AP News Summary at 9:24 p.m. EDT

By The Associated Press

Biden says during news conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow out

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden used his highly anticipated news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies, and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years. Biden says: “I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job I started.” He made one notable flub when he bobbled a reference to Vice President Kamala Harris. But for an hour he largely held his own under intense questioning, eschewing any suggestion that he was in decline, no longer capable of leading the nation and too old to serve another term. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers, donors and celebrities have called on him to step aside.

Key takeaways from Biden’s news conference: Insistence on staying in the race and flubbed names

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden faced a test Thursday that he had avoided so far this year — a solo news conference with questions from the White House press corps. He made at least two notable flubs, referring at an event beforehand to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” and then calling Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” when asked about her by a reporter. But he also gave detailed responses about his work to preserve NATO and his plans for a second term. And he insisted he’s not leaving the race even as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers ask him to step aside.

Trump lawyers press judge to overturn hush money conviction after Supreme Court immunity ruling

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers are urging the judge in his New York hush money case to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. The former president’s lawyers wrote in papers made public Thursday that prosecutors rushed to try Trump in April and May while the high court was still considering his immunity claims. Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but that’s on hold until the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, rules on whether to set aside Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal. Merchan has said he’ll rule on the defense’s requests on Sept. 6. Prosecutors have until July 24 to respond.

Israeli army acknowledges Oct. 7 failures, including slow response times and disorganization

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military has acknowledged a string of errors in its response to the deadly Hamas attacks last Oct. 7, including slow response times and disorganization. The admission came Thursday as the military released the results of its first investigation into failures during the assault that triggered the war in Gaza. The report focused on the border community of Be’eri, where over 100 people were killed and more than 30 others taken hostage by Hamas. It was among the hardest-hit communities in the early morning attack. It was also the scene of one of the highest-profile confrontations of Oct. 7 – a standoff in which militants held a group of hostages inside a home.

‘We have nothing’: Palestinians return to utter destruction in Gaza City after Israeli withdrawal

SHIJAIYAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians have returned to breathtaking scenes of destruction in Gaza City after Israeli troops withdrew, ending a two-week offensive there. Civil defense workers said Thursday they had so far found the bodies of 60 people in the rubble. Nearly every building in the Shijaiyah neighborhood is flattened for block after block. Most are reduced to giant piles of concrete and twisted rebar. Families who fled Israel’s assault ventured back to salvage whatever they could. One resident, Sharif Abu Shanab, found his family’s four-story building collapsed. “I can’t enter it. I can’t take anything out of it, not even a can of tuna. We have nothing, no food or drink.” Israel says it was pursuing militants who regrouped in the district.

Zelenskyy says to win the war, US needs to lift limits on striking military targets inside Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is embracing the support of international allies even as he pushed for the help to arrive faster and restrictions to be lifted on the use of U.S. weapons to attack military targets inside Russia. On Thursday, he thanked allies in the military alliance who have provided substantial new aid and a path to joining NATO. President Joe Biden made an untimely verbal flub at an event to mark the unveiling of an agreement called the Ukraine Compact, mistakenly introducing Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin. The room, and Zelenskyy, gasped at Biden’s gaffe, which the U.S. president quickly sought to clean up by saying, “President Putin? You’re going to beat President Putin.”

Alec Baldwin’s lawyer grills crime scene tech over search for live ammo at his shooting trial

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A lawyer for Alec Baldwin grilled a crime scene tech over what he suggested was a shoddy and insufficient search for the source of live ammo that ended up in the actor’s gun and killed a cinematographer. Attorney Alex Spiro cross-examined Santa Fe County sheriff’s technician Marissa Poppell on Thursday on the second day of Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial in New Mexico. Spiro suggested law enforcement was lax in investigating the supplier of guns and ammunition for the film “Rust,” which Poppell denied. She also said no when he asked her whether police and prosecutors wanted to get that part of the probe over with and focus on Baldwin.

US sanctions a Venezuela gang for spreading criminal activity across Latin America

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration is sanctioning Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang as a transnational criminal organization and is offering a $12 million reward for the arrest of the leaders. It’s accusing the one-time prison gang of spreading across Latin America. The Tren de Aragua originated in Venezuela’s infamously uncontrolled prisons but has expanded in recent years on the backs of millions of desperate Venezuelan migrants who have fled President Nicolas Maduro’s rule and taken up residency in other parts of Latin America or the U.S. The Treasury Department in a statement accused the Tren de Aragua of involvement in sex trafficking, kidnapping and extortion in several countries in the region.

Marathon Oil reaches $241 million settlement with EPA for environmental violations in North Dakota

The federal government announced a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil on Thursday for alleged air quality violations at the company’s oil and gas operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice said the settlement requires Marathon to reduce climate- and health-harming emissions from those facilities and will result in over 2.3 millions tons worth of pollution reduction. Attorney General Merrick Garland calls the settlement “historic” and says it “will ensure cleaner air for the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and other communities in North Dakota, while holding Marathon accountable for its illegal pollution.”

He was orphaned in the Holocaust and never met any family. Now he has cousins, thanks to DNA tests

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — An Israeli man orphaned during the Holocaust thought he would never meet any of his relatives. But through modern DNA science, Shalom Korai has been able to hug his second cousin in Charleston, South Carolina. Korai was a toddler in 1943 when he was found in a burning neighborhood of Warsaw, Poland. His family was killed by the Nazis during World War II. In 2023, Korai took a DNA test and it matched Ann Meddin Hellman in Charleston. After some digging, Hellman figured out her grandfather and Korai’s grandfather were brothers. One came to the U.S. and the other stayed in Poland. Korai made his first trip to meet his new family this week.