Hezbollah vows to expand attacks in Israel after deadly strike in Lebanon's Christian heartland
AITO, Lebanon (AP) — The day after a deadly Israeli airstrike in northern Lebanon – far from Hezbollah’s main area of influence – the militant group's acting leader said it would aim rockets into more areas of Israel.
Naim Kassem said Hezbollah is focused on “hurting the enemy,” and he signaled it would ramp up attacks further south in Israel. He mentioned the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, which have already been targets of attacks.
His comments in a pre-recorded, televised speech were delivered on the same day the United States said it sent a small team of troops to Israel to support an American-made missile-defense system.
The Biden administration has also sent a warning to Israel: Increase the amount of humanitarian aid it allows into Gaza within the next 30 days or risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.
Hezbollah has fired an estimated 13,000 rockets into Israel over the past year in support of Hamas’ war with Israel in Gaza. Tens of thousands of northern Israelis have been displaced from their homes, and Israel has said its escalating war with Hezbollah is aimed at stopping those rockets so families can return home.
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US warns Israel to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk losing weapons funding
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. The letter, which restates U.S. policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and an Israeli airstrike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people and burned others.
A similar letter that Blinken sent to Israeli officials in April led to more humanitarian assistance getting to the Palestinian territory, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday. But that has not lasted.
“In fact, it’s fallen by over 50% from where it was at its peak," Miller said at a briefing. Blinken and Austin "thought it was appropriate to make clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again, to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today.”
For Israel to continue qualifying for foreign military financing, the level of aid getting into Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must institute additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian sites, Austin and Blinken said in their letter. They said Israel had 30 days to respond to the requirements.
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Georgia judge blocks ballot counting rule and says county officials must certify election results
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has blocked a new rule that requires Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.
The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close. The county election board in Cobb County, in Atlanta’s suburbs, had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge declare that rule and five others recently passed by the state board invalid, saying they exceed the state board’s authority, weren’t adopted in compliance with the law and are unreasonable.
In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.
McBurney on Monday had ruled in a separate case that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”
Georgia law says county election superintendents — generally multimember boards — “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election, or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.
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Harris works to energize Black male voters while Trump continues to attack immigration policy
DETROIT (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris warned Tuesday that Republican Donald Trump would “institutionalize” harsh policing tactics that disproportionately affect Black men, while Trump blamed Harris' immigration policies for “devastating” Black and Latino communities.
“Any African American or Hispanic that votes for Kamala ... you’ve got to have your head examined, because they are really screwing you,” Trump said of Harris, who is African American, at an evening rally in Georgia.
Earlier, during a radio town hall moderated by Charlamagne tha God, Harris promised to work to decriminalize marijuana, which accounts for arrests that also have a disproportionate impact on Black men. And she acknowledged that racial disparities and bias exist in everyday life for Black people — in home ownership, health care, economic prosperity and even voting.
Just 21 days before the final votes are cast in the 2024 presidential season, Harris and Trump are scrambling to win over Black voters, women and other key constituencies in what looks to be a razor-tight election. Harris, a daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, hopes to maintain her party's traditional advantage with voters of color, while Trump is showing modest signs of momentum among Black men in particular.
A small shift among any group could swing the election.
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Trump uses interview on economics to promote tariffs and riff on his favorite themes
CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump seized Tuesday on an opening to sound his frequent argument that imposing huge tariffs on foreign goods would amount to an economic elixir — one that he claims would raise enormous sums for the government, protect U.S. firms from overseas competition and prod foreign companies to open factories in the United States.
Appearing before a friendly audience at the Economic Club of Chicago, the Republican presidential nominee repeatedly asserted that tariffs are misunderstood as an economic tool.
“To me," Trump said, “the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff. It’s my favorite word. It needs a public relations firm.”
If tariffs need an image makeover, it’s probably because mainstream economists say they actually amount to a tax on American consumers that would make the economy less efficient and send inflation surging in the United States.
The moderator, John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, often struggled to keep the conversation focused on economics and business. Asked, for example, whether the government should break up Google after an antitrust case, Trump started talking about fighting voter fraud in Virginia and how, in his view, Google had treated him unfairly.
