First Thing: Antony Blinken arrives in Turkey for Gaza talks

US secretary of state to talk to foreign minister Hakan Fidan in latest stop of diplomatic tour as US nuclear-powered submarine heads through Suez canal

Good morning.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey before talks on Gaza as the US military took the rare step of announcing it had sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the region.

Police in Turkey used teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who marched on an airbase housing US forces in Turkey’s south-east hours before Blinken’s arrival yesterday. On Monday, he holds talks in Ankara with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan.

In an apparent snub of Washington’s top diplomat, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, plans to travel across the remote north-east on Monday. Blinken has supported Israel while trying to assure regional players that Washington is focused on relieving humanitarian suffering amid the ongoing ground offensive in Gaza.

Late on Sunday, US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said on Twitter that an Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region – an unusual public announcement of a nuclear submarine’s position, seen by some observers as a message to Iran.

What’s happening with Israel’s ground offensive? Israel’s military announced late Sunday it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip in two. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory. Here’s everything we know on day 31 of the conflict.

What’s happening in Gaza? Aid has been trickling into the territory via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt but the UN has said it is woefully inadequate for what is needed. Israel has cut off water, fuel and medical supplies to Gaza even as thousands of civilians are killed and injured in its attacks. Jordan has airdropped a medical aid package to a hospital in Gaza, King Abdullah II has said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). Jordan’s military said in a statement that the medical supplies were dropped via parachutes from a Jordanian Air Force plane.

Trump angry over trials but happy with attack and delay strategy, insiders say

Donald Trump has often appeared angrily under siege as he stews over his predicament in the New York civil fraud case, according to people close to the former president. He has been particularly furious with the witness testimony of recent weeks, testimony that could result in the end of the Trump Organization empire.

The rulings from the presiding New York state supreme court justice Arthur Engoron, who has already found that Trump and co-defendants were liable for fraud and ordered all of Trump’s adult children to testify at the ongoing trial, have taken a toll on Trump.

“So sad to see my sons being PERSECUTED in a political Witch Hunt by this out of control, publicity seeking, New York State Judge, on a case that should have NEVER been brought,” Trump partially wrote in one Truth Social post. “Legal Scholars Scream Disgrace!”

Trump was also furious when the judge imposed a gag order against him in the New York case, as well as when the judge enforced $15,000 in fines last week after deciding that Trump violated its prohibitions by assailing the judge’s law clerk.

Is Trump happy with his legal team’s strategy? Broadly yes, the people close to Trump said, in this case and the multiple criminal cases that are also marching towards trial – an observation that the playbook he reverts to when feeling threatened, to attack and delay, remains his preferred tactic.

Days before election, far-right officials in California county insist on hand tally

In Shasta county, California, voters will decide this week on a school board race, the formation of a new fire department and a local tax. What observers in California and across the US are watching most is not what they will choose – but how their votes will be counted.

In the past months, Shastahas come to play an outsize role nationally as officials in this rural region of northern California have taken center stage in the election denial movement, which proposes “fixes” such as the sole use of manual tallies to enhance “election integrity” based on the lie that the presidency was stolen from Donald Trump.

For much of the year, the far-right majority of the Shasta board of supervisors, the county’s five-person governing body, has focused itsgoverning efforts on throwing out voting machines and instituting a hand-count system. The board pushed ahead with the project despite strong concerns from the county registrar of voters.

How has the state responded? A new state law, written in response to the developments in Shasta, barred elections offices from using manual tallies on an established election date in contests with more than 1,000 voters and, in the event of a special election, in contests with more than 5,000 voters. With the election just a few days away, Shasta’s far-right supervisors have fostered confusion about how votes will be tallied, insisting they can use the hand-count system regardless of the new law. The board chair, Patrick Jones, has said the county will sue if the state interferes.

In other news …

A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook. The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener.

The Ukrainian army has confirmed soldiers from its 128th Mountain Assault Brigade were killed in a Russian missile strike during what media described as a medal-awarding ceremony. “A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

A hostage situation at Hamburg airport has concluded with the suspect and his daughter exiting a car, police have said, ending an 18-hour ordeal that had closed northern Germany’s busiest airport. The suspect was arrested without resistance and the child appeared not to be injured.

A global recession could be set in motion by the conflict in the Middle East as the humanitarian crisis compounds the challenges facing an already precarious world economy, two of Wall Street’s biggest names have warned. A combination of Israel’s war on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year had pushed the world “almost to a whole new future”.

Don’t miss this: A California town was leveled by a wildfire. Three years on, it feels the world has forgotten

An eight-mile wall of flames. Nearly 200,000 acres burned in 24 hours. Sixteen deaths. In any other modern decade, the events that unfolded in and around Berry Creek, California, in 2020 would have stood apart for their sheer devastation. But that year, the American west was grappling with a hellish barrage of wildfires that turned the skies an eerie orange, sent tens of thousands fleeing and killed groves of California’s iconic trees. Berry Creek became yet another casualty of the state’s largest recorded fire season. Three years on, the hamlet, a hardy but impoverished community two hours north of Sacramento, has struggled to recover.

Climate check: ‘Loss and damage’ deal struck to help countries worst hit by climate crisis

Countries have agreed key measures to supply funds to the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown. Governments from richer and poorer countries drew up the blueprint for a new “loss and damage” fund after a tense two-day meeting under UN guidance in Abu Dhabi that ended late on Saturday night.

The loss and damage fund will be administered at first by the World Bank, and will draw on funding sources including large developing countries as well as the US, the EU and the UK. No firm target has been set for how much money the fund will disburse, but countries most affected by the climate crisis hope it will reach hundreds of billions of dollars within a few years.

Last Thing: Tampon that tests for STIs created by British startup

A tampon is being repurposed to screen for sexually transmitted infections, with the at-home test aiming to encourage more women to seek treatment. The gynaecological health startup Daye has launched an STI diagnostic tampon, which uses a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to check for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomonas, mycoplasma and ureaplasma, with the tampon used in place of a swab or speculum. The aim of the screening kit is to speed up diagnosis and treatment, particularly among patient groups who are anxious or embarrassed about getting a test, Daye said. The tampon is sent to a lab for testing, and results are returned within five working days. The applicator allows the user to reach their cervix without a speculum.

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