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When Kamala Harris delivers her first major public address Wednesday after her bitter defeat to Donald Trump, she will step into the political spotlight in a way she has not yet done since November.

Harris has mostly stayed out of the public eye since she left office as vice president in January, and she has opted not to weigh in on Trump and his policies in the way other prominent Democrats have.

That will change Wednesday. She is to deliver the keynote address at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, honoring the group’s role in electing more Democratic women in California politics. She is expected to call out Trump over his policies and how she believes they are failing Americans. 

“There is a clamoring for her voice right now,” said a former Harris senior adviser who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “No one can better prosecute the case while inspiring a call to action than the former vice president.” 

Harris shot to the top of the Democratic ticket last year, abruptly replacing President Joe Biden just 15 weeks before Election Day. The historic switch happened after Biden took part in a devastating debate against Trump in June, when he at times stared off into space and could not complete a sentence.

A firestorm of concern from the party about Biden’s cognitive abilities erupted, and eventually he bowed out of the race. Harris brought new life to the ticket, filling venues across battleground states and shattering fundraising records. 

But after a whirlwind 107-day, $1.5 billion presidential campaign, Harris could not overcome discontent among voters who wanted change and largely said they believed Trump would usher in a booming economy.     

That has not happened, however. Instead, his tariff policies have triggered chaos in the markets and brought on fears of a trade war. He has been accused of ignoring court orders and has pushed the limits of presidential power — including, at times, intimidating independent institutions, such as universities, saying they must capitulate on policies that support diversity, for instance, or their federal funding will be cut.

An NBC News Stay Tuned poll, powered by SurveyMonkey, found that 55% of adults disapprove of his handling of his job. Several other national polls timed for the 100-day mark had similar results, including Fox News, one of Trump’s favorite outlets. The Pew Research Center found that Trump’s approval stood at 40%. 

“Clearly many voters are regretting their 2024 choice, and Harris utilizing Emerge’s 20th anniversary as the vehicle to deliver pointed remarks is the right place at the right time with the right group of people,” the former adviser said. 

Some of Harris’ advisers have insisted that she simply ran out of time to make her case — she had come onto the scene too late. She has not yet said whether she intends to run again or whether she would run for governor of California — a serious consideration, according to aides — and neither announcement is expected Wednesday.  

Harris has taken part in lower-profile public events, one of them this month when she spoke at the Leading Women Defined Summit.

“We’re seeing people stay quiet. We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things we’re witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear,” Harris said then. “There were many things that we knew would happen.”  

“I’m not here to tell you I told you so,” she added, laughing. “I swore I wasn’t going to say that!” 

“Fear has a way of being contagious,” she said. “But I say this also, my dear friends: Courage is also contagious.”  

A source familiar with Harris’ upcoming remarks said she is expected to expand upon those themes Wednesday and highlight those who have stood up against Trump.

SEOUL, South Korea — About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean lawmakers said Wednesday, citing the country’s intelligence agency.

North Korea has suffered some 4,700 casualties so far, including both injuries and deaths, though its troops have shown signs of improved combat capabilities over about six months by using modern weapons like drones, the lawmakers said.

In return for dispatching troops and supplying weapons to Russia, Pyongyang appears to have received technical assistance on spy satellites, as well as drones and anti-air missiles, they said.

“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less inept, and its combat capability has significantly improved as it becomes accustomed to using new weapons such as drones,” Lee Seong-kweun, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters, after being briefed by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

Pyongyang earlier this week confirmed for the first time that it had sent troops to fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine under orders from leader Kim Jong Un and that it had helped regain control of Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.

North Korea’s unprecedented deployment of thousands of troops, as well as massive amounts of artillery ammunition and missiles, gave Russia a crucial battlefield advantage in the western Kursk region and has brought the two economically and politically isolated countries closer.

Lee, the lawmaker, added that bodies of dead North Korean soldiers were cremated in Kursk before being shipped back home.

Pyongyang is also believed to have sent about 15,000 workers to Russia, said the lawmakers, citing intelligence assessments.

North Korean labor overseas is known as a source of the regime’s hard currency income, but U.N. sanctions prohibit the use of North Korean labor in third countries.

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — As a high school hockey player, Adam Drexler wore his Massapequa Chiefs jersey with pride.

