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

Tropical Storm Debby barrels toward Florida, with potential record-setting rains farther north

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby was strengthening rapidly Sunday and was expected to become a hurricane as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, bringing heavy bands of rain to that state and with it the threat of devastating floods to the southeast Atlantic coast later in the week.

The storm was likely to become a strong Category 1 hurricane before making landfall around midday Monday in the Big Bend area of Florida, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. A tornado watch was also in effect for parts of Florida and Georgia until 6 a.m. Monday.

“Right now, we are trying secure everything from floating away,” said Sheryl Horne, whose family owns the Shell Island Fish Camp along the Wakulla River in St. Marks, Florida, where some customers moved their boats inland. The Big Bend region was hit last year by Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.

“I am used to storms and I’m used to cleaning up after storms,” Horne said.

Debby was expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, thrashing the region with potential record-setting rains totaling up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) beginning Tuesday. Officials also warned of life-threatening storm surge along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with 6 to 10 feet of inundation expected Monday between the Ochlockonee and Suwannee rivers.

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US and allies prepare to defend Israel as Netanyahu says it’s already in ‘multi-front war’ with Iran

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and prevent an even more destructive regional conflict.

Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has begun discussions on choosing a new leader.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready for any scenario. Jordan’s foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts — “We want the escalation to end,” Ayman Safadi said — while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC.

In Israel, some prepared bomb shelters and recalled Iran’s unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals. Israel said almost all the drones and ballistic and cruise missiles were intercepted.

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Dueling Harris and Trump rallies in the same Atlanta arena showcase America’s deep divides

ATLANTA (AP) — Two rallies. Two Americas.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump stood in the same arena four days apart, each looking over capacity crowds like concert stars or prizefighters.

The competing events were staged three months before Election Day in the state that produced the closest margin of the 2020 race for the White House. On policy, tone, the types of voters in attendance and even the music playlists, the rallies offered not just opposing visions of the country but starkly different versions of it.

Those dynamics raise questions about how a factionalized citizenry might embrace a Trump comeback or a Harris ascension.

On that, at least two people who came to the Georgia State Convocation Center on different days could agree.

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Olympic boxer Imane Khelif calls for end to bullying after backlash over gender misconceptions

PARIS (AP) — Olympic boxer Imane Khelif said the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity,” and she called for an end to bullying athletes after being greatly affected by the international backlash against her.

The Algerian athlete spoke about her tumultuous Olympic experience on Sunday night in an interview with SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press.

“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” Khelif said in Arabic. “It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”

The victories of Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan in the ring in Paris have become one of the biggest stories of the Paris Games. Both women have clinched their first Olympic medals even as they have faced online abuse based on unsubstantiated claims about their gender, drawing them into a wider divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sports.

The 25-year-old Khelif acknowledged the pressure and pain of enduring this ordeal while competing far from home in the most important event of her athletic career.

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Americans are ‘getting whacked’ by too many laws and regulations, Justice Gorsuch says in a new book

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield.

“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview in his Supreme Court office. “But too much law and you actually impair those same things.”

“Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” is being published Tuesday by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Gorsuch has received a $500,000 advance for the book, according to his annual financial disclosure reports.

In the interview, Gorsuch refused to be drawn into discussions about term limits or an enforceable code of ethics for the justices, both recently proposed by President Joe Biden at a time of diminished public trust in the court. Justice Elena Kagan, speaking a couple of days before Biden, separately said the court’s ethics code, adopted by the justices last November, should have a means of enforcement.

But Gorsuch did talk about the importance of judicial independence. “I’m not saying that there aren’t ways to improve what we have. I’m simply saying that we’ve been given something very special. It’s the envy of the world, the United States judiciary,” he said.

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UK leader Starmer condemns attack on asylum-seeker hotel as far-right violence spreads

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer strongly condemned an attack Sunday on a hotel housing asylum seekers that saw at least 10 police officers injured, one seriously, describing it as “far-right thuggery.”

In a statement from 10 Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that the authorities will “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice” and that justice will be swift.

Starmer’s statement came as more violence broke out across the country in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.

“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

Starmer was speaking after another day of far-right violence, which was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham where police struggled to hold back hundreds of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for asylum-seekers.

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A year after Maui wildfire, chronic housing shortage and pricey vacation rentals complicate recovery

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Josephine Fraser worried her young family’s next home would be a tent.

Fraser and her partner, their two sons and their dog had moved nine times in as many months, from one hotel room to another, since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century razed her hometown of Lahaina, on Maui. They would sometimes get just 24 hours to relocate, with no immediate word where they were headed.

Now, the Red Cross was warning that the hotel shelter program would soon end and Fraser was having trouble explaining to her 3-year-old why they couldn’t just go home.

“He just kept asking, ‘Why?’” she said. “It really broke me.”

Like Fraser, thousands on Maui have faced a year of anxious uncertainty since the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire brought apocalyptic scenes of destruction to Lahaina, the historic former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, forcing some survivors to flee into the ocean. The fire killed at least 102 people and displaced 12,000.

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Renewed anti-government protests leave nearly 100 dead, hundreds more injured in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Nearly 100 people were killed and hundreds more injured Sunday as renewed anti-government protests swept across Bangladesh, with protesters calling for the prime minister to resign and the prime minister accusing them of “sabotage” and cutting off mobile internet in a bid to quell the unrest.

The country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo, said at least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in the violence. The Channel 24 news outlet reported at least 85 deaths.

The military announced that a new curfew was in effect Sunday evening for an indefinite period, including in the capital, Dhaka, and other divisional and district headquarters. The government had earlier imposed a curfew with some exceptions in Dhaka and elsewhere.

Demonstrators are demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation following protests last month that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs. Those demonstrations escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead.

As the renewed violence raged, Hasina said the protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

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VP’s campaign launches ‘Republicans for Harris’ in push to win over GOP voters put off by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Sunday was launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump’s candidacy.

The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris’ team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.

The Harris campaign shared the details of the program first with The Associated Press before the official announcement.

Her team is trying to create “a permission structure” for GOP voters who would otherwise have a difficult time voting for Harris. The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter contact, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice.

Trump’s “extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values” and will vote against him again in November, said Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford. He said the campaign would be “showing up and taking the time every single day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own.”

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Voices across the globe express concern over increasing arrests in Venezuela after disputed election

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Voices across the globe expressed concern Sunday over the growing number of arrests in Venezuela following last weekend’s disputed elections.

Pope Francis said Venezuela is “living a critical situation” in his traditional Sunday remarks at the Vatican, adding, “I appeal to all parties to seek the truth, to avoid all kinds of violence.”

The remarks came hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents. At a rally in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Maduro pledged to detain more people and send them to prison.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told CBS program “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Biden administration is worried the arrests could spark wider unrest.

“We are concerned about the prospect of instability, should there continue to be these detentions,” Finer said.

The Associated Press