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LUPTON, Ariz. (AP) — Interstate 40 was reopened in both directions Sunday as fire crews continued watch over a controlled burn of remaining fuel from a freight train derailment near the Arizona-New Mexico state line, a local fire chief said. Earlier evacuation orders have now been lifted. “It’s all under control,” said Fire Chief Lawrence Montoya Jr., of McKinley County, New Mexico. “Our hazmat team is on site, along with our well-trained firefighters.” Montoya, the incident commander at the scene, said the controlled burns were still consuming remaining fuel on some cars. He said no one was hurt in the Friday derailment of the BNSF Railway train near Lupton, Arizona, which occurred on the New Mexico side of the tracks, or during the subsequent firefighting operation. For a time, the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 were closed around Holbrook, Arizona, and the westbound lanes of the interstate were closed at Grants, New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Transportation reported Sunday that motorists should continue to expect heavy smoke in some areas, as well as long delays that could require them to seek other routes or postpone travel to the area. Montoya said firefighters continued to remove debris from the area and that repair of the tracks was under way. The cause of the derailment remained under investigation Sunday, said Montoya. He said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and other federal agencies were at the scene. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — President Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primary Sunday in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was authorized to open only a dozen voting centers this year compared with more than 100 in previous years given recent austerity measures imposed by a federal control board that oversees the island’s finances. On Sunday, Puerto Rico’s Democrats also chose 36 of 65 delegates they hope to send to the National Democratic Convention that will be held in Chicago in late August. Although residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, they are not allowed to vote in presidential elections. Earlier this year, Charlie Rodríguez, president of Puerto Rico’s Democratic Party, said he would seek to hold a symbolic presidential election in November for those on the island eager to cast a vote for the next president. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

ATLANTA (AP) — Brian Jack sought to make a Sunday debate among Republican candidates for an open Georgia congressional seat all about his close ties to former President Donald Trump, while the other contenders ignored Trump’s endorsement of Jack. Five Republicans running for their party’s nomination in Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District met in an Atlanta Press Club debate. Besides Jack, who was Trump’s political director during his administration and worked for then-U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they included former state senators Mike Crane and Mike Dugan, former state Rep. Philip Singleton and party activist Jim Bennett. They’re seeking to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, who is stepping down. The district hugs the Alabama border from Carrollton to Columbus and swings east into the Atlanta suburbs of Newnan and Peachtree City. Jack repeatedly referenced his work in the Trump administration, promising that in Congress he would continue that work. “To sell myself, I think that I will look at the record of accomplishment and success that we had and we delivered in that administration,” Jack said. Others largely passed on the chance to attack Jack, although Crane suggested that McCarthy is the one trying to anoint Jack, asking voters who should choose their representative. “Do you want to take responsibility for that vote or do you want to let Washington, D.C., insiders do what they’ve done for the last several cycles, and that is choose the next representative for the 3rd District?” Crane asked. But attacks on Jack, the fundraising leader in the race, were mostly muted. Crane, Bennett and Singleton staked out more conservative positions, with each saying they would join the Freedom Caucus if elected. Singleton was often at odds with GOP leadership during his time in the state House, attacking then-Speaker David Ralston’s leadership, with top Republicans then drawing Singleton into a majority Democratic district. Singleton, though, said he’s “not an oppositional guy.” “You go and you fight for the principles that you believe in, you stand for,” Singleton said. “I’m not someone that fights against people. I fight for good policy.” When asked about whether human embryos should have the same rights as people, Jack echoed Trump’s position that restrictions on reprodutive rights should be left to the states. Dugan noted he voted for Georgia’s current abortion restrictions, which ban abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. That’s typically after about six weeks, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. But Dugan said restriction of in vitro fertilization was “a deeper question,” not saying clearly how he would vote. The other three, though, voiced no doubts about implementing a legal standard that could lead to a total ban on abortion in Georgia and a ban on in vitro fertilization as currently practiced. “I’m against recreational abortion,” Bennett said. “I believe that life does exist from the moment of conception. There’s no wiggle room for me.” All of the candidates, in a show of hands, said they believed Trump was the rightful winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020, despite no reliable evidence to contradict Democrat Joe Biden’s win. Several said they believed Republican-backed changes to Georgia’s election laws since then made them more at ease, but Bennett attacked the continued use of Dominion ballot marking devices, echoing a common belief among Republican activists that all voting machines should be distrusted. All of the candidates voiced support for more restrictions on immigration, with several including Jack saying they support mass deportations of people who have entered the country illegally. Jack said he would have voted against the recent foreign aid package to Ukraine, Israel and others until he was satisfied on border security. Dugan said he believed Republicans were right to reject a proposed bill on border security that the Biden administration had backed. “I don’t think anybody trusted Joe Biden to secure our southern border,” Dugan said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination. While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny’s death — which came soon before the Russian president’s reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it. At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated. He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death. In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt. The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Rich McKay (Reuters) -At least four people died, including a four-month-old baby, and scores were injured in Oklahoma this weekend after dozens of twisters swept the U.S. Southern Plains, while weather alerts on Sunday put more than 7 million Americans under tornado warnings. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Sunday declared a disaster emergency for the state, freeing up more money for first responders and recovery operations. “Definitely the most damage since I’ve been governor,” Stitt said in Sulphur, one of the hardest-hit communities, on Sunday afternoon as he provided an update on fatalities and damage. Stitt began his first term as governor in 2019. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had offered the assistance of the federal government, Stitt added. Storm warnings for high winds, heavy rain and hail also were issued by the National Weather Service on Sunday for more than 47 million people stretching from East Texas north through Illinois and Wisconsin. The NWS reported 38 possible twisters hit the area and that the worst of the storms rolled through Central Oklahoma on Saturday into early Sunday morning, spreading into northwest Texas, western Missouri and Kansas. Earlier on Sunday, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported more than 30 people injured by tornadoes, which destroyed or damaged dozens of homes. The agency said it would not complete damage assessments until storms have fully cleared the area. More than 20,000 customers in Oklahoma were without power as of Sunday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional reporting by Maria Caspani in New York;Editing by Frank McGurty and Lisa Shumaker) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com