8.8-magnitude earthquake causes tsunami in Russia and Japan, sets off warnings for Alaska and Hawaii

TOKYO (AP) — One of the world's strongest earthquakes struck Russia's Far East early Wednesday, an 8.8-magnitude temblor that set off a tsunami in the northern Pacific region and prompted warnings for Alaska, Hawaii and other coasts south toward New Zealand.

Tsunami warning sirens blared Tuesday in Honolulu and people moved to higher ground.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami measuring 40 centimeters (1.3 feet) was detected in Tokachi, on the southern coast of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the country's main islands.

The Russian areas nearest the quake’s epicenter on the Kamchatka Peninsula reported damage and evacuations, but no serious injuries.

The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia's Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.

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The Latest: Tsunami hits Russia’s islands and Japan after 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia

A tsunami has hit coastal areas of Russia’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido after a powerful, 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia early Wednesday.

Tsunami warning sirens blared in Honolulu as residents were urged to higher ground. “Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property,” the warning stated. The first waves in Hawaii were expected around 7 p.m. local time.

The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves of 1 to 3 meters (3 to 10 feet) above tide level were possible along some coastal areas of Hawaii, Chile, Japan and the Solomon Islands. Waves of more than 3 meters (10 feet) were possible along some coastal areas of Russia and Ecuador.

Here's the latest:

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Gunman who killed 4 in NYC building blamed NFL for mental health issues and was targeting its office

NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman who killed four people inside a Manhattan office tower blamed his mental health problems on the National Football League and intended to target its headquarters but took the wrong elevator, officials said Tuesday.

Shane Tamura, a Las Vegas casino security worker, was carrying a handwritten note in his wallet that claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, investigators said. He accused the league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports.

Tamura, 27, sprayed the skyscraper's lobby with bullets then shot another person in a 33rd-floor office on Monday before he killed himself, authorities said. Among the dead were a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building. An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.

The attacker's grievances with the NFL emerged as police worked to piece together his background and motivations, and as loved ones began to mourn the dead.

It's unclear whether Tamura showed symptoms of CTE, which can be diagnosed only by examining a brain after death.

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Here's what to know about CTE, the brain disease the NYC shooter blamed for his mental health issues

BOSTON (AP) — The degenerative brain disease that has besieged the National Football League for two decades with a billion-dollar lawsuit, congressional hearings, an A-list movie and an unrelenting cortege of ex-players’ obituaries has now intruded on America's favorite sport in the most violent manner yet.

The Las Vegas casino worker who killed four people in a New York City skyscraper that is home to the NFL's headquarters carried a note blaming the league for his mental health problems.

Shane Tamura, 27, who played football in high school, said in a three-page note found in his wallet that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy — diagnosable only after death — and implored those who found him: “Study my brain.” Among his grievances against the NFL was a claim that the league put its profits ahead of player safety by concealing the harm CTE, and football, can cause.

Echoing an eerie trend in NFL player suicides, he shot himself in the chest, preserving his brain for an autopsy that could confirm whether his layman's diagnosis was correct.

A degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head trauma common in military combat and contact sports, CTE has been diagnosed in more than 100 former NFL players and arisen as an existential threat to the United States' most powerful pro sports league.

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Victims of New York City shooting include a police officer and an executive at investment firm

He came to New York City as an immigrant from Bangladesh and worked his way up the nation’s largest police force.

Didarul Islam had worked as a school safety agent before becoming a patrol officer less than four years ago. But on Monday, that promising career was cut short.

While working a uniformed security assignment, Islam was killed in a midtown Manhattan skyscraper by a gunman targeting the NFL, whose headquarters are in the Park Avenue tower.

The 36-year-old Bronx officer was the first of four people killed in the attack, including a security guard, real estate firm employee and investment firm executive.

“Officer Islam’s death was yet another reminder of everything you risk just by showing up to work,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday. “He knew that risk. He embraced it. He understood what it meant to put the safety of others above his own.”

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Trump says Epstein 'stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” young women who worked for the spa at Mar-a-Lago, the latest evolution in his description of how their highly scrutinized relationship ended years ago.

One of the women, he acknowledged, was Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers.

Trump's comments expanded on remarks he had made a day earlier, when he said he had banned Epstein from his private club in Florida two decades ago because his one-time friend “stole people that worked for me.” At the time, he did not make clear who those workers were.

The Republican president has faced an outcry over his administration's refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, a rare example of strain within Trump's tightly controlled political coalition. Trump has attempted to tamp down questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial, even though some of his own allies have promoted conspiracy theories about it.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, was recently interviewed inside a Florida courthouse by the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, though officials have not publicly disclosed what she said. Her lawyers said Tuesday that she’s willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions.

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Why there hasn't been a formal declaration of famine in Gaza

The leading international authority on food crises said Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza." It predicted “widespread death” without immediate action.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for two years, and that recent developments, including “increasingly stringent blockades” by Israel, have “dramatically worsened” the situation.

Even though Israel eased a 2 1/2-month blockade on the territory in May, aid groups say only a trickle of assistance is getting into the enclave and that Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger 21 months into the Israeli offensive launched after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

Hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces as they try to reach aid sites or convoys, according to witnesses, health officials and the United Nations' human rights office. The military says it has only fired warning shots.

The IPC warning stopped short of a formal declaration of famine. Here's why:

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Palestinian death toll in Israel-Hamas war passes 60,000, Gaza Health Ministry says

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. Israeli strikes overnight killed more than two dozen people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.

The Israeli offensive, launched in response to Hamas' attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and fueled a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

Experts warned Tuesday that the territory of about 2 million Palestinians is on the brink of famine after Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of security have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid.

The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said that the death toll has climbed to 60,034, with 145,870 others wounded since the war started. The victims include 18,592 children and 9,782 women. Together, they make up nearly half the dead.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn't provided its own account of casualties.

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Senate confirms Trump lawyer Emil Bove for appeals court, pushing past whistleblower claims

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove 50-49 for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge Tuesday as Republicans dismissed whistleblower complaints about his conduct at the Justice Department.

A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Bove was on Trump’s legal team during his New York hush money trial and defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases. He will serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Democrats have vehemently opposed Bove’s nomination, citing his current position as a top Justice Department official and his role in the dismissal of the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. They have also criticized his efforts to investigate department officials who were involved in the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Bove has accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the attack and ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases.

Democrats have also cited evidence from whistleblowers, a fired department lawyer who said last month that Bove had suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim that Bove denies — and new evidence from a whistleblower who did not go public. That whistleblower recently provided an audio recording of Bove that runs contrary to some of his testimony at his confirmation hearing last month, according to two people familiar with the recording.

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Trump EPA moves to repeal landmark 'endangerment finding' that allows climate regulation

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.

Repealing the finding “will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday.

“There are people who, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country," Zeldin said on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast. "They created this endangerment finding and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence, in many cases, a lot of segments of our economy. And it cost Americans a lot of money.”

The EPA proposal must go though a lengthy review process, including public comment, before it is finalized, likely next year. Environmental groups are likely to challenge the rule change in court.

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