Palestinian officials say 51 killed in Israeli strikes on southern Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 51 people in southern Gaza overnight, including women and children, as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war there, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran. Israel has launched ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Tehran fired ballistic missiles on Israel late Tuesday.

Separately, Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the Lebanese border town of Odaisseh, forcing them to retreat.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or independent confirmation of the fighting, which would mark the first ground combat since Israeli troops crossed the border this week. Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.

The military warned residents to evacuate another 24 villages in southern Lebanon after making a similar announcement the day before. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.

___

Under fire and using old equipment, Lebanon's rescuers struggle to respond to Israeli offensive

BEIRUT (AP) — When Israel bombed buildings outside the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, Mohamed Arkadan and his team rushed to an emergency unlike anything they had ever seen.

About a dozen apartments had collapsed onto the hillside they once overlooked, burying more than 100 people. Even after 17 years with the civil defense forces of one of the world's most war-torn nations, Arkadan was shocked at the destruction. By Monday afternoon — about 24 hours after the bombing — his team had pulled more than 40 bodies, including children's, from the rubble, along with 60 survivors.

The children's bodies broke his heart, said Arkadan, 38, but his team of over 30 first responders' inability to help further pained him?more. Firetrucks and ambulances haven’t been replaced in years. Rescue tools and equipment are in short supply. His team has to buy their uniforms out of pocket.

An economic crisis that began in 2019 and a massive 2020 port explosion have left Lebanon struggling to provide basic services such as electricity and medical care. Political divisions have left the country of 6 million without a president or functioning government for more than two years, deepening a national sense of abandonment reaching down to the people the country depends on in emergencies.

“We have zero capabilities, zero logistics,” Arkadan said. “We have no gloves, no personal protection gear.”

___

Palestinians in West Bank risk crossing Israel's separation barrier to flee failing economy

YATTA, West Bank (AP) — At dawn in mid-May, Sayyed Ayyed and dozens of other unemployed Palestinian men gathered at the foot of the towering wall of concrete and barbed wire dividing the occupied West Bank from Israel.

A smuggler was there with a ladder and ropes. Each man handed over the equivalent of $100. Ayyed waited his turn as others clambered over.

The 30-year-old father of two young daughters hadn’t found work for a year. Debts were mounting. Rent had to be paid. On the Israeli side, there was the lure of work on a construction site. He just had to get over the wall.

“When we reach the point where you see that your children do not have food,” he said, “the barrier of fear is broken.”

A year of war in Gaza has reverberated across the West Bank, where the World Bank warns the economy is at risk of collapse because of Israeli restrictions barring Palestinian laborers from entering the country for work, and the biggest wave of violence in decades.

___

Helene death toll now at least 166 as Biden plans to visit ravaged Carolinas

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will survey the devastation in North and South Carolina on Wednesday as rescuers continue their search for anyone still unaccounted for after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast and killed at least 166 people.

Many residents in both states were still without running water, cellular service and electricity as floodwaters receded and revealed more of the death and destruction left in Helene’s path.

“We have to jump start this recovery process,” Biden said Tuesday, estimating it will cost billions. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

While Biden is in the Carolinas, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in neighboring Georgia.

Helene, one of the deadliest storms in recent U.S. history, knocked out power and cellular service for millions. More than 1.2 million customers still were in the dark early Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia. Some residents cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to let loved ones know they are alive.

___

Vance and Walz keep it civil in a policy-heavy discussion: VP debate takeaways

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice presidential hopefuls Tim Walz and JD Vance focused their criticism on the top of the ticket on Tuesday as they engaged in a policy-heavy discussion that may be the last debate of the 2024 presidential campaign.

It was the first encounter between Minnesota’s Democratic governor and Ohio’s Republican senator, following last month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. It comes just five weeks before Election Day and as millions of voters are now able to cast early ballots.

Tuesday’s confrontation played out as the stakes of the contest rose again after Iran fired missiles into Israel, while a devastating hurricane and potentially debilitating port strike roiled the country at home. Over and again, Walz and Vance outlined the policy and character differences between their running mates, while trying to introduce themselves to the country.

Here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s debate.

Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday elicited a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets on foreign policy: Walz promised “steady leadership” under Harris while Vance pledged a return to “peace through strength” if Trump is returned to the White House.

___

Dockworkers may have the negotiating advantage in their strike against US ports

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation.

Organized labor enjoys rising public support and has had a string of recent victories in other industries, in addition to the backing of the pro-union administration of President Joe Biden. The dockworkers' negotiating stand is likely further strengthened by the nation's supply chain of goods being under pressure in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which has coincided with the peak shipping season for holiday goods.

