AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Second aid convoy reaches Gaza as Israel attacks targets in Syria and occupied West Bank

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The second aid convoy destined for desperate Palestinian civilians reached Gaza on Sunday, as Israel widened its attacks to include targets in Syria and the occupied West Bank and the Israeli prime minister warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group that if it launches its own war, “we will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine.”

For days, Israel has been on the verge of launching a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 rampage through a series of Israeli communities. Tanks and troops have been massed at the Gaza border, waiting for the command to cross.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the country had increased airstrikes across Gaza to hit targets that would reduce the risk to troops in the next stage of the war.

Fears of a widening war grew as Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza, two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants.

Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah militants since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.

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Dwindling fuel supplies for Gaza’s hospital generators put premature babies in incubators at risk

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A premature baby squirms inside a glass incubator in the neonatal ward of al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. He cries out as intravenous lines are connected to his tiny body. A ventilator helps him breathe as a catheter delivers medication and monitors flash his fragile vital signs.

His life hinges on the constant flow of electricity, which is in danger of running out imminently unless the hospital can get more fuel for its generators. Once the generators stop, hospital director Iyad Abu Zahar fears that the babies in the ward, unable to breathe on their own, will perish.

“The responsibility on us is huge,” he said.

Doctors treating premature babies across Gaza are grappling with similar fears. At least 130 premature babies are at “grave risk” across six neonatal units, aid workers said. The dangerous fuel shortages are caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which started — along with airstrikes — after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7.

At least 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to access essential health services, and some 5,500 are due to give birth in the coming month, according to the World Health Organization.

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Blinken, Austin say US is ready to respond if US personnel become targets of Israel-Hamas war

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the United States expects the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran, and they asserted that the Biden administration is prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities.

“This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Blinken said. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.”

Austin, echoing Blinken, said “what we’re seeing is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region.”

He said the U.S. has the right to self-defense “and we won’t hesitate to take the appropriate action.”

The warning from the high-ranking U.S. officials came as Israel’s military response to a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on civilians in communities in southern Israel entered its third week.

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Economy Minister Massa grabs surprise lead over right-wing populist in Argentina’s presidential vote

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Economy Minister Sergio Massa held the lead Sunday night in early results from Argentina’s presidential election, a surprise reflecting voters’ reluctance to hand the presidency to his chief contender, a right-wing populist who has pledged to drastically overhaul the state.

With 86% of the votes counted, Massa had 36.2%, compared to the anti-establishment candidate Javier Milei’s 30.3%, meaning the two were poised to face off in a November second round.

Most pre-election polls, which have been notoriously unreliable, gave Milei a slight lead and put Massa in second place. Massa, a leading figure in the center-left administration in power since 2019, appeared to have outperformed predictions by growing support significantly in the critical Buenos Aires province, home to more than one-third of the electorate, said Mariel Fornoni of political consultancy Management & Fit.

The highly polarized election will determine whether Argentina will continue with a center-left administration or elect one of the right-leaning leaders who both promised profound changes to a country plagued by triple-digit inflation and rising poverty. Former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, of the main opposition coalition, trailed well behind Massa and Milei in third place.

Massa’s campaign this year follows another eight years ago, when he finished a disappointing third place and was knocked out of the running. This time, he will have his shot at a runoff.

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Football provides a homecoming and hope in Lahaina, where thousands of homes are gone after wildfire

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Fans decked in red streamed into the Lahainaluna High School football stadium, snacking on nachos and venison chili, bopping to the high school band’s rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” and exchanging long hugs with neighbors and classmates.

It was homecoming, and for many of the fans, coaches and the players themselves, being back at the stadium was the closest thing to feeling at home since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century leveled their town.

“I don’t know if I can put into words how much it means to Lahaina,” said offensive lineman Morgan “Bula” Montgomery, who has lived in three different hotels with his family since their apartment building burned down. “Just looking in the stands, you see all the old-timers coming out, all the alumni and even the little kids — just all kind of excited, waiting for that first snap.”

Classes resumed last week at Lahainaluna High and at the two other public schools that survived the Aug. 8 fire, and on Saturday night, Lahainaluna’s varsity and junior varsity football teams played their first home games, both therapeutic wins, giving the community a glimmer of hope amid a tragedy that claimed at least 99 lives.

Tickets for homecoming at the 3,000-person-capacity stadium sold out in seven minutes, said Principal Richard Carosso — an indication of how badly the community needed it.

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A police dog attacked a Black trucker on his knees. An Ohio city is dealing with the aftermath

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — As Jadarrius Rose drove his 18-wheeler through rural Ohio, a simple missing mudflap caught the highway patrol’s eye. The trip ended with a police dog’s powerful jaws clamping down on Rose even as he tried to surrender.

As he stood with his hands up beside the highway on July 4, at least six law enforcement officers surrounded him at a distance, one calling forcefully to the K-9 handler: “Do not release the dog,” highway patrol video shows.

