FAIRFIELD, Ohio (AP) – Although President Donald Trump is the top Democratic nemesis, some of the party’s most ambitious leaders are increasingly looking past him and at Vice President JD Vance.

PARIS (AP) – French voters returned to the polls Sunday for the second and final round of municipal elections in over 1,500 communes. The vote is a test of the balance of power on France’s local political map before the 2027 presidential race begins to take shape. It is also a measure of whether the far right can convert national momentum into control of major cities.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to clear sulfur and smog from skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because a dozen coal plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Crowds of Syrians rallied Sunday to protest authorities’ efforts to limit the sale and consumption of alcohol in Damascus, reflecting rising anxiety in the cosmopolitan capital that Syria’s new Islamist government may threaten long-held secular freedoms.

HONOLULU (AP) – Hawaii officials urged people in hard-hit areas to evacuate Saturday due to the state’s worst flooding in more than 20 years, after heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago with still more expected over the weekend.

TOKYO (AP) – Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Sunday that one of two Japanese nationals detained in Iran has been released and is headed home. Motegi, speaking on a Fuji Television talk show, said the person had been detained since last year and was released on Wednesday.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) – Voters in Slovenia cast ballots Sunday in a highly contested parliamentary election that will decide whether the small European Union nation stays on its liberal course or sways toward the right.