Good morning from Johannesburg. Here’s a look at the top stories from The Associated Press at this hour to start your week.

• Claudette is regaining strength and expected to return to tropical storm status as it nears the coast of the Carolinas just days after 13 people died due to the storm in Alabama.
• President Joe Biden is settling in for what appears will be a long, hot summer of working on legislation.
• Congress is hunkered down, the House and Senate grinding through a months-long stretch to draft Biden’s big infrastructure proposals into bills that can be signed into law. Perhaps not since the drafting of the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago has Washington tried a legislative lift as heavy.
• In India, vaccine hesitancy is putting at risk the country’s gains against the virus.
• Ethiopia is starting crucial elections amid the conflict in its Tigray region.
• Inflation is accelerating and a top economist says it may become a persistent problem
• 15 months after closing for the pandemic, Radio City Music Hall is reopening in New York
• Brothers set record for highline walk in Yosemite National Park
• In golf, Spaniard Jon Rahm’s steady back nine paves way to winning the U.S. Open

Andrew Meldrum

Africa News Editor

Johannesburg, South Africa The Associated Press

The Rundown

Claudette regaining strength after 13 killed in Alabama

ATLANTA (AP) — Claudette was regaining strength early Monday and expected to return to tropical storm status as it neared the coast of the Carolinas just days after 13 people died — including eight children in a multi-vehicle crash — due to the…Read More

Biden and Congress face a summer grind to create legislation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, the act of governing seemed to happen at the speed of presidential tweets. But now President Joe Biden is settling in for what appears will be a long, summer slog of legislating. …Read More

Vaccine hesitancy puts India’s gains against virus at risk

JAMSOTI, India (AP) — In Jamsoti, a village tucked deep inside India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities. The deadly infection, they believe, does not exi…Read More

Ethiopia votes in greatest electoral test yet for Abiy

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia was voting on Monday in the greatest electoral test yet for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as insecurity and logistical issues meant ballots wouldn’t be cast in more than 100 constituencies of the 547 across the…Read More

Inflation ahead? Even a top economist says it’s complicated

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two months of sharply rising prices have raised concerns that record-high government financial aid and the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rate policies — when the economy is already surging — have elevated the risk of ac…Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

Driver rams racing cyclists in Arizona, 6 critically injured

SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities were trying to determine why a 35-year-old man driving a pickup truck plowed into bicyclists during a community road race in Arizona, criti…Read More

Jon Rahm’s steady back nine paves way to US Open title

Everyone who’s played it, from the late, great Ben Hogan to the guys you get paired with down at the local muni, has probably said it at one time or another: Golf is a game o…Read More

Brothers set record crossing large gap in park on a highline

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two brothers from San Francisco say they have set a record for the longest highline ever walked in both Yosemite National Park and California, the San Fr…Read More

15 months later, Radio City reopens with Dave Chappelle

NEW YORK (AP) — Fifteen months after shuttering for the pandemic, New York’s Radio City Music Hall reopened its doors Saturday for the Tribeca Festival premiere of a new Dave…Read More