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

Ukraine reclaims more territory, reports capturing many POWs

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops expanded their territorial gains Monday, pushing all the way to the country’s northeastern border in places, and claimed to have captured a record number of Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat.

A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as “they understand the hopelessness of their situation.” A Ukrainian presidential adviser said there were so many POWs that the country was running out of space to accommodate them.

Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered over newly liberated towns across a wide swath of reclaimed land. The Ukrainian military said it had freed more than 20 settlements in 24 hours. In recent days, Kyiv’s forces have captured territory at least twice the size of greater London, according to the British Defense Ministry.

After months of little discernible movement on the battlefield, the momentum has lifted Ukrainian morale and provoked rare public criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.

“In some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation,” said Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region.

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Putin’s Russia struggles for response to Ukrainian blitz

As Russian troops were retreating in northeastern Ukraine amid a fierce counteroffensive by Kyiv, Muscovites were celebrating the 875th anniversary of the city’s founding. Fireworks boomed and President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a huge Ferris wheel, a new transportation link and sports arena.

The Russian capital’s festive holiday weekend stood in stark contrast to the military debacle unfolding in Ukraine that seemed to catch the Kremlin by surprise in the nearly 7-month-old war.

The rapid and reportedly chaotic troop withdrawal in the Kharkiv region, in which some weapons and ammunition were left behind, was a huge blow to Russian prestige. It was its largest military defeat in Ukraine since Moscow pulled back its forces from areas near Kyiv after a botched attempt to capture the capital early in the invasion.

As he attended the holiday celebrations that included the inauguration of the Ferris wheel — bigger than the iconic London Eye and now Europe’s largest such amusement ride — Putin said nothing about the key moment in Ukraine.

Indeed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive appears to have left the Kremlin struggling for a response.

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Queen hailed in Scotland as a ‘constant in all our lives’

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — As Queen Elizabeth II’s four children walked silently behind, a hearse carried her flag-draped coffin Monday along a crowd-lined street in the Scottish capital to a cathedral, where a service of thanksgiving hailed the late monarch as a “constant in all of our lives for over 70 years.”

Four days after the 96-year-old queen died at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a military bagpiper played as her oak coffin, draped in the red-and-yellow Royal Standard of Scotland, was borne from the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh in a solemn procession.

King Charles III, dressed in army uniform, and his siblings Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward walked behind as the hearse traveled to St. Giles’ Cathedral, flanked by a bearer party of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and a detachment of the Royal Company of Archers, the king’s ceremonial bodyguard in Scotland.

Inside the church, the coffin was placed on a wooden stand and topped with the golden Crown of Scotland, encrusted with 22 gems and 20 precious stones along with freshwater pearls from Scotland’s rivers.

“And so we gather, to bid Scotland’s farewell to our late monarch, whose life of service to the nation and the world we celebrate. And whose love for Scotland was legendary,” said the Rev. Calum MacLeod.

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Justice Dept. OK with 1 Trump pick for Mar-a-Lago arbiter

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it was willing to accept one of Donald Trump’s picks for an independent arbiter to review documents seized during an FBI search of the former president’s Florida home last month.

The accommodation could help accelerate the selection process and shorten any delays caused by the appointment of the so-called special master. The judge in the case, granting a request from the Trump team, said last week that she would appoint a neutral arbiter to go through the records and weed out any that may be covered by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.

Department lawyers said in a filing Monday night that, in addition to the two retired judges whom they earlier recommended, they would also be satisfied with one of the Trump team selections — Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court in the Eastern District of New York. He is currently on senior active status, and the department said he had indicated he was available and “could perform the work expeditiously” if appointed.

It was not immediately clear whether U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would name Dearie or someone else. The Trump team said earlier Monday that it opposed both Justice Department selections.

The back-and-forth over the special master came as Trump’s lawyers in a 21-page filing Monday dismissed the former president’s retention of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago as a “storage dispute” and urged Cannon to keep in place a directive that temporarily halted key aspects of the Justice Department’s criminal probe. The Trump team referred to the documents that were seized as “purported ‘classified records,’” saying the Justice Department had not proven that the materials taken by the FBI during its Aug. 8 search were classified or remain so now.

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Repeat Emmys go to Zendaya, Sudeikis, ‘Ted Lasso’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” took a dark turn and ended up with another bright shining Emmy.

The show won its second straight Emmy Award for best comedy series on Monday night.

The Apple TV+ series starring Jason Sudeikis as the fish-out-of-water coach of an American football team managing a soccer club in England focused on mental health and its characters’ pain in its second season, and was rewarded for it by Emmy voters.

“Ted Lasso” beat out competitors including “Barry,” “Hacks,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Abbot Elementary,” “Only Murders in The Building,” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

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Goddess gowns, Old Hollywood glam and pink rule Emmy carpet

NEW YORK (AP) — Hannah Waddingham wore Dolce & Gabbana with bedazzled high top sneakers on her feet Monday while Elle Fanning went Old Hollywood in a gown designed by Sharon Long of her show, “The Great,” as glamour returned to the Emmys in sticky Los Angeles humidity.

