AP-Newswatch

Israel passes two laws to restrict the work of a UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament has passed two laws that severely restrict the U.N. agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza. The first bill passed Monday bans the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. The second cuts ties with the main U.N. provider of aid to Gaza and designates it a terror organization. The votes followed a fiery debate between supporters of the laws and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. Also on Monday, the Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 43,000 people have been killed in the yearlong war with Israel. It does not provide a breakdown between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead were women and children.

Americans in Puerto Rico can’t vote for US president. Their anger at Trump is shaping the race

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Residents say a speaker calling Puerto Rico garbage before a packed Donald Trump rally in New York was the latest humiliation for an island territory that has long suffered from mistreatment. Their expressions of fury could affect the presidential election. Phones across Puerto Rico were buzzing after a comedian derided the island, calling it ‘a floating island of garbage.’ While those in Puerto Rico are not allowed to vote in presidential elections despite being U.S. citizens, they stay in close touch with relatives in the mainland and can be a powerful influence.

In their own words: What it’s like in a ‘chaos’ Congress and why these lawmakers keep coming back

WASHINGTON (AP) — Polarizing. Challenging. A lot of wasted time. That’s how lawmakers describe what it is like being in the U.S. House these days. It’s a particularly tumultuous period in American history that has brought governing to a standstill and put their own lives in danger. The Associated Press sat down separately with six lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, to hear what it’s like on Capitol Hill and what they — and Americans — can do differently to make Congress work better. They describe why they first ran for office and why they keep running for reelection to come back.

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder back on the menu after testing rules out beef patties as E. coli source

LOS ANGELES (AP) — McDonald’s says testing has ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to its Quarter Pounders. The company said Sunday it will resume selling Quarter Pounders at hundreds of affected restaurants in the coming week. McDonald’s said in a statement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to believe that slivered onions from a single supplier are the likely source of contamination. Federal health officials said that as of Friday, the outbreak had expanded to at least 75 people sick in 13 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says one person has died in Colorado.

North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to fight in Ukraine, Pentagon says

BRUSSELS (AP) — Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within “the next several weeks.” Singh said Monday that some of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine. She says the U.S. is “increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk” region. It comes after NATO said some of the North Korean troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

Tens of thousands rally in Georgia to denounce the parliamentary election they say was rigged

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Tens of thousands of Georgians massed outside parliament, demanding the annulment of the weekend parliamentary election that the president has alleged was rigged with the help of Russia. The rally deepened the political crisis in the South Caucasus country, where the governing Georgian Dream party has become increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. Protesters waved the flags of Georgia and the European Union at the rally. President Salome Zourabichvili, in an earlier interview with The Associated Press, urged the West to support opposition protests of the official results. Zourabichvili, who refused to recognize the results, says the country has fallen victim to Russian pressure aimed at derailing its plans to join the EU.

The dispute around a women’s volleyball team touches on a broader question: How to define ‘fair’

NEW YORK (AP) — One member of the women’s volleyball team at San Jose State University is part of a lawsuit challenging the presence of transgender athletes in women’s college sports. The person whose presence she’s challenging is her teammate. The situation has picked up steam in recent weeks. It’s a microcosm of the moment in the country at large — one situation in a land where so many people talk past each other and struggle to find common ground. And it reveals a wide range of opinions and positions about what the word “fairness” actually means.