AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

The letter was included as part of a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier who was once a friend of Trump's. The full House committee on Monday night released a copy of the entire album, which bore names of some other prominent figures such as former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz in a “friends” section, and included other letters with sexually provocative language.

Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter, and he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for earlier reporting on his link to the letter.

“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement posted on X. “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted various pictures on X of Trump’s signature over the years and wrote, “it’s not his signature.”

Nepal’s prime minister resigns following violent protests against social media ban and corruption

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s prime minister resigned Tuesday following violent protests against a ban on social media platforms and government corruption.

Khadga Prasad Oli said he was stepping down immediately.

His resignation came after protesters set fire to the homes of some of Nepal's top political leaders in opposition to a social media ban that was lifted early Tuesday, a day after deadly anti-government protests when police opened fire and killed 19 people.

Local reports and videos shared on social media showed protesters attacking residences of the top political leaders in and around Kathmandu. A curfew was imposed in the capital and other cities, and schools in Kathmandu were closed.

The houses set on fire included those of Sher Bahadur Deuba, leader of the largest party Nepali Congress, President Ram Chandra Poudel, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak and leader of the Communist party of Nepal Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal. A private school owned by Deuba's wife Arzu Deuba Rana, who is the current foreign minister, was also set on fire.

Israeli military urges full evacuation of Gaza City ahead of expanded military operation

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military urged a full evacuation of Gaza City on Tuesday morning ahead of its planned expanded offensive in the northern city, where hundreds of thousands of people struggle under conditions of famine.

The announcement was the first warning for a full evacuation of the city in the current round of fighting. Previously, the military has warned specific sections of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of concentrated operations or strikes.

Associated Press reporters saw more cars and trucks than previous days passing from northern to southern Gaza on Tuesday, laden with supplies and people, but no widespread evacuation.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said Israel had demolished 30 high-rise buildings in Gaza, which it accused Hamas of using for military infrastructure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel destroyed at least 50 “terror towers” that he said are used by Hamas. It was unclear if the towers Katz referred to are in addition to those announced by Netanyahu, who called the demolition of the high-rises “only the introduction, only the beginning of the main intensive operation — the ground incursion of our forces.”

New Chicago immigration campaign prompts confusion as city braces for federal intervention

CHICAGO (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security trumpeted the start of a new immigration operation Monday in Chicago, stirring up fresh confusion and anxiety as the city remained on alert for a federal intervention President Donald Trump has touted for days.

Blasting so-called sanctuary laws in Chicago and Illinois, the latest effort targets people without legal permission to live in the U.S. who have criminal records. Like other Trump administration plans, it was stamped with a splashy name, “Operation Midway Blitz,” and circulated on social media with the mugshots of 11 foreign-born men it said should be deported.

“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor (JB) Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” said a statement from DHS.

Pritzker, who has been locked in a back-and-forth with Trump for days, criticized the move. He and Mayor Brandon Johnson have defended the state and city's extensive sanctuary laws which bar coordination between local police and immigration agents. They’ve accused the Trump administration of using scare tactics, particularly with Latino residents in the nation’s third-largest city.

“Once again, this isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Instead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump administration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians.”

Commercial shipping likely cut Red Sea cables that disrupted internet access, experts say

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship likely cut cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, experts said Tuesday, showing the lines' vulnerability over a year after another incident severed them.

The International Cable Protection Committee told The Associated Press that 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern mouth of the Red Sea that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.

Over the weekend, authorities in multiple countries identified the cables affected as the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4, the India-Middle East-Western Europe and the FALCON GCX cables. On Tuesday, that list expanded to include the Europe India Gateway cable as well, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the firm Kentik.

Initial reporting suggested the cut happened off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, something authorities in the kingdom have not acknowledged, nor have the companies managing the cables.

“Early independent analysis indicates that the probable cause of damage is commercial shipping activity in the region,” John Wrottesley, the committee's operations manager, told the AP. “Damage to submarine cables from dragged anchors account for approximately 30% of incidents each year representing around 60 faults.”

At least 20 people killed in Russian glide bomb attack on village in eastern Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian glide bomb struck a village in eastern Ukraine as pensions were being distributed on Tuesday, killing more than 20 civilians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The bomb hit the village of Yarova in the Donetsk region, Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram.

