AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk kills 13, authorities say

A Ukrainian drone attack Monday on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk killed 13 people, including a child, and wounded 48 others, authorities in the Tatarstan region said.

Officials didn’t say what the drones targeted, but the city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into Russian refining capacity, and unsettled the Russian public.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it is a campaign to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than 4-year-old invasion.

Nizhnekamsk came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities on Monday morning, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov. No further details were immediately available.

Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

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Crimea strikes could rise sevenfold if Western funds came faster, Ukraine drone commander tells AP

EASTERN UKRAINE (AP) — The commander leading Ukraine’s drone war says his country’s recent strikes in Crimea are the first phase of a campaign aimed at rendering the peninsula — illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 — unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, one of Ukraine’s most prominent commanders among a new generation of soldiers, said his forces could strike seven times more military targets in Crimea if the money pledged by Western allies came faster.

“Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war,” Brovdi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Despite that shortfall, Ukraine’s summer campaign in Crimea has already inflicted significant damage: striking rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure to disrupt supply lines and blind Russian air defenses as drones fly in.

Brovdi said his forces are equipped at just 14% of what they would need to carry out the Crimea campaign at full capacity.

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Israel rejects Trump’s Gaza plan, more details emerge on the Strait of Hormuz and other Mideast news

Israel on Sunday rejected a deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump for Gaza. Details emerged on the potential deal between Iran and Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran suggested that vessels linked to “hostile countries” would be barred. Iran also shuffled its top security post.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.

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Congressional Democrats launch probe into efforts to deport US military members and their families

Congressional Democrats said they are investigating the Trump administration’s efforts to deport military service members and their families after The Associated Press found more than 50 active-duty troops’ spouses and parents have been detained by immigration authorities.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Democrats said they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport military service members and their families.

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” according to the letter, which was signed by more than 60 lawmakers and provided to the AP.

The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”

DHS told the AP that it values service members’ contributions and “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

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Wisconsin, Minnesota primaries are next to feature progressive clash with Democratic establishment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Progressive candidates for governor in Wisconsin and U.S. Senate in Minnesota are making their final pushes ahead of Tuesday’s election, increasing the pressure on a Democratic establishment that has spent the year on its heels.

The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and costly U.S. Senate primary. El-Sayed’s victory has energized the left while stoking fears among Democratic Party leaders that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in November.

In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn’t seeking a third term.

Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.

Evers and Crowley were crisscrossing the state together in the last days before final ballots are cast Tuesday.

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Western Europe sets new temperature record as heat waves pummel the region

BERLIN (AP) — The heat waves roiling Western Europe this summer toppled an average temperature record for the June-July period set in 2022, according to the European climate agency Copernicus.

The extreme heat began in May and has contributed to major wildfires, prolonged drought and new national temperature records across the region, as well as thousands of projected heat-related deaths.

Globally, so far this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show. But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Niño, a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe, there’s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, beating out 2024 — or at least come close, scientists said.

Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extra-polar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, Copernicus said.

That was partially fueled by developing El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific, the service said. The new average record for July is 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit), which beat the 2023 record of 20.89 C (69.60 F).

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A man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing is on trial. Here’s what to know

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The case of rap icon Tupac Shakur’s killing has been unresolved for decades; now the man charged in his 1996 killing in Las Vegas is going to trial.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur’s death. Jury selection begins Monday, with the trial scheduled to last about a month.

The trial will bring to a head one of the biggest mysteries in the hip-hop world that gripped the public for decades. Shakur, who also went by the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996. He was in a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on their way to Club 662, where Shakur was scheduled to perform, when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them. Gunfire erupted. Shakur, who was in the passenger seat, was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived.

The case went cold until recent years, when public statements and a tell-all memoir from Davis revived the case. He was a leader of South Side Compton Crips at the time of Shakur’s death. Davis was arrested in 2023 and pleaded not guilty.

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Count Binface, the man in a can with a plan, seeks Parliament seat in Britain’s wackiest election

LONDON (AP) — Timing is everything in comedy and, so it seems, in British politics for a perennial joke candidate who wears a garbage can on his head.

Count Binface, a self-described intergalactic space warrior, has landed in the center of the U.K.’s political universe ahead of a special election Thursday that was derided as a farce long before the ballot was packed with nearly three dozen candidates — many from the silly end of the spectrum.

Binface, who has run against prime ministers past and present, was the first to throw his bucket in the ring when Reform UK leader Nigel Farage abruptly quit Parliament and said he would seek reelection to clear his name over financial allegations.

“Game on, Nige,” Binface declared soon after Farage, portraying himself as the victim of a witch hunt, said he would represent the people against the establishment.

But when the major political parties denounced Farage’s move as a political stunt and boycotted the Clacton-on-Sea election in southeastern England, the trash-talking comedian was launched into prime position as default challenger. He has been on a nonstop media blitz since.

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Wildfires burn across western US and Canada as residents are evacuated

Wildfires burning across the western U.S. and Canada on Sunday left some residents keeping a wary eye out for possible evacuation orders while others already forced to flee their homes waited to see what would be left on their return.

In western Canada, over 20,000 people were forced to flee communities along Okanagan Lake in British Columbia over the weekend as a fast-moving wildfire destroyed homes and dozens had to be rescued by aircraft. In the U.S., crews in Washington that have been fighting three wildfires that began burning in the Spokane area for over a week continued cleanup near containment lines.

Laurie Allen left her home in Nine Mile Falls, a community north of Spokane, last weekend, fleeing with her husband, dog and two kittens as a wildfire burned a short distance away. The roads into her neighborhood were still closed Sunday but she said she’d learned from a friend that while covered in ashes, her house and others nearby were intact.

“I’ve been here 65 years. It’s never happened,” Allen said. “We didn’t think about anything but grabbing our animals and leaving. But now it’s affected so many of our friends and family around. So it’s pretty dang devastating.”

In Canada, Anette Boulet was among residents who fled Summerland, home to about 12,000 people along Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. As she and her family left around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, their home was shrouded in smoke.

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UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC accuse FIFA of ‘deception’ and ‘breach of trust’ over World Cup plans

UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC believe that FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s recent plans to sell an interest in the World Cup was a “fundamental breach of trust” with the institutions world soccer’s governing body serves.

In an “open letter to the football family” revealed on Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC also said that “when trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

UEFA runs soccer in Europe, CONCACAF does the same for North, Central America and the Caribbean, while the AFC governs the sport in Asia.

The letter was co-signed by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani and three general secretaries.

“Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution. It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the member associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future,” the open letter said. “It is in that spirit, as confederations representing its members, that we speak collectively today.”

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