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ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats will not issue a postelection report on their 2024 shellacking after all.The Democratic National Committee head has decided not to publish a formal assessment of the party’s defeat that returned Donald Trump to power and gave Republicans complete control in Washington.Ken Martin, a Minnesota party leader who was elected national chair after Trump’s election, ordered a thorough review of what went wrong and what could be done differently, with the intent they would circulate a report as Republicans did after their 2012 election performance. Martin now says the inquiry, which included hundreds of interviews, was complete but that there is no value in a public release of findings that he believes could lead to continued infighting and recriminations before the 2026 midterms when control of Congress will be at stake.“Does this help us win?” Martin said in a statement Thursday. “If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”Martin's decision, first reported by The New York Times, spares top Democrats from more scrutiny about their campaigns, including former President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the race after announcing his second-term run, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, who became the nominee and lost to Trump.Keeping the report under wraps also means Martin does not have to take sides in the tug-of-war between moderates and progressives or make assessments about how candidates should handle issues that Trump capitalized on, such as transgender rights.“We are winning again,” Martin said.Martin's announcement follows a successful string of 2025 races, both in special elections and off-year statewide votes, that suggest strong enthusiasm for Democratic candidates.In November, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. In New York's mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, defeated establishment Democrat-turned-independent Andrew Cuomo.In U.S. House special elections throughout 2025, Democratic nominees have consistently outperformed the party's 2024 showing, often by double-digit percentages. Democrats have flipped state legislative districts and some statewide seats around the country, even in Republican-leaning places.Although the DNC's report will not be made public, a committee aide said some conclusions will be integrated into the party's 2026 plans.For example, the findings reflect a consensus that Democratic candidates did not adequately address voter concerns on public safety and immigration, two topics that Trump hammered in his comeback campaign. They also found that Democrats must overhaul their digital outreach, especially to younger voters, a group where Trump saw key gains over Harris compared with previous elections.

Across the country, small groups are working to rebuild social connection amid rising loneliness in their own modest ways.It sounds simple — building relationships. But they’re up against powerful cultural forces.By many measures, Americans are socially disconnected at historic levels.They're joining civic groups, clubs and unions at lower rates than in generations. Recent polling shows that membership rates in religious congregations are around the lowest in nearly a century. Americans have fewer close friends than they used to. They trust each other less. They’re hanging out less in shared public places like coffee shops and parks.About one in six adults feels lonely all or most of the time. It’s the same for about one in four young adults.No one has a simple solution. But small groups with diverse missions and makeups are recognizing that social disconnection is a big part of the problems they’re trying to address, and reconnection is part of the solution.There’s a Baltimore neighborhood trying to build a culture of giving and mutual support, and a Pittsburgh ministry focused on healing those wounded by poverty and violence. In Kentucky, a cooperative is supporting small farmers in hopes of strengthening their rural communities, while groups in Ohio are restoring neighborhoods and neighborliness.“We need to build a movement centered around connection,” former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told The Associated Press. “The good news is that that movement is already starting to build. … What we have to do now is accelerate that movement.”In 2023, Murthy issued a report on an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation,” similar to previous surgeon generals’ reports on smoking and obesity. Social isolation and loneliness “are independent risk factors for several major health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and premature mortality,” it said.Finding ‘personal connections’ in AkronMurthy recently met with groups working toward community repair in Akron, Ohio, as part of his new Together Project, supported by the Knight Foundation.In one meeting, leaders of the Well Community Development Corp. told of fostering affordable housing and small businesses in a marginalized neighborhood and cultivating social gatherings, whether at the local elementary school or the coffee shop it launched in the former church that houses its offices.One encouraging development: Families have resumed trick-or-treating after years of largely dormant Halloweens in the neighborhood.“Those types of things make a big difference,” said Zac Kohl, executive director of The Well. “It’s not just a safe, dry roof over your head. It’s the personal connections.”Across town, more local leaders met in a community room overlooking Summit Lake.The urban lakefront, once obscured by overgrowth, now draws joggers, fishers, boaters, people grilling. Summit Lake Nature Center provides educational programs and urban garden plots. The lakefront adjoins a public housing development and a recreational trail.“It’s strategically located to try to get people in the space to talk and interact with one another,” said Erin Myers, director of real estate development for the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.“I love that you’ve worked on creating spaces where people can gather and connecting them with nature,” Murthy told the gathering.Neighbors 'responsible for each other' in BaltimoreOn an October afternoon on Baltimore's outskirts, neighbors set out trays heaped with vegan jambalaya, beet salad, fresh-roasted goat meat and more. A rooster crowed insistently from a nearby backyard.Before the neighborhood feast, dozens of visitors gathered for a walking tour. Ulysses Archie described how this short block of Collins Avenue became a hub of backyard farming, environmental cleanup and neighborly connection.Visitors saw hens and rabbits raised by neighbors, and they explored a “Peace Park” created out of an abandoned lot, which now hosts food distributions and summer camps for neighborhood kids.