Yinon Levi and David Chai Chasdai.

The fundraising campaigns established by Mount Hebron Fund for Levi and by Shlom Asiraich for Chasdai generated the equivalent of $140,000 and $31,000, respectively, according to U.S. Treasury.

The penalties aim to block them from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.

Additionally, the State Department is designating Ben-Zion Gopstein, the founder and leader of Lehava, an organization whose members have assaulted Palestinian civilians.

Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the organizations “undermine the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank. We will continue to use our tools to hold those responsible accountable.”

In February, Biden issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others responsible for contamination to pay for its removal.

Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law doesn’t ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that releases of the chemicals into soil or water be reported to federal, state or tribal officials if they meet or exceed certain levels. The EPA then may require cleanups to protect public health and recover costs that can reach tens of millions of dollars.

PFOA and PFOS have been voluntarily phased out by U.S. manufacturers but are still in limited use and remain in the environment because they do not degrade over time. The compounds are part of a larger cluster of forever chemicals known as PFAS that have been used since the 1940s in industry and consumer products including nonstick frying pans, water-repellent sports gear, stain-resistant rugs and cosmetics.

The term PFAS is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The chemicals can accumulate and persist in the human body for long periods. Evidence from animal and human studies indicates that exposure to PFOA or PFOS may lead to cancer or other health problems, including liver and heart damage and developmental problems in infants and children.

President Joe Biden’s administration “understands the threat that forever chemicals pose to the health of families across the country,″ EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. “Designating these chemicals under our Superfund authority will allow EPA to address more contaminated sites, take earlier action and expedite cleanups — all while ensuring polluters pay for the costs to clean up pollution threatening the health of communities.”

The final rule issued Friday follows strict limits set by the EPA on certain PFAS in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured. Officials say the drinking water rule, announced April 10, will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical industry, said it strongly oppose the EPA’s action and believes it “will undermine overall remediation efforts” for PFAS contamination.

The Superfund law “is an expensive, ineffective and unworkable means to achieve remediation for these chemicals,” the group said in a statement Friday. The 1980 law “is fraught with unintended consequences and will likely result in extensive, unnecessary delays for cleanups,” the chemistry council said, adding that there are more effective and timely means to clean up PFAS sites “through existing regulatory processes.”

Last year, three chemical companies announced they had reached a $1.18 billion deal to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with PFAS. DuPont de Nemours Inc., The Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc. said they would establish a fund to compensate water providers for contamination.

And earlier this month, chemical manufacturer 3M Co. announced it will begin payments to many U.S. public drinking water systems as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement over contamination with forever chemicals.

Besides the final rule, the EPA issued a notice clarifying that the agency will focus enforcement efforts on businesses and people who significantly contribute to the release of PFAS chemicals into the environment, including companies that have manufactured PFAS or used it in the manufacturing process, as well as federal agencies and other responsible groups.

PFAS used in firefighting foam has tainted groundwater on and near military bases and other locations where it’s used in training exercises.

The Superfund law allows the EPA to clean up contaminated sites across the country and forces parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work. When no responsible party can be identified, Superfund gives the EPA money and authority to clean up contaminated sites.

The EPA’s action follows a report by the National Academies of Science that calls PFAS a serious public health threat in the U.S. and worldwide. The EPA said in 2022 that PFOA and PFOS are more dangerous than previously thought and pose health risks even at levels so low they cannot currently be detected.

David Uhlmann, the EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance, called the Superfund designation “a major step toward holding polluters accountable for significant releases of PFAS into the environment.” Officials “intend to exercise our enforcement discretion to focus on significant sources of PFAS contamination,” he said, not farmers, municipal landfills, water utilities, municipal airports or local fire departments.

Water utilities, fire departments and other groups had complained that an earlier EPA proposal could have imposed unfair costs on them without defined cleanup standards.

The federal designation will ensure that manufacturers most responsible for widespread PFAS contamination will bear the costs of cleaning it up, said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice.

He said it “just got a lot harder” for polluters including chemical companies that long manufactured PFAS “to pass the costs of their PFAS releases off on impacted communities and taxpayers.”

Erik Olson, a health expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the EPA’s action will help protect millions of American families exposed to the toxic chemicals.

“We all learned in kindergarten that if we make a mess, we should clean it up,” he said. “The EPA’s Superfund rule is a big step in the right direction for holding polluters accountable for cleaning up decades of contamination.”

