Russia says a plane with Ukrainian POWs crashes, killing all aboard, and accuses Kyiv of downing it

A Russian military transport plane crashed Wednesday in a border region near Ukraine, and Moscow accused Kyiv of shooting it down, saying all 74 people aboard were killed, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war headed for a swap. Russia offered no evidence and Ukraine didn’t immediately confirm or deny it.

Video of the crash on social media from the Belgorod border region of Russia showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area, and a huge ball of fire erupting where it apparently hit the ground.

The Associated Press couldn’t confirm who was aboard or other details on what brought the plane down.

Throughout the 700-day war, Russia and Ukraine have traded conflicting accusations, and establishing the facts has often been difficult, both because of the constraints of a war zone and because each side tightly controls information.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Il-76 transport plane was carrying 65 POWs, a crew of six and three Russian servicemen. Russian radar registered the launch of two missiles from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region that borders Belgorod, the statement said.

___

Qatar, a key mediator in sensitive Israel-Hamas talks, lashes out at Netanyahu over critical remarks

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Qatar on Wednesday said it was “appalled” by leaked remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he criticized the country’s mediation efforts with Hamas, complicating already arduous negotiations meant to halt the hostilities in exchange for a hostage release.

In a meeting with families of hostages held by Hamas, Netanyahu said Qatar’s role in the mediation was “problematic.” Qatar, a key mediator that also has deep ties to the militant group and hosts some of its exiled leaders, said Netanyahu’s remarks were “irresponsible and destructive.”

The public spat came as sensitive talks were underway in an effort to advance a potential agreement that might offer some respite in the devastating 3-month-old war. The fighting has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, displaced some 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that has spread hunger, malnutrition and disease across the embattled coastal enclave.

As the diplomacy continued, fierce fighting still raged, especially in southern Gaza, where the United Nations said an Israeli tank strike on a U.N. facility killed at least nine people and wounded dozens.

Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the offensive until “complete victory” against Hamas, which started the war with its Oct. 7 assault across the border, killing some 1,200 people in Israel and abducting 250 others.

___

The primaries have just begun. But Trump and Biden are already shifting to a November mindset

NEW YORK (AP) — Barely 400,000 votes have been cast in two rural Republican primaries over the span of eight days. But both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are behaving like their parties’ nominees already.

Trump’s double-digit victory Tuesday in independent-minded New Hampshire, where he was considered more vulnerable than perhaps anywhere else, was a rhetorical tipping point for both Democrats and Republicans.

“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” President Joe Biden said hours after Trump’s victory Tuesday night.

Trump’s team largely agreed, even as he raged about former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s unwillingness to leave the race altogether.

“I say the general election begins tonight,” said Trump-adversary-turned-advocate Vivek Ramaswamy, who was standing at the former president’s side during his New Hampshire victory speech. “And this man will win it in a landslide.”

___

Federal court says Alabama can carry out first nitrogen gas execution; Supreme Court appeal expected

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama will be allowed to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, refusing to block what would be the nation’s first execution by a new method since 1982.

A divided panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request for an injunction to stop his execution by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday night. Smith’s lawyers, who have argued the state is trying to make him the test subject for an experimental execution method, are expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in a final bid to halt the scheduled execution.

The judges said in a 2-1 decision there is “no doubt that death by nitrogen hypoxia is both new and novel” but that Smith had failed to establish how it would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Circuit Judge Jill A. Pryor dissented from the decision, saying there are, “real doubts” about the protocol and what Smith will experience.

“He will die. The cost, I fear, will be Mr. Smith’s human dignity, and ours,” Pryor wrote in a dissent.

Robert Grass, an attorney for Smith, declined to comment Wednesday night.

___

A Texas school’s punishment of a Black student who wears his hair in locs is going to trial

ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) — A judge ordered Wednesday that a trial be held next month to determine whether a Black high school student in Texas can continue being punished by his district for refusing to change a hairstyle he and his family say is protected by a new state law.

Darryl George, 18, has not been in his regular classroom in Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu since Aug. 31. Instead, he has either been serving in-school suspension or spending time in an off-site disciplinary program.

His Houston-area school district, Barbers Hill, has said George’s long hair, which he wears in neatly tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violates a district dress code that limits hair length for boys. The district has said other students with locs comply with the length policy.

George, a junior, said Wednesday that he has felt stress and frustration over what he sees as unfair punishment, but that he was grateful to soon be getting his day in court.

“I’m glad that we are being heard, too. I’m glad that things are moving and we’re getting through this,” George said after the hearing in Anahuac, with his mother, Darresha George, standing next to him.