“The core of what we do is building relationships, and building relationships with nature,” Archie said.Neighbors described helping to clear overgrowth and create footpaths in an adjacent urban forest. They described their “intentional” community — not a formal program, but a commitment to caring for each other and the wider community, sharing anything from potlucks to rides to child care.Michael Sarbanes and his late wife, Jill Wrigley, moved to the neighborhood three decades ago. They spent long hours of youth mentoring and other services.“We were burning out,” Sarbanes recalled. They recognized, “We need to be doing this in community.”They reached out to other families involved in social justice work. Though not everyone on the block is an active participant, several moved in or got involved over the years.Some belong to a local Catholic Worker group. Others are Protestants, Muslims, those with no religion, “but believing we are responsible for each other,” said resident Suzanne Fontanesi.Participants include Ulysses and Chrysalinn Archie, who founded the Baltimore Gift Economy, a small nonprofit.Years earlier, Ulysses Archie suffered an injury that left him struggling financially and in spirit.He joined an urban farming program, “put my hands in the soil, and my life was kind of normal again,” he said. That healing work helped inspire the backyard farming.While the Archies appreciated the charities that supported their family during his long recovery, they often felt treated impersonally.With the Baltimore Gift Economy, they’re seeking a more personal approach. A couple times a week, for example, they place food donated by nearby organic stores at the Peace Park. Participants take what suits their diet and needs.Participants are respectful and don’t hoard, Ulysses Archie said.The food isn’t labeled “free.”“‘Free’ is really transactional,” Archie said. “When we present it as a gift, it’s really relational.” The group encourages recipients “to realize that they have something to give.”Myk Lewis, 56, who returned to Baltimore after years in California, tends chickens and rabbits in his backyard. Neighbors support him as he cares for his aging mother.“I probably wouldn’t have been able to move back and start my life over if it wasn’t for them,” he said.Connecting to the land and each other in KentuckyOn another October day in the small Kentucky town of New Castle, a guitarist played folk-rock classics as patrons lined up beneath a tent pavilion.Area chefs served them smoked brisket with salsa, beef Wellington bites, Thai beef salad and other specialties.But this “Beef Bash” was about much more than beef.Its sponsor, a cooperative of local farmers who raise grass-fed cattle, coordinates the processing and marketing of their beef to area restaurants and individuals. The program aims to provide a dependable income — helping small farmers stay on the farm and, in turn, strengthening rural communities.“With just a little help, people and land can heal,” said Mary Berry, executive director of the Berry Center of New Castle, which launched the cooperative.The cooperative adapts methods from a former tobacco quota system that provided some stability for small farmers. After that program’s demise in 2004, “people lost what they held in common, which was an agricultural economy and calendar,” Berry said. “We also needed each other.”The surrounding community remains rural, but less tight-knit, she said, as many commute elsewhere or farm at a larger scale.The center promotes the agrarian principles of her father, the novelist and essayist Wendell Berry.At the end of the Beef Bash, farmers cheerfully gathered for a group photo, trading stories of tractor mishaps and middle of the night calving.They were finding community and mutual support.“If we keep our farms going, we’re all winning,” said one farmer, Ashley Pyles.Another, Kylen Douglas, underscored the effects of strained social bonds.“Everything’s so digital, and everything’s with the phone,” Douglas said. “We’re disconnected not only from where our food comes from, but just the center of life. Fewer people are going to church. Rural communities are having a hard time.”Stronger farms can strengthen these communities, he said. “Everybody should be able to have the opportunity to live here.”Healing ‘block by block’ in PittsburghOn a recent weekday at the Neighborhood Resilience Project in Pittsburgh, some residents were upstairs, training for a project to get more people qualified to perform CPR in marginalized neighborhoods.Downstairs amid the fragrant incense of St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church, worshippers were concluding a prayer liturgy. Afterward, they set out folding tables for a light meal of soup, hummus and conversation.The parish is closely fused with the Neighborhood Resilience Project, an Orthodox social service agency.They share a modest brick building in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a historically Black neighborhood just blocks from downtown but a world away — long suffering from crime, gun violence, racism and displacement.The project’s mission is “trauma-informed community development.” It hosts a food pantry and free health clinic. It deploys community health deputies and provides emotional support at violent crime scenes.“In our work, community building is absolutely the core intervention,” said the Rev. Paul Abernathy, its founder and CEO.Social isolation “is no longer simply the experience of marginalized communities,” he observed. “Now it seems as though the infection of isolation has spread across society.”The center serves people regardless of faith. Not everyone on staff belongs to the church, though the church is attracting members.