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called the EPA’s action “ill-advised” and said it “puts local communities and ratepayers on the hook for PFAS contamination they had nothing to do with in the first place.″

The Superfund designation could have disproportionate effect on water and waste utilities, airports, farmers, ranchers and fire departments, Capito said, adding that the agency’s action underscores the need for Congress to act to address PFAS.

“We must pass legislation to safeguard American ratepayers from the financial burden imposed by this misguided rule,” she said.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency at https://apnews.com/hub/us-environmental-protection-agency.

Israel’s long-term credit rating is being downgraded by S&P, which cited the risk of military escalation with Iran. It is the second major U.S. credit ratings agency to do so.

There was an apparent drone attack at a major air base and a nuclear site near the central city of Isfahan early Friday, which is suspected of being part of an Israeli retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country days ago.

S&P’s downgrade was issued shortly before the strike in Iran, and almost three months after Moody’s, another major U.S. credit agency, downgraded Israel’s rating due to the “ongoing military conflict with Hamas.”

S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Israel to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ and the short-term ratings to ‘A-1’ from ‘A-1+.’

The long-term downgrade means Israel’s credit rating has moved from a “very strong capacity to meet financial commitments,” to “a strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances,” according to S&P.

“In our view, the recent increase in confrontation with Iran heightens already elevated geopolitical risks for Israel,” the credit ratings agency said. “We expect a wider regional conflict will be avoided, but the Israel-Hamas war and the confrontation with Hezbollah appear set to continue throughout 2024–versus our previous assumption of military activity not lasting more than six months.”

S&P’s outlook on Israel’s long-term ratings is negative.

The cost of the war is a major drain on Israel’s budget and all three U.S. credit ratings agencies, Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch, which also has offices in London, have issued warnings on Israel’s credit standing since the surprise attack on the country by the ruling Hamas militant group.

S&P typically issues sovereign credit ratings on scheduled dates, but does break with that practice if events merit. S&P’s will issue another ratings review for the country on the date it was originally scheduled to do so, on May 10.

No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. However, tensions have been high since the Saturday assault on Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own strikes targeting Iran in Syria.

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers in former President Donald Trump ‘s hush money case shifted their attention Friday to picking alternates as jury selection resumed for a fourth day. The proceedings began again with the questionnaire phase of jury selection and 22 possible jurors were brought in. As many as five alternate jurors must be picked.

Thursday’s proceedings demonstrated unpredictability in the selection process, with two jurors who had been seated a day earlier being dismissed from the panel. A total of 12 jurors and one alternate were ultimately sworn in.

The judge has suggested that opening statements could begin as early as Monday, before prosecutors begin laying out their case alleging a scheme to cover up negative stories Trump feared would hurt his 2016 presidential campaign.

The hush money case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial.

At the heart of the allegations is a $130,000 payment made to porn actor Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the final days of the 2016 race.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of such payments in internal business documents. Trump has said none of the alleged sexual encounters occurred. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Currently:

— The hush money case is just one of Trump’s legal cases. See the others here

— Judge in Trump case orders media not to report where potential jurors work

— Social media searches play central role in jury selection for Trump’s trial

— Only 1 in 3 US adults think Trump acted illegally in New York hush money case, AP-NORC poll shows

Here’s the latest:

The latest questionnaire round in jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money trial began Friday with a prospective juror saying she has anxiety and isn’t sure she can serve. She said that she takes medication for the condition and that as more days pass, “I don’t think I will be able to be completely fair” and focused on the trial.

Judge Juan M. Merchan excused her.

Because 22 jurors are being questioned, Merchan granted a prosecutor’s request for five extra minutes of questioning. Instead of 20 minutes, prosecutors will have 25 questions to inquire of the group.

Another potential juror, a woman with adult children, said she doesn’t believe in watching the news. She added that her husband sends her news that seems important and that she has no strong opinions on Trump.

As potential jurors ran through the questionnaire, Trump appeared to lean over at the defense table, scribbling on some papers and occasionally exchanging notes with his lawyers.

But when another potential juror mentioned that he follows the White House Instagram account, including when Trump was in office, the former president looked up and toward the jury box.

Donald Trump shuffled through papers at the defense table Friday morning after walking into Manhattan court for the fourth day of jury selection in his hush money trial.

He turned stoic and stern as news photographers came in to snap pictures of him, as is the daily custom before court resumes.

