VP Nominee Tim Kaine to make Twin Cities stop today

In a highly sensitive U.S. visit, Taiwan's president is delivering a message that keeping her self-ruled island strong will help ensure the world's safety — even as her travel is carefully calibrated to try to contain what furious Chinese officials warn could be a strong response.

The chair of San Diego County's board of supervisors said he will resign amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a government employee, completing a swift and shocking fall for a decorated Marine combat veteran whose star rose with his Democratic Party's ascendancy in the nation's eighth-largest city. Nathan Fletcher, who defected from the Republican Party in 2012, was elected to a second term with 65% of the vote in November, two years after Democrats won a board majority that eluded their grasp for decades. Fletcher, 46, was the face of the San Diego region's muscular response to COVID-19 at daily news conferences. He became half of San Diego's most powerful political couple after his 2017 marriage to Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a well-known liberal Democratic state assemblywoman who became a top California labor leader last year. Fletcher's progressive positions and telegenic presence made him a solid favorite to succeed another prominent California politician, Toni Atkins, in the state Senate. But he announced late Sunday that he was dropping his bid after less than two months to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse. Days later, Fletcher resigned as chair of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System after a former television reporter who worked in the agency's public relations office alleged sexual harassment and assault in a lawsuit that included screenshots of lurid messages from Fletcher. Hours after that, Fletcher said he would resign from the county board of supervisors, calling the pressure on his family over the last week ''immense and unbearable.'' ''A combination of my personal mistakes plus false accusations has created a burden that my family shouldn't have to bear,'' he said. He will leave office May 15. Fletcher's fall jolted the city a week after officials made a critical turn in a saga that has captivated the city and threatened other top politicians.

Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.

The U.K. has agreed to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact that includes Japan, Mexico and Australia — the biggest new trade deal Britain has struck since leaving the European Union three years ago.

Donald Trump has become the first former president to be indicted in a criminal case after a grand jury investigation into hush money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign.