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

Israel strikes and seals off Gaza after incursion by Hamas, which vows to execute hostages

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel and other supplies Monday in retaliation for a bloody incursion by Hamas militants, as the war’s death toll rose to nearly 1,600 on both sides. Hamas also escalated the conflict, pledging to kill captured Israelis if attacks targeted civilians without warnings.

In the war’s third day, Israel was still finding bodies from Hamas’ stunning weekend attack into southern Israeli towns. Rescue workers found 100 bodies in the tiny farming community of Beeri — around 10% of its population — after a long hostage standoff with gunmen. In Gaza, tens of thousands fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings.

The Israeli military said it had largely gained control in the south after the attack caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard and led to fierce battles in its streets for the first time in decades. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians snatched from inside Israel.

Israeli tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the Gaza border fence to prevent new incursions. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from more than a dozen towns near Gaza, and the military summoned 300,000 reservists — a massive mobilization in a short time.

The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.

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Biden interviewed as part of special counsel investigation into handling of classified documents

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been interviewed as part of an independent investigation into his handling of classified documents, the White House said late Monday. It’s a possible sign that the investigation is nearing its end.

Special counsel Robert Hur is examining the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a U.S. senator and as vice president that were found at his Delaware home, as well as at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.

Biden has said he was unaware he had the documents and that ” there’s no there there. ”

Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, said in a statement that the interview was voluntary and conducted at the White House on Sunday and Monday.

It’s not clear when Hur’s team approached Biden’s lawyers about an interview or how long they’d been negotiating. Asked on Aug. 25 if he planned to sit for an interview with the special counsel, Biden replied, “There’s no such request and no such interest.”

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As Republicans split over who will be House speaker, McCarthy positions himself as a de facto leader

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have no clear idea who will be the next U.S. House speaker, leaving an unprecedented power vacuum in Congress and severely limiting America’s ability to quickly respond to the crisis in Israel — or any number of other problems at home and abroad.

On Monday, the ousted former speaker, Kevin McCarthy, quickly jumped into the void, bitterly criticizing President Joe Biden’s administration over the strength of its defense of Israel and positioning himself as a de facto Republican leader even though his colleagues toppled him from power.

But it’s not at all clear if McCarthy could seriously make a comeback — or if one of the other Republicans seeking the gavel, Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan, can be elected speaker as their majority stumbles into infighting. House Republicans met behind closed doors for hours Monday evening as anger and blame spilled out, with no clear path forward.

“Whether I’m speaker or not … I can lead in any position I’m in,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said earlier at the Capitol.

The upheaval in the House puts the U.S. Congress at a crossroads during a moment of crisis, the first time in history it has booted a speaker from power, operating without a constitutional officer, second in line to the presidency. House business, and with it most congressional action, has come to a standstill.

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Mounds of rubble and a future of grief are what’s left after Afghanistan earthquake killed thousands

ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — People dug through the rubble of the quake in western Afghanistan for their few possessions but the material losses seemed unimportant.

Saturday’s 6.3 magnitude quake killed and injured thousands when it leveled an untold number of homes in Herat province. Picking through the rubble on Monday, Asadullah Khan paused to think about a future marred by grief.

Khan lost three daughters, his mother and his sister-in-law. Five members of his uncle’s family have died. His neighbors are grief-stricken, too.

“We have lost 23 people in this village,” Khan said.

Mounds of rubble flank the road winding through Zinda Jan district. Some door frames remain standing. There were few people in sight on Monday.

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Sunrise gatherings, dances and speeches mark celebration of culture on Indigenous Peoples Day

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Events across the country — including a sunrise gathering in Minneapolis, a statehouse rally in Maine, a celebratory march in Seattle and traditional dancing, music, and food in Alaska and Arizona — marked celebrations of Indigenous Peoples Day.

The ceremonies, speeches and performances in traditional regalia Monday came two years after President Joe Biden officially commemorated the day honoring “America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today.”

At a gathering in Phoenix where dancers performed in traditional Aztec clothing, Sifa Matafahi said it was an opportunity to “pay respect to Indigenous cultures … to reflect on our past and history, while also acknowledging our cultural presence.”

A celebratory march was held in Seattle and a sunrise ceremony at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. In Minnesota, about 150 people, including the governor and lieutenant governor, attended a sunrise prayer and ceremony at Bde Maka Ska, a lake surrounded by parkland on the south side of Minneapolis.

“Today, we recognize our ancestors and predecessors who really laid the foundation for us to stand,” said Thorne LaPointe, an organizer, who is Sicangu Lakota. “And we will always recognize our elders who are here and those who have gone on before us, who really kicked open the doors in their time, nationally and internationally.”

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Judge upholds most serious charges in deadly arrest of Black driver Ronald Greene

FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — A judge delivered a victory Monday to the state prosecution of white Louisiana lawmen in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, allowing the most serious charge of negligent homicide to go forward against a trooper captured on body-camera video dragging the Black motorist by his ankle shackles and forcing him to lie facedown in the dirt.

