AP News Summary at 7:45 a.m. EDT | National News

Hezbollah fires scores of rockets at northern Israel as Gaza cease-fire talks hang in the balance

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has fired scores of rockets into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a top commander. The massive barrage on Wednesday escalated regional tensions as the fate of an internationally-backed plan for a cease-fire in Gaza hangs in the balance. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region to push a cease-fire proposal with global support that has not been fully embraced by Israel or Hamas. The militant group submitted its first official response late Tuesday, requesting “amendments” to the deal. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the 8-month-long Israel-Hamas war began and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza. That has raised fears of a wider war.

What’s next for Hunter Biden after his conviction on federal gun charges

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Hunter Biden’s legal woes are not over after his conviction on three felony firearms charges in a trial that put a spotlight on his drug-fueled past. Now, President Joe Biden’s son faces sentencing, and another trial on tax charges in the middle of his father’s reelection campaign. Jurors found Hunter Biden guilty on Tuesday after three hours of deliberations over two days in Wilmington, Delaware. The case stemmed from a gun Hunter Biden bought in 2018 while, prosecutors say, he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said after the verdict that they will “continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available.”

AP sources: 8 people with possible Islamic State ties arrested in US on immigration violations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight individuals from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group have been arrested in the United States in recent days. That’s according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The people say the arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the U.S. through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations. The nature of their suspected connections to IS was not immediately clear, but the men were tracked by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. They were in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests, pending removal proceedings.

North Korea’s Kim hails Russia ties as Putin reportedly plans a visit

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hailed the country’s expanding relationship with Russia as reports suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon visit the country for his third meeting with Kim. North Korea’s state media reported Wednesday that Kim sent Putin a congratulatory message marking Russia’s National Day and spoke about booming bilateral ties. Cooperation between the two countries have sharply increased since Kim visited Russia last September for a meeting with Putin. Japanese public broadcaster NHK, citing unidentified diplomatic sources including high-ranking Russian officials, reported Wednesday that Putin is preparing to visit North Korea and Vietnam next week.

At least 41 die in a fire at a building housing workers in Kuwait

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — At least 41 people have died when a fire swept through a building that housed workers in Kuwait. Officials say the blaze early Wednesday appeared to be linked to code violations. Local media reported Kuwait’s interior minister confirmed the toll and ordered the arrest of the building’s owner during a visit to the site. Scores of workers were living in the building in the southern Mangaf district. Kuwait, like other Persian Gulf countries, has large numbers of migrant workers. The nation of some 4.2 million people is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of New Jersey but has the world’s sixth-largest known oil reserves.

More than 1.5 million foreign Muslims arrive in Mecca for annual Hajj pilgrimage

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca for the Hajj, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale. Saudi officials say more than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in Mecca so far. More are expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and others living in Saudi Arabia will also join them when the pilgrimage officially begins on Friday. Saudi officials expect the number to exceed the participants in 2023, when more than 1.8 million people performed Hajj. The numbers are nearing the totals before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage.

Faking an honest woman: Why Russia, China and Big Tech all use faux females to get clicks

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to online scams and foreign disinformation, it pays to be female. Or at least to pretend to be. That’s according to research that shows that chatbots and fake social media accounts get more engagement when they have female personas. Researchers say that’s because people are more likely to view women as warm and approachable, and to see chatbots with feminine personas as more human than those posing as male. As a result, many chatbots are given a female personality, while groups linked to the Kremlin and China prefer fake accounts with female profile pictures to spread disinformation and propaganda.

After years of delays, scaled-back plans underway for memorial to Florida nightclub massacre

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Survivors and relatives of the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Florida had hoped by now to have a permanent memorial place at the site. But scaled-back plans for a memorial to the 49 people killed and 53 wounded in the attack on the gay-friendly club in Orlando are only just getting off the ground. A private foundation with ambitious plans for a multimillion-dollar memorial and museum has since disbanded. And last year the city of Orlando purchased the nightclub property for $2 million. It has since outlined more modest plans for a memorial. Wednesday marks the eighth anniversary of the attack by gunman Omar Mateen, who was killed after a standoff.

Federal Reserve is likely to scale back plans for rate cuts because of persistent inflation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday will likely make official what’s been clear for many weeks: With inflation sticking at a level well above their 2% target, they are downgrading their outlook for interest rate cuts. In a set of quarterly economic forecasts they will issue after their latest meeting ends, the policymakers are expected to project that they will cut their benchmark rate just once or twice by year’s end, rather than the three times they had envisioned in March. The Fed’s rate policies typically have a significant impact on the costs of mortgages, auto loans, credit card rates and other forms of consumer and business borrowing.

Thefts of charging cables pose yet another obstacle to appeal of electric vehicles

DETROIT (AP) — Across the U.S., thieves have been targeting electric-vehicle charging stations, intent on stealing the cables, which contain copper wiring. The price of copper is near a record high on global markets, which means criminals stand to collect rising sums of cash from selling the material. The stolen cables often disable entire charging stations. Broken-down chargers have emerged as the latest obstacle for U.S. automakers in their effort to convert more Americans to EVs despite public anxiety about a scarcity of charging stations. If even finding a charging station doesn’t necessarily mean finding functioning cables, it becomes another reason for buyers to stick with gasoline-fueled or hybrid vehicles, at least for now.

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