AP-Newswatch

Hezbollah leader vows retaliation against Israel for attacks on devices as both sides trade strikes

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Hezbollah vowed to retaliate for this week’s deadly attacks on the group’s communications devices. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes on Thursday as he spoke. Nasrallah called the attacks on Hezbollah’s devices a “severe blow” that crossed a “red line.” Lebanon is still reeling from this week’s attacks on electronic devices used by Hezbollah. Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies blew up at the same time in an operation widely believed to be carried out by Israel. At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and some 3,000 others were wounded. Israel’s defense minister said Hezbollah will pay an ‘increasing price’ as Israel seeks to return residents to homes near the Lebanon border.

Widespread adoption fraud separated generations of Korean children from their families, AP finds

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to satiate intense demand for adoptable babies in the West, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. In dozens of cases AP examined, it found: Children were kidnapped. Parents claim they were told their newborns were too sick to survive, only to have them shipped away. Documents were fabricated, leading to anguished reunions later with the wrong people. The investigation, in collaboration with Frontline (PBS), was based on interviews with more than 80 adoptees and drew on more than 100 information requests and thousands of pages of documents.

A new genetic analysis of animals in the Wuhan market in 2019 may help find COVID-19’s origin

LONDON (AP) — Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people. Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected and identified sub-populations of racoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats that may have been infected when brought to a market in Wuhan, China in late November 2019. While the research, published Thursday, bolsters the case that COVID-19 emerged from animals, it does not resolve the polarized debate over whether the virus instead emerged from a lab.

Flood-hit regions in Central Europe will get billions in EU aid

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has pledged billions of euros in aid for Central European countries that suffered enormous damage to infrastructure and housing during the massive flooding that has claimed 24 lives so far in the region. She visited a flood-damaged area in southeastern Poland on Thursday and met with the government heads of the affected countries — Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She said funds will be quickly made available for repairs from the EU’s solidarity fund, as well as 10 billion euros — about $11 billion — from what is called the cohesion fund, meant for the most urgent repairs.

Residents of Springfield, Ohio, hunker down and pray for a political firestorm to blow over

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — In the quiet corners of Springfield, Ohio — out of sight of the drumbeat of politicians, journalists, troopers and newly installed security cameras — people are attempting to carry on. Between the morning bomb sweeps of Springfield’s schools and the near daily afternoon media briefings, a hush comes over the city that residents say is uncanny, haunting even. They’re dismayed at being transformed overnight into a target for the nation’s vitriol. Residents say people are hunkered down and hoping the attention sparked by former President Donald Trump spreading unsubstantiated rumors about the city’s legal Haitian immigrants eating house pets during last week’s presidential debate will blow over.

A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads

KAMITUGA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s South Kivu province is at the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has called a global health emergency. A new strain of the virus is rapidly spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, sparking alarm among disease experts. Public health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Health officials say cases found in other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, but a lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread. Since the outbreak began, nearly 1,000 people in Kamituga have been infected and eight have died, half of them children.