The case had been steeped in uncertainty in recent months after the judge dismissed obstruction charges against two other troopers, leaving three officers still facing charges.

“My heart is lifted by this,” said Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin. “We shouldn’t have waited four plus years, but we’re still moving forward.”

Master Trooper Kory York had sought dismissal of the negligent homicide and malfeasance charges against him after prosecutors acknowledged an extraordinary oversight in which they improperly allowed a use-of-force expert to review statements York made during an internal affairs inquiry. Such compelled interviews may be used to discipline officers administratively but are specifically shielded from use in criminal cases.

But Judge Thomas Rogers ruled Monday that the prosecutors’ blunder did not taint York’s indictment, and that the use-of-force expert, Seth Stoughton, had drawn his conclusions not from the protected interview but the graphic body-camera footage of Greene’s deadly arrest on a rural roadside outside Monroe.

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Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd suspends long-shot GOP 2024 presidential bid, endorses Nikki Haley

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Republican Texas congressman Will Hurd suspended his presidential bid on Monday and endorsed fellow GOP primary candidate Nikki Haley, officially abandoning a brief campaign built on criticizing Donald Trump at a time when his party seems even more determined to embrace the former president.

“While I appreciate all the time and energy our supporters have given, it is important to recognize the realities of the political landscape and the need to consolidate our party around one person to defeat both Donald Trump and President Biden,” Hurd wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

He added that Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump and governor of South Carolina, “has shown a willingness to articulate a different vision for the country than Donald Trump and has an unmatched grasp on the complexities of our foreign policy.”

Hurd was the last major candidate to join the already crowded Republican primary field when he announced his run in late June. He leaves the race barely three months later, after failing to gain traction as pragmatic moderate who pledged to lead the party away from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. Hurd failed to qualify for both the first GOP debate in Milwaukee in August and the second debate the following month in Simi Valley, California.

“America is at a crossroads and it’s time to come together and make Joe Biden a one-term president,” Haley wrote on X in response to Hurd’s endorsement. “Thank you @WillHurd for your support and confidence. We have a country to save!”

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Is Mar-a-Lago worth $1 billion? Trump’s winter home valuations are at the core of his fraud trial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — How much is Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago worth? That’s been a point of contention after a New York judge ruled that the former president exaggerated the Florida property’s value when he said it’s worth at least $420 million and perhaps $1.5 billion.

Siding with New York’s attorney general in a lawsuit accusing Trump of grossly overvaluing his assets, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump consistently exaggerated Mar-a-Lago’s worth. He noted that one Trump estimate of the club’s value was 2,300% times the Palm Beach County tax appraiser’s valuations, which ranged from $18 million to $37 million.

But Palm Beach real estate agents who specialize in high-end properties scoffed at the idea that the estate could be worth that little, in the unlikely event Trump ever sold.

“Ludicrous,” agent Liza Pulitzer said about the judge citing the county’s tax appraisal as a benchmark. Homes a tenth the size of Mar-a-Lago on tiny inland lots sell for that in the Town of Palm Beach, a wealthy island enclave.

“The entire real estate community felt it was a joke when they saw that figure,” said Pulitzer, who works for the firm Brown Harris Stevens.

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Costly upkeep, less-than-ideal weather lead most college football stadiums to use artificial turf

When a new football stadium was built at South Alabama, located in one of America’s rainiest cities, the decision was made to go with an artificial turf playing surface.

At San Diego State, where the weather seems almost always perfect, going with a grass field was an easy choice — but not the usual one in major college football.

Of the 133 schools that currently compete in the top-tier of NCAA Division I, 94 have artificial surface football fields (71%) and 39 have grass (29%), most of those at Power Five schools that can afford the upkeep and maintenance. A half-century ago, there were 74 such schools playing on natural grass and the number actually peaked at 75 around 20 years ago.

It has plummeted since, even with more money flowing into Power Five school coffers from billion-dollar TV contracts.

The topic is a complicated one with some schools (Arkansas and Mississippi, for example) switching four times in the past century and others such as Michigan and Ohio State changing surfaces three times.

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‘Frasier’ returns to TV but you don’t need to be a superfan of the original to laugh at its jokes

You could say Joe Cristalli tweeted his role as an executive producer and co-showrunner on the new “ Frasier ” sitcom into existence.

About 10 years ago as a fledgling TV writer and “Frasier” super fan, Cristalli started a Twitter account with “random jokes” about the show and character made famous by Kelsey Grammer in the sitcoms “Cheers” and “Frasier.”

“It was stupid and nobody cared about it. I think I had maybe 3,000 followers at its height,” he recalled in a recent interview.

At this point, “Frasier” had been off the air for 10 years, but Cristalli used it as “an outlet to practice writing because I was such a super fan and I just loved the style of joke-telling, so I would work on it.”

A few years later, Cristalli read that Grammer was interested in reviving the character. He had his agent send a sample script and examples from his “Frasier”-centric Twitter feed to Grammer’s team. He was eventually hired alongside “How I Met Your Mother” writer Chris Harris to be co-showrunners of a new “Frasier” series, debuting Oct. 12 on Paramount+.