AP-Newswatch

Mediators hold new Gaza cease-fire talks and hope to head off a wider war

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — International mediators held a new round of talks aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. The U.S., Qatar and Egypt met Thursday with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war surpassed 40,000. That’s according to Gaza health authorities. Hamas, which didn’t participate directly, accuses Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had U.S. and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle. White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby says the talks were expected to run into Friday.

As Gaza death toll passes 40,000, corpses are buried in yards, streets, tiered graves

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — With the death toll in Gaza surpassing 40,000 after 10 months of war, the small, densely packed territory is crammed with bodies. Families are often on the run and must bury their dead wherever possible. Witness accounts and video footage show that bodies are buried in backyards and parking lots, beneath staircases and along roadsides. Others lie under rubble, their families unsure they will ever be counted. A steady drumbeat of death since the Israel-Hamas war began in October has claimed nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population. The count by Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza does not distinguish civilians from militants. Health officials and civil defense workers say the true toll could be thousands more.

White House says deals struck to cut prices of popular Medicare drugs that cost $50 billion yearly

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials have reached deals with drug companies to lower the price for 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs. But there are few immediate details about the new prices that older Americans will pay when they fill those prescriptions. White House officials say they expect taxpayers to save $6 billion and older adults could save roughly $1.5 billion in total on their medications. The newly negotiated prices will impact the price of drugs that help manage diabetes, blood cancers and prevent heart failure or blood clots. But the new prices won’t go into effect until 2026. Next year, the government can select another 15 drugs for price negotiations.

Zelenskyy says Ukrainian troops have taken full control of the Russian town of Sudzha

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv’s troops have full control of the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region in their incursion into Russian territory. The town, the largest that Ukraine has reportedly seized so far, had a prewar population of around 5,000 people. Natural gas flows from West Siberian gas fields through pipes that pass through Sudzha and cross the Ukrainian border into Ukraine’s system. Zelenskyy said Thursday that a Ukrainian military commander’s office is being set up in Sudzha. He didn’t elaborate on the details or the functions of the office. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.

Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race. Her campaign is previewing an economic policy speech that she’ll give in North Carolina on Friday, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries. Harris is putting particular emphasis on rising meat prices, which she says account for a large part of rising grocery bills. Year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years. But food prices remain 21% above where they were three years ago. And Republican Donald Trump has been pointing to inflation as a key failing of the Biden administration.

Donald Trump asks judge to delay sentencing in hush money case until after November election

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is asking the judge in his New York hush money criminal case to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election. In a letter made public Thursday, a lawyer for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference. Trump lawyer’s Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge is expected to rule Sept. 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

‘Hollywood Squares’ host and Broadway star Peter Marshall dies at 98

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Marshall, who played straight man to the stars for 16 years as host of “The Hollywood Squares,” has died at 98. The West Virginia-born Marshall was a singer and actor who appeared in films and on Broadway before landing the job in 1966 on “Hollywood Squares,” which he would host for more than 5,000 episodes through 1981. The questions Marshall would ask celebrity guests, most famously show regular and center square Paul Lynde, served as set-ups for joke answers before the real ones came. Major starring roles eluded him in Hollywood, but he would find them in musical theater.

Venezuelan opposition leader rejects Brazil’s idea of redoing Venezuela’s presidential vote

SAO PAULO (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has rejected a proposal from Brazil’s president that Venezuela hold a new presidential election following the contested results of last month’s vote. Machado said during a virtual press conference with Argentine media that redoing the election would be “an insult” to the people, and she asked: “if he doesn’t like the results do we go for a third one?” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said earlier that he still doesn’t recognize Nicolás Maduro as the winner of last month’s presidential election in Venezuela, and that his counterpart could call for a new vote “if he has good sense.”

Matthew Perry’s assistant among 5 people, including 2 doctors, charged in ‘Friends’ star’s death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A prosecutor says five people have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death, including the actor’s assistant and two doctors. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges Thursday, saying the doctors supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine and even wondered in a text message how much the former “Friends” star would be willing to pay. Perry’s assistant, who authorities say injected the actor with ketamine on the day he died, found Perry face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28. Paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead. His autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

How a small group of nuns in rural Kansas vex big companies with their investment activism

ATCHISON, Kansas (AP) — Among corporate America’s most persistent shareholder activists are 80 nuns in a monastery outside Kansas City. The Benedictine sisters of Mount St. Scholastica have taken on the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Google – calling on companies to do everything from AI oversight to measuring pesticides. They invest in corporations that match their religious ideals, but also in some that don’t, so they can push change. As activist investing becomes politically polarized, the nuns are no strangers to making a statement. Recently they went viral for denouncing a speech from fellow Catholic Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs.