AP Sports

Divers find 4 bodies during search of superyacht wreckage after it sank off Sicily, 2 still missing

PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) — Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have found four bodies as the search for missing passengers persisted and questions intensified about why the sailboat sank so quickly. Divers and rescue crews unloaded two body bags Wednesday from rescue vessels that pulled into port at Porticello. Two other bodies were also found in the wreckage, the head of the Sicily civil protection agency said. The discovery indicated that the operation to search the wreckage on the seabed 50 meters underwater was a recovery one, not a rescue. The Bayesian, a 56-meter British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer offshore.

Moscow sees one of Ukraine’s largest drone attacks as fighting rages in Kursk and eastern Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say Moscow has come under one of the largest attacks by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, and that it destroyed all of them. The Ministry of Defense says Wednesday that Russia downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight. Russian social media channels shared videos of drones apparently being destroyed by air defense systems, which then set off car alarms. The attacks come as Ukrainian forces keep up a push into Russia’s western Kursk region. The incursion has boosted morale in Ukraine but also opened up another front in a fight where Ukrainian forces were already badly stretched.

Putin’s slow response to the Kursk attack could test the patience of some of his backers in Russia

Ukraine’s rapid military offensive into Russia’s Kursk region seems to have caught Moscow unprepared. Since Aug. 6, Kyiv’s forces have seized villages, taken hundreds of prisoners and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in what has become the largest attack on the country since World War II. President Vladimir Putin, who has a history of responding slowly to various crises in his tenure, has so far played down the attack. But 2 1/2 years after launching a war in Ukraine to remove what he called a threat to Russia, it is his own country that seems more turbulent. It is still unclear whether Ukraine’s attack in Kursk will damage him significantly.

Israel-Hamas war latest: Hezbollah fires more than 50 rockets, hitting Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has launched more than 50 rockets, hitting a number of private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Wednesday’s attack came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain. Diplomatic efforts had redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, both blamed on Israel. Hezbollah said Wednesday’s attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night.

It’s not just IUDs. Gynecologists and patients are focused on making procedures less painful

Federal officials affirmed this month that the pain people might feel when getting an IUD can be more than doctors’ promises of “just a pinch.” The local anesthetic lidocaine “might be useful for reducing patient pain” when inserting intrauterine devices. That’s according to new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also encourages doctors to have a conversation with patients about pain management. Complaints of pain are not limited to the small, long-lasting birth control device. Gynecologists and patients say there need to be more conversations about options for local anesthetics — as well as other pain-relief options for relatively quick outpatient procedures.

Plaything or peril? Brazilian kites are endangering lives and prompting a push for a national ban

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Kites soaring through the sky are a common sight across Brazil, and are particularly popular in Rio’s low-income communities known as favelas. For most people in the world, kite flying symbolizes light-hearted fun. But in Brazil it can pose a danger when it involves kite fighting. The objective is to slash a challenger’s line, ripping the kite from the sky. That involves a razor-sharp line that has caused horrific accidents. Reports of motorcyclists having limbs severed or their throats slit are common. A bill moving through Congress that would outlaw razor-sharp lines nationwide is headed for a Senate vote. But aficionados say cutting lines can be used safely, in designated areas, rather than imposing a blanket ban.

Fannie Lou Hamer rattled the Democratic convention with her ‘Is this America?’ speech 60 years ago

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is accepting the Democrats’ presidential nomination Thursday exactly 60 years after another Black woman mesmerized the nation with a speech that still resonates in American politics. Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1964, the racially integrated group challenged the seating of an all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer told the credentials committee about losing her home and being beaten because of civil rights activities. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson says the lesson he learned from Hamer in the 1960s still applies: It’s important to ensure democracy is for everybody, not just the wealthy.