“It felt like real community, and people my age who want to actually do some things and not just talk about doing something,” said Cecelia Olson, a recent college graduate. “We’re going to feed people because they’re hungry, and it’s not that complicated.”Fidelia Gaba, a University of Pittsburgh medical student who grew up in another church tradition, recently was confirmed at St. Moses.One Sunday, she felt emotionally distanced and couldn’t even sing. “I remember being carried by the church,” she said. “What was broken in me was healed.”Project workers are reaching the isolated. Kim Lowe, a community health deputy, helps residents get to a food bank, address a child’s conflict at school, “whatever the need is,” she said.One recent afternoon, Lowe visited Tricia Berger in the small apartment she shares with her daughter and grandson. Berger said she has multiple sclerosis and struggles with depression and anxiety. Lowe provides practical help, and the two enjoy conversing and watching comedy routines.“We connect well, with common interests, as well as her helping me get beyond my loneliness and conquering my fear,” Berger said.For Abernathy, such efforts exemplify community healing.“It has to be healed person by person, relationship by relationship, block by block,” he said. “Honestly, neighborhood by neighborhood, it can be healed.”___AP videojournalist Jessie Wardarski contributed.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump.The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.Trump says he will address the nation on Wednesday night: Trump announced his plans in a post on his social media site, saying he will speak live from the White House at 9 p.m. EST. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president will discuss what he accomplished this year, the first of his second term, and his plans for the next three years.And the West Wing went into damage control after Trump’s understated but influential chief of staff, Susie Wiles, criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and offered an unvarnished take on her boss and others in his orbit in interviews published Tuesday in Vanity FairHere’s the latest:Trump questions number of cameras at Brown after shootingIn his latest commentary on the Brown University shooting that killed two students, the president suggests the campus should have had more video surveillance.“Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.Brown President Christina Paxson said the campus has 1,200 cameras, though none captured the shooter clearly. “I have been deeply saddened by people questioning that,” she said Tuesday. “As time goes on, there is a natural instinct to assign responsibility for tragic events like this ... but the shooter is responsible.”Authorities released a video timeline potentially showing the shooter; they’re seeking additional footage from the public. No arrests have been made.Trump called it “a school problem” when asked about authorities, including the FBI, not having a suspect.House Speaker rebuffs efforts to extend health care subsidies, pushing ahead with GOP planHouse Republican leaders are determined to push ahead with a GOP health care bill that excludes efforts to address the soaring monthly premiums millions of Americans will soon endure as pandemic-era tax credits for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end.Speaker Mike Johnson had discussed the prospect of allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on their amendment that would temporarily extend pandemic-era subsidies for ACA coverage. But after days of private talks, leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed ACA marketplace.The maneuvering surrounding the health care vote all but guarantees that many Americans will see substantially higher insurance costs in 2026. In the Senate, a bipartisan group was still trying to come up with a compromise to extend the subsidies, which fueled this year’s government shutdown. But senators made clear that any potential legislation would likely wait until January, after the holiday break.▶ Read more about the GOP’s planVenezuela to denounce Trump at the United NationsTrump has said for weeks said that the U.S. will move its military pressure campaign beyond the water and start strikes on land. His announcement Tuesday night he’s ordering a naval blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” is ramping up pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.Trump accused Venezuela of using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue military pressure. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”“On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property,” Venezuela’s government responded in a statement. “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”Congress is divided over supporting or challenging the U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that have killed at least 95 people.▶ Read more about the blockadeJack Smith set for private interview with lawmakers about Trump investigationsFormer Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Trump.The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team’s use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.▶ Read more about the closed-door interviewWarner Bros asks investors to reject takeover bid from Paramount SkydanceWarner Bros. urged its shareholders Wednesday to reject a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying that a rival bid from Netflix will be better for customers.Paramount is offering $30 per Warner share to Netflix’s $27.75. Paramount seeks control of the entire company — including cable stalwarts CNN and Discovery — while the Netflix bid, if approved by regulators and shareholders, will close only after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations.In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount noted its offer also contains more cash than Netflix’s bid — $18 billion more — and argued that it’s more likely to pass scrutiny from the Trump administration, a big concern given his habit of injecting himself in American business decisions.Paramount is run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle CEO and close Trump ally Larry Ellison. A private equity firm owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is no longer backing the Paramount deal, the firm confirmed Tuesday.Trump will go to Delaware for the dignified transfer of the 2 National Guard members killed in SyriaPresident Donald Trump is going to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a dignified transfer for the two Iowa National Guard members killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.Trump will travel to Delaware on Wednesday. The ritual at Dover Air Force Base honors U.S. service members killed in action and is one of the most solemn duties undertaken by the commander in chief. Trump has called it “the toughest thing” he has to do as president.