But as the Chickasaw Nation member grew up and learned about his Indigenous roots, he came to see the school’s mascot — a stereotypical Native American man wearing a headdress — as problematic.

Now his Long Island hometown has become the latest flashpoint in the enduring debate over the place of Indigenous imagery in American sports: The Trump administration launched an investigation Friday into whether New York officials are discriminating against Massapequa by threatening to withhold funding. The town has refused to comply with a state mandate to retire Native American sports names and mascots.

“There was no tribe east of the Mississippi that ever wore a headdress — ever,” said Drexler, 60, who was adopted and raised by a white Jewish family. “How can you argue for a symbol that has no significance or relevance here, while at the same time claiming you honor and respect the culture and history of the people this town is named after?”

It’s hard to miss the Native American imagery around Massapequa, a coastal hamlet 40 miles east of Manhattan where roughly 90% of the residents are white.

The Chiefs logo is prominently featured on signs adorning school, police and fire department buildings. Students in recent years even painted a colorful mural with the logo and team name on a commercial building next to the high school in protest of change to the mascot.

A few minutes drive away, next to the town’s post office, a statue of a Native American figure wearing a flowing headdress towers over those depicting a buffalo, a horse and a totem pole.

“When you think of Massapequa, you think of the Chiefs,” said Forrest Bennett, a 15-year-old high school sophomore.

A town at odds with state policy

New York has been trying to rid schools of Native American mascots going back more than two decades to the administration of Republican Gov. George Pataki, and in 2022 gave districts until the end of the school year to commit to replacing them.

Massapequa was among four school districts on Long Island that filed a federal suit challenging the ban, arguing their choice of team names and mascots were protected by the First Amendment.

Districts could seek exemption from the state mandates if they gained approval from a Native American tribe, but state officials say Massapequa instead “stayed silent” for years.

The local school board declined to comment this week, instead referring to a Friday statement in which they lauded the investigation by the federal education agency, which President Donald Trump has moved to dismantle in recent weeks.

Trump, for his part, has made frequent visits to Long Island in recent years as the suburban region has shifted Republican. Last spring, he visited Massapequa to attend the wake of a New York City police officer.

“Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population,” Trump wrote in a recent social media post. Days later he posed with a Massapequa Chiefs sweater in the Oval Office. “I don’t see the Kansas City Chiefs changing their name anytime soon!”

The NFL’s Chiefs have stuck with their name despite years of protest from some Native American activists. Five years ago, the team barred fans from wearing headdresses or face paint referencing Native American culture.

Meanwhile other professional teams, including football’s Washington Redskins ( now Commanders ) and baseball’s Cleveland Indians ( now Guardians ), have adopted new monikers and logos.

Residents say mascot ‘honors’ Native Americans

Along the eateries and shops next to Massapequa High, students and parents insisted the team name and mascot are meant to honor the Massapequa, who were part of the broader Lenape, or Delaware people who inhabited the woodlands of the Northeastern U.S. and Canada for thousands of years before being decimated by European colonization.

“It’s not that we’re trying to do anything disrespectful,” said Christina Zabbatino, a mother of two. “Actually, I would be honored if it was my face, you know what I mean?”

Lucas Rumberg, a 15-year-old sophomore, shrugged off criticism that the school logo reflects the traditional garb of a Midwest tribe and not the attire worn by the Lenape people eventually forced to move further and further west by colonial settlers and then American government forces as the nation expanded.

“Even though it’s not necessarily what they look like here, I feel like it still conveys that we are respectful of Native Americans,” Rumberg said. “I get that people might be offended by it, but I just feel that it’s been here so long that it should stay.”

Native Americans say mascot is dehumanizing

But that dismissive attitude is precisely why stereotypical mascots are offensive, argues Joseph Pierce, director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University, also on Long Island.

“It is as if this image were a shorthand for any and all Indians,” said the Cherokee Nation citizen. “And that reduces us to a type, rather than portray us as distinct peoples.”

Indian mascots also contribute to the view that Native peoples are relics of the past, and not living communities facing urgent threats today, says Joey Fambrini, a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians who works for New York Indian Council, a nonprofit providing health care to Native Americans.

“That dehumanization isn’t harmless: It directly contributes to why our struggles are ignored or minimized,” the 29-year-old Brooklyn resident said, noting that tribal communities endure high rates of poverty, inadequate housing, lack of clean water and limited education access, among other challenges.

