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The spotlight is on Ukraine at UN leaders’ gathering, but is there room for other global priorities?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The war in Ukraine and its visiting president take center stage at the United Nations this week, but developing countries will be vying for the spotlight as well as they push for faster action on poverty and inequality at the first full-on meeting of world leaders since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel three years ago.

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The annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly takes place at a polarizing and divisive juncture in history — the most fraught and dangerous since the Cold War, according to many analysts and diplomats.

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They point to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which upended already difficult relations among major powers as well as the ongoing impact of the pandemic, high food prices, the worsening climate emergency, escalating conflicts, and the world’s failure to tackle poverty, hunger and gender inequality.

For developing countries, the top priority is the U.N.’s two-day summit starting Monday aimed at generating action by world leaders to achieve 17 wide-ranging and badly lagging global goals by 2030. In addition to ending extreme poverty and hunger, the goals include ensuring quality secondary education for all children, achieving gender equality and taking urgent action to combat climate change. At current rates, not a single one will be achieved.

High-level meetings on issues including pandemic prevention and universal health care are also on tap.

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UAW justifies wage demands by pointing to CEO pay raises. So how high were they?

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a central argument for the United Auto Workers union: If Detroit’s three automakers raised CEO pay by 40% over the past four years, workers should get similar raises.

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UAW President Shawn Fain has repeatedly cited the figure, contrasting it with the 6% pay raises autoworkers have received since their last contract in 2019. He opened negotiations with a demand for a similar 40% wage increase over four years, along with the return of pensions and cost of living increases. The UAW has since lowered its demand to a 36% wage increase but the two sides remain far apart in contract talks, triggering a strike.

Fain’s focus on CEO pay is part of a growing trend of emboldened labor unions citing the wealth gap between workers and the top bosses to bolster demand for better pay and working conditions. In June, Netflix shareholders rejected executive pay packages in a nonbinding vote, just days after the Writers Guild of America wrote letters urging investors to vote against the pay proposals, saying it would be inappropriate amid Hollywood’s ongoing strike by writers. The WGA wrote similar letters targeting the executive pay at Comcast and NBCUniversal.

Fain has pushed back against arguments that a big pay bump for the union would jack up costs of vehicles and put the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) _ at a disadvantage against foreign competitors with lower-cost workforces in the race to transition to electric vehicles.

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“The reason we ask for 40% pay increases is because in the last four years alone, the CEO pay went up 40%. They’re already millionaires,” Fain told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Our demands are just. We’re asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor.”

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Tens of thousands march to kick off climate summit, demanding end to warming-causing fossil fuels

NEW YORK (AP) — Yelling that the future and their lives depend on ending fossil fuels, tens of thousands of protesters on Sunday kicked off a week where leaders will try once again to curb climate change primarily caused by coal, oil and natural gas.

But protesters say it’s not going to be enough. And they aimed their wrath directly at U.S. President Joe Biden, urging him to stop approving new oil and gas projects, phase out current ones and declare a climate emergency with larger executive powers.

“We hold the power of the people, the power you need to win this election,” said 17-year-old Emma Buretta of Brooklyn of the youth protest group Fridays for Future. “If you want to win in 2024, if you do not want the blood of my generation to be on your hands, end fossil fuels.”

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The March to End Fossil Fuels featured such politicians as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and actors Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Kyra Sedgewick and Kevin Bacon. But the real action on Broadway was where protesters crowded the street, pleading for a better but not-so-hot future. It was the opening salvo to New York’s Climate Week, where world leaders in business, politics and the arts gather to try to save the planet, highlighted by a new special United Nations summit Wednesday.

Many of the leaders of countries that cause the most heat-trapping carbon pollution will not be in attendance. And they won’t speak at the summit organized by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a way that only countries that promise new concrete action are invited to speak.

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Trump refuses to say in a TV interview how he watched the Jan. 6 attack unfold at the US Capitol

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined in an interview aired Sunday to answer questions about whether he watched the Capitol riot unfold on television, saying he would “tell people later at an appropriate time.”

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Trump, the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, refused to say on NBC’s “Meet the Press” how he spent Jan. 6, 2021, once the insurrection began and whether he made phone calls as his supporters stormed the seat of American democracy.

“I’m not going to tell you. I’ll tell people later at an appropriate time,” Trump told moderator Kristen Welker after she asked if he spent that afternoon watching the attack on television in a dining room at the White House.

Trump’s former aides have said he sequestered himself in the room off the Oval Office to watch, at times even rewinding and rewatching some parts.

In the interview, taped Thursday at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey, Trump refused to say who he called as the violence unfolded. “Why would I tell you that?” he said.

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China flies 103 military planes toward Taiwan in a new high of activity the island calls harassment

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military sent 103 warplanes toward Taiwan in a 24-hour period in what the island’s defense ministry said Monday was a daily record in recent times.

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The planes were detected between 6 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday, the ministry said. As is customary, they turned back before reaching Taiwan.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has conducted increasingly large military drills in the air and waters around Taiwan as tensions have grown between the two and with the United States. The U.S. is Taiwan’s main supplier of arms and opposes any attempt to change Taiwan’s status by force.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that 40 of the planes crossed the symbolic halfway point between mainland China and the island. It also reported nine naval vessels in the previous 24 hours.

The ministry called the Chinese military action “harassment” that it warned could escalate in the current tense atmosphere. “We urge the Beijing authorities to bear responsibility and immediately stop such kind of destructive military activities,” it said in a statement.”

