AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Federal investigators probe Amazon cargo jet’s fiery runway crash that killed 5 in Miami

MIAMI (AP) — The five people killed when an Amazon cargo jet ran off a runway at Miami International Airport were all inside a van carrying seven people from a cleaning company, and an SUV hit outside of airport property, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said Monday.

Homendy called the scene of Sunday’s crash “utter devastation.” She didn’t detail how many people were in the SUV or where the dead were located.

Homendy walked the route the Boeing 767 followed, noting tire marks from the pavement into the grass, the destroyed van carrying the cleaning crew, torn fencing, navigational equipment, and the crushed SUV outside airport property.

The debris included vehicle air bags, equipment from the vehicles, the airplane and the airport, and “fencing everywhere,” Homendy said.

“It’s pretty extensive. Hard to see and I’m sure it must have been very difficult for the responders as well,” Homendy said.

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Midterm elections head into the home stretch as candidates hit Labor Day events

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Troy Jackson was a longtime labor activist and logger before he unexpectedly became the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine. On Monday, he returned to a union hall to tell workers they need to go to the polls this fall — to raise the minimum wage, expand family medical leave and show support for one another.

“Labor Day has never been just another holiday,” Jackson told several hundred union members at a Southern Maine Labor Council event Monday in Portland. “Today, here with the people I’ve fought alongside for years, I want to make a pledge about exactly what I’m going to do in the United States Senate.”

Jackson, who became the nominee in a special convention in July, is trying to whip up support in a short period of time as he attempts to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race Democrats view as critical to winning Senate control.

He was among the candidates in key November races who spent Labor Day weekend stumping at festivals, union halls and parades as the midterms enter the final weeks with control of the House and Senate on the line.

This year’s campaigns already have been combative, busy and expensive, and they are expected to get even more so as a larger number of voters tune in ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. The first statewide mail ballots already went out, in North Carolina, on Friday.

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Iran says improved ballistic missile shows it will take preemptive action against threats

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran state media on Monday said a ballistic missile with improved capabilities was demonstrating a new doctrine: Tehran “will take action against any threat, even before it is carried out.”

The report by Iran’s state news agency repeatedly cited comments aired on state TV the day before by the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, who boasted of new missile capability and claimed it had been “tested” against a U.S. warship. But it was not clear whether what was tested was the missile the new report described, the solid-fueled Qassem Basir.

The U.S. on Saturday said ballistic missiles were launched at U.S. warships and it struck three Iranian oil tankers in response. Experts called the launch a dangerous escalation, noting that until then Iran’s attacks at sea had targeted commercial shipping during six months of war. The U.S. said the warships evaded the attacks.

Iran’s messaging in recent days has become more assertive, and Monday’s report said the Qassem Basir marks “a turning point in Iran’s defense strategy.” It described the missile as having greater range and accuracy and a half-ton warhead. The missile was unveiled last year, when it was described as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range.

Concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile program were one of the stated reasons the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran early this year, sparking the war.

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Germany’s Merz shocked by far-right state election triumph but doubles down on unpopular reforms

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doubled down Monday on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy after a far-right party surged to a landslide victory in a regional election, with a very good chance of forming the first far-right state government since the Nazi era.

Merz said his center-right Christian Democratic Union was “deeply shocked” by what he called “the most serious election defeat that the CDU has had for years, for decades.” But he indicated that he’s determined to stay at the helm and said that “giving up is not an option for me.”

The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany, or AfD, fell just short of a majority in Sunday’s vote in Saxony-Anhalt, a small eastern state that gained outsized prominence as AfD eyed power there. Its regional branch is one of several considered a proven right-wing extremist group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.

AfD’s victory is a major distraction for Germany and Merz at a time when Europe faces several challenges, including Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine, a suspected sabotage campaign targeting NATO countries, and difficult dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Merz said he wanted to assure Germany’s allies that “our institutions are resilient and stable” and the country will stick to its values and constitution after the AfD win. “We know that Germany carries special responsibility because of its history,” he said.

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Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese village kill 12, plus other key Mideast developments

Lebanon ’s Health Ministry says Israeli airstrikes on a southern village have killed 12 people, including two children.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthi rebels claim to have shot down a Saudi reconnaissance plane. And seven crew members of a Saudi-owned tanker struck last week on the strait appear to remain unaccounted for.

Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Israel carried out airstrikes early Monday on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Rumman, killing at least 12 people, including a paramedic, four women and two children, the Health Ministry said.

The strikes came during a new round of escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel’s military said it struck several Hezbollah militants it accused of transferring weapons to Kfar Rumman.

