MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Philippe is threatening to unleash heavy rains and flash flooding in the Leeward Islands on Monday before eventually recurving out into the central Atlantic where it could gain hurricane status around midweek, forecasters say.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said at 5 a.m. Monday that Philippe was about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbuda. Top sustained winds were at 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts and Philippe was moving northwest at a slightly increased 7 mph (11 kph).

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In choosing Butler on Sunday, Newsom fulfilled his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat became open. However, he had been facing pressure from some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The justices are taking the bench at the Supreme Court for the first time since late June. Their new term begins Monday with ethics concerns swirling around the court.

The only case being argued Monday concerns the meaning of the word “and” in a federal law dealing with prison terms for low-level drug dealers. The length of thousands of sentences a year is at stake.

The court also is expected to get rid of hundreds of appeals that accumulated over the summer.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The award was given to Katalin Karikó, a professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Drew Weissman, who performed his prizewinning research together with Karikó at the University of Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON (AP) — “How would you be different as speaker, compared to Mr. Boehner?” a reporter asked then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in September 2015 as the California Republican pursued, and eventually gave up, his first attempt at the speakership.

McCarthy laughed while standing next to outgoing Speaker John Boehner — who had just stepped down after facing a threat of removal — and joked that he was from a different generation and wouldn’t be as tan.

01 October 2023; MEMO: The General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has adopted a resolution to consider Palestine as a state, news agencies reported on Friday.

According to Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper, this came as the IAEA’s members voted on a draft-resolution to officially adopt the designation of “State of Palestine.”

30 September 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Friday that the Israeli occupation is a direct threat to the security of the region, Europe and the world.

In a statement issued by the PA’s Foreign Ministry, the PA asserted that the remarks by Israeli Army chief Herzi Halevi, in which he considered the West Bank a direct threat to Europe, reiterate that Israeli officials do not miss any opportunity to defame Palestinians.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq on Sunday following a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital, Turkey’s defense ministry announced.

Some 20 targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were “destroyed” in the latest aerial operation, including caves, shelters and depots, the ministry said, adding that a large number of PKK operatives were “neutralized” in the strikes.

ANKARA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization has killed a senior member of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) during an operation in northern Syrian Qamishli city, the Turkish media reported Monday.

The killed senior YPG member was identified as Muzdelif Taskin, who was accused of being the mastermind behind the 2007 terror attack in the Daglica village of the southeastern Hakkari province, killing 12 soldiers and injuring 16 others, according to the Turkish media.

KYIV, Oct 2 (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers held their first ever meeting outside the bloc in Ukraine on Monday, a show of support for the country after a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress omitted funding for Kyiv from a spending bill.

"We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU," Borrell said on X. "We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people."

01 October 2023; MEMO: Terrorists trying to destroy peace and security in Türkiye will never succeed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

Erdogan’s remarks came after two police officers were injured when one of two terrorists blew himself up in front of the General Directorate of Security in the Turkish capital of Ankara in the morning.

01 October 2023; MEMO: A two-week multinational exercise involving special forces from Türkiye, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan concluded in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The “Eternal Brotherhood-II” exercise was begun on Sept. 17 in Brotha, in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.