Deadly violence persists in Gaza despite mediators' hopes for a truce (2024)

A Russian missile strike has sparked a blaze in the Ukrainian city of Sumy Saturday, while Ukrainian forces continue to push into Russia’s border region of Kursk. Two people were injured in the Sumy strike, which also damaged cars and nearby buildings, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divertthe Kremlin’s military focusaway from the front line in Ukraine. Russian military bloggers said Saturday that Ukraine had destroyed a bridge, impeding the supply route to Russian units.

President Joe Biden is on tap to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In his speech Monday night, he'll be making a symbolic handoff of his party to Vice President Kamala Harris and pressing the case for what he says is the threat to the country if Donald Trump returns to the White House. Four weeks ago, Biden ended his bid for reelection as his party descended into a crisis of confidence over his chances against the Republican nominee after a devastating performance in their June debate. Now, Biden is set to receive a rousing welcome from many of the same officials who were itching for him to exit the race.

ATLANTA — When Julie Adams refused to certify this year’s presidential primary, she didn’t cite any wrongdoing or fraud, nor did she claim ballots were missed or counted wrongly.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza has killed at least 18 people, all from the same family. The strike Saturday came days after the death toll in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas reached 40,000. The strike hit 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 mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas had been presented. They said they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.

Madonna has celebrated her 66th birthday with a private evening tour of the famed Italian archaeological site at Pompeii. There, she announced she will fund for a year an artistic project involving youths from the nearby areas. The American pop star was guided through the archeological park by its director on Friday. She also met a group of teenagers involved in the project “Dream of Flying,” in which hundreds of young artists perform re-adapted classic comedies by Aristophanes. The project is in its fourth year and has an annual budget of 250,000 euros. It started from Pompeii’s amphitheater Teatro Grande and then toured other Italian theaters.

Hurricane Ernesto has made landfall on the tiny British Atlantic territory of Bermuda as residents hunker down. The wide and slow-moving 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. Hurricane-strength winds are expected to continue until Saturday afternoon, with tropical storm-strength winds continuing well into Sunday, the Bermuda government said.

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s not just Gov. Tim Walz getting attention due to his rising profile in national politics.

Hurricane Ernesto has made landfall on the Atlantic Ocean territory of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center says.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has killed at least 10 Syrian nationals. The strike early Saturday in Wadi al-Kfour in the 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 it attacks once a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead are a woman and her two children. Five others were wounded, of whom two are in critical condition, the ministry said. An Israeli military spokesperson said the strike in the southern province targeted a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah.

RALEIGH, N.C. — If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, she will usher in several firsts: first woman, first Black woman and first Indian-American in the White House.

Florida voters will pick nominees for a Senate seat that seems to have moved onto the battlefield, and decide whether one of the top antagonists to a former House speaker gets the nomination for another term.

BALTIMORE — A tinny buzzing sound echoed through a third-floor laboratory of a building on North Wolfe Street.

The threat of polio is rising fast in Gaza, 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. At least one case has been confirmed and others are suspected. Polio had been eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, but vaccinations plunged after the war began 10 months ago. Now, the territory is a breeding ground for the virus. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage. Health authorities are preparing to vaccinate 640,000 children in the coming weeks.

Ukrainian forces left a path of destruction in the Kursk operation. AP visited a seized Russian town

Anger at the Indian government’s failure to deter rising violence against women has fueled protests by medics and women’s groups across Indian cities after a trainee doctor was raped and killed last week. On Saturday, medical workers began a countrywide strike. Police discovered the bloodied body of a 31-year-old trainee doctor on Aug. 9 at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in eastern Kolkata city. A police volunteer working at the hospital has been detained in connection with the crime. The protests — mostly led by women — demand a safer working environment.

The first week of a former politician's murder trial has wrapped up in Las Vegas. The jury tasked with deciding if Robert Telles is guilty has seen video of a deadly ambush that left investigative reporter Jeff German dead. A forensic scientist also testified Friday that Telles' DNA was found beneath the victim's fingernails. The jury was also shown security footage of the suspect driving through German’s neighborhood in a maroon SUV, like one that a Review-Journal photographer found Telles washing outside his home several days after German’s death. German was found stabbed to death outside his home in 2022. Prosecutors say articles that he wrote about Telles and his leadership at a low-level county office provided a motive for the killing.