The cheerful mascot also obscures Massapequa’s grim legacy of violence against Native Americans, says John Kane, a member of the Mohawk tribe of upstate New York who has pushed districts across the state for years to change their names and mascots.

The town, after all, was the site of a massacre in which scores of Native men, women and children were killed by Europeans in the 1600s, he said.

“They’re not trying to honor us. That’s why accuracy of the logo doesn’t matter to them,” Kane said. “So the idea that this is some sort of honor to us? I mean, come on. It’s an absurd proposition to even suggest.”

An Ohio man accused of murder devised an “elaborate plan” to frame another man who was initially arrested in the killing and held for more than a week, authorities in Indiana said.

Nigel Thomas, 34, was taken into custody Friday on charges that he fatally stabbed a woman identified as 35-year-old Wilma Robertson, the Jefferson County, Indiana, prosecutor’s office said in a news release Monday.

Robertson, of Hanover, Indiana, was found dead during a welfare check of her home on April 14. Additional details about her death or a possible motive in the killing were not immediately available.

According to the release, Thomas — also known as “Nati Bang” — allegedly created multiple social media accounts under the name of a Kentucky man, Shawn Bailey, and used those profiles to send messages to the victim’s family.

Those messages showed Bailey, of Louisville, admitting to the murder, according to the statement.

Bailey, 33, was arrested on a murder charge on April 15 but released 10 days later after authorities uncovered DNA evidence that excluded him as a suspect, according to the statement.

“The criminal justice system is ultimately a search for the truth, Jefferson County Prosecutor David Sutter said in a statement. “Multiple agencies across three states worked tirelessly in their pursuit of all investigative leads to uncover the crimes of Nigel Thomas and clear Shawn Bailey.”

Efforts to reach Bailey on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Jail records show Thomas is being held in Butler County, Ohio. It was not immediately clear if he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

The prosecutor’s office said a hearing will be scheduled in Jefferson Circuit Court after Bailey is brought to Indiana.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Un had observed the first test-firings of missiles from a recently launched destroyer — the first such warship for the North — and called for accelerating efforts to strengthen his navy’s nuclear attack capabilities.

North Korea last week unveiled the 5,000-ton destroyer equipped with what it called the most powerful weapons built in its warship industry. During Friday’s launching ceremony at the western port of Nampo, Kim called the ship’s construction “a breakthrough” in modernizing North Korea’s naval forces.

Outside experts say it is North Korea’s first destroyer and that it was most likely built with Russian assistance. They say North Korea’s naval forces lag behind South Korea’s but still view the destroyer as a serious security threat as it could bolster North Korea’s attack and defense capabilities.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim watched the tests of the destroyer’s supersonic and strategic cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missile, automatic guns and electronic jamming guns earlier this week.

He appreciated the ship’s combination of powerful strike weapons and conventional defenses and set tasks to speed the nuclear-arming of his navy, the report said.

During the ship’s launching ceremony, Kim said the destroyer would be deployed early next year. He said the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening his navy. He underscored the need to beef up North Korea’s deterrence capability to cope with what he called escalating U.S.-led hostilities targeting the North.

An analysis of photos of the warship shows that its anti-air radar system is most likely from Russia, said Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea. He said the warship’s engine system and some of its anti-air weapons systems also most likely came from Russia.

North Korea and Russia have been sharply expanding military and other cooperation in recent years, with the North supplying troops and conventional weapons to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine. The U.S., South Korea and their partners worry Russia will most likely in return provide North Korea with high-tech weapons technologies that can enhance its nuclear program as well as shipping other military and economic assistance.

Lee said the deployment of a warship with an advanced radar system off North Korea’s west coast could sharply bolster its air defense capabilities for Pyongyang, the capital. Lee said South Korea, which has 12 destroyers, still vastly outpaces North Korea’s naval forces. But he said the North Korean destroyer, which can carry about 80 missiles, can still pose a serious threat, as South Korea’s navy has not likely braced for such an enemy warship.

Animosities on the Korean Peninsula are running high as North Korea continues its weapons testing activities meant to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals. On Monday, North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had sent combat troops to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea and promised not to forget the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers for Russia.

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