Facing global isolation at UN, a defiant Netanyahu says Israel 'must finish the job' against Hamas
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Surrounded by critics and protesters at the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders on Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza, giving a defiant speech despite growing international isolation over his refusal to end the devastating war. “Western leaders may have buckled under the pressure," he said. “And I guarantee you one thing: Israel won’t.”
Netanyahu's speech, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began.
Responding to countries’ recent decisions to recognize Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu said: “Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere.”
As the Israeli leader spoke, unintelligible shouts echoed around the hall, while applause came from supporters in the gallery. Seats allotted to the United States — which has backed Netanyahu in his campaign against Hamas — and the United Kingdom were filled by low-level diplomats instead of senior ambassadors or officials. Many seats were vacant; by Iran’s empty chairs stood a compilation of photos of children that Tehran said were killed during Israel’s war there in June.
“Antisemitism dies hard. In fact, it doesn't die at all,” said Netanyahu, who routinely accuses critics of antisemitism.
Tropical weather in the Atlantic is slamming the Caribbean and may strike Southeast US next
MIAMI (AP) — Dangerous tropical weather brewed Friday in the Atlantic Ocean with Humberto intensifying into a powerful Category 4 hurricane and a system forecasters dubbed “Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine” striking the Caribbean and taking aim at the Southeast United States.
Hurricane Humberto had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) Friday night, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory. The storm was located about 390 miles (630 kilometers) northeast of the northern Leeward Islands.
Humberto could produce life-threatening surf and rip currents for the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Bermuda over the weekend, forecasters said.
Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning associated with Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine was issued for the Central Bahamas. The center of the tropical disturbance was about 145 miles (235 kilometers) northwest of the eastern tip of Cuba, forecasters said. It had top winds of 35 mph (55 kph). A tropical storm watch was issued for portions of the northwestern Bahamas.
The hurricane center said the potential cyclone was likely to become a tropical depression — the next name in the alphabet would be Imelda — on Saturday. By Sunday, it could be a tropical storm.
FBI fires agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, three people familiar with the matter said Friday.
The bureau last spring had reassigned the agents but has since fired them, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel matters with The Associated Press.
The number of FBI employees terminated was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.
The photographs at issue showed a group of agents in a taking a knee during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice and sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the arrest. The kneeling had angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a period of protests.
The FBI Agents Association confirmed in a statement late Friday that more than a dozen agents had been fired, including military veterans with additional statutory protections, and condemned the move as unlawful. It called on Congress to investigate and said the firings were another indication of FBI Director Kash Patel's disregard for the legal rights of bureau employees.
DNA evidence links a dead man to the 1991 killings of 4 girls at Texas yogurt shop
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police named a dead man Friday as a new suspect in the 1991 unsolved killings of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop, saying DNA evidence led to a “significant breakthrough” in the brutal crime that has haunted Texas’ capital and stumped investigators for decades.
In a statement, Austin police said DNA tests led investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide in 1999 during a standoff with law enforcement. He has since then been linked to several killings and rape in other states.
The announcement came amid renewed attention on the case with the release last month of “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” an HBO documentary series. Police said the case remains open and scheduled a Monday news conference to detail their findings.
The murders stunned Texas’ capital city and became known as one of the area’s most notorious crimes. Austin police investigators and prosecutors had stumbled over the case for years as they waded through thousands of leads, several false confessions and badly damaged evidence from the burned-out crime scene.
“Our team never gave up working this case,” Austin police said.
Assata Shakur, a fugitive Black militant sought by the US since 1979, dies in Cuba
Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba after her 1979 escape from a U.S. prison where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a police officer, has died, her daughter and the Cuban government said.
Shakur, who went by Joanne Deborah Chesimard before changing her name, died Thursday in the capital city of Havana due to “health conditions and advanced age,” Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Shakur's daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed her mother's death in a Facebook post.
Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur had been arrested, convicted and imprisoned, said she was 78.
A member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Shakur's case had long been emblematic of the fraught relations between the U.S. and Cuba. American authorities, including President Donald Trump during his first term, demanded her return from the communist nation for decades.
The FBI put Shakur on its list of “ most wanted terrorists,” but, in her telling — and in the minds of her supporters — she was pursued for crimes she didn’t commit or that were justified.
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Listeria found in Walmart, Trader Joe's meals may be linked to deadly fettuccine outbreak
Federal health officials are warning consumers not to eat certain heat-and-eat pasta meals sold at Walmart and Trader Joe's because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria previously linked to a deadly outbreak.
The U.S. Agriculture Department updated a public health alert Friday to include Trader Joe's Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettucine Alfredo sold in 16-ounce plastic trays. The products have best-by dates of Sept. 20, Sept. 24 and Sept. 27 and still may be in customers' refrigerators. The affected meals have the number P- 45288 inside the USDA inspection mark.