States across the country have implemented strict restrictions around livestock after an outbreak of avian influenza, commonly referred to as “bird flu.” The outbreak has spread to millions of poultry and nearly 200 dairy herds across 13 U.S. states since March. More than a dozen farmworkers have been infected this year, with all experiencing relatively mild symptoms. Michigan has been especially hard-hit by the virus, which led the state to order curbs on livestock exhibitions ahead of fair season. Some young people who have spent significant money and time over the past year preparing their dairy cows for competition have been unable to show them.

Public health experts from some of the nation’s leading research universities have deployed a massive medical trailer to rural parts of the South as part of an ambitious and unusual new health study. The researchers aim to test the heart and lung function of roughly 4,600 residents of 10 counties and parishes in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. They want to know why heart and lung diseases are more prevalent in the rural South than in other parts of the country. But some rural southern counties do better than others. The researchers also want to know what makes those places more resilient.

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.

Now that it’s back-to-school season, parents should add one more crucial item to the checklist. An eye exam. The American Optometric Association says 1 in 4 children start school with some sort of vision problem. That impairs their ability to learn in the classroom and play sports. But many kids won’t tell you something is wrong because they don’t know they have a problem. Optometrist Annette Webb in Hot Springs, Arkansas, says undiagnosed vision problems can turn into behavior problems. Luckily, many programs offer subsidized or free eye exams and glasses. A good place to start is the pediatrician’s office or the school nurse.

A humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo is contributing to mpox outbreaks there and elsewhere in Africa that have been deemed a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. Congo has recorded more than 96% of the world's mpox cases this year, and the new variant that was discovered in the country's east this year has been detected in four other African countries where mpox was never reported before. Sweden reported its first case this week. One expert says the Congo crisis, where millions have been displaced by conflict and are out of the reach of health services, has almost every possible complication when it comes to stopping an outbreak.

Supporters of the “uncommitted” protest-vote movement sparked by dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could play a large role in the Democratic National Convention, with raucous protests expected outside and potentially inside the Chicago arena. Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign have spent weeks meeting with people involved in the movement in hopes of alleviating tensions. The meetings included a previously unreported sit-down between Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. Many of the leaders in the “uncommitted” movement have expressed cautious optimism towards Harris' campaign. But they maintain that she and the campaign have not met their demands before the convention, which include multiple speaking slots for movement members.

Ukrainian forces left a path of destruction in the Kursk operation. AP visited a seized Russian town

Donald Trump’s campaign is largely leaving paid canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts to outside groups like America PAC, funded in part by Elon Musk. To run the group, Musk has turned to veterans of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' failed presidential bid. DeSantis' old campaign manager, Generra Peck, has close ties to Musk, according to people familiar with the matter. She is said to have overruled internal objections to have DeSantis launch his campaign by holding a conversation with Musk on what was then still called Twitter. The platform crashed repeatedly, spoiling the start of his campaign. That experience underscores the risks of the Trump campaign outsourcing a core function to a coterie of untested groups that operate independently.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has a history with China. And Republicans are seizing on it. The Democratic vice presidential nominee taught in China for a year, went back with exchange students and served on a congressional committee about China's human rights. Republicans have accused him without evidence of a decadeslong relationship with “Communist China” and even opened an investigation. The attacks reflect how visits once seen as simple cultural interactions have become a target for political opponents amid a tense U.S.-China relationship. A Walz spokesman noted the governor's record in standing up to China’s Communist Party, saying Republicans are “twisting basic facts.”

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. According to court documents, about a month before his death Perry met with a doctor who began providing him with an illegal supply of ketamine. As the weeks passed Perry's assistant bought increasing amounts for the actor from the doctor and later a street dealer. On Oct. 28, after telling his assistant to shoot him up with a “big one,” Perry died from an overdose at age 54.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters leadership to take part in a roundtable discussion, according to her campaign.

