AP News Summary at 2:29 pm EDT

Hurricane Ian strikes Cuba, Florida braces for Cat 4 damage

HAVANA (AP) — Hurricane Ian has been lashing western Cuba with rain and winds as it swirls north toward the Florida coast. The US National Hurricane Center says Ian hit Cuba early Tuesday as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph. Authorities in Cuba evacuated more than 50,000 people and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says an estimated 2.5 million people are under evacuation orders. Florida is already getting heavy rain from Ian. It is expected to intensify into a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane before its most damaging winds hit the peninsula on Wednesday.

Danish PM says govt views gas leaks as ‘deliberate actions’

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Danish Prime Minister Metter Frederiksen says her government views the gas leaks off a Danish island in the Baltic Sea as “deliberate actions.” Asked whether it was an attack on Denmark, Frederiksen replied that the leaks happened in international waters and “the answer is thus no.” Explosions rattled the Baltic Sea before the unusual leaks were discovered on two natural gas pipelines running underwater from Russia to Germany. Some European leaders and experts are pointing to possible sabotage during an energy standoff with Russia provoked by the war in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Danish defense minister Morten Bodskov will travel to Brussels to meet with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to talk about the gas leaks.

Officials say 98,000 Russians enter Kazakhstan after call-up

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Officials say about 98,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine. Kazakhstan and Georgia, both once part of the Soviet Union, appeared to be the most popular destinations for those traveling by land. Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that only about 300,000 people with prior combat or other military service would be called up, but reports have emerged from various Russian regions that recruiters were rounding up men outside that description. That fueled fears of a much broader call-up, sending droves of men of all ages and backgrounds to airports and border crossings.

US stocks lose ground a day after Dow entered a bear market

Stocks gave up early gains and turned lower on Wall Street as markets stagger amid recession worries. The volatile trading on Tuesday comes a day after a broad sell-off sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a bear market, joining other major US indexes. The S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq fell. Energy stocks gained ground along with rising oil prices. With just a few days left in September, stocks are heading for another losing month as markets fear that the higher interest rates being used to fight inflation could help knock the economy into a recession.

Jan 6 sedition trial underway for Oath Keepers leader

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jury selection is underway in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and four associates are charged with seditious conspiracy. Stewart Rhodes and the others are the first Jan. 6 defendants charged with the the rare Civil War-era offense to stand trial. The judge began winning the pool of potential jurors after denying another bid from defense attorneys to have the case moved out of Washington. Lawyers for the Oath Keepers say they can’t get a fair trial in the capital city.

Senators push to reform police’s cellphone tracking tools

NEW YORK (AP) — Civil rights lawyers and Democratic senators are pushing for legislation that would limit US law enforcement agencies’ ability to buy cellphone tracking tools to follow people’s whereabouts, including back years in time, and sometimes without a search warrant. Concerns about police use of the tool known as “Fog Reveal” raised in an investigation by The Associated Press published earlier this month also surfaced in a Federal Trade Commission hearing three weeks ago. Police agencies have been using the platform to search hundreds of billions of records gathered from 250 million mobile devices, and hoover up people’s geolocation data to assemble so-called “patterns of life,” according to thousands of pages of records about the company.

UN General Assembly meeting of world leaders, by the numbers

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly is over. While the parade of world leaders flocking to New York seemed endless, data shows it indeed wasn’t. Over six days and dozens of hours, 195 leaders spoke about the rather dire state of the world. That figure includes two UN officials, three permanent observers, and the heads of government, heads of state, ministers and permanent representatives from 190 countries. Of those speakers, 22 were women. The longest speech was nearly three times the recommended limit of 15 minutes, while the jauntiest was less than half that.

Records: Texas attorney general fled home to avoid subpoena

DALLAS (AP) — Court documents say Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ran out of his house and jumped into a truck driven by his wife, a state senator, to avoid being served a subpoena in an abortion access case. A process server wrote in an affidavit that on Monday he was attempting to deliver the subpoena at Paxton’s home for the Republican to testify Tuesday in a federal court hearing. Ernesto Martin Herrera says he was forced to leave the document on the ground. He said Paxton avoided him for more than an hour and fled. Paxton suggested he ducked the server out of safety concerns.

Funds to fix Jackson’s water crisis held up as governor rose

JACKSON, Ms. (AP) — Years before he became Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves served as the state’s treasurer and had a hand in delaying funds for water system repairs in the capital city of Jackson. He also claimed to have blocked funds. The Republican was part of the state Bond Commission, which in 2010 delayed voting on issuing bonds for the city to make repairs after a breakdown despite state legislators authorizing the debt. Reeves ultimately voted to approve the bonds. But as he faced attacks from a primary opponent questioning his fiscal conservatism, he said the commission refused to vote on bonds for Jackson’s water system. Jackson continues to have water system problems. Residents were recently left without running water for days.

Paris Fashion Week showcasing 107 houses over 9 days

PARIS (AP) — Paris is the center of the global luxury industry, with Tuesday the first major day of ready-to-wear shows at Paris Fashion Week. A total of 107 houses are showcasing spring-summer 2023 collections. Dior’s guests gazed in curiosity at a decaying palace recreated inside an annex of the Tuileries Gardens. It made for a thoughtful show of 84 looks, heavy on black and white. Writhing dancers performed alongside ribbed corsets, high Renaissance waists and lashings of lace encircling the dusty palatial runway. Sartorial met the aquatic on Tuesday at Botter’s co-ed show of crisp lapels, boxy jackets and poetical cutaways gracing brightly colored suits.