AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Trump says deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal on the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday, as Iran and Oman inched toward an agreement to reopen the critical waterway and potentially help bring an end to the war.

Israel and the U.S. originally cited goals including toppling Tehran’s government and ending its nuclear program, but the war has devolved into a fight over the strait as Iran’s attacks and threats ground shipping to a halt.

Closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas once passed, has driven up the price of fuel and basic goods far beyond the region, roiling the global economy. Trump is also under mounting pressure to end an unpopular war ahead of midterm congressional elections scheduled for later this year.

The U.S. president was asked by reporters traveling with him in California about a report on the Axios news site that an announcement on the Strait of Hormuz could be made on Wednesday.

“It could happen. Tomorrow or the next day,” he said, speaking on Tuesday evening California time. “A lot of progress has been made.”

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Russian missile and drone barrage in Ukrainian capital region kills 17

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight into Wednesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer. The intensified barrages are exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense system in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war.

“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them, or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”

With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries in an effort to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused.

In its latest attack on logistics facilities of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the region’s governor said Wednesday.

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A man carrying ammo was monitoring security at Trump golf course near Los Angeles, authorities say

LOS ANGELES (AP) —

A man carrying ammunition and with a gun in his vehicle was arrested Sunday at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course after appearing to monitor security preparations ahead of Trump’s fundraiser there on Tuesday, authorities said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Jeanine John Taele, 38, took photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket. A search of his pickup truck in the golf course parking lot turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read “security protection agent.” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement searched his home in the nearby city of Downey on Monday and found a rifle and other firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armor and notebooks with “concerning statements,” federal authorities said. No details about the statements were released.

The sheriff’s department announced the arrest as Trump was preparing to arrive for the Republican National Committee dinner Tuesday at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes just south of Los Angeles.

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Takeaways from Tuesday’s elections: Democrats’ division on display in Michigan Senate race

The Democratic primary for Michigan’s Senate seat hung on a razor’s edge early Wednesday, with the unresolved race becoming the latest and most dramatic example of a lingering divide over political tactics and progressive ideology as the party seeks a path back to power.

During much of the Trump era, Democratic primary voters have often followed the urging of party leaders and favored moderate candidates like U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. But this year, they’ve veered toward insurgents like Abdul El-Sayed, who tapped into widespread discontent with the Democratic establishment and the status quo in Washington.

The race was too early to call after midnight Wednesday with only a few percentage points separating the two candidates.

Democrats need to rack up as many wins as possible to take back the U.S. Senate, so the party has little room for error against the Republican nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

Republicans faced their own test in Michigan in the governor’s race, where President Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate, U.S. Rep. John James, defeated Perry Johnson, a wealthy, free-spending outsider.

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Stevens and El-Sayed are in a close race for Michigan’s Democratic Senate nomination

DETROIT (AP) — Moderate candidate U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed were in a tight race for Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day.

“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”

The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings.

Candidates from the left-flank — including democratic socialists — have found surprising success in the party’s U.S. House primaries, including in New York and Denver. Those races, however, were in deep-blue cities.

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Virginia Democrats pick establishment nominees for 2 US House seats they hope to flip in November

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia voters on Tuesday picked establishment Democrats — a prosecutor and a former congresswoman — as their nominees to take on Republican incumbents in two congressional districts the party hopes to flip in November as part of a broader fight for control of the U.S. House.

Shannon Taylor, the elected top prosecutor in a suburban Richmond county, will take on longtime GOP incumbent Rob Wittman in the 1st Congressional District. The coastal 2nd Congressional District, a true swing district with a heavy military presence, will see a rematch between two veterans — former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria and Jen Kiggans, who ousted her in 2022.

Taylor and Luria were backed by the House Democrats’ campaign arm and a wide array of Democratic leaders, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

Democratic primaries elsewhere in the U.S. this year have highlighted a divide between progressive challengers and more moderate, establishment-backed rivals, and in some races, outsiders have notched surprising upset wins. But in Virginia, Democratic primary voters have a history of rewarding moderate candidates, a trend that continued with the wins by Luria and Taylor on Tuesday. Taylor won in a crowded, seven-way primary that included a progressive candidate who won about a fifth of the vote, while Luria defeated three opponents.

Virginia Democrats hope they can flip at least two seats after their aggressive, voter-approved redistricting plan was overturned by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.

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Lawyers in Reflecting Pool case say Justice Department knew case was flawed

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department knew or should have known for weeks that its case against a former Olympian charged with intentionally damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was flawed, and that he bore no responsibility for longstanding problems at the landmark, defense lawyers said Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Friday moved to dismiss the indictment against David Hearn, saying in a 20-page filing that newly produced evidence from the Interior Department showed the former Olympic canoeist was not responsible for damage to the pool’s lining.

Pirro’s office attributed the damage instead to a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration” in the weeks surrounding July 4, as directed by President Donald Trump.

Lawyers for Hearn on Tuesday urged a judge to permanently dismiss the case and foreclose the possibility that the Trump administration could revive it. They took issue with Pirro’s assertion that prosecutors only recently learned about the pre-existing defects at the pool, saying the government had “disregarded readily available evidence” that the liner was already failing because of installation flaws.

“From the outset, the evidence showed that the pool liner was already failing and that Mr. Hearn did not cause the damage alleged in the indictment,” Hearn’s legal team argued in a 28-page motion filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court.

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Oil prices and world shares gain after Wall Street hits fresh records on strong corporate earnings

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Europe and Asia on Wednesday after the U.S. stock market rallied to records, helped by strong corporate earnings reports and hopes for a deal setting the stage for talks that might eventually lead to an end to the war in Iran.

Oil prices resumed their ascent, with Brent crude gaining more than 1%.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3% to 26,268.90, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged less than 0.1% higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 10,898.40.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.

Benchmarks jumped more than 3% in Tokyo and Seoul as shares in computer chipmakers and other AI-related companies advanced.

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Record heat wave impacts people and animals in Japan and Korean Peninsula

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Fans fainting at a baseball park. Lions dying at a zoo. A woman taking shelter in a car found dead. A doctor advising people to eat dog meat to promote stamina.

The scenes caused by a record heat wave in Northeast Asia illustrate how extreme temperatures have gripped South Korea, North Korea and Japan.

In most of South Korea, a major heat wave advisory was in place Wednesday as temperatures in densely populated greater Seoul, home to 20 million people, and adjacent areas soared as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

North Korean authorities have issued a heat wave advisory in many areas and called for people to take safety steps to avoid heat-related health problems.

Japan’s anti-disaster agency reported more than 18,000 people with heat stroke symptoms were transported to hospitals during the week of July 20 to 26.

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WHO chief arrives in Congo to support Ebola response as cases near 4,000

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization has arrived in Congo to support measures being ramped up to slow the world’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak, the agency said Wednesday, as confirmed cases reach nearly 4,000.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, late Tuesday night and is scheduled to meet with partners and Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi, the WHO country office told The Associated Press. It’s his second visit to the country since the outbreak was declared in mid-May.

The Ebola outbreak reached 3,874 cases, including 1,751 deaths as of Monday, according to the latest data published overnight by Congo’s Ministry of Health.

The outbreak has eclipsed all other Ebola outbreaks in history in terms of rate of transmission and is the second-largest outbreak on record, only behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.

The Bundibugyo virus that is causing the outbreak has no approved treatment or vaccine, and local officials believe the outbreak had been raging on in a remote part of eastern Congo long before it was declared on May 15.