The union is also pointing to shipping companies' record profits, which have come in part because of shortages resulting from the pandemic, and to a more generous contract that West Coast dockworkers achieved last year. The longshoremen's workloads also have increased, and the effects of inflation have eroded their pay in recent years.

In addition, commerce into and out of the United States has been growing, playing to the union’s advantage. Further enhancing its leverage is a still-tight job market, with workers in some industries demanding, and in some cases receiving, a larger share of companies’ outsize profits.

“I think this work group has a lot of bargaining power,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. “They’re essential workers that can’t be replaced, and also the ports are doing well.”

___

Thai police arrest driver and work to identify victims of school bus fire that killed 23

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police arrested the driver of a bus carrying young students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in suburban Bangkok, as families arrived in the capital Wednesday to help identify their loved ones.

The bus carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school was traveling from Uthai Thani province, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces Tuesday. The fire started while the bus was on a highway north of the capital and spread so quickly many were unable to escape.

Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensic department, said 23 bodies were recovered from the bus. The recovery work and confirmation of the total dead had been delayed earlier because the burned vehicle, which was fueled with natural gas, remained too hot to enter for hours.

The families were driven from Uthai Thani in vans to the forensic department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday to provide DNA samples for the identification process. Kornchai Klaiklung, assistant to the Royal Thai Police chief, told reporters the forensics team was working as fast as it could to identify the victims.

The driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered Tuesday evening several hours after the fire. Police said they have charged him with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident.

___

Sex workers find themselves at the center of Congo's mpox outbreak

KAMITUGA, Congo (AP) — It's been four months since Sifa Kunguja recovered from mpox, but as a sex worker, she said, she's still struggling to regain clients, with fear and stigma driving away people who've heard she had the virus.

“It’s risky work,” Kunguja, 40, said from her small home in eastern Congo. “But if I don’t work, I won't have money for my children.”

Sex workers are among those hardest-hit by the mpox outbreak in Kamituga, where some 40,000 of them are estimated to reside — many single mothers driven by poverty to this mineral-rich commercial hub where gold miners comprise the majority of the clientele. Doctors estimate 80% of cases here have been contracted sexually, though the virus also spreads through other kinds of skin-to-skin contact.

Sex workers say the situation threatens their health and livelihoods. Health officials warn that more must be done to stem the spread — with a focus on sex workers — or mpox will creep deeper through eastern Congo and the region.

Mpox causes mostly mild symptoms such as fever and body aches, but serious cases can mean prominent, painful blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

___

US 'Welcome Corps' helps resettle LGBTQ+ refugees fleeing crackdowns against gay people

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Cabrel Ngounou's life in Cameroon quickly unraveled after neighbors caught the teenager with his boyfriend.

A crowd surrounded his boyfriend's house and beat him. Ngounou's family learned of the relationship and kicked him out. So Ngounou fled — alone and with little money — on a dangerous, four-year journey through at least five countries. He was sexually assaulted in a Libyan prison, harassed in Tunisia and tried unsuccessfully to take a boat to Europe.

"The worst thing was that they caught us. So it was not easy for my family," Ngounou said. “My sisters told me I need to get out of the house because my place is not there. So that’s what really pushed me to leave my country.”

Ngounou's troubles drew attention after he joined a protest outside the U.N. refugee agency's Tunisia office. Eventually, he arrived in the United States, landing in San Francisco in March.

Ngounou joined a growing number of LGBTQ+ people accepted into the Welcome Corps, which launched last year and pairs groups of Americans with newly arrived refugees. So far, the resettlement program has connected 3,500 sponsors with 1,800 refugees, and many more want to help: 100,000 people have applied to become sponsors.

___

John Amos, patriarch on 'Good Times' and an Emmy nominee for the blockbuster 'Roots,' dies at 84

LOS ANGELES (AP) — John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom “Good Times" and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 84.

He died Aug. 21 of natural causes in Los Angeles. Amos’ publicist, Belinda Foster, confirmed the news of his death Tuesday.

He played James Evans Sr. on “Good Times,” which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons,” it ran from 1974-79 on CBS.

“That show was the closest depiction in reality to life as an African American family living in those circumstances as it could be,” Amos told Time magazine in 2021.

Among Amos’ film credits were “Let’s Do It Again” with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy and its 2021 sequel, “Die Hard 2,” “Madea’s Witness Protection” and “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler. He was in Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s 1994 video “Natural Born Killaz.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2024