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Small business disaster loan program is out of money until Congress approves new funds
NEW YORK (AP) — The Small Business Administration has run out of money for the disaster assistance loans it offers small businesses, homeowners and renters, delaying much needed relief for people applying for aid in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The SBA offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans to businesses and people affected by disasters. The SBA warned earlier this month that it could run out of funding, given the anticipated surge in claims from Hurricane Helene, without additional funding from Congress.
There are other disaster relief programs available, including assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The FEMA aid isn't affected by the SBA shortfall.
Helene was a Category 4 storm that first struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26, dumped trillions of gallons of rain and left a trail of destruction for hundreds of miles across several states. Hurricane Milton swept across Florida two weeks later.
So far, the SBA has received around 37,000 applications for relief from those impacted by Hurricane Helene and made more than 700 loan offers totaling about $48 million. It has received 12,000 applications from those impacted by Hurricane Milton.
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Idaho will begin using deep veins as backup for lethal injection executions, officials say
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho will begin using central veins deep in the groin, neck, chest or arm for executions by lethal injection if attempts to insert standard IV lines fail, the Idaho Department of Correction announced Tuesday.
Using a central venous line — which involves threading a catheter through deep veins until it reaches a location near the heart — has long been a backup plan under the state's official execution policy, but it has never been used because prison officials said the execution chamber was not designed in a way to protect the subject's dignity during the process of inserting the line.
The execution chamber has now been remodeled so that execution witnesses can watch the central lines being inserted via a closed-circuit camera system, minimizing the possibility that the condemned person's genitalia may be accidentally exposed.
In February, the attempted execution of Thomas Eugene Creech, a man on death row, failed after the execution team was unable to establish a peripheral IV line, close to the surface of the skin, despite trying eight times in several veins in his arms and legs. Creech's defense attorneys have sought to prevent a second attempt on the grounds that it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and amount to double jeopardy. A state judge dismissed those arguments in September.
The failed execution attempt prompted the state to begin renovating its execution chamber to add a room where a doctor can insert a central venous line.
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Canada-India dispute over assassination allegations could impact Modi's global ambitions
NEW DELHI (AP) — A diplomatic row that has strained bilateral relations between India and Canada for over a year has boiled over as the countries expelled each other’s top diplomats over the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada and allegations of other crimes there.
Experts say the standoff will make it difficult for both countries to move forward with a once-promising partnership, and could impact India’s ambitions as it tries to project itself as a rising world power.
“India-Canada bilateral relations, which have been on a downslide since last year, will take a further hit, which will take a long time to repair,” said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.
Monday’s tit-for-tat expulsions came after Canada told India on Sunday that its top diplomat in the country is a person of interest in the 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and that police have uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly tied five other expelled Indian officials to Nijjar’s assassination and said Canada had gathered “ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case.”
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Hundreds of troops kicked out under 'don't ask, don't tell' get upgraded to honorable discharges
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon announced Tuesday that more than 800 military personnel have seen their service records upgraded to honorable discharges after previously being kicked out of the military under its former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
It is the latest development over the decades to undo past discrimination against LGBTQ service members.
The 1951 Uniform Code of Military Justice's Article 125 had criminalized consensual gay sex. In 1993, former President Bill Clinton modified the military's policy to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which allowed LGBTQ troops to serve in the armed forces if they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation.
That policy was repealed in 2011, when Congress allowed for their open service in the military. The 1951 UCMJ code was modified in 2013 to be limited to nonconsensual gay sex.
President Joe Biden in June announced he was issuing pardons to service members convicted under repealed military policies.
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Lawyers for Sean 'Diddy' Combs ask judge to release identities of his accusers
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asked a New York judge Tuesday to force prosecutors to disclose the names of his accusers in his sex trafficking case.
The lawyers wrote in a letter to a Manhattan federal court judge that the hip-hop music maker needs to know the identities of his alleged victims so he can prepare adequately for trial.
Last week, a May 5 trial date was set for Combs. He has pleaded not guilty.
A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment.
Combs, 54, remains incarcerated without bail after his Sept. 16 federal sex trafficking arrest. His lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to let him be freed to home detention so he can more easily meet with lawyers and prepare for trial.
The Associated Press
