AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Hamas' top political leader is killed in Iran in strike that risks triggering all-out regional war
BEIRUT (AP) - Hamas' top political leader was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that risked escalating into an all-out regional war. Iran's supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel "will exact a very heavy price from any aggression against us on any front" but did not mention the killing. "There are challenging days ahead," he added.
Israel had pledged to kill Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group´s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. The strike came just after Haniyeh had attended the inauguration of Iran´s new president in Tehran - and hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran's ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The assassination was potentially explosive amid the region's volatile, intertwined conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in Tehran. Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates. The U.S. and other nations scrambled to prevent a wider, deadlier conflict.
In a statement on his official website, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said revenge was "our duty" and that Israel had "prepared a harsh punishment for itself" by killing "a dear guest in our home."
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Hezbollah confirms that a top commander was killed in Israeli strike in Beirut
BEIRUT (AP) - The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah confirmed Wednesday that Israel killed a top commander after a rare strike in Beirut.
The Iran-backed group said earlier that Fouad Shukur was in the building during the attack on Tuesday, and they were searching for him in the rubble to determine his fate.
Hezbollah´s announcement came after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
Israel said late Tuesday that it had killed Shukur, who it said was behind the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths. The United States also blames Shukur for staging and planning a bombing of a Marine Corps barrack in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American service members.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians - two children and three women - died in the strike in a busy neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations.
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UN report says Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since Oct. 7 faced torture, mistreatment
GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. human rights office issued a report Wednesday saying Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since the Oct. 7 attacks faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dogs set on them, and other forms of torture and mistreatment.
The report said Israel´s prison service held more than 9,400 "security detainees" as of the end of June, and some have been held in secret without access to lawyers or respect for their legal rights.
A summary of the report, based on interviews with former detainees and other sources, decried a "staggering" number of detainees - including men, women, children, journalists and human rights defenders - and said such practices raise concerns about arbitrary detention.
"The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law," said U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk in a statement.
Findings in the report, one of the most extensive of its kind, could be used by International Criminal Court prosecutors who are looking into crimes committed in connection with Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks and Israel´s blistering ongoing military campaign in Gaza.
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The war in Gaza might complicate Haniyeh's replacement. Here are the possible contenders
BEIRUT (AP) - The militant Palestinian group Hamas has a history of swift and smooth replacement of fallen leaders killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Ismail Haniyeh´s assassination in the Iranian capital early Wednesday comes at a time when Hamas is under extreme pressure since the war in Gaza started nearly 10 months ago following the group´s attack on southern Israel.
"We are not discussing this matter now," a Hamas official told The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, when asked about the process to replace Haniyeh.
Haniyeh headed the group´s political bureau until his death. His deputy was Saleh Arouri, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in January and would have been the automatic replacement. Arouri´s post has remained empty since his death.
The group´s Shura council, the main consultative body, is now expected to meet soon, likely after Haniyeh´s funeral in Qatar, to name a new successor. The council´s membership is kept secret but represents regional chapters of the group in Gaza, the West Bank and diaspora and those imprisoned.
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Venezuela's Maduro asks Supreme Court to audit the presidential election, but observers cry foul
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela´s Supreme Court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
Maduro told reporters Wednesday that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election.
"I throw myself before justice," he said to reporters outside the Supreme Court´s headquarters in Caracas, adding that he is "willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated."
This is Maduro's first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the Supreme Court is closely aligned with his government; the court's justices are proposed by federal officials and are ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.
The Carter Center criticized Maduro's audit request, saying the court wouldn´t provide an independent review.
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Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race
CHICAGO (AP) - Donald Trump falsely suggested Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the former president appeared before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago Wednesday in an interview that quickly turned hostile.
The Republican former president wrongly claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage.
"I didn´t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don´t know, is she Indian or is she Black?" Trump said while addressing the group's annual convention.
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation´s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting her colleagues´ legislation to strengthen voting rights and reforming policing.
Trump has leveled a wide range of criticism at Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden atop the likely Democratic ticket last week. Throughout his political career, the former president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of opponents who are racial minorities.
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Léon Marchand pulls off one of the most audacious doubles in swimming history at the Paris Olympics
NANTERRE, France (AP) - Turns out, those comparisons to Michael Phelps weren't farfetched at all when it comes to Léon Marchand.
They certainly weren't a burden for the 22-year-old Frenchman.
Marchand completed one of the most audacious doubles in swimming history Wednesday night, winning the 200-meter butterfly and the 200 breaststroke about two hours apart in front a home crowd cheering his every stroke.
Two grueling races. Two very different strokes. Two Olympic records. Two gold medals.
Take that, Phelps.
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Fed Chair Powell says September interest rate cut could be 'on the table' as inflation cools
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday set the stage for the central bank's first rate cut in four years, citing greater progress toward lower inflation as well as a cooler job market that no longer threatens to overheat the economy.
Still, the Fed kept its key interest rate unchanged at a 23-year high of 5.3%, despite calls from some economists and Democratic politicians to implement a cut Wednesday. Instead, Powell said that, if inflation continues to fall, "a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table" when the Fed next meets Sept. 17-18.
"We´re getting closer to the point at which it´ll be appropriate to reduce our policy rate," Powell said, "but we´re not quite at that point."
A rate cut by the Fed is unlikely to have much immediate impact because it is largely expected by financial markets. Yet over time, lower Fed rates should reduce borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including mortgage and auto-loan rates.
Rate cuts could also bolster the economy and potentially improve Vice President Kamala Harris' prospects in the upcoming presidential election. Former President Donald Trump has said the Fed shouldn't cut rates before the election. After September, the Fed's next meeting is two days after the election in November.
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Delta CEO says airline is facing $500 million in costs from global tech outage
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says the airline is facing $500 million in costs related to a global tech outage this month that disrupted emergency services, communications and thousands of businesses.
Speaking on CNBC, Bastian said Wednesday that the monetary amount represents lost revenue as well as "the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels" for the five-day period.
A week ago, CrowdStrike blamed a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off the global tech outage that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers.
Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike also outlined measures it will take to prevent the problem from recurring, including staggering the rollout of updates, giving customers more control over when and where they occur, and providing more details about the updates that it plans.
Among airlines, Delta was by far the hardest hit hard by the outage, having to cancel thousands of flights, because key systems were crippled by the incident.
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What's next for Katie Ledecky? Another race and a relay as she goes for more records
NANTERRE, France (AP) - Katie Ledecky has tied one of swimming's most impressive records.
Chances are, she'll have it all to herself by the time she completes the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old Ledecky bumped her career total to 12 medals with a dominating victory in the 1,500-meter freestyl e Wednesday night, equaling three fellow Americans - Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin and Jenny Thompson - for the most ever by a female swimmer.
Ledecky won her first gold in London when she was just 15.
"It´s not easy, it doesn´t get any easier, so I do try to enjoy it each year and there´s different perspective that I have different years and different challenges that you face each year," Ledecky said after winning the 1,500.
