Russia launches one of its fiercest missile and drone attacks at Ukraine’s infrastructure
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian strike on a nine-story building in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded dozens, an official said Sunday, as Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack described by officials as the largest in recent months.
Among the eight killed in Sumy, 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the border with Russia, were two children, said Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko. More than 400 people were evacuated from the building.
The rescuers were checking every apartment looking for people who might be still in the damaged building.
“Every life destroyed by Russia is a big tragedy,” said Klymenko.
The drone and missile attack, which targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the winter.
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Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter.
The decision allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, for attacks farther inside Russia comes as President Vladimir Putin positions North Korean troops along Ukraine’s northern border to try to reclaim hundreds of miles of territory seized by Ukrainian forces.
Biden’s move also follows the presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the United States’ vital military support for Ukraine.
The official and the others knowledgeable about the matter were not authorized to discuss the U.S. decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reaction Sunday was notably restrained.
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Donald Trump Jr. says pushback against Cabinet picks proves they’re the disrupters voters wanted
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. said Sunday that the team now around the president-elect knows how to choose a Cabinet and build out an administration, unlike the time before his father first took office.
Any pushback that Donald Trump’s unconventional choices face from the Washington establishment proves that they are just the kind of disruptors the new administration and voters are demanding, the younger Trump said.
“The reality this time is, we actually know what we’re doing. We actually know who the good guys and the bad guys are,” he told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures. “And it’s about surrounding my father with people who are both competent and loyal. They will deliver on his promises. They will deliver on his message. They are not people who think they know better, as unelected bureaucrats.”
After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he stocked his early administration with choices from traditional Republican and business circles, tapping figures such as former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who was his first as secretary of state.
Today, Trump is valuing personal allegiance above political experience.
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Big voter turnout this year benefited Republicans, contradicting conventional political wisdom
The 2024 presidential election featured sky-high turnout, approaching the historic levels of the 2020 contest and contradicting long-held conventional political wisdom that Republicans struggle to win races in which many people vote.
According to Associated Press elections data, more than 153 million ballots were cast in this year’s race between Republican Donald Trump, now the president-elect, and Democrat Kamala Harris, the vice president, with hundreds of thousands of more still being tallied in slower-counting states such as California. When those ballots are fully tabulated, the number of votes will come even closer to the 158 million in the 2020 presidential contest, which was the highest turnout election since women were given the right to vote more than a century ago.
“Trump is great for voter turnout in both parties,” said Eitan Hersh, a political scientist at Tufts University.
The former president’s victory in both the Electoral College and popular vote — Trump currently leads Harris by nearly 2.5 million votes nationwide — also contradicts the belief in politics that Democrats, not Republicans, benefit from high-turnout elections.
Trump himself voiced it in 2020 when he warned that a Democratic bill to expand mail balloting would lead to “levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” That warning came as Trump began to sow conspiracy theories about using mail voting during the coronavirus pandemic, which he then used to falsely claim his 2020 loss was due to fraud.
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Gabbard’s sympathetic views toward Russia cause alarm as Trump’s pick to lead intelligence services
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. intelligence services, in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s main justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens.
Moscow claimed Ukraine was using the labs to create deadly bioweapons similar to COVID-19 that could be used against Russia, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no choice but to invade neighboring Ukraine to protect his country.
In fact, the labs are public and part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons.
Gabbard, a military veteran and a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, later said she wasn’t accusing the United States or Ukraine of anything nefarious and was just voicing concerns about protecting the labs.
But to critics in the U.S., including lawmakers in both parties, the comments showed a disturbing willingness to parrot Russian propaganda — a tendency that has earned Gabbard praise on Russian state TV.
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An Israeli strike in Beirut kills Hezbollah’s spokesman, while a strike in Gaza kills at least 30
BEIRUT (AP) — A rare Israeli strike in central Beirut killed the Hezbollah militant group’s chief spokesman on Sunday, while an Israeli strike in northern Gaza ’s Beit Lahiya killed at least 30 people, a hospital director there told The Associated Press.
Mohammed Afif al-Naboulsi was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Beirut, Hezbollah confirmed in a statement. He had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September.
