AP-Newswatch

Mediators look to extend truce in Gaza on its final day, with one more hostage swap planned

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — International mediators appeared to have made progress Wednesday on extending the truce in Gaza. They are encouraging the territory’s Hamas rulers to keep freeing hostages in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners and further respite from Israel’s air and ground offensive. The deal will otherwise expire within a day. Israel has welcomed the release of dozens of hostages in recent days and says it will maintain the truce if Hamas keeps freeing captives. But its other major goal is the annihilation of the armed group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years and orchestrated the deadly attack on Israel that triggered the war. That seems less and less likely.

US military Osprey aircraft with 6 aboard crashes off southern Japan, at least 1 dead

TOKYO (AP) — A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed off southern Japan has been pronounced dead. Japanese coast guard officials say the cause of Wednesday’s crash and the status of the five others on board were not immediately known. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the U.S. military later revised the number to six. The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft that can function as both a helicopter and a turboprop aircraft. U.S. and Japanese officials say the aircraft belonged to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo. U.S. Air Force officials at Yokota said they are still confirming information and have no immediate comment.

Rosalynn Carter set for funeral and burial in the town where she and her husband were born

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Rosalynn Carter is set to receive her final accolades and farewells in Plains, Georgia. It’s the same tiny town where the former first lady was born. There, she and former President Jimmy Carter based his 1976 presidential campaign and returned after their White House years as they became global humanitarians. Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19. Her funeral Wednesday will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church. The service comes on the last of three days of public tributes. The 99-year-old former president attended a memorial service Tuesday in Atlanta. Rosalynn Carter will be buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband.

Trump embraces the Jan. 6 rioters on the trail. In court, his lawyers hope to distance him from them

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have suggested their strategy in his election interference case in Washington involves distancing him from the horde of U.S. Capitol rioters, whom he has embraced on the campaign trail. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has signaled it will make the case Trump is responsible for the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, and point to the Republican ex-president’s continued support of the rioters to help establish his criminal intent. The competing arguments highlight the extent to which the riot serves as an inescapable backdrop in a landmark trial set to begin March 4 in a courthouse just blocks from the Capitol.

Climate contradictions key at UN talks. Less future warming projected, yet there’s more current pain

Experts say the world is heading for considerably less warming than projected a decade ago, but that good news is overwhelmed by much more pain from current climate change than scientists anticipated. That’s just one of a set of seemingly contradictory conditions facing climate negotiators who this week gather in Dubai for marathon United Nations talks that include a first-ever assessment of how well the world is doing in its battle against global warming. One of the central topics of the conference will be whether fossil fuels should be phased out, but the summit will be run by the CEO of an oil company.

At least 40 civilians killed by al-Qaida-linked rebels in a Burkina Faso town, UN rights office says

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The United Nations’ rights office says at least 40 civilians were killed last weekend by al-Qaida-linked rebels trying to take control of a besieged town in Burkina Faso’s hard-hit northern region. The militants in the attack on Sunday also wounded 42 people and set fire to three camps for internally displaced people. The U.N. Human Rights Office said Tuesday in a statement that the attack was a war crime. Approximately half of Burkina Faso is outside government control. The landlocked country has been ravaged by jihadi attacks.

Was the Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent a hate crime? Under state law it might be

BOSTON (AP) — Authorities in Vermont are weighing whether the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent over the weekend was a hate crime. The victims were shot and injured Saturday while walking near the University of Vermont campus. Forty-eight-year-old Jason Eaton, who is white, was arrested Sunday and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. Whether the shooting can be declared a hate crime is complicated. Vermont’s hate crimes statute applies to someone whose crime is motivated “in whole or in part, by the victim’s actual or perceived protected category.” But investigators don’t yet have evidence to support such an enhancement, which state law dictates must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

US life expectancy rose last year, but it remains below its pre-pandemic level

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. life expectancy rose last year, but it still isn’t close to what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. It was up by more than a year in 2022, after plunging two straight years at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s now 77 years, 6 months — about what it was two decades ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers on Wednesday. Researchers say the rise was mainly due the waning pandemic. The snapshot statistic is considered one of the most important measures of the health of the U.S. population.

Sports Illustrated is the latest media company damaged by an AI experiment gone wrong

NEW YORK (AP) — Sports Illustrated is the latest media company damaged by being less than forthcoming about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age. The website Futurism reported that the once-grand magazine used articles with “authors” who apparently don’t exist, with photos generated by AI. The magazine denied claims that some articles themselves were AI-assisted, but has cut ties with a vendor it hired to produce the articles. The Gannett newspaper chain and the tech website CNET each had unsuccessful experiments with AI this past year and had kept readers in the dark about what they were doing.

In the US, Black survivors are nearly invisible in the Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis

BALTIMORE (AP) — Black survivors have been nearly invisible in the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis — even in Baltimore, home to a historic Black Catholic community. Cases of clergy abuse among African Americans are underreported, experts say, and the church generally does not publicly track victims’ race. This year, the Maryland attorney general released a scathing report, documenting abuse cases in the Baltimore archdiocese but leaving out context about race. An AP analysis subsequently found that out of 27 parishes in the archdiocese that have significant Black populations, at least 19 — 70% — previously had priests on staff who have been accused of sexual abuse.