Twenty-two possible jurors are being brought in as jury selection is set to resume. As many as five alternate jurors must be selected before jury selection is over. One alternate was already sworn in at the end of the day Thursday.

Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers’ request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while a separate criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out.

The lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 seek civil damages for harm they say they suffered during the attack, which aimed to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.

Speaking to reporters inside the lower Manhattan courthouse, former President Donald Trump once again railed against his hush money trial, demanding Judge Juan M. Merchan lift a gag order limiting what he can say publicly about witnesses.

“The gag order has to come off. People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order,” he said.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office are currently looking to fine Trump over violating his gag order after disparaging witnesses in the case on social media. A hearing is set for next week.

Donald Trump raised his right fist as he headed to his motorcade while leaving Trump Tower on Friday.

Soon afterward, the former president arrived at the court in Manhattan where more potential jurors will be questioned in his hush money case.

A third panel of potential jurors will be questioned Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing jury selection a step closer to completion.

After a jury of 12 New Yorkers was seated Thursday, lawyers were expected to turn their attention to picking remaining alternates who can vow to set aside their personal views and impartially judge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has suggested that opening statements in the criminal trial could begin as early as Monday.

Trump has pleaded not guilty.

The trial will place Trump in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks, forcing him to juggle his dual role as criminal defendant and political candidate against the backdrop of his hotly contested race against President Joe Biden.

Jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money case proceeded at a plodding pace Thursday when two of the initial seven seated jurors were dismissed.

But late in the day, lawyers settled on the remaining seven in quick succession, along with one alternate. Judge Juan M. Merchan has said his goal is to have five additional alternates.

Even with the roster of 12 jurors set, it’s still possible that the lineup may change as proceedings continue Friday.

Judge Juan M. Merchan was expected to hold a hearing Friday to consider a request from prosecutors to bring up Donald Trump’s prior legal entanglements if he takes the stand in the hush money case.

Manhattan prosecutors have said they want to question Trump about his recent civil fraud trial that resulted in a $454 million judgment after a judge found Trump had lied about his wealth for years. He is appealing that verdict.

Trump says he did nothing wrong and has cast himself as the victim of a politically motivated justice system bent on keeping him out of the White House. He has lashed out on social media about the judge, prosecutors and potential witnesses, prompting the district attorneys to seek sanctions for possible violations of a gag order in the criminal case.

After Thursday’s court proceedings, Trump complained to reporters that he should have been out campaigning but was in court instead for what he said was a “very unfair trial.”

“Everybody’s outraged by it,” he said. “You know the whole world’s watching this New York scam.”

By Clark Mindock

(Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated a pair of widely used industrial chemicals as hazardous substances under the country’s Superfund program, accelerating a crackdown on toxic compounds known as “forever chemicals.”

The rule will require companies to report leaks of two of the most commonly used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and help pay to clean up existing contamination.

The EPA separately last week announced its first-ever drinking water standards to guard against PFAS pollution.

PFAS are a family of thousands of chemicals used in consumer and commercial products like firefighting foams, nonstick pans and stain resistant fabrics. They have been linked to cancer and other health concerns, and are often called forever chemicals because they do not easily break down in the human body or the environment.

The new rule targets contamination from two PFAS known as PFOA and PFOS.

The Superfund designations will ensure that those responsible “pay for the costs to clean up pollution threatening the health of communities,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, known as the Superfund law, allows the EPA and state regulators to undertake or order remediation of hazardous sites and seek reimbursement from site owners, hazardous waste generators, waste transporters and others.

The EPA said on Friday it would prioritize enforcement against significant contributors to the release of PFAS, such as federal facilities and manufacturers.

The new rule, one of the most aggressive moves yet by the Biden administration to regulate PFAS, also makes public funds available for remediation.

The regulation could spur additional litigation over liability for PFAS cleanup efforts.

Lawsuits filed by public water systems and others accusing major chemical companies of polluting U.S. drinking water with PFAS chemicals led to more than $11 billion in settlements last year.

(Reporting by Clark Mindock; Editing by David Bario and Jamie Freed)

CAPRI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly declined to confirm a reported Israeli attack on Iran on Friday, saying Washington has not been involved in any offensive operations and it was committed to de-escalating tensions in the region.

“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,” Blinken said at a news conference capping a gathering of G7 foreign ministers on the southern Italian island of Capri.