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Atlantic storm Lee delivers high winds and rain before forecasters call off all warnings

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Atlantic storm Lee — which made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada — kept weakening Sunday after officials withdrew warnings and predicted the storm would disappear early this week.

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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning that the post-tropical cyclone was about 135 miles (215 kilometers) west of Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The top sustained wind speed was 45 mph (70 kph) with some higher gusts expected.

“Gradual weakening is forecast during the next couple of days, and Lee could dissipate on Tuesday,” the U.S. hurricane center said.

The sky was sunny in Maine on Sunday morning. Gov. Janet Mills suspended a state of emergency. Less than 5% of electricity customers were still without power, down from 11% by midday Saturday during the height of the storm. In Canada, 14% of Nova Scotia had no electricity, down from 27% on Saturday, with smaller numbers in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The center discontinued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Maine late Saturday. It reported late Sunday morning that all tropical storm warnings for Canada were discontinued.

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Rural hospitals are closing maternity wards. People are seeking options to give birth closer to home

Alisha Alderson placed her folded clothes and everything she needed for the last month of her pregnancy in various suitcases. She never imagined she would have to leave the comfort of her home in rural eastern Oregon just weeks before her due date. But following the abrupt closure in August of the only maternity ward within 40 miles, she decided to stay at her brother’s house near Boise, Idaho _ a two-hour drive through a mountain pass — to be closer to a hospital.

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“We don’t feel safe being so far away from a birthing center,” said Alderson, noting her advanced maternal age of 45. “I was sitting in a hair salon a few days ago and some people started joking about me giving birth on the side of the road. And in that moment, I just pictured all the things that could go wrong with my baby and broke down in tears in front of strangers.”

A growing number of rural hospitals have been shuttering their labor and delivery units, forcing pregnant women to travel longer distances for care or face giving birth in an emergency room. Fewer than half of rural hospitals now have maternity units, prompting government officials and families to scramble for answers. One solution gaining ground across the U.S. is freestanding midwife-led birth centers, but those also often rely on nearby hospitals when serious complications arise.

The closures have worsened so-called “maternity care deserts” _ counties with no hospitals or birth centers that offer obstetric care and no OB providers. More than two million women of childbearing age live in such areas, the majority of which are rural.

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Ultimately, doctors and researchers say, having fewer hospital maternity units makes having babies less safe. One study showed rural residents have a 9% greater probability of facing life-threatening complications or even death from pregnancy and birth compared to those in urban areas — and having less access to care plays a part.

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For a divided Libya, disastrous floods have become a rallying cry for unity

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Zahra el-Gerbi wasn’t expecting much of a response to her online fundraiser, but she felt she had to do something after four of her relatives died in the flooding that decimated the eastern Libyan city of Derna. She put out a call for donations for those displaced by the deluge.

In the first half-hour after she shared it on Facebook, the Benghazi-based clinical nutritionist said friends and strangers were already promising financial and material support.

“It’s for basic needs like clothes, foods and accommodation,” el-Gerbi said.

For many Libyans, the collective grief over the more than 11,000 dead has morphed into a rallying cry for national unity in a country blighted by 12 years of conflict and division. In turn, the tragedy has ramped up pressure on the country’s leading politicians, viewed by some as the architects of the catastrophe.

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The oil-rich country has been divided between rival administrations since 2014, with an internationally recognized government in Tripoli and a rival authority in the east, where Derna is located. Both are backed by international patrons and armed militias whose influence in the country has ballooned since a NATO-backed Arab Spring uprising toppled autocratic ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Numerous United Nations-led initiatives to bridge the divide have failed.

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Dominican Republic’s president stands resolute on his closing of all borders with Haiti

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The president of the Dominican Republic on Sunday defended his decision to close air, sea and land traffic with neighboring Haiti in their dispute over construction of a canal targeting a river that runs through both countries.

President Luis Abinader said in a televised speech that the border closures begun Friday will remain in place until construction is halted on the canal, which seeks to use water from the Massacre River to alleviate a drought in Haiti’s Maribaroux plain.

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“We do not desire or seek confrontation, but we are confronting the uncontrollable people who keep Haiti insecure, and who, due to their private interests, now also conspire against the stability of their government and the security of our water resources,” Abinader said during his brief speech, referring to gang violence that has engulfed Haiti.

Accusing Haiti of violating a 1929 treaty between both countries, he said that the Massacre River is a key resource for Dominican farmers and that construction could damage the environment, including a wetland.

“The precedent of an irrigation project built unilaterally can lead to an escalation of constructions that would destroy the river,” Abinader said.

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AP Top 25: No. 13 Alabama is out of the top 10 for the first time since 2015. Georgia remains No. 1

No. 13 Alabama is out of the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time in eight years, and Georgia remained No. 1 on Sunday.

Georgia received 57 first-place votes in the AP Top 25. Michigan held at No. 2 with two first-place votes. No. 3 Texas flipped spots with No. 4 Florida State. The Longhorns received three first-place votes and the Seminoles got one.

After scraping by South Florida on Saturday, Alabama (2-1) saw its streak of consecutive AP poll appearances ranked in the top 10 snapped at 128. That was the second-longest such streak in the history of the poll behind Miami’s 137 from 1985-93.

The Crimson Tide are out of the top 10 for the first time since Sept. 27, 2015. The Tide dropped out of the top 10 that September after losing at Mississippi but moved back in on Oct. 3 and went on to win a national championship.

Georgia now has the longest active run of top-10 rankings with 37.

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