Indonesia is marking 79 years of independence with a ceremony in its future new capital of Nusantara, a city still under construction. Relocating the capital to Nusantara, on the island of Borneo, has been a long-delayed project, meant to ease the burdens on the congested and polluted Jakarta. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Cabinet ministers attended the ceremony on Saturday at the new “Garuda Presidential Palace," built in the shape of the mythical eagle-winged Garuda protector figure. Construction of Nusantara has been slow, with deadlines missed. Widodo said earlier in the week that 8,000 guests would be invited but without adequate infrastructure in place, the number was later reduced to 1,300.

Masataka Yoshida homered and had four RBIs and the Boston Red Sox pounded All-Star Corbin Burnes before holding on to beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-10 on Friday night. Burnes (12-5) gave up eight runs and 10 hits — both career highs — in four innings. It was a performance unbefitting the AL starter last month in the All-Star game and the 2021 Cy Young Award winner. Burnes yielded two home runs, walked three and threw two wild pitches on a hot, humid night. His ERA jumped from 2.71 to 3.10, the highest it’s been all season. Ramón Urías went 3 for 3 with a homer and five RBIs for the Orioles. They fell a game behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East.

A plane carrying Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance made an unexpected landing in Milwaukee Friday afternoon while on its way to Cincinnati.

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Militants with ties to the Islamic State group have killed 16 villagers in northeastern Congo and kidnapped 20 others. A local civil society group said Friday that the attacks occurred between Wednesday and Friday and that some of the victims were farmers. Dozens of villages across Congo are besieged by armed groups that often carry out deadly attacks. The violence has resulted in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced.

An outpouring of fans greeted Algerian boxer Imane upon arrival back in her hometown on Friday and at a parade in Tiaret, the nearby regional capital. She and track star Djamel Sedjati were honored by local leaders and then paraded through the streets atop a city bus as hundreds of residents raised their hands and snapped photos. The football-obsessed North African country has given Khelif the celebrity treatment since she returned to Algiers earlier this week.

A child tax credit is quickly emerging as a major family-friendly issue and a possible bipartisan point of agreement in this year’s presidential campaign, touted by Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

Gunmen in northern Nigeria have ambushed vehicles conveying some university students and abducted 20 of them. Police in the Benue state in north central Nigeria said on Friday that the gunmen ambushed the students on Thursday evening. It is the latest case of kidnap along Nigerian roads where dozens of armed groups often take advantage of limited security presence to hold travelers hostage for ransoms. The hostages were traveling to the south for a conference of medical students when the attack happened.

The Boston Red Sox have activated Triston Casas off the 60-day injured list, a move they hope will add some punch to a lineup that’s been lacking a deep threat. Casas hit 24 home runs with an .856 OPS last season and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting. He had six longballs in 78 at-bats this season before going on the injured list April 21 with a left ribcage strain. After a lengthy rehabilitation, the 24-year-old first baseman returned Friday and batted third against the Baltimore Orioles. First baseman Dominic Smith was designated for assignment by Boston.

A powerful typhoon that slammed the Tokyo area with heavy rains and brought mudslide warnings in northern Japan is heading eastward in the Pacific Ocean away from the coast. There were no reports Saturday of major damage. Tokyo and nearby areas were back to normal under sunny skies. Bullet trains that cancelled services between Tokyo and Nagoya, stranding thousands of passengers, resumed operations with the first morning train. Some local trains were still delayed, however. Dozens of flights remained cancelled. Typhoon Ampil was moving away from Japan’s eastern coast at 12 mph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

NEW YORK — OpenAI removed a network of Iranian accounts that used its ChatGPT chatbot to try to wage a foreign influence campaign targeting the U.S. presidential election by generating longform articles and social media comments, the company said Friday.

Harris says she will build 3 million homes by end of first term

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico is defending cross-border anti-drug cooperation after Mexican prosecutors complained the Americans aren't giving them enough information. Mexico's government was embarrassed by the surrender of two Mexican drug lords who arrived in Texas aboard a mysterious flight in July. Officials say they weren't even aware of the operation. Mexico's Attorney General's Office took the unusual step Thursday of asking Interpol to get information about the flight. Such matters are usually handled directly between the two neighbors. U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said Friday that cooperation remains good.