“Frankly brutal,” he said of the attack, urging the international community to make Russia pay economically for its invasion through additional sanctions.

“The world should not remain silent,” Zelenskyy wrote. “The world should not remain inactive. The United States needs a reaction. Europe needs a reaction. The G20 needs a reaction. Strong action is needed so that Russia stops bringing death.”

Czech Republic and allies break up Belarus spy network across Europe

PRAGUE (AP) — A spy network being built in Europe by Belarus was broken up by intelligence services from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, the Czech counterintelligence agency said Monday.

The Czech agency, also known as BIS, said in a statement that a team of European agents discovered spies in several European countries from Belarus' KGB security agency. BIS said that a former deputy head of Moldovan intelligence service SIS who handed over classified information to the KGB was among them.

The Czechs also expelled a Belarusian agent who was operating under the cover of a diplomat. That person was given 72 hours to leave the Czech Republic, the Czech Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The Czech agency said that Belarus managed to create the network because its diplomats are able to freely travel across European countries.

“To successfully counter these hostile activities in Europe, we need to restrict the movement of accredited diplomats from Russia and Belarus within the Schengen (borderless) area,” BIS head Michal Koudelka said in a statement.

Apple to unveil next iPhone amid Trump trade war that could result in higher prices

Apple on Tuesday will unveil its next line-up of iPhones amid a global trade war that's added a potential price increase to the usual intrigue surrounding the annual evolution of the company's marquee product.

The new iPhones will be the first to be released since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed a barrage of tariffs, in what his administration says is an attempt to bring overseas manufacturing back to the U.S. — a crusade that has thrust Apple CEO Tim Cook into the hot seat.

If Apple follows the same naming scheme since the product's 2007 debut, the new models will be called the iPhone 17. But the Cupertino, California, company recently deviated from tradition with its naming formula for the iPhone operating system. When the next version of its iOS system was previewed at its developers conference in June, Apple revealed the free update will be called iOS 26 in reference to the upcoming year — a marketing technique that automakers have embraced for decades.

Regardless, these new iPhones are still expected to be made in Apple's manufacturing hubs in China and India, much to the Trump administration's consternation.

Both Trump and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly insisted that iPhones be made in the U.S. instead of overseas. It's an unrealistic demand that analysts say would take years to pull off and would result in a doubling, or even a tripling, of the iPhone's current average price of about $1,000.

US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China

BEIJING (AP) — The body camera hung from the top of the IV drip, recording the slightest twitch made by Yang Guoliang as he lay bloody and paralyzed in a hospital bed after a police beating with bricks.

By then, surveillance was nothing new for the Yang family in rural China, snared in an intricate network based on U.S. technology that spies on them and predicts what they’ll do.

Their train tickets, hotel bookings, purchases, text messages and phone calls are forwarded to the government. Their house is ringed with more than a dozen cameras. They’ve tried to go to Beijing 20 times in the past few years, but masked men show up and grab them, often before they depart. And last year, Yang’s wife and younger daughter were detained and now face trial for disrupting the work of the Chinese state — a crime carrying a sentence of up to a decade in prison.

Yet the Yangs say they are not criminals. They are simply farmers trying to beg Beijing to stop local officials from seizing their 1 1/2 acres of land in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

“Every move in my own home is monitored,” Yang said, sitting behind black curtains that block him from the glare of police lights trained straight at his house. “Their surveillance makes me feel unsafe all the time, everywhere.”

Years of activism resulted in a Hong Kong same-sex partnership bill, but a tough vote remains

HONG KONG (AP) — At her wedding, Jaedyn Yu felt her father’s tears marked a subtle yet touching shift in his attitude toward love between two women.

Yu's family initially struggled to accept her partner after they fell in love in 2019. Seeking both family recognition and legal rights, the couple decided to marry.

But rather than waiting for Hong Kong to establish its framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships, citing the uncertain timeline, they opted to marry via Zoom with a U.S. officiant in May and held their ceremony in Bali, Indonesia.

Their concern proved prescient. Despite the top court ruling in favor of recognizing same-sex partnerships in 2023, the government’s proposed framework, unveiled in July, has met fierce opposition in the legislature.

If passed, the bill would allow residents who already have formed unions overseas to register their partnerships locally and receive rights in handling medical and after-death matters. Lawmakers are set to resume the debate Wednesday, with their vote determining the future of the city’s same-sex couples.