Nevertheless, a Belgian Malinois is seen on the video either breaking free or being set loose. At first, the animal seems confused, racing past Rose toward officers at the far end of the truck, then turning back and running for Rose, then 23.

By then the trucker is on his knees, hands still high, as an officer shouts, “Get the dog off of him!”

That day, Rose joined a long list of Black Americans attacked by police dogs, a history well documented by journalists, academics and filmmakers. Investigations into such cases have been launched regularly in recent years. For some, the scenes harken back to the Civil Rights Movement, when authorities often turned dogs and firehoses on peaceful Black protesters marching for equality.

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Turnover has plagued local election offices since 2020. One swing state county is trying to recover

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — The polls had just opened for last year’s midterms in Pennsylvania when the phones began ringing at the election office in Luzerne County.

Polling places were running low on paper to print ballots. Volunteers were frustrated, and voters were getting agitated.

Emily Cook, the office’s interim deputy director who had been in her position for just two months, rushed to the department’s warehouse. She found stacks of paper, but it was the wrong kind — ordered long ago and too thick to meet the requirements for the county’s voting equipment.

Conspiracy theories swiftly began to spread: Republican polling places were being targeted; Democrats overseeing elections were trying to disenfranchise Republicans.

“The feeling early on in the day was panic — concern — which grew to overwhelming panic,” said Cook, a 26-year-old native of Luzerne County. “And then at some point throughout the day, there was definitely a feeling of people are starting to point fingers — before the day was over, before things were even investigated.”

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Norma downgraded to a tropical storm in Mexico as Hurricane Tammy leaves Barbuda

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Norma strengthened slightly and dumped heavy rain after being downgraded to a tropical storm Sunday as it moved into mainland Mexico, while Hurricane Tammy left the Caribbean island of Barbuda with minor damage.

Once a Category 4 hurricane, Norma came ashore Saturday as a Category 1 near the Pacific resort of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Tens of thousands were left without power.

Norma’s gusts continued to cause damage as the storm moved northeast, crossing the Gulf of California toward the Mexico mainland’s Sinaloa state, where schools were ordered closed Monday. Shelters were set up in Sinaloa and neighboring Sonora with capacity for nearly 13,000 people.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday evening that Norma was about 120 miles (195 kilometers) west of Culiacan, and about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south-southwest of Los Mochis. The storm regained a bit of strength as it moved northeastward across the Gulf of California with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph).

Up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas Monday, forecasters warned. “These rains will produce flash and urban flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the hurricane center said.

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Deal to force multinational companies to pay a 15% minimum tax is marred by loopholes, watchdog says

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ambitious 2021 agreement by more than 140 countries and territories to weed out tax havens and force multinational corporations to pay a minimum tax has been weakened by loopholes and will raise only a fraction of the revenue that was envisioned, a tax watchdog backed by the European Union has warned.

The landmark agreement, brokered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, set a minimum global corporate tax of 15%. The idea was to stop multinational corporations, among them Apple and Nike, from using accounting and legal maneuvers to shift earnings to low- or no-tax havens.

Those havens are typically places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands where the companies actually do little or no business. The companies’ maneuvers result in lost tax revenue of $100 billion to $240 billion a year, the OECD has said.

According to the report, being released Monday by the EU Tax Observatory, the agreement was expected to raise an amount equal to nearly 10% of global corporate tax revenue. Instead, because the plan has been weakened, it says the minimum tax will generate only half that — less than 5% of corporate tax revenue.

Much of the hoped-for revenue has been drained away by loopholes, some of them introduced as the OECD has been refining details of the agreement, which has yet to take effect. The watchdog group estimates that a 15% minimum tax could have raised roughly $270 billion in 2023. With the loopholes, it says, that figure drops to about $136 billion.

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AP Top 25: Georgia is No. 1 for 19th straight poll, 3rd-best streak ever; Alabama in top 10 again

Georgia extended its streak of No. 1 rankings in The Associated Press college football poll to 19 straight weeks, the third best in the history of the rankings, and Alabama moved back into the top 10 on Sunday.

The Bulldogs received 38 of 63 first-place votes, their second-lowest total of the season, after an off week but still bested No. 2 Michigan, 1,536 points to 1,504.

Georgia’s No. 1 streak, which started on Oct. 9, 2022, is behind only Miami’s streak of 21 weeks from 2001-02 and Southern California’s 33 in a row from 2003-05.

The Wolverines received 19 first-place votes after their latest blowout, 49-0 against Michigan State on Saturday night. Michigan was unfazed after a week in which it was revealed the program is being investigated by the NCAA for a sign-stealing scheme that allegedly involved impermissible in-person scouting.

Ohio State held steady at No. 3 after winning a top-10 matchup with Penn State. The Nittany Lions slipped three spots to 10th. The Buckeyes received three first-place votes, as did No. 4 Florida State.