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

Hilary downgraded to Category 2 hurricane as Mexico and California brace for ‘catastrophic’ impact

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Hilary roared toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula late Saturday as a downgraded but still dangerous Category 2 hurricane likely to bring “catastrophic” flooding to the region and cross into the southwestern U.S. as a tropical storm.

Meteorologists warned that despite weakening, the storm remained treacherous.

One person drowned Saturday in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia, on the peninsula’s eastern coast, when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream. Rescue workers managed to save four other people, said Edith Aguilar Villavicencio, the mayor of Mulege township.

It was not immediately clear whether officials considered the fatality related to the hurricane, but video posted by local officials showed torrents of water coursing through the town’s streets.

Forecasters said the storm was still expected to enter the history books as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing flash floods, mudslides, isolated tornadoes, high winds and power outages. The forecast prompted authorities to issue an evacuation advisory for Santa Catalina Island, urging residents and beachgoers to leave the tourist destination 23 miles (37 kilometers) off the coast.

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Maui town ravaged by fire will ‘rise again,’ Hawaii governor says of long recovery ahead

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that what’s rebuilt from the ashes of the devastating wildfires on Maui will be determined by the people.

“Lahaina will rise again,” Green said during a livestreamed evening address from Honolulu. The seaside town will be rebuilt as a living memorial to those lost — a number that increased by three on Friday to 114 — while preserving and protecting Native Hawaiian culture, he said.

His wife, Jaime Kanani Green, stood next to him and cried as she described Lahaina as a vibrant community rich in history and culture.

“Tragically it took less than a single day for us to lose Lahaina in the deadliest fire our country has seen in more than a century,” she said.

Native Hawaiians and others from Lahaina said earlier Friday they worry Hawaii’s governor is moving too quickly to rebuild what was lost while the grief is still raw.

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Canadian firefighters wage epic battle to save communities after mass evacuations

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Firefighters battling wildfires in western Canada received help from reinforcements and milder weather Saturday, after the nation’s worst fire season on record destroyed structures, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents.

Flames were being held at bay 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and weary firefighters had a reprieve around Kelowna in British Columbia. But the firefighters were nowhere close to declaring victory, especially with drier and windier weather forecast for the coming days.

“We’re by no means out of the woods yet,” Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer for Yellowknife, told The Associated Press. “We still have a serious situation. It’s not safe to return.”

The fires near Kelowna, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of the U.S. border, are among more than 380 blazes across the province, with 150 burning out of control, according to the Canadian Press. Another 236 fires are burning in the Northwest Territories.

At a Saturday evening news conference, Shane Thompson, the province’s minister of environment and climate change, said the fires near Yellowknife had not grown very much in the past few days thanks to breaks in the weather.

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England women’s team unites fans as once-ignored squad eyes nation’s first World Cup title since ’66

LONDON (AP) — It’s easy to understand why Gail Newsham can’t stop grinning as she prepares for England’s soccer team to play in the final of the Women’s World Cup.

Newsham, 70, grew up at a time when women in England were banned from the sport — called football here — and helped lead a resurgence in the game once those restrictions were lifted. Now she’s getting ready to watch Sunday’s game against Spain on TV and hoping to see her team bring home the world championship.

“I’ll be wearing my shirt, I’ll be having a sausage roll and a glass of bubbles,” Newsham said, already sporting her blue England jersey. “That’s what I’ve done every match, so I’m going to do it again on Sunday and just, you know, cheer the girls on.”

She won’t be alone.

When the Lionesses take to the field, they will be backed by hordes of girls rooting for their heroes, mothers and grandmothers celebrating the progress that has been made since they were denied a chance to play the game. They and rabid male and female fans from all backgrounds hope this football-mad nation can finally win a World Cup after 57 years of frustration. England’s only World Cup title came in 1966 when the men won.

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Leader of Niger’s junta says it will restore civilian rule within 3 years, but gives no details

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — The leader of mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s democratically elected president said Saturday night that they will return the country to civilian rule within three years.

Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani gave no details on the plan, saying on state television only that the principles for the transition would be decided within 30 days at a dialogue to be hosted by the junta.

“I am convinced that … we will work together to find a way out of the crisis, in the interests of all,” Tchiani said, commenting after his first meeting with a regional delegation seeking to resolve the West African nation’s crisis.

The delegation from the ECOWAS bloc, headed by former Nigerian head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, also met separately with toppled President Mohamed Bazoum. It joined reconciliation efforts by Leonardo Santos Simao, the U.N. special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, who arrived Friday.

ECOWAS on Aug. 10 ordered the deployment of a “standby force” to restore constitutional rule in Niger. On Friday, the ECOWAS commissioner for peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said 11 of its 15 member states had agreed to commit troops to military intervention, saying they were “ready to go.”