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Authorities have asked the public for any footage they might have of the gunman who fatally shot two students and wounded nine others at Brown University, even as they released a new video timeline and a slightly clearer image of a possible suspect.Investigators provided no indication Tuesday that they were any closer to zeroing in on his identity. In all the videos made public, the suspect’s face was masked or turned away, and authorities have only been able to give a vague description of him as being stocky and about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall.Officers have been canvassing around Providence in search of clues that might help them figure out who was behind Saturday’s campus shooting.Surveillance video the FBI posted online before it was removed showed a person in dark clothing walking along multiple sidewalks for about an hour starting shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday. The streets were all within a few blocks of the Brown University engineering building where the shooting occurred.Some clips show the person walking in front of some properties several times. In one, the person abruptly turns around and runs in the other direction when someone approaches.Two clips taken minutes after the shooting show the person walking away from a parking lot and then along a street.Authorities ask public for helpPolice have received about 200 tips, and Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, asked the public on Tuesday to look at their camera systems in the area to see if they have footage that might help officials identify the suspected gunman.“We’re looking for a moment that is shorter than someone taking a breath,” Perez said.A lack of cameras and clear video of the gunman has continued to frustrate both authorities and the community. While Brown President Christina Paxson confirmed Tuesday that the campus has 1,200 cameras, law enforcement says there is no clear video of the shooter from inside the engineering building.Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha defended the investigation as going "really well" as he pleaded for public patience in locating the suspected killer.Large questions remain, particularly about the shooter's motive. When pressed about a connection to ethnicity, political motive or culture, Neronha said, “That is a dangerous road to go down.”Seeking solaceBrown alumnus Chris Kremer joined about 200 others at a somber church service on campus for the victims Tuesday. He lives a block from the scene and often goes to the building where the shooting happened. Many in the community are thinking how easily they could have been among the shot, he said.He said it was better to attend the service than to sit alone being sad, depressed and scrolling through his phone.“It’s always nice to be in a big exalted space when you’re thinking kind of big heavy thoughts," Kremer said. “I guess people for thousands of years have found that to be something of a salve, so I’m hoping that a little bit of that works for me tonight.”Campus securityThe attack and the shooter’s escape have raised questions about campus security, including a lack of cameras, and led to calls for better locks on campus doors.Paxson said the university has two security systems. One system, activated at a time of emergency, sent out text messages, phone calls and emails that reached 20,000 people. The other system features three sirens across the campus and was not activated Saturday, a decision Paxson defended because doing so would have caused people to rush into buildings, including the one where the shooting was happening."So that is not a system we would ever use in the case of an active shooter," she said.Brown's website says the sirens can be used when there is an active shooter, but Paxson said it “depends on the circumstances" and the location of the shooter.A city on edgeProvidence remained tense on Tuesday as additional police were sent to city schools to reassure worried parents that their kids would be safe. Ten state troopers were assigned to support police sent to beef up security at schools, district Superintendent Javier Montañez said.Providence public schools canceled after-school activities and field trips for the week as a precaution.Locals expressed fear as well as defiance as the investigation continued Tuesday.“Of course it feels scary. But at the same time, I think that if the person really wanted to scare us, we shouldn’t allow him or her to win," said Tatjana Stojanovic, a Providence parent who lives next door to the Brown campus.Others say the attention on security measures does little to address the real issue.“The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building as police stormed in Saturday.After spending of her life in schools where every door was locked and school shootings continued to persist, Kass said such security measures only created “the illusion of safety.”A fuller picture of the victims emergesDetails have emerged about the victims, who were in the first-floor classroom in the school's engineering building studying for a final.Two of the wounded students had been released as of Tuesday, Brown spokesperson Amanda McGregor said. Of the seven people that remained hospitalized, Mayor Brett Smiley said one remained in critical condition, five were in critical but stable condition and one was in stable condition.One of the wounded students, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told The New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald that there was a mad scramble after the gunman entered the room. Yang said he wound up on the ground between some seats and was shot in the leg.Jacob Spears, 18, a freshman from Evans, Georgia, was shot in the stomach, “but through sheer adrenaline and courage, he managed to run outside, where he was aided by others," according to a GoFundMe site organized for him.Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore who was one of the two students killed, was vice president of the Brown College Republicans and was beloved in her church in Birmingham, Alabama.The other student killed was MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, who was majoring in biochemistry and neuroscience. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a kid.___Contributing were Associated Press journalists Jennifer McDermott, Matt O'Brien and Robert F. Bukaty in Providence; Brian Slodysko in Washington; Michael Casey in Boston; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu.