Nation and world news in brief for September 4

US charges Hamas leaders over Oct. 7 attack on Israel

(Reuters) — The United States announced criminal charges on Tuesday against Hamas’ top leaders over their roles in planning, supporting and perpetrating the deadly Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.

The charges against Yahya Sinwar, the militant group’s chief, and at least five others accuse them of orchestrating the Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans.

That attack triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians and laid waste to much of the territory.

The complaint names six defendants, three of whom are deceased. The living defendants are Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and heads the group’s diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.

Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 35 Palestinians but pauses allow third day of polio vaccinations

CAIRO (Reuters) — Israeli forces killed at least 35 Palestinians across Gaza on Tuesday as they battled Hamas-led militants, Palestinian officials said, but brief pauses in fighting allowed medics to conduct a third day of polio vaccinations for children.

Among those killed were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians inside a house near Omar Al-Mokhtar Street in the middle of Gaza City, medics said.

Another strike hit near a college in Sheikh Radwan, a northern suburb of the city. The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas militants operating from a command center embedded inside the former Nama College.

Others were killed in separate air strikes across the territory, medics said.

Trump to plead not guilty to charges in revised US indictment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump said in a court filing on Tuesday that he would plead not guilty to criminal charges in a revised indictment accusing him of attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Trump, the Republican candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election, waived his right to appear in court and instead authorized his lawyers to enter the plea.

The revised indictment, obtained last week by Special Counsel Jack Smith, includes the same four charges prosecutors brought against Trump last year. He was accused of attempting to defraud the United States, obstruct congressional certification of the election and deprive voters of their right to a fair vote.

The new indictment dropped and reframed certain allegations after the U.S. Supreme Court determined that Trump has broad immunity from criminal prosecution over official actions he took as president.

White House says hostage killings add urgency to Gaza ceasefire talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The killing by Hamas militants of six hostages, whose bodies were recovered by Israeli troops over the weekend, underscores the urgency for a ceasefire deal in Gaza and release of the remaining captives, the White House said on Tuesday.

“Clearly what happened over the weekend underscores how important it is to get this done as quickly as possible,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing, adding that Hamas was responsible for their deaths.

The United States and its allies have been pushing hard to negotiate a ceasefire-for-hostages deal to bring at least a temporary stop to the Gaza conflict in exchange for the release of sick, elderly and wounded hostages.

But an agreement has been elusive. U.S. officials have been working on what some officials call a final proposal, but Kirby was quick to say the United States would not be pushing a “take it or leave it” concept.

He said he did not have a timeframe on when the proposal would be formally presented.

Starlink backtracks, complies with order blocking X in Brazil, says regulator

(Reuters) — Elon Musk’s satellite broadband firm, Starlink, on Tuesday said that it is complying with Brazil’s top court order to block access to social media platform X in the country, a day after informing the country’s regulator it would not obey the order.

Starlink had emerged as a fresh battleground between Musk and Brazil, as top court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the freeze of the company’s accounts for possible use to pay fines owed by X, which is also owned by Musk.

Cathay Pacific inspections find 15 A350s need engine parts replaced

(Reuters) — Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways said on Tuesday it had inspected its entire Airbus A350 fleet after the in-flight failure of an engine part and found 15 aircraft with components that needed replacement.

A person familiar with the matter said a leak in a fuel system appeared to have caused a brief engine fire that was quickly extinguished by the crew of the Zurich-bound A350. There were no immediate signs that Monday’s incident would trigger significant regulatory action involving the A350 fleet, the person added.

The A350-1000 returned to Hong Kong just over an hour after take-off.

Aviation Herald, an air safety publication, reported the jet had turned back after a cockpit alert warning of a fire in one of its two Rolls-Royce XWB-97 engines.

After carrying out routine checks and discharging a fire bottle, the crew dumped fuel and returned to base, it said.

Wall Street drops on September worries, upcoming data

NEW YORK (Reuters) — U.S. stocks slumped on Tuesday, at the start of one of the market’s historically worst months, ahead of data likely to influence how much the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.

The benchmark S&P 500 index, Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded their biggest daily percentage declines since early August. Nine out of 11 S&P 500 sectors fell, led by declines in technology, energy, communication services and materials.

Market sentiment weakened as Institute for Supply Management data on Tuesday showed U.S. manufacturing remained subdued despite a modest improvement in August from an eight-month low in July.

September is widely regarded as one of the worst months for stock market performance based on data stretching back to the 1950s, said Jason Browne, president at Alexis Investment Partners in Montgomery, Texas.

Ukraine arms chief, four ministers resign in government shake-up

KYIV (Reuters) — The Ukrainian minister in charge of weapons production resigned on Tuesday in anticipation of another defence role and four other ministers stood down in a major government shake-up at a critical juncture in the war with Russia.

The resignations of Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin, Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna and the justice, environment and reintegration ministers leaves over a third of the cabinet vacant after sackings earlier this year.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his political allies could move to fill the positions to create order before he travels this month to the United States, where he hopes to present a “victory plan” to U.S. President Joe Biden, a key ally.

Brazil, US condemn arrest warrant for Venezuela opposition leader Gonzalez

BRASILIA/CARACAS (Reuters) — Brazil’s top foreign policy adviser on Tuesday slammed the arrest warrant issued by Caracas for Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as “very concerning” and said there was a clear “authoritarian escalation” in the country.

Other countries around the Americas, including the United States, Argentina and Peru, also condemned the move.

The Venezuelan attorney general’s office said on Monday that a court had issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, the opposition’s erstwhile presidential candidate, accusing him of conspiracy and other crimes amid a dispute over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro won the July 28 election.

At least 12 migrants dead after vessel capsizes in Channel

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France (Reuters) — At least 12 migrants died on Tuesday after their boat capsized on its way across the Channel to Britain, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that rescue operations were underway to find two people still missing.

Tackling illegal immigration has been a priority for both the British and French governments. More than 2,000 people have arrived in Britain on small boats over the past seven days, according to UK government figures.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to work closer together to dismantle migrant smuggling routes.

A local French official told reporters that the victims were mainly from Africa, with many from Eritrea. Darmanin added that some children were among the victims.

Bangladesh floods leave 71 dead, fears of waterborne disease rise

DHAKA (Reuters) — The death toll from floods in Bangladesh rose to 71 on Tuesday with millions of people still stranded in devastated areas and increasing concern about outbreaks of waterborne disease as the inundation recedes.

The floods, triggered by relentless monsoon rains and runoff from upstream waterways, have wreaked havoc over the past two weeks, causing widespread destruction and affecting around five million people.

More than 580,000 families are still marooned in 11 flood-hit districts, and in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and dry clothing. Nearly 500 medical teams were helping provide treatment, with the army, air force, navy, and the border guard assisting in relief efforts.

Authorities are now focusing on preventing the spread of waterborne diseases, a common aftermath of such disasters, and ensuring the availability of clean drinking water.

Former Volkswagen chief executive faces trial in emissions case

(NYT) — Almost nine years after Volkswagen admitted that it had rigged millions of cars to cheat on emissions tests, the company’s former CEO went on trial Tuesday on charges stemming from the fraud, a vast corporate conspiracy that changed the auto industry.

Martin Winterkorn, 77, who led Volkswagen from 2007 until he resigned under pressure in September 2015, appeared at a court in Braunschweig, Germany, after a judge rejected his pleas to postpone the trial because he said he was in poor health. The trial will be a test of whether German authorities can hold top executives accountable for wrongdoing that cost Volkswagen tens of billions of dollars and contributed to poor air quality in Europe and the United States.

Winterkorn, who was once Germany’s highest-paid executive, faces criminal charges including fraud, market manipulation and making false statements. Prosecutors accused him of failing to notify authorities and owners of Volkswagen cars when, in 2014, he became aware of software designed to illegally cloak emissions that exceeded limits imposed by European and U.S. regulators.

At least 129 people die in jailbreakat Congo’s largest prison

(NYT) — At least 129 people died during an attempted jailbreak at the largest prison in Congo, the country’s authorities said Tuesday. It was the latest crisis to hit an overcrowded detention facility notorious for conditions that human rights groups have long decried as inhumane.

A stampede was to blame for most of the deaths, but at least 24 inmates were killed by gunfire as they tried to escape from the Makala Central Prison early Monday, according to Congo’s interior minister, Jacquemain Shabani.

Russian missiles kill 50 in strike on Ukrainian military institute

KYIV (Reuters) — At least 50 people were killed and 271 wounded when Russia hit a military institute in Ukraine’s central town of Poltava with two ballistic missiles on Tuesday, the war’s deadliest single attack this year.

Photographs posted on social media showed several bodies of young men on the ground covered in dust and debris, with the badly damaged side of a large building behind them. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.

“The Russian scum will definitely be held accountable for this strike,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.

He ordered a prompt investigation, saying the strike damaged a building of the Military Institute of Communications.

In his nightly video address, delivered later in the evening, Zelenskiy put the death toll at 51.