Hospital in central Gaza empties out as Israeli forces draw near
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — One of Gaza’s last functioning hospitals has been emptying out in recent days as Israel has ordered the evacuation of nearby areas and signaled a possible ground operation in a town that has been largely spared throughout the war, officials said Monday. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main hospital serving central Gaza. The Israeli military has not ordered its evacuation, but patients and people sheltering there fear that it may be engulfed in fighting or become the target of a raid. Also on Monday, Israeli strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis killed at least 19 people, according to local officials, and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed across the Lebanon border.
Judge in Texas orders pause on Biden program that offers legal status to spouses of US citizens
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a Biden administration policy that would give spouses of U.S. citizens legal status without having to first leave the country, dealing at least a temporary setback to one of the biggest presidential actions to ease a path to citizenship in years. The administrative stay issued by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker comes just days after 16 states, led by Republican attorneys general, challenged the program that could benefit an estimated 500,000 immigrants in the country, plus about 50,000 of their children. The states accused the administration of bypassing Congress for “blatant political purposes.”
Special counsel urges appeals court to reinstate classified documents case against Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court Monday to reinstate the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, saying a judge’s decision that dismissed the prosecution was at odds with longstanding Justice Department practice and must be reversed. Smith’s team said U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made a grievous mistake by ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. That position, prosecutors wrote in a brief filed with the Atlanta-based appeals court, runs counter to rulings by judges across the country as well as “widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan visits Beijing in a bid to manage strained relations
BEIJING (AP) — A top White House official has arrived in China for talks on a relationship that has been severely tested during President Joe Biden’s term in office. Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, has been Biden’s point person for often unannounced talks with the Communist Party’s top foreign policy official to try to manage the growing differences between Washington and Beijing. On landing, Sullivan was greeted by Yang Tao, the Chinese foreign ministry’s chief for the North America and Oceanian department, and the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. The goal of Sullivan’s visit, which lasts through Thursday, is limited — to try to maintain communication in a relationship that broke down for the better part of a year in 2022-23 and was only nursed back over several months.
Wild week of US weather includes heat wave, tropical storm, landslide, flash flood and snow
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — It’s been a wild week of weather in many parts of the United States, from heat waves to snowstorms to flash floods. Here’s a look at some of the weather events: Millions of people in the Midwest have been enduring dangerous heat and humidity. An emergency medicine physician treating Minnesota State Fair-goers for heat illnesses saw firefighters cut rings off two people’s swollen fingers Monday in hot weather that combined with humidity made it feel well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius). Soaring late summer temperatures also prompted some Midwestern schools to let out early or cancel sports practices.
The worldwide catastrophe of rising seas especially imperils Pacific paradises, Guterres says
NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) — Highlighting seas that are rising at an accelerating rate, especially in the far more vulnerable Pacific island nations, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued yet another climate SOS to the world. This time he said those initials stand for “save our seas.” The United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization Monday issued reports on worsening sea level rise, turbocharged by a warming Earth and melting ice sheets and glaciers. They highlight how the Southwestern Pacific is not only hurt by the rising oceans, but by other climate change effects of ocean acidification and marine heat waves. Guterres toured Samoa and Tonga and made his climate plea from Tonga’s capital on Tuesday at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, whose member countries are among those most imperiled by climate change.
In a rare event, fire smoke covers Brazil’s capital, prompting federal response
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The buildings in Brazil’s modernist capital, Brasilia, have been enveloped in smoky air the past two days. The central part of the country is just the latest region affected by smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest, Cerrado savannah, the Pantanal wetland and the state of Sao Paulo. The smog crisis prompted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to visit Brazil’s fire monitoring center Sunday afternoon. “No fires caused by lightning were detected. This means that people are setting fires in the Amazon, the Pantanal, and especially in the state of Sao Paulo,” he said. His government pledged to step up firefighting and investigations to identify the culprits.
Authorities arrest ex-sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black airman at his home
A former Florida sheriff’s deputy charged with killing a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman who answered his apartment door while holding a gun pointed toward the ground was arrested Monday, officials said. Former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran, 38, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm in the May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson, Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille announced Friday. The charge is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Duran was booked into the county jail Monday, records show. Marcille confirmed his arrest to The Associated Press. “He did, in fact, turn himself in,” Marcille said in a telephone interview, adding that Duran’s initial court appearance will be via video link Tuesday morning.
Pope will visit the Istiqlal mosque in Indonesia on the first stop of an interfaith Asian trip
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — When Pope Francis begins his Asia tour next week, one of his early stops will be at Indonesia’s iconic Istiqlal mosque. The 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church will hold an interfaith meeting with representatives of the country’s six officially recognized religions as the populous Southeast Asian nation faces growing challenges to its tolerant image. Francis, who has suffered a slew of health problems and has become increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has a rigorous schedule during his four-nation visit. He will start his trip in Jakarta on Sept. 3, where he will meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Brazilian moms are leading the charge to secure medical marijuana for sick kids
SAO PAULO (AP) — The 4-year-old boy struggled to balance while walking through the living room. His mother’s eyes attentively followed his every move. Then a seizure knocked him to the ground, the dull thud of his small body echoing through the home. On this July morning in Guaruja, a coastal city in Brazil’s state of Sao Paulo, Murillo quickly regained his senses as his mom, Janaína Silva, cradled him. “From five minutes of agony, it’s now just seconds,” Silva said, recalling how only three months ago her son’s seizures would have lasted much longer. Murillo was diagnosed as a baby with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a type of epilepsy with multiple types of seizures that cause stiffening and dropping of the head and limbs.
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