Israel’s military in a statement said he “wielded significant influence over Hezbollah’s military operations” and “glorified and incited” attacks on Israel.
It was the latest targeted killing of a senior Hezbollah official. On Sunday night, another strike in central Beirut hit a computer shop, killing two people and wounding 22, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
The strikes happened as Lebanese officials considered a United States-led cease-fire proposal. “This confirms the crimes of the Israeli enemy, and that it wants to negotiate under fire and is expanding and targeting safe and safer areas,” said a Lebanese member of parliament, Faisal Al Sayegh.
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Wildfire threat continues in much of the US Northeast as dry conditions persist
Firefighters in New York said Sunday that a voluntary evacuation overnight helped them protect more than 160 homes from a stubborn wildfire near the New Jersey border as officials in much of the Northeast coped with hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions.
Communities in New England dealt with a similar surge in late fall fires, and many parts of the Northeast remained under red flag alerts this weekend. Across the country, California made good progress against a 32-square-mile (83-square-kilometer) fire in Ventura County that has destroyed more than 245 structures, most of them houses. The Mountain fire was 95% contained.
Windy conditions renewed a wildfire Saturday that escaped a containment line and prompted emergency officials to enact the voluntary evacuation plan affecting about 165 houses in Warwick, New York, near the New Jersey border. No structures were in danger as of Sunday afternoon as firefighters worked to tame the Jennings Creek blaze, New York Parks Department spokesman Jeff Wernick said. The voluntary evacuation will remain in place at least until Monday, Wernick said.
The wildfire had burned 7 1/2 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) across the two states as of Friday and was burning primarily in New York’s Sterling Forest State Park, where the visitor center, the lakefront area at Greenwood Lake and a historic furnace area remained open. Woodland activities including hunting were halted, Wernick said.
It was 90% contained on the Passaic County, New Jersey, side of the border, and about 88% contained in Orange County, New York, where a state of emergency was extended on Sunday, officials said. New York Army National Guard and state police helicopters dropped water on the blaze to support ground crews’ efforts.
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As talks in Baku cross the halfway point, nations are no closer to a goal on cash for climate action
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Distractions were bigger than deals in the first week of United Nations climate talks, leaving a lot to be done, especially on the main issue of money.
In week one, not a lot of progress was made on the issue of how much money rich countries should pay to developed ones to move away from dirty fuels and how to cope with rising seas and temperatures and pay for damage already caused by climate-driven extreme weather. But more is expected when government ministers fly in for week two to handle the hard political deal-making at the negotiations — known as COP29 — in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Countries remain about a trillion dollars a year apart in the big number to be settled.
“All the developing countries look very united behind $1.3 trillion. That’s not a ceiling. That’s what they want. That’s what they think they need,” said Debbie Hillier, policy lead at Mercy Corps. “The U.S. and Canada are constantly talking about a floor of $100 billion…. So you’ve got $100 billion at one end and $1.3 trillion” on the other end.
While poor countries have come up with a number for the total final package, the rich donor nations have assiduously avoided giving a total, choosing to pick a figure late in the bargaining game, Hillier said.
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Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released Sunday from an upcoming new book ahead of the pontiff’s jubilee year.
It’s the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.
The book, by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.
“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.
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AP Top 25: Oregon is the unanimous No. 1 team again; Georgia is back in top 10 and LSU out of Top 25
Oregon remained the unanimous No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday after its close call at Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Alabama each jumped up two spots and Georgia returned to the top 10. LSU is unranked for the first time in two years.
The unbeaten Ducks are atop the AP Top 25 for the fifth straight week, passing Texas as the No. 1 team for the most polls this season. They received all 62 first-place votes for the third week in a row after scoring their fewest points in 37 games in the 16-13 win over Wisconsin.
Oregon also holds the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings and will attempt to complete its first perfect regular season since 2010 when it hosts Washington in two weeks.
The Ducks were followed in the AP poll by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana for the second straight week. The top five could be due for a shakeup this week with Indiana visiting Ohio State for one of the most anticipated games of the season.
Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee rounded out the top 10. Georgia got a three-rung promotion to No. 8 with its 31-17 win over Tennessee.
The Associated Press