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Israeli airstrikes on a village in southern Lebanon kill 12 people, including 2 children

KFAR RUMMAN, Lebanon (AP) — Israel’s air force carried out two airstrikes early Monday on a southern Lebanese village, killing at least 12 people and wounding others, including children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Monday’s strikes came amid a new round of escalation between Israel and the militant Hezbollah group despite a truce reached more than two months ago. The strikes also came days after Israel’s military said it is in “operational control” of the strategic Ali Taher hill that overlooks several villages as well as main roads leading to the city of Nabatiyeh.

The Health Ministry said one of the strikes hit a building, killing 11 people, including two children and four women. Eight were also wounded, including three children and a paramedic.

The ministry said that another strike on a car in the village killed a paramedic with the Lebanese Islamic Risala Scout Association and wounded two others.

The Israeli military said the strikes come in retaliation for two Hezbollah drone attacks that exploded while targeting Israeli troops in Lebanon from the area on Monday. It said the strikes targeted a Hezbollah militant trying to transport weapons to Kfar Rumman.

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Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran war and refinery issues

It’s never been more expensive in the U.S. to fill up the tank and take one last summer trip over the Labor Day weekend.

The average price of regular gas was $4.14 a gallon heading into the holiday, nearly a dollar higher than last year and well above the Labor Day weekend record of $3.82 from 2012, according to AAA motor club.

Nicole Collins planned to head from Philadelphia to South Carolina to visit friends, but she said her family has spent most of the summer close to home and not taking their typical weekend trips because driving has gotten so expensive.

“Gas is pretty high right now. It doesn’t help that we also have a baby, so we also have to pay for that,” Collins said outside a gas station in Claymont, Delaware, where regular gas was $4.199 a gallon.

Prices shot up after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February and have not settled down since. Crude oil traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz has plunged, and Iran has refused to reopen the waterway.

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Armed man charged toward Democratic candidate for Ohio governor at fair, law enforcement says

WASHINGTON (AP) — An armed assailant charged toward the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, on Sunday during a campaign stop at the Canfield Fair, injuring several people before he was stopped by troopers, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement that a man it identified as Patrick Havas, 38, forced his way through a crowd, knocking over multiple members of the audience as he moved toward Acton, the state’s former public health director. He had a taser and two pistols, the statement said.

The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office said two handguns and a set of brass knuckles were recovered after his arrest, and “no weapons were ever brandished or even removed from their holsters.”

Havas was taken to the county jail and booked on charges of disorderly conduct and two counts of assault, the highway patrol statement said, adding that no other details were available pending an investigation. Online court records didn’t yet list the case, and it wasn’t clear as of Sunday night whether Havas has an attorney.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.that the man “tried to forcefully push himself” toward Acton as she was speaking at the fair in Canfield, in northeastern Ohio. “Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable,” he added.

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One attack, many Americas: Why 9/11 and its many griefs land differently 25 years later

NEW YORK (AP) — When the planes crashed and the buildings fell on that sunny September morning 25 years ago, the shock waves of dismay and grief went far past downtown New York City, rural western Pennsylvania and just outside Washington, D.C.

They radiated through every part of the United States in communities large and small, tearing at Americans’ sense of safety and their place in the world. Hearts were broken across the nation, not just of those who lost their loved ones but among strangers who mourned for them, the Sept. 11 attacks leaving no one unaffected in an unwanted moment of horrifying togetherness.

A quarter of a century later, the effects linger. We all live in a post-9/11 world, with its security strictures and surveillance. But here’s the thing: Americans don’t all live in the SAME one. What the attacks and their aftermath have come to mean isn’t a single viewpoint shared by everyone, for reasons chronological, political and personal.

It’s a tapestry of meaning and grief as varied as the nation in which 9/11 took place.

It’s somewhat inevitable. After all, the mere passage of time means tens of millions of young Americans have been born since then. For them, 9/11 is something to learn about in history lessons.

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The poorest in the US can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mathew Davis, who lives in a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas, would love an apartment of his own. But with the little money he makes donating blood plasma, even a $450-a-month tiny home with no running water and a communal bathroom would be a stretch.

Meanwhile, over 4,500 units the city classifies as affordable — nearly 16% — sit empty.

“I don’t make enough money really to afford anything,” Davis, 49, said of the few hundred dollars he earns a month. “I just keep trying to swim uphill.”

The poorest people in the U.S. face the most acute shortages of affordable homes. But the majority of low-income housing financed in recent years is for those earning 50% of an area’s median income or above, according to a survey of state housing agencies.

Some cities are now seeing an uptick in vacancies as rents for these units approach market rates. The result: Apartments designated as affordable sit empty because the poorest of the poor cannot afford them.