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

Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Houthis rock Yemen’s capital

CAIRO (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen ’s capital on Sunday, days after the Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at it since 2023.

The Iranian-backed Houthis said multiple areas across Sanaa were hit, while the Houthi-run health ministry said at least four people were killed and 67 others were wounded. The rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television reported a strike on an oil company, and video on social media showed a fireball erupting there.

Israel’s military said it struck the Asar and Hizaz power plants, calling them “a significant electricity supply facility for military activities,” along with a military site where the presidential palace is located.

Sanaa residents told The Associated Press they heard explosions close to a closed military academy and the presidential palace. They saw plumes of smoke near Sabeen Square, a central gathering place in the capital.

“The sounds of explosions were very strong,” said Hussein Mohamed, who lives close to the presidential palace.

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4 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces while seeking aid near Gaza City, witnesses say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian aid-seekers traveling Sunday through a military zone south of Gaza City that is regularly used to reach a food distribution point, a hospital and witnesses said.

Gaza City is in famine after 22 months of war, while Israel’s military moves ahead with a planned offensive to seize the city, perhaps within days. Israel’s defense minister has warned that the city of hundreds of thousands of people could be destroyed.

Al-Awda Hospital and two witnesses told The Associated Press the Palestinians were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd heading to a site run by the Israeli-backed U.S. contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Netzarim corridor area, hundreds of meters (yards) from the site.

“The gunfire was indiscriminate,” said Mohamed Abed, a father of two from the Bureij refugee camp.

Abed and Aymed Sayyad, another aid-seeker, said troops opened fire when a group near the front of the crowd pushed toward the site before its scheduled opening. Sayyad said he and others helped two people wounded by gunshots.

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Moscow says Kyiv has struck a nuclear power plant as Ukraine marks Independence Day

Russia accused Ukraine on Sunday of launching drone attacks that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region overnight, as Ukraine celebrated 34 years since its independence.

Russian officials said several power and energy facilities were targeted in the overnight strikes. The fire at the nuclear facility was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported, according to the plant’s press service on Telegram. While the attack damaged a transformer, radiation levels remained within normal ranges.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it was aware of media reports that a transformer at the plants had caught fire “due to military activity,” but hadn’t received independent confirmation. It said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that “every nuclear facility must be protected at all times.”

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack.

Firefighters also responded to a blaze at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region, home to a major fuel export terminal. The regional governor said approximately 10 Ukrainian drones were shot down, with debris igniting the fire.

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Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre wrote a memoir. Months after her death, it’s coming out

NEW YORK (AP) — A posthumous and “unsparing” memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, will be published this fall, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf said Sunday.

“Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” is scheduled for release Oct. 21, the publisher confirmed to The Associated Press. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April at age 41, had been working on “Nobody’s Girl” with author-journalist Amy Wallace and had completed the manuscript for the 400-page book, according to Knopf. The publisher’s statement includes an email from Giuffre to Wallace a few weeks before her death, saying that it was her “heartfelt wish” the memoir be released “regardless” of her circumstances.

“The content of this book is crucial, as it aims to shed light on the systemic failures that allow the trafficking of vulnerable individuals across borders,” the email reads. “It is imperative that the truth is understood and that the issues surrounding this topic are addressed, both for the sake of justice and awareness.”

Giuffre had been hospitalized following a serious accident March 24, Knopf said, and sent the email April 1. She died April 25.

“In the event of my passing, I would like to ensure that NOBODY’S GIRL is still released. I believe it has the potential to impact many lives and foster necessary discussions about these grave injustices,” she wrote to Wallace.

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‘Sopranos’ star Jerry Adler, Broadway backstage vet turned late-in-life actor, dies at 96

NEW YORK (AP) — Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before pivoting to acting in his 60s, has died at 96.

Adler died Saturday, according to a brief family announcement confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York. Adler “passed peacefully in his sleep,” Paradigm Talent Agency’s Sarah Shulman said on behalf of his family. No immediate cause was given.

Among Adler’s acting credits are “The Sopranos,” on which he played Tony Soprano adviser Hesh Rabkin across all six seasons, and “The Good Wife,” where he played law partner Howard Lyman. But before Adler had ever stepped in front of a film or television camera, he had 53 Broadway productions to his name — all behind the scenes, serving as a stage manager, producer or director.

He hailed from an entertainment family with deep roots in Jewish and Yiddish theater, as he told the Jewish Ledger in 2014. His father, Philip Adler, was a general manager for the famed Group Theatre and Broadway productions, and his cousin Stella Adler was a legendary acting teacher.

“I’m a creature of nepotism,” Adler told TheaterMania in 2015. “I got my first job when I was at Syracuse University and my father, the general manager of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, called me (because) there was an opening for an assistant stage manager. I skipped school.”