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Russian missile attack kills 7 in northern Ukrainian city as Zelenskyy visits NATO candidate Sweden

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack in the center of a northern Ukrainian city on Saturday killed seven people and wounded over a hundred others, including children, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack in Chernihiv happened as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Sweden on his first foreign trip since attending a NATO summit in Lithuania last month.

Images of the aftermath showed badly damaged buildings including a theater with its roof blown away, mangled cars and survivors walking amid the debris with bloodstained clothes. The dead in the daytime strike included a 6-year-old girl, while 15 children were among the 129 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

The square in front of the theater building had been bustling with life, with people returning from church after celebrating the Apple Feast of the Savior religious holiday, baskets of consecrated apples in hand, Klymenko said. Following the strike, debris from the theater roof littered the square, along with shattered glass from the windows of nearby cars and restaurants.

The strike hit the theater during a gathering of drone manufacturers and aerial reconnaissance training schools, organizer Mariia Berlinska confirmed. Berlinska said that the event was officially agreed in advance with both the local authorities and the venue. The Chernihiv City Council denied that they had approved the event or issued any permits.

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Record-setting temperatures forecast in Dallas as scorching heat wave continues to bake the US

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The summer of 2023 may be drawing to a close — but the extreme heat is not: More record-shattering temperatures — this time across Texas — are expected Saturday and Sunday as the U.S. continues to bake.

Highs of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.8 degrees Celsius) forecast for Saturday and 110 F (43.3 C) on Sunday in Dallas would break the current record of 107 F (41.7 C) each day, both set in 2011, and would come after a high of 109 F (42.8 C) on Thursday broke a record of 107 F set in 1951, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw.

“There really is no relief in sight, there is some hint by the end of August, maybe Labor Day, high temperatures will begin to fall below 100,” Bradshaw said. “It’s possible to see 100-degree-plus temperatures through the first half of September, at least off and on.”

The heat wave causing misery in Texas this weekend is just the latest to punish the U.S. this year.

Scientists have long warned that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, by deforestation and by certain agricultural practices, will lead to more and prolonged bouts of extreme weather including hotter temperatures.

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Ron Cephas-Jones, ‘This Is Us’ actor who won 2 Emmys, dies at 66

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ron Cephas Jones, a veteran stage actor who won two Emmy Awards for his role as as a long-lost father who finds redemption on the NBC television drama series “This Is Us,” has died at age 66, a representative said Saturday.

Jones’ manager, Dan Spilo, said in an emailed statement the actor he died “due to a long-standing pulmonary issue.”

“Throughout the course of his career, his warmth, beauty, generosity, kindness and heart were felt by anyone who had the good fortune of knowing him,” Spilo said.

Jones had a double lung transplant in 2020 because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and spent nearly two months in a Los Angeles hospital.

On “This Is Us,” Jones played William “Shakespeare” Hill, a biological father whose life is renewed through his relationship with the family of his son Randall Pearson, played by Sterling K. Brown.

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Thousands more Mauritanians are making their way to the US, thanks to a route spread on social media

CINCINNATI (AP) — Aissata Sall was scrolling through WhatsApp in May when she first learned about the new route to the United States. For Ibrahima Sow, the discovery came on TikTok a few weeks later.

By the time their paths crossed at the tidy one-story brick house in Cincinnati, they had encountered hundreds of other Mauritanians, nearly all of them following a new path surging in popularity among younger migrants from the West African nation, thanks largely to social media.

“Four months ago, it just went crazy,” said Oumar Ball, who arrived in Cincinnati from Mauritania in 1997 and recently opened his home to Sow, Sall and more than a dozen other new migrants. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”

The spike in migration was made possible by the discovery this year of a new route through Nicaragua, where relaxed entry requirements allow Mauritanians and a handful of other foreign nationals to purchase a low-cost visa without proof of onward travel.

As word of the entry point spreads, travel agencies and paid influencers have taken to TikTok to promote the trip, selling packages of flights that leave from Mauritania, then connect through Turkey, Colombia and El Salvador, and wind up in Managua, Nicaragua. From there, the migrants, along with asylum seekers from other nations, are whisked north by bus with the help of smugglers.

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Japan’s Kishida to visit Fukushima plant to highlight safety before start of treated water release

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a brief visit to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday to highlight the safety of an impending release of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, a divisive plan that his government wants to start soon despite protests at home and abroad.

His trip comes hours after he returned home Saturday from a summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Before leaving Washington on Friday, Kishida said it is time to make a decision on the treated water’s release date, which has not been set due to the controversy surrounding the plan.

Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and diplomatic issue.

The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., say the water must be removed to make room for the plant’s decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks from the tanks because much of the water is still contaminated and needs further treatment.

Japan has obtained support from the International Atomic Energy Agency to improve transparency and credibility and to ensure the plan by TEPCO meets international safety standards. The government has also stepped up a campaign promoting the plan’s safety at home and through diplomatic channels.