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

Analysis shows destruction and possible buffer zone along Gaza Strip’s border with Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — Satellite photos show new demolition along a 1-kilometer-deep path on the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, according an analysis by The Associated Press and expert reports. The destruction comes as Israel has said it wants to establish a buffer zone there, over international objections, further tearing away at land the Palestinians want for a state.

The demolition along the path represents only a sliver of the wider damage from the Israel-Hamas war seen in Gaza, which one assessment suggests has damaged or destroyed half of all the buildings within the coastal enclave.

Israeli leaders have signaled that they would like to establish a buffer zone as a defensive measure, which they contend could prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that triggered the nearly four-month-old war. That’s despite U.S. warnings not to shrink Gaza’s territory.

Israel’s military declined to answer whether it is carving out a buffer zone when asked by the AP, only saying it “takes various imperative actions that are needed in order to implement a defense plan that will provide improved security in southern Israel.” However, the military has acknowledged it has demolished buildings throughout the area.

An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing internal deliberations, said a “temporary security buffer zone” is under construction.

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US hints large response to Iran-backed militias is imminent as Houthi rebels target another ship

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday it’s time to further disable Iran-backed militias that have struck at U.S. forces and ships in the Middle East and the U.S. is preparing to take significant action in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members in Jordan.

For days the U.S. has hinted strikes are imminent. While the threat of retaliation for Sunday’s deaths has driven some militant groups to say they were stopping hostilities, as late as Thursday Yemen’s Houthi rebels were still attacking vessels and fired a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Red Sea.

“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said Thursday in his first press conference since he was hospitalized on Jan. 1 due to complications from prostate cancer treatment.

Previous U.S. strikes have not deterred the attacks. Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October, Iranian-backed militant groups have struck U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria at least 166 times with rockets, missiles and one-way attack drones, drawing about a half-dozen U.S. counterstrikes on militant facilities in both countries. The U.S. military also has carried out airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The U.S. has attributed the attack on Tower 22 in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.

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Nikki Haley has called out prejudice but rejected systemic racism throughout her career

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Four years after South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag from its Statehouse grounds, Nikki Haley offered two separate explanations of the flag’s meaning in less than a week.

Haley, the state’s governor when the flag was pulled in 2015 from its place of honor in Columbia, said in a 2019 interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck that the man who shot and killed eight Black churchgoers in Charleston — murders that were the impetus for the flag’s lowering — had “hijacked” a symbol that many people took to stand for “service and sacrifice and heritage.” Two days later, she wrote in the Washington Post, “Everyone knows the flag has always been a symbol of slavery, discrimination and hate for many people.”

The two messages capture Haley’s sometimes contradictory messages on race. Throughout her career, the South Carolina-born daughter of Indian immigrants has generally called out acts of individual prejudice and the people responsible. But Haley, now a Republican presidential candidate, has avoided denouncing society or groups of people as racist.

As the GOP primary race moves to South Carolina and its Feb. 24 contest, Haley is trying to cut into former President Donald Trump’s advantage. He has repeatedly attacked adversaries throughout his career with racist language, trying to appeal to as many voters as possible without alienating conservatives who reject the idea that systemic racism exists in the United States.

But Haley’s approach has drawn bipartisan criticism at times, particularly after a December town hall when Haley refused to say slavery had been a cause of the Civil War. She later walked back those remarks, saying that “of course the Civil War was about slavery.”

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California pummeled by first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers as ‘Pineapple Express’ sweeps state

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy rain flooded California roadways and much-needed snow piled up in the mountains as the first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pummeled the state Thursday.

The storm focused its energy on the southern and eastern parts of the state after initially hitting the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, where it halted cable car service. The downpours arrived Thursday in Southern California in time to snarl the morning commute.

An atmospheric river, which is a long band of moisture that forms over the Pacific, was fueling the storms dousing the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Oravec.

Atmospheric rivers “typically occur ahead of cold fronts across the Pacific,” he said. “And when they interact with the West Coast topography, you often get some very heavy rain both along the coastal ranges and also inland through the Sierras.”

As sheets of rain fell in San Diego, Ruben Gomez cleaned debris from storm drains in his parents’ neighborhood Thursday.

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The Senate is headed for a crucial test vote on new border policies and Ukraine aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will hold a crucial test vote next week on legislation that would pair new policies at the southern border with wartime aid for Ukraine and other American allies, leaders pressing ahead despite heavy skepticism from Republicans and some Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will set in motion a test vote on the national security package for Wednesday. However, with some Republicans resisting the timeline and many remaining uncommitted to supporting the border policy changes, the bill’s future remained uncertain.

“Our southern border is in urgent need, in urgent need, of fixing,” Schumer said in a floor speech.

