HOUSTON (AP) — More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly, a finding that is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment.

But whether the public’s waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said.

GAZA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said too many innocent Palestinians had been killed in Gaza as Israeli war planes and artillery bombarded the enclave on Saturday following the collapse of a truce with Hamas militants.

Residents feared the barrages presaged an Israeli ground operation in the south of the Palestinian territory that would pen them into a shrinking area and possibly try to push them across into Egypt.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States committed Saturday to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit that’s a huge factor in global warming.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is making history this year in ways that Republicans could hardly have envisioned when the party took control.

First, the Republicans voted to oust their speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and on Friday they voted to get rid of one of their own, indicted GOP Rep. George Santos of New York.

Never before had a House majority voted to evict its speaker, and not since the Civil War had the chamber voted to expel a member who was charged but not yet convicted of a crime.

RAMALLAH, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Palestinian human rights groups refused to meet the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan on Saturday, accusing him of favouring Israeli accusations of rights abuses over longstanding Palestinian charges.

Khan has been visiting Israel and the occupied West Bank following a request by a group representing families of victims of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen, but he was also due to meet Palestinian officials in Ramallah.

(AP) --- Derek Chauvin was stabbed in prison 22 times by a former gang leader and one-time FBI informant who told investigators he targeted the ex-Minneapolis police officer because of his notoriety for killing George Floyd, federal prosecutors said Friday.

John Turscak was charged with attempted murder a week after the Nov. 24 attack at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. He told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly, prosecutors said.

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed new charges by Russian prosecutors.

The 47-year-old is already serving more than 30 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes including extremism — charges that his supporters characterize as politically motivated. In comments passed to his associates, Navalny said he had been charged under article 214 of Russia’s penal code, which covers crimes of vandalism.

CHISINAU, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Pro-European authorities in Moldova on Friday dismissed as groundless a ban imposed by Russia on imports of its fruit and vegetables, the latest display of deteriorating relations between Moscow and the ex-Soviet state.

Russia's farm goods oversight agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, said on Thursday it was reinstating restrictions last imposed in 2022. It cited "continuous, systematic observation of elements subject to quarantine" and said Moldovan authorities had taken no action to right the situation.

SHENZHEN, China, Dec 2 (Reuters) - China's surge in respiratory illness is caused by known pathogens and there is no sign of new infectious diseases, a health official said on Saturday as the country faces its first full winter since lifting strict COVID-19 restrictions.

The spike in illness in the country where COVID emerged in late 2019 attracted the spotlight when the World Health Organization sought information last week, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.

DAMASCUS, Dec 2 (NNN-SANA) – An Israeli missile attack, hit military sites in the vicinity of the Syrian capital, Damascus early today, the latest in a spate of Israeli attacks against Syria, according to the national Syrian TV.

Multiple explosions were heard in Damascus after midnight, in what appeared to be a hostile missile attack.

The state-owned TV later confirmed it was an Israeli missile attack on the vicinity of Damascus.

Further details are coming.

EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — When they first started climbing the Andes peaks, they could hear the ice crunching under their crampons. These days, it’s the sound of melted water running beneath their feet that they mostly listen to as they make their ascents.

MUNICH, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Heavy snowfall in Bavaria prompted an all-day cancellation of flights and long-distance trains out of Munich, with Christmas markets closed, some ski lifts unable to run and a football match called off as the city battled with the icy conditions.

Flights were not scheduled to depart or arrive at Munich airport until at least 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Sunday according to a statement on its website.