Waddingham, from “Ted Lasso,” showed off her comfy white shoes beneath her corseted strapless pink look. Fanning, her hair in a pinned-back bob, said she wanted to honor the creatives on her show that provided her with her first Emmy nod. Fanning’s look was black and pink, embellished at the chest.

“I’ve always been inspired by the Old Hollywood glam of the ’50s,” Fanning said.

Sheryl Lee Ralph of “Abbott Elementary” had a fashion faux pas before arriving at the Emmys.

“A designer gave my co-star and me the same sketch for the same gown,” she said, having discovered it on set when Lisa Ann Walter showed Ralph what she was wearing to the awards.

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Russia’s war in Ukraine the backdrop to pope’s Kazakh visit

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Holy See’s strained relations with China are the backdrop to Pope Francis’ visit this week to the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where he is ministering to a tiny Catholic community and participating in an interfaith conference aimed at promoting peace and dialogue.

Francis was flying Tuesday to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the state visit portion of the three-day trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, he participates in an interfaith meeting with more than 100 delegations of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto and other faith groups from 50 countries.

The most noteworthy aspects of Francis’ visit might be missed opportunities: Francis was supposed to have met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church on the sidelines of the conference. But Patriarch Kirill, who has justified the war in Ukraine, cancelled his trip last month.

Francis is also going to be in the Kazakh capital at the same time as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is making his first foreign visit since the coronavirus pandemic. But the Vatican says there are no plans for Francis to meet with Xi, who is not attending the congress. The Holy See and Beijing haven’t had diplomatic relations for over a half-century and the two sides are finalizing the renewal of a controversial deal over Catholic bishop nominations in China.

Both of which focuses attention on the interfaith conference, an important triennial event for Kazakhstan, a country that borders Russia to the north, China to the east and is home to some 130 ethnic groups. It’s a showpiece of its foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.

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Prosecutor: R. Kelly ‘degraded’ girl for his ‘sick pleasure’

CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly parlayed his fame as an R&B superstar to sexually abuse minors and record that abuse on video, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the singer’s federal trial on charges of child pornography and of rigging his 2008 state child pornography trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Pozolo several times raised her voice and singled out Kelly, describing him as a secret sexual predator in closing arguments in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, where he rose from poverty.

“Robert Kelly abused many girls over many years,” she said, referring to the 55-year-old Grammy winner’s full first name. “He committed horrible crimes against children. … All these years later, the hidden side of Robert Kelly has come out.”

Jurors are expected to began deliberating Tuesday after Kelly’s lead attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, makes her closing argument and prosecutors give a short rebuttal.

Bonjean twice called for a mistrial Monday, complaining that closing arguments by attorneys for Kelly co-defendants Derrell McDavid and Milton Brown were grounded in the presumption that “the world now knows Mr. Kelly is a sex predator.”

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Teacher shortages are real, but not for the reason you heard

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Everywhere, it seems, back-to-school has been shadowed by worries of a teacher shortage.

The U.S. education secretary has called for investment to keep teachers from quitting. A teachers union leader has described it as a five-alarm emergency. News coverage has warned of a crisis in teaching.

In reality, there is little evidence to suggest teacher turnover has increased nationwide or educators are leaving in droves.

Certainly, many schools have struggled to find enough educators. But the challenges are related more to hiring, especially for non-teaching staff positions. Schools flush with federal pandemic relief money are creating new positions and struggling to fill them at a time of low unemployment and stiff competition for workers of all kinds.

Since well before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have had difficulty recruiting enough teachers in some regions, particularly in parts of the South. Fields like special education and bilingual education also have been critically short on teachers nationwide.

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The queen, as imagined — from punk rock to mystery novels

In the spring of 2012, portrait artist Ralph Heimans stood on the Cosmati pavement of Westminster Abbey and awaited the subject of his latest commission, Queen Elizabeth II. When she approached, he says, it was an extraordinary moment.

“She was wearing her Robe of State, with four footmen holding it, and as she came down the long corridor it was a very theatrical kind of entrance,” Heimans said soon after he had learned that the queen had died Thursday at age 96.

After spending an hour the queen, “discussing niceties,” he came away with “a sense of how thoughtful she was, almost a sense of shyness, an introspective quality.” In his oil painting, which hangs in Westminster, he drew her as a solitary, even brooding figure, her eyes cast down, with the vastness of Westminster behind her like so much weight from the past — and present.

“I wanted to show her in this private moment, with a certain gravity about her,” he says.

Over the past 70 years, authors, filmmakers, playwrights, songwriters and painters have responded to the queen as both symbol and human being, whether commenting on the heights of her position or attempting to tease out the inner life of a woman who spoke infrequently in public and avoided personal revelations. The dual qualities, majesty and mystery, found her imagined in settings ranging from the sobriety of royal art to the rage of punk music to the varied characterizations of film and television.