SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several gun control measures Tuesday, including one that allows the court to consider stalking and animal cruelty as grounds to restrict access to firearms.
The state already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. The new laws signed by Newsom will expand restrictions on who could own firearms, prevent the proliferation of “ghost guns” and increase protections for domestic violence survivors.
“California won’t wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “In the absence of congressional action, our state is once again leading the way by strengthening our nation-leading gun laws.”
Under the new laws, a judge can consider stalking, acts of animal cruelty or threats of violence as evidence for a gun violence restraining order. A person who has a misdemeanor charge dismissed because they were found to be mentally incompetent will also be prohibited from possessing a gun. Current laws only apply such restrictions to cases involving felony charges.
Another law targets ghost guns by requiring law enforcement agencies to prohibit their contracted vendors from selling guns meant to be destroyed. The measure received bipartisan support from the Legislature.
The new laws also aim at providing more protections for domestic violence survivors. There'll be fewer exceptions for police officers to continue carrying a gun if they were perpetrators of domestic violence. Law enforcement is also required to take away firearms from offenders.
Newsom also signed legislation banning fake gunfire and fake blood from active-shooter drills in California’s public schools.
The California Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, has advanced some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but many have not survived court challenges.
Newsom has positioned himself as a leader on gun control while he eyes the national political stage. He has called for and signed a variety of bills, including measures targeting ghost guns that are harder for law enforcement to trace, raising the taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for education and banning people from carrying firearms in most public places. Last year, he kickstarted a campaign calling for a constitutional amendment on gun safety with little success.
FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom meets with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and members of the California delegation at Oracle Park in San Francisco, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada, Pool, File)
Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel, including a longer-range projectile that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. It was the group’s farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges. Israel said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.
Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel later said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict. Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel’s military says it will do “whatever is necessary” to push Hezbollah away from Lebanon’s border with Israel.
Meanwhile, 700 British troops were due to arrive Wednesday to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as it prepared for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.
Here’s the latest:
CAIRO — The bodies of 28 people killed in Israeli airstrikes were brought to local hospitals over the past day and another 85 people were wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday.
A total of 41,495 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly a year ago, according to the ministry, which says another 96,006 have been wounded.
The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. It says women and children make up slightly more than half of those killed.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Pope Francis called for a stop to escalating tensions in Lebanon, calling it “unacceptable.”
“I am saddened by the news coming from Lebanon, where intense bombing in recent days has caused much death and destruction," the pope said Wednesday during a regular audience at the Vatican. “I hope that the international community will make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable. I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past."
JERUSALEM — Hezbollah has launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel following days of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.
The Israeli military said that at one point on Wednesday, more than 40 projectiles were launched simultaneously, though most were intercepted.
The municipality in the northern city of Safed said a projectile hit a home, causing a fire. There were no injuries as the residents were not there, it said. Safed has been a frequent target for Hezbollah due to military infrastructure in the area.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah fired a missile at Tel Aviv, triggering air raid sirens. The military said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no casualties or damage.
The military said it was launching “extensive strikes” across southern and eastern Lebanon.
An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday, part of a two-day bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of people and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict.
BEIRUT — Israeli strikes Wednesday hit a town near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
There were no immediate reported casualties, as Israeli warplanes pound southern and eastern Lebanon for a third day in a new phase of their ongoing conflict with the Hezbollah militant group.
A photo circulated by the NNA and local media shows large plumes of smoke between the houses and green fields of the town of Maisara, a stone’s throw away from the Mediterranean Sea.
The renewed strikes come hours after Hezbollah announced it launched a missile toward Tel Aviv, targeting the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency that it blames for a string of assassinations of its top commanders and for the explosion of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of the group and its civilian institutions that wounded thousands and killed dozens of people.
As thousands of Lebanese flee the airstrikes from the country’s southern and eastern provinces, NNA said Israel launched three strikes airstrikes over the northeastern city of Hermel, the town of Labweh, and a handful of towns and villages across the country’s southern province.