Senate negotiators are expected in the coming days to release the text of a bill that would overhaul the U.S. asylum system with tougher and quicker enforcement as well as send tens of billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and other allies in Asia. Negotiators, toiling for weeks to finish the deal, have kept the bill’s details a closely guarded secret, but have come under heavy pressure from Republicans who are both frustrated they have not seen the bill’s contents and are wary of making any compromise on border security.

The Senate deal could be President Joe Biden’s best chance to enact policies to address a southern border that has been marked by historic numbers of migrants seeking asylum as well as deliver on one of his top foreign policy goals — buttressing Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion. The Senate readied to proceed towards a vote next week, but widespread support from Republicans, especially House Speaker Mike Johnson, remained doubtful.

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India begins to flex its naval power as competition with China grows

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — For decades, India has focused its defense policy on its land borders with rivals Pakistan and China. Now, as its global ambitions expand, it is beginning to flex its naval power in international waters, including anti-piracy patrols and a widely publicized deployment close to the Red Sea to help protect ships from attacks during Israel’s war with Hamas.

India sent three guided missile destroyers and reconnaissance aircraft in November when Yemen-based Houthi rebels began targeting ships in solidarity with Hamas, causing disruptions in a key trading route that handles about 12% of global trade.

The deployment highlights the country as a “proactive contributor” to international maritime stability, said Vice Adm. Anil Kumar Chawla, who retired in 2021 as head of India’s southern naval command.

“We are not doing it only out of altruism. Unless you are a maritime power you can never aspire to be a global power,” Chawla said. India, already a regional power, is positioning itself “as a global player today, an upcoming global power,” he said.

India is widely publicizing the deployments, signaling its desire to assume a wider responsibility in maritime security to the world and its growing maritime ambitions to regional rival China.

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Prosecutors weigh perjury charge for ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg over civil fraud trial testimony

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan prosecutors are weighing a potential perjury charge against Donald Trump’s former corporate finance chief in connection with testimony he gave in October at the ex-president’s New York civil fraud trial, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

Allen Weisselberg, who had been the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, testified for two days at the trial, answering questions about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth on financial statements given to banks and insurance companies.

It wasn’t clear what part of Weisselberg’s testimony drew the scrutiny of prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A decision on charging Weisselberg didn’t appear imminent. Bragg’s office was in the preliminary stages of discussions, internally and with Weisselberg’s legal team, the people said. They may not necessarily lead to a criminal charge. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

News of a potential perjury charge was first reported by The New York Times. Messages seeking comment were left for Weisselberg’s lawyers. Bragg’s office declined comment. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which brought the civil lawsuit, also declined comment.

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Biden sanctions Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians and peace activists in West Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals.

Those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property, according to the order. The penalties aim to block the four from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. U.S. officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war.

Biden’s order is a rare step against America’s closest ally in the Mideast who, Biden says, has the right to defend itself. But the Democratic president has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to show greater restraint in its military operations aimed at rooting out Hamas. Netanyahu denounced the U.S. penalties, which his government was notified in advance, U.S. officials said.

Palestinian authorities say some Palestinians have been killed, and rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing evacuations.

“This violence poses a grave threat to peace, security, and stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

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Guatemala’s new president appeals for society’s help to overcome entrenched powers

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — President Bernardo Arévalo said Thursday that with his political party suspended, little support in congress and an attorney general in hot pursuit, he will appeal to the Guatemalan people to help him overcome the entrenched old guard and achieve the change he campaigned on.

“We are clear that in the current context, we depend on society and convincing them that together we begin to row,” Arévalo told The Associated Press in an interview two weeks after his inauguration. “We can’t depend on a political system where those criminal and patronage networks still lurk.”

Arévalo won the presidency in August, beating the establishment candidate by a comfortable margin. He is the son of a former president credited with implementing some of Guatemala’s key labor protections, but Arévalo’s strong showing in a crowded field was still a shock.

The politician with a background in academia and conflict resolution caught fire with a message of challenging the country’s entrenched power structure and resuming the fight against corruption.

The face of the resistance to change is Attorney General Consuelo Porras. Sanctioned by the U.S. government for allegedly undermining Guatemala’s democracy, Porras has used her office’s autonomy to pursue Arévalo and his party since he won a spot in the presidential runoff election last year.

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Lupus and other autoimmune diseases strike far more women than men. Now there’s a clue why

WASHINGTON (AP) — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, when an out-of-whack immune system attacks their own bodies — and new research may finally explain why.

It’s all about how the body handles females’ extra X chromosome, Stanford University researchers reported Thursday — a finding that could lead to better ways to detect a long list of diseases that are hard to diagnose and treat.

“This transforms the way we think about this whole process of autoimmunity, especially the male-female bias,” said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry, who wasn’t involved in the study.

More than 24 million Americans, by some estimates up to 50 million, have an autoimmune disorder — diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and dozens more. About 4 of every 5 patients are women, a mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.

One theory is that the X chromosome might be a culprit. After all, females have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y.

The Associated Press