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Some National Guard units in Washington are now carrying firearms in escalation of Trump deployment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some National Guard units patrolling the nation’s capital at the direction of President Donald Trump have started carrying firearms, an escalation of his military deployment that makes good on a directive issued late last week by his defense secretary.

A Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly said some units on certain missions would be armed — some with handguns and others with rifles. The spokesperson said that all units with firearms have been trained and are operating under strict rules for use of force.

An Associated Press photographer on Sunday saw members of the South Carolina National Guard outside Union Station with holstered handguns.

A statement from the joint task force that has taken over policing in the nation’s capital said units began carrying their service weapons on Sunday and that the military’s rules say force should be used “only as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.” It said the force is committed to protecting “the safety and wellbeing” of Washington’s residents.

The defense official who spoke to The Associated Press said only troops on certain missions would carry guns, and that would include those patrolling to establish a law enforcement presence throughout the capital. Those working in transportation or administration would likely remain unarmed.

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What to know: Four ways ICE is training new agents and scaling up

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement is an agency inside the Department of Homeland Security that is integral to President Donald Trump’s vision of carrying out the mass deportations he promised during the campaign. Deportation officers within a unit called Enforcement and Removal Operations are the ones who are responsible for immigration enforcement. They find and remove people from the United States who aren’t American citizens and, for a variety of reasons, no longer can stay in the country.

Some might have gone through immigration court and a judge ordered them removed. Or they were arrested or convicted of certain crimes, or they’ve repeatedly entered the country illegally or overstayed a visa. ICE also manages a growing network of immigration detention facilities around the country where it holds people suspected of immigration violations.

Overall, its activities — and how it carries them out — have polarized many Americans in recent months.

After years when the number of deportation officers largely remained even, the agency is now rapidly hiring. Congress this summer passed legislation giving ICE $76.5 billion in new money to help speed up the pace of deportations. That’s nearly 10 times the agency’s current annual budget. Nearly $30 billion is for new staff.

Last week, The Associated Press got a chance to visit the base in southern Georgia where new ICE recruits are trained and to talk to the agency’s top leadership. Here are details about four things ICE is doing that came out of those conversations.

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Wildfires threaten homes in Oregon and California, prompting hundreds of evacuations

Thousands of homes in Northern California wine country and central Oregon were under evacuation orders and warnings Sunday as firefighting crews battled wildfires in dry, hot weather.

The Pickett Fire, which had charred about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of Napa County, was just 11% contained by Sunday evening, according to the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

About 150 people were ordered to leave their homes, while another 360 were under evacuation warnings as the fire threatened 500 structures near Aetna Springs and Pope Valley, 80 miles (127 kilometers) north of San Francisco, said Cal Fire spokesperson Jason Clay. Some evacuation orders were later lifted.

In Oregon, the 29-square-mile (75-square-kilometer) Flat Fire in Deschutes and Jefferson counties had about 4,000 homes under various levels of evacuation notice, including 1,000 with orders to leave immediately, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

Firefighters were able to cut containment lines and continued to suppress fires in some residential areas. However, they faced significant challenges with difficult terrain, low humidity and triple-digit temperatures in some areas, officials said.

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Cal Raleigh hits his 48th homer to match MLB season mark for catchers set by Salvador Perez in 2021

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh hit his major league-leading 48th home run on Sunday against the Athletics, tying the single-season record for catchers set by Salvador Perez with the Kansas City Royals in 2021.

The switch-hitting Raleigh, batting from the right side, homered off A’s left-hander Jacob Lopez in the first inning to make it 2-0.

It was the 39th longball Raleigh has delivered as a catcher this year. He has nine while serving as a designated hitter.

Perez hit 15 home runs as a DH in 2021, and 33 at catcher.

Only four other players in big league history have hit at least 40 homers in a season while primarily playing catcher: Johnny Bench (twice), Roy Campanella, Todd Hundley and Mike Piazza (twice). Bench, Campanella and Piazza are Hall of Famers.

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Trump says he’ll be at Ryder Cup and he thinks captain Keegan Bradley should play

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will be at the opening round of the high-charged Ryder Cup next month in New York, and he thinks U.S. captain Keegan Bradley should be playing.

Trump posted Saturday night on his social media site that he would be there on Friday, Sept. 26, for the start of three-day matches between the United States and Europe.

He said he was invited by the PGA Tour, making a common mistake distinguishing between the tour and the PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup in America. A PGA of America spokesman said the organization and Bradley invited Trump.

Already the most raucous event in golf, this Ryder Cup has more anticipation than usual because of the venue — the Black course at Bethpage State Park on New York’s Long Island, a public course with a reputation for having the rowdiest fans.

Given his passion for golf, it was expected Trump would make a presence at some point during the Ryder Cup. He met with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Tiger Woods earlier this year to try without success to solve the divide created by the breakaway, Saudi-funded LIV Golf. The PGA Tour announced this week it would return to Trump National Doral in Florida next year for the first time in nearly a decade.