The Israeli army says it will continue its strikes until it can return the tens of thousands of residents who were displaced from Israel's north, near its border with Lebanon. Israel maintains that Hezbollah is launching rocket attacks in and near civilian areas.
While Lebanon’s north has mostly been spared from the strikes, Israel has launched rare strikes near the northern town of Mayrooba and in the outskirts of Qartaba.
The days of strikes have killed over 560 people, in some of Lebanon’s deadliest days since Israel’s war with Hezbollah in 2006.
CAIRO — Egypt, Jordan and Iraq say Israel is pushing the Middle East into an all-out war and are calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene.
In a joint statement Wednesday, the three countries’ foreign ministers affirmed that averting a regional war requires the cessation of “the Israeli aggression on Gaza.” The ministers also condemned the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and said that “Israel is pushing the region into an all-out war.”
Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab countries to make peace with Israel. But relations have been strained since the war began in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Iraq has close ties to Iran, which supports both Hamas and the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah has traded heavy fire with Israel in recent days.
BEIRUT — Thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled from Lebanon across the border to Syria following heavy Israeli bombardment, a United Nations refugee agency official said Wednesday.
Rula Amin, Middle East and North Africa spokesperson for the agency known as UNHCR, said that families were “arriving in buses and cars, but also travelling by foot.”
“Crowds of people — many of whom are women, young children and even infants — continue to await processing for entry,” she said. “Many will have to spend the night outdoors waiting their turn.”
Amin said that UNHCR teams, along with the Syrian Red Crescent, were providing water, mattresses, blankets and food. She noted that the team has “also seen people, including children, bearing injuries suffered from the recent attacks on Lebanon.”
Some 775,000 Syrians are registered with the U.N. Refugee Agency in Lebanon, and hundreds of thousands more are believed to be unregistered in the country.
A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed more than 560 people in Lebanon, including around 150 women and children. It was the highest death toll in nearly a year of clashes between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the deadliest Lebanon has seen since a bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A hospital in the central Gaza Strip said Wednesday it received the bodies of three people who were killed in an Israeli strike the previous day.
The Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp said the strike late Tuesday hit a civilian vehicle northeast of the camp, and three bodies were recovered Wednesday morning.
The death toll from Tuesday’s strike on a house in the Nuseirat camp reached 11 after the body of a woman arrived at the hospital early Wednesday, the facility said. The dead included at least four children, according to the hospital records. The house strikes also wounded 11 people, the hospital said.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon into central Israel on Wednesday morning in the latest escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel Rescue Services said there were no injuries or damage reported from the missile, which triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and Netanya, two large cities in central Israel. It was Hezbollah's farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges.
Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.
Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have steadily escalated over the past 11 months. Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict. Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.
LONDON — Britain will send 700 troops to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as it prepares for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.
Cyprus is located across a strip of water from Lebanon, and Beirut harbor has been used before to evacuate foreign nationals by sea from Lebanon. During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, tens of thousands of foreigners were evacuated by sea to Cyprus in a fleet of commercial and military vessels, many supplied by American, British, European and other naval forces.
The British troops and members of the Border Force were to arrive Wednesday, even as the government made repeated appeals for its nationals to immediately evacuate Lebanon. Britain retains sovereign military base areas in Cyprus, which are considered its territory.
“We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life. Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British Nationals should the situation deteriorate,” said British Defense Secretary John Healey.
“The Royal Air Force also have aircraft and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if necessary,” Healy said.
A Lebanese police intelligence stands near a crater at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A protester waves a Lebanese flag as demonstrators gather to protest against the war on Gaza and Israeli military strikes on Lebanon in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Relatives mourn over the coffins of Hezbollah members who were killed in an Israeli airstrikes, during their funeral procession in the southern village of Saksakieh, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Residents and rescuers check a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese fleeing the Israeli bombardment, arrive in a taxi at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossing in Jdaidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Smoke rises behind a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese fleeing the Israeli bombardment, arrives at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossing in Jdaidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