Late Thursday the USDA issued a warning for Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce sold at Walmart in refrigerated 12-ounce clear plastic trays. Those products have best-by dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 1. The affected meals contain the establishment numbers “EST. 50784” and “EST. 47718” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the label. They were sent to Walmart stores nationwide.
Additional products may be identified, according to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
No recall has been issued, but FreshRealm, a large food producer that distributed the products, said they advised Walmart this week to pull the meals from store shelves. Walmart officials said they put a stop on sales and removed the products from stores.
ICE arrests leader of Iowa's largest school district, says he was living and working in US illegally
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration agents targeted the well-liked leader of Iowa’s largest school district in a traffic stop Friday and arrested him after he fled into the woods, leaving educators and community members stunned.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Roberts was in the country illegally and had no work authorization. Roberts, who is from Guyana in South America, was considered an ICE fugitive because he was subject to a final removal order issued in 2024, the agency said.
ICE said that it targeted Roberts for arrest by initiating a traffic stop on Friday while he was driving in his school-issued vehicle. After he fled, officers discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. He was eventually located and taken into ICE custody with the help of Iowa State Patrol officers. Roberts was brought to Woodbury County's jail in northwest Iowa late Friday afternoon, according to jail and ICE records. It was unclear if Roberts had an attorney to represent him.
Phil Roeder, the district’s spokesperson, said he was supposed to meet Roberts at a school event Friday morning, but Roberts sent a text saying he could not make it. Roeder said he got a video call from Roberts soon after and watched officials detain him.
Roeder told The Associated Press that the district has seen “nothing that would suggest that he's not a citizen.” The district said Friday afternoon that a third party was hired to conduct a comprehensive background check on Roberts and that Roberts completed an I-9, which requires workers to present documents showing that they were authorized to work. District officials also stated they had no knowledge of an order of removal issued in 2024.
Nexstar and Sinclair bring Jimmy Kimmel's show back to local TV stations
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group brought Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show back to their local TV stations on Friday night, ending a dayslong TV blackout for dozens of cities across the U.S.
The companies suspended the program on Sept. 17 over remarks the comedian made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing. Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel the same day, following threats of potential repercussions from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission.
The companies' dual moves Friday mean “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to local TV on Nexstar’s 28 ABC affiliates, from Topeka, Kansas, to New Orleans, along with Sinclair's 38 local markets, from Seattle to Washington D.C.
Kimmel's suspension lasted less than a week, while the affiliate blackout stood for just over a week.
When the boycott began, Sinclair, which is known for its conservative political content, called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family and asked him to “make a meaningful personal donation” to Turning Point USA, the nonprofit that Kirk founded.
Trump escalates retribution campaign with charges against Comey and threats against liberal groups
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's unprecedented retribution campaign against his perceived political enemies reached new heights as his Justice Department brought criminal charges against a longtime foe and he expanded his efforts to classify certain liberal groups as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
Days after Trump publicly demanded action from his attorney general and tapped his former personal lawyer to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia, former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime target of Trump's ire, was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly lying to Congress during testimony in 2020.
Hours earlier Thursday, Trump signed a memorandum directing his Republican administration to target backers of what they dubbed “left-wing terrorism" as he alleged without evidence a vast conspiracy by Democrat-aligned nonprofit groups and activists to finance violent protests.
The developments marked a dramatic escalation of the president's extraordinary use of the levers of presidential power to target his political rivals and his efforts to pressure the Justice Department to pursue investigations — and now prosecutions — of those he disdains. It's a campaign that began soon after Trump returned to office and one that critics see as an abuse of power that puts every American who dares to criticize the president at risk of retaliation.
“Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics," said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Comey indictment came less than a week after Trump installed a former White House aide and confidant to the role of U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. The president had forced the ouster of his previous pick because he wasn't sufficiently responsive to calls from Trump to bring charges against his longtime targets.
Trump's trade battle with China puts US soybean farmers in peril
MAGNOLIA, Ky. (AP) — The leafy soybean plants reach Caleb Ragland's thighs and are ripe for harvest, but the Kentucky farmer is deeply worried. He doesn't know where he and others like him will sell their crop because China has stopped buying.
Beijing, which traditionally has snapped up at least a quarter of all soybeans grown in the U.S., is in effect boycotting them in retaliation for the high tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese goods and to strengthen its hand in negotiations over a new overall trade deal.
It has left American soybean farmers fretting over not only this year's crop but the long-term viability of their businesses, built in part on China's once-insatiable appetite for U.S. beans.
“This is a five-alarm fire for our industry,” said Ragland, who leads the American Soybean Association trade group.
The situation might even be enough to test farmers’ loyalty to Trump, although he still enjoys strong support throughout rural America. If no deal is reached soon, they hope the government will come through with aid as it did during Trump's first term, but they see that only as a temporary solution. Trump said Thursday he is considering an aid package.
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