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War crimes prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (AP) - The chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes court sought arrest warrants Monday for leaders of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over actions taken during their seven-month war.

While Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, do not face imminent arrest, the announcement by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor was a symbolic blow that deepened Israel´s isolation over the war in Gaza.

The court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, accused Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas leaders - Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh - of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned the move as disgraceful and antisemitic. U.S. President Joe Biden also lambasted the prosecutor and supported Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas.

A panel of three judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions.

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What is the ICC and why it is considering arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The International Criminal Court could soon issue arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, more than seven months into the war between the two sides, based on a request by the court´s chief prosecutor.

Karim Khan said that he believes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders - Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh - are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

The ICC was established in 2002 as the permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world´s most heinous atrocities - war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.

The Rome Statute creating the ICC was adopted in 1998 and took effect when it got 60 ratifications on July 1, 2002. The U.N. General Assembly endorsed the ICC, but the court is independent.

Without a police force, the ICC relies on member states to arrest suspects, which has proven to be a major obstacle to prosecutions.

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What's next for Iran's government after death of its president in helicopter crash?

JERUSALEM (AP) - The death of Iran's president is unlikely to lead to any immediate changes in Iran's ruling system or to its overarching policies, which are decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash Sunday, was seen as a prime candidate to succeed the 85-year-old supreme leader, and his death makes it more likely that the job could eventually go to Khamenei's son.

A hereditary succession would pose a potential crisis of legitimacy for the Islamic Republic, which was established as an alternative to monarchy but which many Iranians already see as a corrupt and dictatorial regime.

Here's a look at what comes next.

Iran holds regular elections for president and parliament with universal suffrage.

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Donald Trump's lawyers urge the judge to throw out his hush money case after prosecution rests

NEW YORK (AP) - Donald Trump's lawyers on Monday pressed the judge overseeing his hush money trial to stop the case from going to the jury and throw out the charges after prosecutors concluded their presentation of evidence.

Judge Juan M. Merchan did not immediately rule on the defense request, which came at the end of a busy day that included the judge briefly kicking reporters out of the courtroom after admonishing a defense witness for his behavior on the stand.

The trial will resume Tuesday with more testimony from Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who Trump's lawyers called to the stand to attack the credibility of the prosecution's star witness, Trump attorney-turned-adversary Michael Cohen.

Cohen was the last witness - at least for now - for prosecutors, who are trying to prove that Trump sought to bury unflattering stories about himself and then falsified internal business records to cover it up as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.

Over several hours of cross-examination, Trump´s attorneys seized on Cohen´s past lies and criminal history, underscoring the risk of prosecutors´ reliance on the now-disbarred attorney. Cohen testified earlier Monday that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from Trump´s company, an admission defense lawyers hope to use to sow doubt in Cohen's crucial testimony implicating the former president in the hush money scheme.

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Top U.S. drug agency a notable holdout in Biden's push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions

In an isolated part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters known as the 12th-floor "bubble," chief Anne Milgram made an unusual request of top deputies summoned in March for what she called the "Marijuana Meeting": Nobody could take notes.

Over the next half hour, she broke the news that the Biden administration would soon be issuing a long-awaited order reclassifying pot as a less-dangerous drug, a major hurdle toward federal legalization that DEA has long resisted. And Milgram went on to reveal another twist, according to two people familiar with the private meeting who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, that the process normally steered by the DEA had been taken over by the U.S. Justice Department and the action would not be signed by her but by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Milgram didn't give aides a reason for the unprecedented omission and neither she nor the DEA has explained since. But it unfolded this past week exactly as laid out in that meeting two months ago, with the most significant drug policy change in 50 years launched without the support of the nation´s premier narcotics agency.

"DEA has not yet made a determination as to its views of the appropriate schedule for marijuana," reads a sentence tucked 13 pages into Garland´s 92-page order last Thursday outlining the Biden administration proposal to shift pot from its current Schedule I alongside heroin and LSD to the less tightly regulated Schedule III with such drugs as ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

Internal records accompanying the order indicate the DEA sent a memo to the Justice Department in late January seeking additional scientific input to determine whether marijuana has an accepted medical use, a key requirement for reclassification. But those concerns were overruled by Justice Department attorneys, who deemed the DEA´s criteria "impermissibly narrow."

