Israeli strikes kill 492 in Lebanon’s deadliest day of conflict since 2006

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.

In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”

“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”

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US is sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel and Hezbollah

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. now has about 40,000 troops in the region.

On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, two Navy destroyers and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, headed to the Sixth Fleet area in Europe on a regularly scheduled deployment. The ships’ departure opens up the possibility that the U.S. could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Arabian Gulf, in the region in case more violence breaks out.

“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder said. “But for operational security reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”

The new deployments come after significant strikes by Israeli forces against targets inside Lebanon that have killed hundreds and as Israel is preparing to conduct further operations.

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Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety and shelter

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of families from southern Lebanon packed cars and minivans with suitcases, mattresses, blankets and carpets and jammed the highway heading north toward Beirut on Monday to flee the deadliest Israeli bombardment since 2006.

Some 100,000 people living near the border had already been displaced since October, when the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging near-daily fire against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. As the fighting intensifies, the number of evacuees is expected to rise.

In Beirut and beyond, schools were quickly repurposed to receive the newly displaced as volunteers scrambled to gather water, medicine and mattresses.

In the coastal city of Sidon, people seeking shelter streamed into schools that had no mattresses to sleep on yet. Many waited on sidewalks outside.

Ramzieh Dawi had arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby.

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Gunman who killed 10 at a Colorado supermarket is sentenced to life in prison

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was sentenced Monday to life in prison for murder after a jury rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

Victims’ relatives recounted in pained testimony the lives gunman Ahmad Alissa destroyed in the 2021 attack in the college town of Boulder.

“To the person that’s done this, we hope that you suffer for the rest of your life. You are a coward,” said Nikolena Stanisic, whose only sibling, Neven, was killed. “I hope this haunts the defendant until the end of time. The defendant deserves the absolute worst.”

Stanisic recalled going out to ice cream with her brother the night before he was shot and how he would sometimes help her with bills. Their household — once filled with talk and laughter — is now mostly silent, she told the court.

Defense attorneys did not dispute that Alissa, who has schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police officer. But they argued he was insane at the time of the attack and couldn’t tell right from wrong. He became the latest person to fail in an attempt to be acquitted by reason of insanity.

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US to seek attempted assassination charge against man accused of staking out Trump at golf course

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.

Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming.

The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which federal prosecutors argued that Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong” and ordered him to stay behind bars.

The latest details were meant to bolster the Justice Department’s contention that the 58-year-old suspect had engaged in a premeditated plan to kill Trump, a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing and then opened fire in Routh’s direction.

The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday’s arrest, prosecutors said.

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Trump listens during a farming event in rural Pennsylvania, then threatens John Deere with tariffs

SMITHTON, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump sat in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, asking questions of farmers and offering jokes but, in a rarity for his campaign events, mostly listening.

The bombastic former president was unusually restrained at an event about China’s influence on the U.S. economy, a roundtable during which farmers and manufacturers expressed concerns about losing their way of life. Behind Trump were large green tractors and a sign declaring “Protect our food from China.”

The event in Smithton, Pennsylvania, gave Trump a chance to drive his economic message against Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that imposing tariffs and boosting energy production will lower costs. He highlighted Harris’ reversal of a previous vow to ban fracking, a method of producing natural gas key to Pennsylvania’s economy.

And he noted the tractors behind him were manufactured by John Deere, which announced in June it was moving skid steer and track loader manufacturing to Mexico and working to acquire land there for a new factory. Trump threatened the firm with a 200% tariff should he win back the presidency and it opted to export manufacturing to Mexico.

“If they want to build in the United States, there’s no tariff,” he added.

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Texas jury clears most ‘Trump Train’ drivers in civil trial over 2020 Biden-Harris bus encounter

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal jury in Texas on Monday rejected voter intimidation allegations against all but one of a group of former President Donald Trump supporters who surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on an interstate days before the 2020 election.

Only one of the six Trump supporters who were sued in the civil trial was held responsible by the jury. A Texas man whose car brushed up against another as the caravan of vehicles dubbed the “Trump Train” raced down Interstate 35, was ordered to pay the bus driver $10,000 and another $30,000 in punitive damages.

Both sides declared victory at the end of a two-week trial in an Austin courthouse. The five Trump supporters cleared in the lawsuit — which was brought by three people aboard the campaign bus, including former Texas Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis — described the verdict as vindicating and a relief.

“We’re just ready to feel like normal people again,” said Joeylynn Mesaros, one of the defendants, who described being harassed for participating in the ‘Trump Train.’ “It’s been a thousand something days to have our day in court.”

Attorneys for those aboard the bus said justice was served, even as they disagreed with the jury’s decision to clear five of the defendants.

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John rapidly strengthens into a Category 3 hurricane off southern Mexico’s Pacific coast

PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane John ripped toward Mexico’s southern coast on Monday after rapidly intensifying over the eastern Pacific Ocean, surprising authorities who called for residents of some coastal areas to head for cover.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said John had “rapidly strengthened” into a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (190 kph). The storm was extremely close to the coast — about 15 miles (20 kilometers) south of Punta Maldonado and it was moving north at 8 mph (13 kph).

John was set to touch land late Monday night, according to forecasters and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Seek higher ground, protect yourselves and do not forget that life is the most important thing; material things can be replaced. We are here,” wrote López Obrador on a post on the social media platform X.

Forecasters projected John would hit the beachside town of Punta Maldonado head on, and also likely batter nearby tourist hubs Acapulco and Puerto Escondido before turning into a tropical storm while makes it way inland.

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Boeing makes a ‘final offer’ to striking workers, but union says it’s not good enough

Boeing said Monday it made a “best and final offer” to striking machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses, but the workers’ union said the proposal isn’t good enough and there won’t be a ratification vote before Boeing’s deadline at the end of the week.

The union complained that Boeing publicized its latest offer to 33,000 striking workers without first bargaining with union negotiators.

“Boeing does not get to decide when or if you vote,” leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district 751 told members Monday night. “The company has refused to meet for further discussion; therefore, we will not be voting” on Friday, as Boeing insisted.

Boeing said that after two days of talks last week with federal mediators failed to produce an agreement, “we presented a best and final offer that made significant improvements and addresses feedback from the union and our employees.”

The new offer is more generous than the one that was overwhelmingly rejected earlier this month. The company said the offer includes pay raises of 30% over four years, up from 25% in the first proposal. The union originally demanded 40% over three years.

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Pac-12 adding Utah State, in talks with Gonzaga, as Mountain West tries to hold UNLV, AP sources say

The Pac-12 is adding Utah State as its seventh member and is in discussions with basketball powerhouse Gonzaga to join the rebuilding conference in 2026, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday.

In a whirlwind day of maneuvering by three leagues, Utah State and UNLV of the Mountain West became prime targets for the Pac-12 after a group of American Athletic Conference schools decided to stay put, following a pitch to join the rebuilding Conference of Champions.

Utah State, based in Logan, accepted the Pac-12’s invitation, according to two people, but UNLV’s decision was uncertain Monday night as Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez worked to keep the conference’s remaining schools together.

The Mountain West received commitments from Air Force and San Jose State earlier in the day, according to two other people with knowledge of that conference’s situation, but it was unclear if anything was binding if the rest of the remaining members were not on board. Air Force had been drawing interest from the AAC to join Army and Navy in that conference.

The other Mountain West schools include New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada and Hawaii for football only.