AP Top News at 4:29 a.m. EST
Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-supplied longer range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the longer range 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.
A makeshift memorial grows in Ukraine's capital after 1,000 days of war
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Before Russia's invasion, this was an ordinary green lawn in the heart of Ukraine's capital. Tourists would visit to take photos, and locals would stroll there on weekends. But 1,000 days of war have transformed it into a makeshift memorial, dotted with blue-and-yellow flags — each honoring a soldier who died fighting Russia. Many were volunteers who left their civilian lives behind to answer to defend their country. Their loved ones, left alone with grief, hope their sacrifices won't be forgotten. They plant small, simple flags, hand-marked with the names and dates they died. Over time, the flags have multiplied, fluttering in the wind as the seasons change and the war drags on.
Middle East latest: 2 young children and parents killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, officials say
Some Arab Americans who voted for Trump are concerned about his picks for key positions
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Just a week after winning a majority of the vote in several of the nation's largest Arab-majority cities, President-elect Donald Trump has filled top administration posts with staunch Israel supporters, including an ambassador to Israel who has claimed "there is no such thing as Palestinians." Meanwhile, the two Trump advisers who led his outreach to Arab Americans have not secured positions in the administration yet. The selections have prompted mixed reactions among Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan, which went for Trump along with all six other battleground states. Some noted Trump's longstanding support for Israel and said their vote against Vice President Kamala Harris was not necessarily an endorsement of him.
Brazil hosts a G20 summit overshadowed by wars and Trump's return, aiming for a deal to fight hunger
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — With Brazil preparing to host the Group of 20 summit, it appears unlikely the leading rich and developing nations will sign on to a meaningful declaration regarding geopolitics: The meeting Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro is overshadowed by two major wars and Donald Trump's recent election victory. Heightened global tensions and uncertainty about an incoming Trump administration have tempered any expectations for a strongly worded statement addressing the conflicts in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine. Experts instead anticipate a final document focused on social issues like the eradication of hunger — one of Brazil's priorities — even if it aims to include at least a mention of the ongoing wars.
Climate talks in Azerbaijan head into their second week, coinciding with G20 in Rio
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations talks on getting money to curb and adapt to climate change resumed Monday with tempered hope that negotiators and ministers can work through disagreements and hammer out a deal after slow progress last week. That hope comes from the arrival of the climate and environment ministers from around the world this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the COP29 talks. They'll give their teams instructions on ways forward. "We are in a difficult place," said Melanie Robinson, economics and finance program director of global climate at the World Resources Institute. "The discussion has not yet moved to the political level — when it does I think ministers will do what they can to make a deal." Talks in Baku are focused on getting more climate cash for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels, adapt to climate change and pay for damages caused by extreme weather.
New Delhi closes schools, bans construction as air pollution shoots up to worst level this season
NEW DELHI (AP) — Authorities in India's capital shut schools, halted construction and banned non-essential trucks from entering the city on Monday after air pollution shot up to its worst level this season. Residents of New Delhi woke up to thick, toxic smog enveloping the city of some 33 million as the air quality became increasingly hazardous. It rose further into the severe category, according to SAFAR, the country's main environmental agency, which measures tiny particulate matter in the air that can enter deep into the lungs. The deadly haze covered monuments and high-rise buildings in the capital, with visibility so low that airlines warned of delays.
Typhoon Man-yi leaves 7 dead in landslide in Philippines and worsens crisis from back-to-back storms
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Man-yi left at least seven people dead in a landslide, destroyed scores of houses and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by multiple back-to-back storms, officials said Monday. Man-yi was one of the strongest of the six major storms to hit the northern Philippines in less than a month and had sustained winds of up to 195 kilometers (125 miles) per hour when it slammed into the eastern island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night. Torrential rains and fierce wind unleashed by Man-yi set off a landslide early Monday in the northern town of Ambaguio in Nueva Vizcaya province that buried a house and killed seven people, including children, and injured three others inside, regional police chief Brig.
HONG KONG (AP) — Dozens of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in the largest case under a national security law that critics say crushed political activism in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. The convictions of the 45 activists under the Beijing-imposed law are widely seen as part of a crackdown by China that destroyed hopes for a more democratic Hong Kong. They face sentences of up to life imprisonment. The activists were among 47 people charged with conspiracy to commit subversion in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates. They were accused of agreeing to veto government-proposed budgets indiscriminately after securing a legislative majority to force a dissolution of the legislature and then the ouster of the city's leader.
As China cracks down on bookstores at home, Chinese-language booksellers are flourishing overseas
WASHINGTON (AP) — Yu Miao smiles as he stands among the 10,000 books crowded on rows of bamboo shelves in his newly reopened bookstore. It's in Washington's vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood, far from its last location in Shanghai, where the Chinese government forced him out of business six years ago. "There is no pressure from the authorities here," said Yu, the owner of JF Books, Washington's only Chinese bookseller. "I want to live without fear." Independent bookstores have become a new battleground in China, swept up in the ruling Communist Party's crackdown on dissent and free expression. The Associated Press found that at least a dozen bookstores in the world's second-largest economy have been shuttered or targeted for closure in the last few months alone, squeezing the already tight space for press freedom.
