Biden hopes cease-fire, hostage deal to pause Israel-Hamas war can take effect by next Monday

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that he hopes a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would pause hostilities and allow for remaining hostages to be released can take effect by early next week.

Asked when he thought a cease-fire could begin, Biden said: “Well I hope by the beginning of the weekend. The end of the weekend. My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”

Biden commented in New York after taping an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

Negotiations are underway for a weekslong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to allow for the release of hostages being held in Gaza by the militant group in return for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The proposed six-week pause in fighting would also include allowing hundreds of trucks to deliver desperately needed aid into Gaza every day.

Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

___

Wild weather hits Northwest with snow even as Midwest gets a taste of summer

BOSTON (AP) — February's end is bringing wild weather to much of the United States, with record heat allowing for golf in Wisconsin and outdoor food trucks in Minnesota, along with an increased fire risk across much of the Great Plains. But blinding snow in the Northwest is blowing eastward, and places like Chicago should see temperatures swinging dramatically from balmy to bitter cold again.

“Definitely not the weather we would expect in February. It’s usually super snowy, freezing, you know, ice everywhere. And so we are just trying to take advantage of a very nice week this week,” said Tania Sepulveda, a 30-year-old Chicago therapist who was “working from home” Monday, using her laptop in a grassy spot along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

The sunny weather won't last that long. A powerful storm started dumping snow that could reach several feet in higher elevations of the West promises a return of winter conditions to the central U.S., where it's been unseasonably warm. High winds are already blowing, raising the risk of wildfires across the Great Plains.

The National Weather Service warned that travel could be dangerous later Monday across parts of the Oregon Cascades and Northern Rockies, predicting near-blizzard conditions with one to two inches of snow an hour and winds reaching upwards of 65 mph (104 kph).

The storm will move into the Great Basin and Central Rockies Tuesday, carrying much colder temperatures and strong winds across the inner mountain West, said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. “We'll be very wintry like for the next two days,” he added.

___

Why so much of the US is unseasonably hot

A powerful winter storm was dumping deep snow in parts of the West on Monday and much of the central U.S. was unseasonably warm: People played golf in Wisconsin and comfortably walked their dogs in Iowa, where some bulbs were starting to flower. And high winds hiked fire risks in several states.

Why was it happening?

Three things explained the weird weather in much of the U.S.

This band of strong winds keeps warm air, which blows up from the south, trapped below cold air that comes down from the north. The jet stream constantly shifts. Recently, it's been sitting far north enough to mean that warm air has been blasting the normally frigid Upper Midwest.

“The orientation of it right now is not very winter-like,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

___

Donald Trump appeals $454 million judgment in New York civil fraud case

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has appealed his $454 million New York civil fraud judgment, challenging a judge’s finding that he lied about his wealth as he grew the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal Monday asking the state’s mid-level appeals court to overturn Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 verdict in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit and reverse staggering penalties that threaten to wipe out Trump’s cash reserves.

Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers that they're asking the appeals court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction. A notice of appeal starts the appeals process in New York. Trump's lawyers will have an opportunity to expand on their grievances in subsequent court filings.

Trump wasn't required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and appealing won’t automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.

The Republican presidential front-runner has until March 25 to secure a stay, a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals. Trump would receive an automatic stay if he puts up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. Trump’s lawyers could also ask the appeals court to grant a stay without obtaining a bond or with a bond for a lower amount.

___

Putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not 'ruled out' in the future, French leader says

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” in the future after the issue was debated at a gathering of European leaders in Paris, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into a third year.

The French leader said that “we will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war" after the meeting of over 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials.

“There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out,” Macron said in a news conference at the Elysee presidential palace.

Macron declined to provide details about which nations were considering sending troops, saying he prefers to maintain some “strategic ambiguity.”

The meeting included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Poland's President Andrzej Duda as well as leaders from the Baltic nations. The United States was represented by its top diplomat for Europe, James O’Brien, and the U.K. by Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

___

What would a new Palestinian government in the West Bank mean for the war in Gaza?

The Palestinian Authority's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, seen as the first step in a reform process urged by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But it will do little to address the authority's longstanding lack of legitimacy among its own people or its strained relations with Israel. Both pose major obstacles to U.S. plans calling for the PA, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.

That's assuming that the war in Gaza ends with the defeat of the Hamas militant group — an Israeli and U.S. goal that seems elusive nearly five months into the grueling war that has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.

