Ap Top News At 11:35 A.m. Edt

That it is a foregone conclusion that Claudia Sheinbaum will be Mexico’s next President is a tragedy for Mexican democracy. Sheinbaum is Mexico’s presidential frontrunner and the anointed successor of the country’s powerful President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She leads most polls with a large double-digit margin that has remained virtually static for the entire campaign. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The tragedy isn’t that she is likely to win—a large majority of Mexicans will happily and democratically cast their ballots on June 2 for what will be the country’s first woman President (and the first of Jewish descent).

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa held a national election Wednesday that could be the country’s most hotly contested in 30 years, with the long-ruling African National Congress party facing a stern test to hold onto its majority. The ANC has been the majority party and in government ever since the end of South Africa’s apartheid system of white minority rule and the establishment of democracy in 1994 and has held the presidency since then. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Under the South African political system, people vote for parties and not directly for the President in their national elections.

Michelle O’Neill was never supposed to be here. When the Northern Ireland Assembly was established following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed known as “The Troubles,” it established a delicate system of power sharing. Traditionally Protestant British unionists, who want to preserve Northern Ireland’s status within the U.

Hong Kong made its first acquittals under the national security law while finding 14 opposition figures guilty in a landmark case, ending a conviction streak that fueled doubts over the city’s judicial independence. Judges in the once-freewheeling finance hub found 14 out of 16 defendants guilty of subversion charges under a 2020 national security law imposed by Beijing.

WASHINGTON — An international law enforcement team has arrested a Chinese national and disrupted a major botnet that officials said he ran for nearly a decade, amassing at least $99 million in profits by reselling access to criminals who used it for identity theft, child exploitation, and financial fraud, including pandemic relief scams. The U.

Grindavik, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing red lava that once again threatened the coastal town of Grindavik and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. The eruption began in the early afternoon following a series of earthquakes north of the town of 3,800 people that was largely evacuated in December when the volcano came to life after centuries of dormancy and put on an impressive show of nature’s power. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Although activity began to calm down by early evening, initial estimates found the eruption was the most vigorous in the area so far, as lava shot 50 meters (165 feet) into the sky from a fissure that grew to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in length, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. [video id=ogHf0h2W autostart="viewable" vertical] Barriers built to protect Grindavik deflected the flowing lava that cut off two of the three roads leading to town and was close to reaching the third. “It’s a much larger volume that’s on the move right now headed for town,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.