“What we’re focused on, what the G7 is focused on, and again, it’s reflected in our statement, and in our conversation, is our work to de-escalate tensions, to de-escalate from any potential conflicts,” Blinken said.

The top U.S. diplomat kept repeating the same response, almost verbatim, when he was asked about the issue several times at the news conference.

At a separate news conference moments before Blinken, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the United States was “informed at the last minute” but did not elaborate.

Explosions echoed over the Iranian city of Isfahan in the early hours of Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.

Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for Saturday’s strikes, the first direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies which has escalated throughout the Middle East during six months of battle in Gaza.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Humeyra Pamuk; additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk, Editing by Ros Russell)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will go before voters Tuesday in Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries, a prelude to the November general election, when the commonwealth is expected to once again play a critical role in the race for the White House. Further down the ballot, voters will also select nominees in competitive primaries for Congress, the state legislature and three statewide offices.

Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump clinched the Republican nomination on March 12, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot. Nonetheless, both presumptive nominees have campaigned in Pennsylvania in recent days with their focus more on the November election and each other than on Tuesday’s vote.

Biden just completed a three-day campaign swing that began Tuesday in his hometown of Scranton and concluded Thursday in Philadelphia in an event with members of the Kennedy family. Days earlier, Trump held a rally in Lehigh County, his third visit to the state this year.

Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, was one of three critical swing states along with Michigan and Wisconsin that went narrowly for Trump in 2016 after almost 30 years of voting for Democratic presidential candidates. Biden won back all three states four years later with a margin in Pennsylvania of about 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million votes cast, and the states remain key electoral prizes this November.

Democrats in the Keystone State also will decide competitive contests for state attorney general, treasurer and auditor general. For attorney general, five candidates are running for the nomination for the position once held by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. They are Philadelphia attorney Keir Bradford-Grey, former auditor general and state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, former prosecutor and Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan, Philadelphia state Rep. Jared Solomon and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

The Republican primary for attorney general pits York County District Attorney Dave Sunday against state Rep. Craig Williams.

In the race to control the closely divided Congress, first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Summer Lee faces a primary challenge in the 12th District from Bhavini Patel, a member of the Edgewood Borough Council in Allegheny County. The two have sparred over their positions on the Israel-Hamas war. Lee has accused Israel of “war crimes” in Gaza and was an early proponent of a cease-fire. She was also supportive of a campaign to vote “uncommitted” in Democratic presidential primaries to send a message to Biden over the war.

In the 10th Congressional District, six Democrats are competing for the nomination to face Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, who played an active role in the effort to keep Trump in office after his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. A federal court recently ordered Perry to hand over hundreds of his texts and emails to FBI agents investigating the effort. His cellphone was seized in 2022 as part of the probe.

In the 1st Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick faces a primary challenge from Mark Houck, an anti-abortion activist. In the 7th District, three Republicans are vying to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in the fall.

Pennsylvania is also home to a competitive U.S. Senate contest, but Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick are both running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.

Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:

The Pennsylvania presidential and state primaries will be held on Tuesday. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide coverage for the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries, as well as 48 additional races down the ballot. Biden and Dean Phillips will appear on the Democratic presidential ballot, while Trump and Nikki Haley will appear on the Republican ballot. Voters in both primaries are also given the option to write in a candidate. The AP will also provide coverage for contested primaries for attorney general, auditor, treasurer, U.S. House, state Senate and state House.

Pennsylvania has a closed primary system, which means that only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

Pennsylvania’s 159 pledged Democratic delegates are allocated according to the national party’s standard rules. Thirty-five at-large delegates are allocated in proportion to the statewide vote, as are 19 PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” The state’s 17 congressional districts have a combined 105 delegates at stake, which are allocated in proportion to the vote results in each district. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the statewide vote to qualify for any statewide delegates, and 15% of the vote in a congressional district to qualify for delegates in that district.

Pennsylvania has 67 Republican delegates. The winner of the statewide vote will receive all 16 at-large delegates. The state’s 17 congressional districts each have an additional three delegates, for a total of 51 district-level delegates, but they are not awarded to candidates based on the primary vote. Instead, people running to be a convention delegate appear on the ballot and are elected directly by voters. They are elected as unbound delegates, meaning they are not obligated to vote for any particular candidate at the convention. The AP will not report vote totals for delegate candidates.

In the presidential race, Biden and Trump are the favorites in their primaries as neither candidate faces a credible challenge. The first indications that they are winning statewide on a level consistent with the overwhelming margins seen in most other contests held this year may be sufficient to determine the statewide winners.

