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Mudslides in Ethiopia have killed at least 229. It’s not clear how many people are still missing

By: Amanuel Gebremedhin Birhane

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Mudslides triggered by heavy rain in a remote part of Ethiopia have killed at least 229 people, including many who tried to rescue survivors, local authorities said Tuesday, in what the prime minister called a “terrible loss.”

Young children and pregnant women were among the victims in Kencho Shacha Gozdi district of southern Ethiopia, said Dagmawi Ayele, a local administrator, adding that at least five people have been pulled out alive.

The death toll rose sharply from the initial one of 55 late Monday. Search operations continued in the area, said Kassahun Abayneh, head of the communications office in Gofa Zone, the administrative area where the mudslides occurred.

Ethiopia’s ruling party in a statement said it felt sorrow over the disaster. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement on Facebook that he was “deeply saddened by this terrible loss.”

It was not immediately clear how many people were still unaccounted for.


Netanyahu is in Washington at a fraught time for Israel and the U.S.

By: Ellen Knickmeyer, Ashraf Khalil And Farnoush Amiri

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week is looming as a fraught one between the two allies, coming at a moment of extreme political flux in the United States and wariness among American leaders about Netanyahu’s history of interjecting himself into U.S. domestic politics.

The main purpose of Netanyahu’s visit is a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. But at stake, in meetings with administration officials, are hopes for progress in U.S.-led efforts to mediate an end to the nine-month Israel-Hamas war. The visit comes as the toll of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza nears 40,000. It’s also in a week when new deaths were reported among the surviving hostages — who include Israelis, Americans and other nationalities — held by Hamas and other militants since the first hours of the war. 

Protests are planned for Netanyahu’s planned speech to both houses of Congress on Wednesday.


Biden will address the nation Wednesday on his decision to drop his 2024 Democratic reelection bid

By: Aamer Madhani

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (AP) — President Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening on his decision to drop his 2024 Democratic reelection bid.

Biden posted on X that he would speak “on what lies ahead” and how he will “finish the job for the American people.” He will speak at 8 p.m. ET.

The president is scheduled to return to the White House on Tuesday after isolating at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home after being diagnosed last week with COVID-19.

Biden has not been seen publicly since July 17, but he called into a campaign meeting on Monday to address staff and express his support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid to replace him a day after announcing he would leave the race.


Malaysia evacuates 123 citizens from violence-hit Bangladesh

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia evacuated 123 of its citizens from Bangladesh on Tuesday in response to violent unrest that has killed dozens of people.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution greeted the evacuees, including 80 students, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after they landed on a chartered AirAsia plane. More than 50 Malaysians opted to stay in the country due to work or study, officials said.

A controversial system for allocating government jobs has triggered violent protests in Bangladesh, with clashes between police and mainly student protesters killing more than 100 people, according to local media. 

There was apparent calm after Bangladesh top court scaled back the quota in a ruling issued Sunday.


Kenya’s turmoil widens as anti-government protesters clash with emerging pro-government group

By: Evelyne Musambi

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Anti-government protesters in Kenya’s capital clashed with an emerging pro-government group on Tuesday, with hundreds swarming and burning a motorcycle belonging to people who expressed support for the country’s president. The military made a rare deployment as the protests focused on the country’s main airport.

The weeks of turmoil in East Africa’s economic hub have led to dozens of deaths, the firing of most Cabinet members and calls for President William Ruto’s resignation. Protests began with Kenyans’ rejecting a proposed bill to impose more taxes as millions in the country barely get by amid rising prices.

The pro-government movement has emerged to counter the youth-led anti-government one. In Nairobi on Tuesday, the pro-government group took to the streets ahead of the latest anti-government demonstration.

One protester, Charles Onyango, questioned why police were not confronting the pro-government demonstrators yet again dispersed those calling for change.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the pro-government movement.


Thousands in Ukraine attend funeral of former lawmaker and critic of Russia who was killed in Lviv

By: Alex Babenko

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Several thousand mourners attended the funeral Monday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for a former lawmaker best known for her campaign to promote the Ukrainian language who was fatally shot in the street by an unknown assailant.

Iryna Farion, 60, was shot on Friday and later died from her wounds in a hospital. A search is underway for her attacker, who fled the scene. Ukrainian officials said the attack is being investigated as an assassination.

Her daughter Sofia Semchyshyn commented about her killing. “Killed, they killed her near her house during the day, on a sunny day.”

Farion served as a member of the Ukrainian parliament between 2012 and 2014, and was best known for her campaigns to promote the use of the Ukrainian language, urging that Ukrainian officials should not speak Russian. She controversially criticized Russian-speaking members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol in the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.


U.S. is investigating Delta’s flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage

By: David Koenig And Matt Ott

(AP) – U.S. regulators are investigating how Delta Air Lines is treating passengers affected by canceled and delayed flights as the airline struggles to recover from a global technology outage.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the Delta investigation on the X social media platform Tuesday “to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.”

Delta and its Delta Connection partners canceled close to 500 flights on Tuesday by midday on the East Coast, accounting for about two-thirds of all cancellations in the United States, according to FlightAware. 

The outage began Thursday night into Friday morning, after a faulty software upgrade from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike to more than eight million Microsoft computers around the world.

The Atlanta-based carrier has canceled more than 6,600 flights since the outage started, far more than any other airline, according to figures from FlightAware and travel-data provider Cirium.

Delta said it was cooperating with the investigation.




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