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The White House says FDIC chairman to step down following report on agency's 'toxic culture'

NEW YORK (AP) - Martin Gruenberg, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, will step down from his post once a successor is appointed, the White House said Monday.

Gruenberg's announced departure comes after damning report about the agency´s toxic workplace culture was released earlier this month and political pressure from the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, who called for his resignation earlier in the day.

In a statement, the White House said that President Joe Biden will name a replacement for Gruenberg "soon" and called for the Senate to quickly confirm the person´s nomination.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP´s earlier story follows below.

The most powerful Democrat in Congress on banking and financial issues called for President Joe Biden to replace the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday, saying the agency is broken and there must be "fundamental changes at the FDIC."

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Tugboats escort ship that caused deadly Baltimore bridge collapse back to port

BALTIMORE (AP) - The recovery from the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse reached a significant milestone Monday as tugboats escorted the ill-fated container ship Dali back to port, its damaged bow still covered with smashed shipping containers, fallen steel trusses and mangled concrete.

Nearly two months have passed since the Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge´s supporting columns, killing six construction workers and halting most maritime traffic through the Port of Baltimore.

Refloated at high tide Monday morning, the vessel slowly moved away from the site of the March 26 disaster, guided by five tugboats. The extensive damage to its bow included a massive, gaping hole above the waterline on its starboard side.

Removing the hulking ship opened a new void in Baltimore´s altered skyline, which lost an iconic landmark and a symbol of the city´s proud maritime history. Crews have already cleared thousands of tons of mangled steel that jutted up from the water´s surface after the collapse.

The bodies of the six victims have been recovered from the underwater wreckage - all Latino immigrants who came to the U.S. for job opportunities. They were filling potholes on an overnight shift when the bridge was destroyed.

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Iran's president and foreign minister die in helicopter crash at moment of high tensions in Mideast

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country´s foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in the Shiite theocracy, quickly named a little-known vice president as caretaker and insisted the government was in control, but the deaths marked yet another blow to a country beset by pressures at home and abroad.

Iran has offered no cause for the crash nor suggested sabotage brought down the helicopter, which fell in mountainous terrain in a sudden, intense fog.

In Tehran, Iran´s capital, businesses were open and children attended school Monday. However, there was a noticeable presence of both uniformed and plainclothes security forces.

Later in the day, hundreds of mourners crowded into downtown Vali-e-Asr square holding posters of Raisi and waving Palestinian flags. Some men clutched prayer beads and were visibly crying. Women wearing black chadors gathered together holding photos of the dead leader.

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Amal Clooney is one of the legal experts who recommended war crimes charges in Israel-Hamas war

Amal Clooney is one of the legal experts who recommended that the chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes court seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the militant Hamas group.

The human rights lawyer and wife of actor George Clooney wrote of her participation in a letter posted Monday on the website of the couple's Clooney Foundation for Justice. She said she and other experts in international law unanimously agreed to recommend that International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan seek the warrants.

Khan announced his intention to do so on Monday, saying that actions taken by both Israeli leaders and Hamas in the seven-month war in Gaza amounted to war crimes.

"I served on this Panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives," Clooney wrote. "The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict."

The panel comprised experts in international humanitarian law and international criminal law, and two of its members are former judges at criminal tribunals in The Hague, where the ICC is based, Clooney wrote. She added that their decision was unanimous. The panel also published an op-ed about its recommendation in the Financial Times on Monday.

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WikiLeaks founder Assange wins right to appeal against an extradition order to the US

LONDON (AP) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal an extradition order to the United States on espionage charges, a London court ruled Monday - a decision likely to further drag out an already long legal saga.

High Court judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson ruled for Assange after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided "blatantly inadequate" assurances that he would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain.

Assange, 52, has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website´s publication of a trove of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago.

Hundreds of supporters cheered and applauded outside court as news of the ruling reached them from inside the Royal Courts of Justice.

Assange´s wife, Stella, said the U.S. had tried to put "lipstick on a pig - but the judges did not buy it." She said the U.S. should "read the situation" and drop the case.