Deadly violence persists in Gaza despite mediators’ hopes for a truce
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — As mediators expressed optimism for an imminent cease-fire deal, violence raged on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 people, all from the same family. The attack came days after the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced the death toll surpassed 40,000 in the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war, and just hours after officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar wrapped up two days of cease-fire talks with a message of hope that a deal could be reached. A joint statement from the three mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas was presented and they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.
A woman and her 2 children are among 10 killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon
NABATIEH, Lebanon (AP) — An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon early Saturday killed at least 10 Syrian nationals, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The strike on Wadi al-Kfour in Nabatieh province is among the deadliest in Lebanon since the Hezbollah militant group and Israeli military started trading strikes on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah maintains that it will stop its attacks once a cease-fire is reached in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead were a woman and her two children, the ministry said. Five others were wounded, two of whom in critical condition.
Hurricane Ernesto makes landfall on Bermuda as a category 1 storm
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Ernesto made landfall on the tiny British Atlantic territory of Bermuda early Saturday as residents hunkered down. The wide category 1 storm was directly over the the wealthy territory at 6 a.m. Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding. It said some 6 to 9 inches (150-225 millimeters) of rain was expected to fall on Bermuda. “This rainfall will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas on the island,” it said.
Ukrainian forces left a path of destruction in the Kursk operation. AP visited a seized Russian town
SUDZHA, Russia (AP) — A trail of destruction lies in the path that Ukrainian forces carved on their risky incursion into Russia, blasting through the border and eventually into the town of Sudzha, where Associated Press journalists traveled Friday on a Ukrainian government-organized trip. Artillery fire has blown chunks out of a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that stands in a central square of the Russian town, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday was fully under his troops’ control. The windows of an administrative building are blasted out, and its bright yellow facade is scorched and pockmarked with bullet holes.
Aid groups in Gaza aim to avert a polio outbreak with a surge of vaccinations
CAIRO (AP) — The threat of polio is rising fast in the Gaza Strip, prompting aid groups to call for an urgent pause in the war so they can ramp up vaccinations and head off a full-blown outbreak. One case has been confirmed, others are suspected and the virus was detected in wastewater in six different locations in July. Polio was eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, but vaccinations plunged after the war began 10 months ago and the territory has become a breeding ground for the virus, aid groups say. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage.
The pro-Palestinian ‘uncommitted’ movement is at an impasse with top Democrats as the DNC begins
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Of the thousands of delegates expected to gather Monday at the Democratic National Convention, just 36 will belong to the “uncommitted” movement sparked by dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. But that small core has outsized influence. Anger over U.S. backing for Israel’s offensive in Gaza could generate unwelcome images for convention organizers, with raucous protests expected outside and potentially inside the Chicago arena where Harris will accept the nomination Thursday. Top Democrats have spent weeks meeting with “uncommitted” voters and their allies — including a previously unreported sit-down between Vice President Kamala Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan — in an effort to respond to criticism in key swing states like Michigan, which has a significant Arab American population.
As political convention comes to Chicago, residents, leaders and activists vie for the spotlight
CHICAGO (AP) — As the American city that has hosted more political conventions than any other, Chicago has pretty much seen it all. Presidential candidates have been made official in Chicago more than two dozen times since Abraham Lincoln in 1860, including the infamous 1968 convention, where police clashed with protesters, and Bill Clinton’s 1996 renomination. Now the nation’s third-largest city is back on the global political stage as it hosts the Democratic National Convention starting Monday, with city leaders, residents and activists each hoping to claim time in the spotlight and shape the city’s reputation. Tourism officials are eager to highlight the best sites and eats, while allaying security concerns about crowds and street violence.
Strategist who ran DeSantis’ ill-fated bid is working with Musk to help organize voters for Trump
Ron DeSantis’ senior political aides were gathered last year at the Florida governor’s campaign headquarters, an office across the street from a Red Lobster on Tallahassee’s north side, planning the announcement of his candidacy for president. Some wanted the Republican to go a baseball stadium in Tampa, near where he grew up and starred in Little League, for what they hoped would be a photogenic rally with his young family. Campaign manager Generra Peck supported a different idea, according to people familiar with the matter — one she had quietly been working on for weeks with Elon Musk, the then-new owner of the platform still known at the time as Twitter.
Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral again into a global health emergency
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Sarah Bagheni had a headache, fever, and itchy and unusual skin lesions for days, but she had no inkling that her symptoms might have been caused by mpox and that she might be another case in a growing global health emergency. She also has no idea where to go to get medical help. She and her husband live in the Bulengo displacement camp in eastern Congo, a region that is effectively ground zero for a series of mpox outbreaks in Africa. This year’s alarming rise in cases, including a new form of the virus identified by scientists in eastern Congo, led the World Health Organization to declare it a global health emergency on Wednesday.
‘Shoot me up with a big one': A timeline of the last days of Matthew Perry
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The arrest of five people in the overdose death of Matthew Perry has revealed key details about the final days of the “Friends” star, most of them spent in the throes of an addiction to the surgical anesthetic ketamine. Perry would die at age 54 on Oct. 28 after telling his assistant to shoot him up “with a big one.” Drawn from unsealed federal court documents and a medical examiner’s investigation, here’s a chronological look at the end of Perry’s life. September 30 — Perry and his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, met at their home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles with Dr.
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