2:15 a.m. EDT National News Summary

Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school used as a shelter kills at least 80, Palestinian officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health authorities say an Israeli airstrike has killed at least 80 people in a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza City. Nearly 50 others were wounded. A witness says it struck early Saturday during prayers at a mosque in the building. The Israeli military says it hit a Hamas command center inside the mosque in the school compound. Hamas denies using the school as a command center. This is the latest in what the U.N. human rights office is calling “systematic attacks on schools” by Israel. There have been at least 21 since July 4 leaving hundreds dead including women and children.

‘I don’t want to die,’ Uvalde student told 911 dispatcher during mass shooting

DALLAS (AP) — As a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, terrified pupils and staff members made frantic calls to 911. One student told an operator there were “a lot” of bodies as she begged for help, saying, “Please, I don’t want to die.” The calls from the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by Uvalde city officials Saturday after a prolonged legal fight. The Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information from one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

Harris pledges to work to end taxes on tips for service industry employees, echoing Trump vow

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is promising to work to eliminate federal taxes on tips paid to restaurant and other service industry employees. That echoes a similar pledge by her opponent, Republican Donald Trump, and marks a rare moment of political overlap between them. Harris made the announcement Saturday at a rally in Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industries. Trump made a similar promise at his own rally in the city in June. Trump is now accusing Harris of copying his pledge. He claims “she has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”

Donald Trump’s campaign says its emails were hacked

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign says it has been hacked and is blaming Iranian actors for stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents. The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024. It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

Families of Brazilian plane crash victims gather in Sao Paulo as experts work to identify the dead

SAO PAULO (AP) — Families of victims of an airliner crash in Brazil are gathering at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo hours as forensics expert work to identify the remains of the 62 people killed in the accident. Local authorities say the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were the first to be identified by forensics experts. The ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop operated by Brazilian airline Voepass was headed for Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and four crew members when it went down Friday in Vinhedo, about 50 miles north of the metropolis.

Debby finally moves out of the US, though some flooding risk and power outages remain

Debby has finally moved out of the U.S. after the storm spent the better part of a week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane. Though the skies cleared, a flood warning remained in effect until Saturday night in a small part of northern New York. Nearly 170,000 homes and businesses in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Vermont remained without power. Debby’s last day over the U.S. inundated south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania with rain, prompting evacuations and rescues by helicopter.

In a remote Ugandan region, a sacred circumcision ritual faces a contentious test of purity

NEAR MOUNT ELGON, Uganda (AP) — The ritualized circumcision of thousands of boys, known as Imbalu, began Aug. 3 in a remote corner of Uganda and will continue until the end of 2024. But this year the local king has opened the festivities to the public, with $120,000 from the Ugandan government and a corporate sponsor. The decision has raised eyebrows among many Bamasaaba, an ethnic group of 4 million. Can this ritual be turned into a carnival, put on for the gaze of foreigners? Or should it remain a sacred ceremony in which families quietly prepare their sons to face the knife with courage?

Boxer Lin Yu-ting wins gold, following Imane Khelif to conclude an Olympics filled with scrutiny

PARIS (AP) — Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won a gold medal in the women’s featherweight division at the Paris Olympics. She followed Imane Khelif’s lead with a glittering response to the intense scrutiny faced by both fighters inside the ring and around the world over misconceptions about their womanhood. Lin beat Julia Szeremeta of Poland 5:0 in the final at Roland Garros, capping her four-fight unbeaten run through Paris by ensuring that Taiwan’s first Olympic boxing medal is golden. Both fighters persevered through an avalanche of criticism and uninformed speculation about their sex during the Paris…

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