AP News Summary at 11:28 p.m. EDT
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing pressure for a humanitarian pause in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza. Netanyahu insisted Friday that there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony聽Blinken made his聽third trip聽to Israel since the war began and reiterated American support for Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas after its brutal Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. He also echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Trapped in hell: Palestinian civilians try to survive in northern Gaza, focus of Israel’s offensive
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Weeks after ordering northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants to evacuate south, the Israeli army is intensifying its bombing of the area that stretches to the wetlands of Wadi Gaza, in the central strip. Israeli soldiers are also battling Hamas militants just north of Gaza City. It’s the start of what officials expect to be a long and bloody invasion that has already pinned down hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north. Residents say they are trapped in hell. In the aftermath of one airstrike this week, a neonatal nurse spotted the bodies of her two young sons while dealing with the flood of dead and wounded arriving at her hospital.
Supreme Court will rule on ban on rapid-fire gun bump stocks, used in the Las Vegas mass shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a ban on gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns violates federal law. The justices said Friday they’ll hear arguments next year over a gun bump stocks regulation the Justice Department implemented after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions about whether the regulation defining a bump stock as a machine gun comports with federal law. The justices say they’ll review the Biden administration’s appeal of a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that invalidated the ban.
US employers pulled back on hiring in October, adding 150,000 jobs in face of higher borrowing rates
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers slowed their hiring in October, adding a modest but still decent 150,000 jobs, a sign that the labor market may be cooling but remains resilient despite high interest rates that have made borrowing much costlier for companies and consumers. Last month’s job growth, though down sharply from a robust 297,000 gain in September, was solid enough to suggest that many companies still want to hire and that the economy remains sturdy. And job growth would have been higher in October if not for the now-settled United Auto Workers’ strikes against Detroit’s automakers. The strikes likely shrank last month’s job gain by at least 30,000, economists say.
At least 128 dead as strong quake rocks northwestern Nepal, and officials say toll expected to rise
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A strong earthquake has shaken northwestern Nepal, and officials say at least 128 people are dead and dozens more injured as rescuers search mountain villages. Officials said Saturday that the toll was expected to rise, saying communication was cut off with many villages. Officials say the earthquake that struck late Friday killed at least 92 people in Jajarkot district and 36 people in neighboring Rukum district. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 and occurred at a depth of 11 miles. Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring & Research Center says its epicenter was at Jajarkot, which is about 250 miles northeast of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
Panama president signs into law a moratorium on new mining concessions. A Canadian mine is untouched
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s president has signed into law an indefinite moratorium on new mining concessions. President Laurentino Cortizo signed the law Friday, which also prohibits renewing existing concessions. Panama’s National Assembly approved the bill Thursday. An article was removed, however, that would have revoked a controversial mining contract that had sparked nationwide protests over the past two weeks. The new law will still allow Minera Panama to operate an open-pit copper mine in the state of Colon for 20 years, with a possible extension for another 20 years. Environmentalists argue the mine threatens to destroy more of the dense jungle surrounding it and imperils local drinking water.
Lawyers in Trump’s civil fraud trial are ordered to clam up about judge’s communications with staff
NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial has ordered attorneys in the case not to comment on “confidential communications” between him and his staff. Judge Arthur Engoron’s written order Friday came after Trump’s lawyers pressed their complaints about a clerk in the former president’s civil business fraud trial. Engoron threatened “serious sanctions” for any violations. Trump’s lawyers have been pointing out that the judge’s principal law clerk gives him notes during testimony. The state lawsuit accuses Trump and his company of deceiving banks and insurers by exaggerating his wealth on his annual financial statements.
Can Trump be on the ballot in 2024? It can hinge on the meaning of ‘insurrection’
DENVER (AP) — A series of lawsuits challenging former President Donald Trump’s ability to run for his old job raise the question of what, exactly, is an insurrection. A rarely used section of the Constitution says no one who swore an oath to the document but then “engaged in insurrection” against it can hold higher office. Liberal groups are citing that in an effort to keep Trump off the ballot in Colorado, Minnesota and other states. They argue that the Jan. 6 attack against the Capitol was an insurrection. But there’s a debate over how to define that word — or even which definition to use.
As billions roll in to fight the US opioid epidemic, one county shows how recovery can work
FINDLAY, Ohio (AP) — Legal settlements could provide local and state governments $50 billion to fight the deadly U.S. opioid overdose crisis. What could that look like? One Ohio community is already doing many of the things advocates say should be considered. Hancock County funds harm reduction efforts such as a needle exchange and naloxone distribution. It also has a recovery community center, a drug court intended to get people into treatment rather than jail, housing for some people in recovery and aggressive outreach to help people with substance use disorder navigate their options for help.
Maine mass shooter was alive for most of massive 2-day search, autopsy suggests
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An autopsy suggests that the mass shooter in Lewiston, Maine, was alive and possibly on the run during a good portion of the huge search that followed his disappearance. The hunt for Army reservist Robert Card led to community-wide shelter-in-place orders. The medical examiner officer’s office released its conclusion Friday about Card’s time of death. It comes a week after his body was discovered in the back of a tractor-trailer on the property of his former employer. Card died from a self-inflicted gunshot. The Oct. 25 shootings at a bar and bowling alley killed 18 people and wounded 13 others.