___

FAA approves inspection process that could clear the way for grounded Boeing planes to fly again

Federal regulators have approved an inspection process that will let airlines resume flying their Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners, which have been grounded since a side panel blew out of a plane in midflight earlier this month.

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that his agency’s review of the scary incident on board an Alaska Airlines Boeing jet gave him confidence to clear a path for the planes to fly again.

The official, Mike Whitaker, said the FAA would not agree to any Boeing request to expand production of Max planes until the agency is satisfied that quality-control concerns have been addressed.

“This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing,” Whitaker vowed.

The production limits will apply only to the Max, of which there are currently two models, the 8 and the 9. Boeing builds about 30 a month but has wanted to raise production for some time.

___

Ohio bans gender-affirming care and restricts transgender athletes despite GOP governor’s veto

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has banned gender-affirming care for minors and restricted transgender women’s and girls’ participation on sports teams, a move that has families of transgender children scrambling over how best to care for them.

The Republican-dominated Senate voted Wednesday to override GOP Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto. The new law bans gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies, and restricts mental health care for transgender individuals under 18. The measure also bans transgender girls and women from girls and women’s sports teams at both the K-12 and collegiate level.

The override cleared the chamber 24-8 mostly along party lines, save Sen. Nathan Manning, a Republican from Cuyahoga County who has consistently broken from his party on the issue.

Officials expect the law to take effect in roughly 90 days. The Republican-majority House had voted to override the veto earlier this month.

Two of Kat Scaglione’s three children are transgender, and the Chagrin Falls artist is devastated, but not surprised, by the new law. Her 14-year-old daughter Amity is already receiving mental health services and some medication, and would be able to continue her treatment under the law’s grandfather clause, but she wouldn’t be able to seek anything further, such as hormone therapies, and would have to go out of state to progress in her gender-affirming care.

___

Washington state reaches a nearly $150 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson over opioid crisis

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington state attorney general announced a $149.5 million settlement Wednesday with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, more than four years after the state sued the company over its role in the opioid addiction crisis.

“They knew what the harm was. They did it anyway,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson told reporters Wednesday.

The attorney general’s announcement came as opioid overdose deaths more than doubled from 2019 to 2022, with 2,048 deaths recorded in 2022, according to the most recent numbers from the Washington State Department of Health.

Under the deal, the state and local governments would have to spend $123.3 million to address the opioid crisis, including on substance abuse treatment, expanded access to overdose-reversal drugs and services that support pregnant women on substances. The rest of the money would go toward litigation costs.

The harm is “left now to policymakers to grapple with,” the attorney general said, “or families and individuals who grapple in a very different way with the real tragedy of addiction.”

___

Trump’s live appearances pose a riddle that news executives still haven’t solved

NEW YORK (AP) — Even as Donald Trump seeks his third straight Republican presidential nomination, his live appearances still present an unsolved riddle for many news outlets: How do you cover him?

The question hung in the air as CNN, MSNBC and some streaming outlets started — then stopped — showing Trump’s speech following Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. There was little hand-wringing at Fox News Channel and Newsmax, networks that appeal to Trump supporters. They carried the former president’s remarks in full.

Outlets weigh whether an event’s newsworthiness justifies live coverage when there’s a risk Trump will make false statements that are difficult, if not impossible, to correct in real time — or go completely off script with something entirely unexpected.

And as a year of campaign and courtroom events loom, news executives will face similar decisions again and again.

MSNBC pointedly opted out of carrying Trump after the Iowa caucuses a week ago, as Rachel Maddow said “there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.” But after New Hampshire, MSNBC starting showing him, Maddow noting Trump’s Iowa speech had been mild-mannered by Trump standards.

___

Experimental gene therapy allows kids with inherited deafness to hear

Gene therapy has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear.

A small study published Wednesday documents significantly restored hearing in five of six kids treated in China. On Tuesday, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced similar improvements in an 11-year-old boy treated there. And earlier this month, Chinese researchers published a study showing much the same in two other children.

So far, the experimental therapies target only one rare condition. But scientists say similar treatments could someday help many more kids with other types of deafness caused by genes. Globally, 34 million children have deafness or hearing loss, and genes are responsible for up to 60%of cases. Hereditary deafness is the latest condition scientists are targeting with gene therapy, which is already approved to treat illnesses such as sickle cell disease and severe hemophilia.

Children with hereditary deafness often get a device called a cochlear implant that helps them hear sound.

“No treatment could reverse hearing loss … That’s why we were always trying to develop a therapy,” said Zheng-Yi Chen of Boston’s Mass Eye and Ear, a senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Lancet. “We couldn’t be more happy or excited about the results.”