Here's a look at the government shakeup and what it means for the Israel-Hamas war.

The PA was created in the early 1990s through interim peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, then led by Yasser Arafat.

___

Biden and Trump both plan trips to the Mexico border Thursday, dueling for advantage on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will make dueling trips to the U.S-Mexico border on Thursday, as both candidates try to turn the nation’s broken immigration system to their political advantage in an expected campaign rematch this year.

Biden will travel to Brownsville, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, an area that often sees large numbers of border crossings, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. He will meet border agents and discuss the need for bipartisan legislation. It would be his second visit to the border as president. He traveled to El Paso in January last year.

“He wants to make sure he puts his message out there to the American people," Jean-Pierre said.

Trump, for his part, will head to Eagle Pass, Texas, about 325 miles or 520 kilometers away from Brownsville, another hotspot in the state-federal clash over border security, according to three people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

Biden, speaking in New York on Monday, said he had planned to head to the border on Thursday and didn't know “my good friend apparently is going," too. The White House announcement of the trip came after Trump’s plan to visit the border had been reported. The president declined to say whether he would meet with migrants on the trip.

___

Barrage of gunfire as officers stop shooter at Joel Osteen's megachurch, newly released video shows

HOUSTON (AP) — The gunfire that shattered the calm at pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston only lasted about four minutes.

But surveillance video and police body camera footage released Monday, more than two weeks after the Feb. 11 shooting at Lakewood Church, showed the terror of the brief attack: Parishioners scattering, searching for safety in rooms and hallways. Officers drawing guns and taking cover behind walls. And the shooter's 7-year-old son covering his ears during the chaos, and moments later laying on the floor after being shot and wounded.

“Put the weapon down, now,” an officer can be heard shouting before firing his weapon. Another officer cautions: "She may have a bomb.”

Houston police released the roughly 26 minutes of video, which includes the sounds of dozens of bursts of gunfire, as questions remain over the attack that left the shooter, Genesse Moreno, 36, dead and two others injured. Authorities have still not released a motive for the shooting or confirmed who shot Moreno's young son in the head. He remains in critical condition.

Authorities say the woman entered the church between Sunday services and began firing an AR-style rifle. Moreno did not reach the main sanctuary and was killed after exchanging gunfire with two off-duty officers. In addition to Moreno's son, another man was wounded.

___

Supreme Court casts doubt on GOP-led states' efforts to regulate social media platforms

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cast doubt Monday on state laws that could affect how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users. The cases are among several this term in which the justices could set standards for free speech in the digital age.

In nearly four hours of arguments, several justices questioned aspects of laws adopted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas in 2021. But they seemed wary of a broad ruling, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett warning of “land mines” she and her colleagues need to avoid in resolving the two cases.

While the details vary, both laws aimed to address conservative complaints that the social media companies were liberal-leaning and censored users based on their viewpoints, especially on the political right.

Differences on the court emerged over how to think about the platforms — as akin to newspapers that have broad free-speech protections, or telephone companies, known as common carriers, that are susceptible to broader regulation.

Chief Justice John Roberts suggested he was in the former camp, saying early in the session, “And I wonder, since we’re talking about the First Amendment, whether our first concern should be with the state regulating what we have called the modern public square?”

___

Don Henley tells court he never gave away drafts of 'Hotel California' lyrics

NEW YORK (AP) — Don Henley never gave away handwritten pages of draft lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits, he said Monday, calling them “very personal" in testimony that also delved into an unrelated piece of his past: his 1980 arrest.

Henley, the Grammy-winning co-founder of one of the most successful bands in rock history, is prosecutors' star witness in an unusual criminal trial surrounding about 100 legal-pad pages from the birth of a blockbuster 1976 album.

Henley says the documents were stolen from his barn in Malibu, California. He testified Monday that he was appalled when the material began turning up at auctions in 2012.

“It just wasn’t something that was for public viewing. It was our process. It was something very personal, very private,” he said. “I still wouldn’t show that to anybody.”

At issue are about 100 sheets of paper inscribed with lyrics-in-the-making for multiple songs on the “Hotel California” album, including “Life in the Fast Lane,” “New Kid in Town” and the title track that turned into one of the most durable hits in rock. Famed for its lengthy guitar solo and puzzlingly poetic lyrics, the song still gets streamed hundreds of millions of times a year. The album is the third-biggest seller in U.S. history.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024