For other statewide primaries, the key jurisdictions to watch are the vote-rich counties of Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Lancaster and Chester.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

In Pennsylvania, races with a vote margin of 0.5 percentage points or less are subject to an automatic recount. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of April 15, there were more than 8.7 million registered voters in Pennsylvania, about 45% Democrats and 40% Republicans.

In the 2022 midterm primaries, turnout was about 15% of registered voters in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. About 42% of votes in the Democratic primary that year were cast before Election Day, compared with about 11% in the Republican primary.

As of Thursday, a total of 413,952 ballots had been cast before Election Day, about 73% from Democrats and about 26% from Republicans.

In the 2022 midterm primaries, the AP first reported results at 8:04 p.m. ET, or four minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 2:45 a.m. ET with about 91% of total votes counted.

As of Tuesday, there will be 83 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, 118 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and 196 until the November general election.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.

Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful.”

If about $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country gets the green light, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. “We can move within days.”

The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has already spent all of the funding Congress had previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

By December, the Pentagon was $10 billion in the hole, because it is going to cost more now to replace the systems it sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.

As a result, the Pentagon’s frequent aid packages for Ukraine dried up because there’s been no guarantee Congress would pass the additional funding needed to replenish the weapons the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine. The legislation would include more than $20 billion to restock the Pentagon’s shelves and ensure that the military services have what they need to fight and protect America.

The lag in weapons deliveries has forced Ukrainian troops to spend months rationing their dwindling supply of munitions.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is pushing the Ukraine funding bill toward a weekend vote despite threats from within his party that doing so could cost him his job. If Congress passes the bill, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he will sign it “immediately,” which then triggers the Pentagon to begin pulling stockpiled weapons to deliver to Ukraine.

A look at how the U.S. can quickly move weapons to Ukraine:

When an aid package for Ukraine is announced, the weapons are either provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to immediately pull from its stockpiles, or through security assistance, which funds longer-term contracts with the defense industry to obtain the systems.

The presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, as it’s known, has allowed the military to send billions of dollars worth of ammunition, air defense missile launchers, tanks, vehicles and other equipment to Ukraine.

“In the past, we’ve seen weapons transferred via presidential drawdown authority arrive within a matter of days,” said Brad Bowman, director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies center on military and political power.

Those stocks are pulled from bases or storage facilities in the U.S. or from European sites where the U.S. has already surged weapons to cut down on the amount of time it will take to deliver them once the funding is approved.

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, the U.S. began to send increasingly larger, more lethal and more expensive systems to the warfront. They included entire air defense systems, armored vehicles, sophisticated missiles — even Abrams tanks.

Those systems cost more to replace, so the military — in particular, the Army — went deeper into debt. Compounding that, the military in some cases opted to replace older systems sent to Ukraine with pricier, higher-tech ones at home.

As a result, Army leaders recently told Congress that without passage of the foreign aid bill, they will begin to run out of money and have to move funds from other accounts.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, said the branch wouldn’t have enough money to bring home troops serving in Europe or to train units in the U.S.

The military has massive weapons storage facilities in the U.S. for millions of rounds of munitions of all sizes that would be ready to use in case of war.

For example, the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma sprawls across 45,000 acres (70 square miles) connected by rail and has a mission to surge as many as 435 shipping containers — each able to carry 15 tons (30,000 pounds) worth of munitions — if ordered by the president.

The facility is also a major storage site for one of the most used munitions on Ukraine’s battlefield, 155 mm howitzer rounds.

The demand by Ukraine for that particular shell has put pressure on U.S. stockpiles and pushed the military to see where else it could get them. As a result, tens of thousands of 155 mm rounds have been shipped back from South Korea to McAlester to be retrofitted for Ukraine.

According to a U.S. military official, the U.S. would be able to send certain munitions “almost immediately” to Ukraine because storehouses exist in Europe.

Among the weapons that could go very quickly are the 155 mm rounds and other artillery, along with some air defense munitions. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preparations not yet made public.

A host of sites across Germany, Poland and other European allies also are helping Ukraine maintain and train on systems sent to the front. For example, Germany set up a maintenance hub for Kyiv’s Leopard 2 tank fleet in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.

The nearby maintenance hubs hasten the turnaround time to get needed repairs done on the Western systems.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.