AP-Newswatch

Preliminary report suggests enemy drone that killed US troops in Jordan was mistaken for a US drone

WASHINGTON (AP) — An enemy drone that killed three American troops and wounded dozens of others in Jordan may have been confused with an American drone returning to the U.S. installation. That’s according to two U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity Monday. The officials say preliminary information suggests the enemy drone that struck the installation known as Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was in the air at the same time. The officials add that as the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was returning to base. As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone.

What is Tower 22, the military base that was attacked in Jordan where 3 US troops were killed?

JERUSALEM (AP) — A little-discussed U.S. military desert outpost in far reaches of northeastern Jordan has become the focus of international attention after a drone attack killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others there. The base, known as Tower 22, sits near the demilitarized zone on border between Jordan and Syria along a sandy, bulldozed berm marking the DMZ’s southern edge. The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometers (6 miles) away. The small installation includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops with about 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel deployed there.

Document spells out allegations against 12 UN employees Israel says participated in Hamas attack

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli document spells out allegations against a dozen U.N. employees the country says took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault. The document claims seven stormed into Israeli territory, including one who participated in a kidnapping and another who helped to steal a soldier’s body. The allegations against staffers with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees prompted Western countries to freeze funds vital for the body, which is a lifeline for desperate Palestinians in Gaza. The U.N. fired nine of the 12 accused workers. Two are reportedly dead, and the last is being identified. The accusations come after years of tensions between Israel and the agency. It employs roughly 13,000 people in Gaza.

Taking away Trump’s business empire would stand alone under New York fraud law

NEW YORK (AP) — Within days, Donald Trump could have his sprawling real estate business empire ordered “dissolved” for repeated misrepresentations on financial statements to lenders, adding him to a short list of scam marketers, con artists and others who have been hit with the ultimate punishment for violating New York’s powerful anti-fraud law. An Associated Press analysis of nearly 70 years of civil cases under the law showed that such a penalty has only been imposed a dozen previous times, and Trump’s case stands apart in a significant way: It’s the only big business found that was threatened with a shutdown without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.

Alex Murdaugh juror says clerk made him seem guilty of murder before he testified

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh is back in a South Carolina courtroom, trying to prove that misconduct by a clerk persuaded a jury to find him guilty of murdering his wife and son. The convicted killer, disbarred attorney and admitted thief is wearing his orange jumpsuit and listening as a judge asks about jury tampering allegations. The first juror questioned Monday said comments by Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill during the trial made it seem like Murdaugh was already guilty. But the juror also said pressure from other jurors persuaded her to vote to convict. All 12 said they stand by their guilty verdicts, and all but one said they weren’t influenced by anything the clerk might have said.

Figure skater Valieva disqualified in Olympic doping case. Russians set to lose team gold to US

GENEVA (AP) — Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport comes almost two years after Valieva’s doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games. The CAS ruling means the Russians are set to be stripped of the gold medal in figure skating’s team event. The United States finished second and is set to be named Olympic champion instead. The IOC did not present any medals for the team event in Beijing. The 15-year-old Valieva was the star performer hours before her positive test for a banned heart medicine was revealed.

Under bombing in eastern Ukraine and disabled by illness, an unknown painter awaits his fate

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — In the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, a disabled painter lies bed-ridden in an apartment, its window his only view into the changing world he can no longer comprehend. Mykola Soloviov is 88 years old and suffered a stroke 7 years ago. His landscapes of eastern Ukraine record a lost time. Last week, a Russian missile strike blew out the window that frames the scene he painted over and over again. He’s now too ill to be moved, but his wife and middle-aged son are struggling to look after him.

China Evergrande has been ordered to liquidate. The real estate giant owes over $300 billion

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court has ordered China Evergrande, the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer, to be liquidated following a failed effort to restructure $300 billion owed to banks and bondholders that fueled fears about China’s rising debt burden. China Evergrande Group is one of the biggest of dozens of Chinese developers that have collapsed since 2020 under official pressure to rein in surging debt the ruling Communist Party views as a threat to China’s slowing economic growth. But a crackdown on excess borrowing has tipped the property industry into crisis, making it a drag on the economy. It’s unclear how the liquidation order will affect Evergrande’s vast operations in the Chinese mainland.

Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands

ANGOLA, La. (AP) — In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to prisoners wind up in the supply chains of everything from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. They are on the shelves of most supermarkets, including Kroger, Target and Whole Foods. They’re also exported. The prisoners who help produce these goods are disproportionately people of color. Some are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work – or face punishment – and are sometimes paid pennies an hour or nothing at all. They also are excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. And it can be almost impossible for them to sue.

Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s military brought foreign journalists to an area of southern Gaza where its forces had destroyed an Islamic cemetery and a mosque in the process of unearthing tunnels used by Hamas militants. The military says it found a Hamas command and control center in a tunnel that ran underneath both the mosque and the cemetery. On Saturday, the army brought the journalists inside the tunnel, which led to a warren of three small rooms — a kitchen, a bathroom, and a room with chairs. Under international law, mosques, cemeteries and other religious sites hold special “protected” status. But Israel says Hamas has removed this protection by using these sites for military purposes.