Two people died in a missile attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, local officials said, as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone and missile attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down 10 of the 14 drones and one of the three missiles Russia launched overnight.

Oleh Kiper, Odesa’s regional governor, said the two who died in the suburbs of Odesa on Saturday night were a married couple, and that another person was wounded in the attack.

At least 41 people were wounded Sunday afternoon when a Russian aerial bomb struck a multistory residential building in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, adding that the guided bomb hit the 10th floor of the building, with the fire spreading across four stories. Twelve other buildings were also damaged, he said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it downed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday over western and southwestern regions, with no damage caused by the falling debris. It also said another Ukrainian drone was shot down Sunday morning over the western Ryazan region.

Vance defends false pet-eating claims

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said Sunday that he stood by the debunked claims he and former President Donald Trump have spread suggesting Haitian migrants were eating pets, saying that he was willing “to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.”

And Vance responded indignantly when asked about the bomb threats that have upended life in Springfield, Ohio, the city where he and Trump falsely claimed that the pets were being eaten.

“I’ve been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months,” Vance said on CNN, referring to strains he said that a large influx of Haitian migrants had placed on the city’s public services. He went on: “The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

When the CNN host, Dana Bash, noted that he had used the word “creating,” Vance replied, “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

Even as Vance was standing by the claims in interviews on CNN, CBS News and NBC News, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, was rebutting them in an interview on ABC News. DeWine said the claim that migrants were eating pets was “a piece of garbage that was simply not true.”

Progress made against Western wildfires

Firefighters gained further ground over the weekend against three Southern California wildfires as authorities in northern Nevada lifted the last of evacuation orders for all homes Sunday.

More than 8,000 personnel combined are battling the three biggest fires burning in the state, all ignited during a triple-digit heatwave at the start of the month.

The largest blaze is the Bridge Fire at 85 square miles, which exploded dramatically through the Angeles National Forest east of Los Angeles at the start of the week. It has torched at least 49 buildings and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The fire was 9% contained Sunday morning, with firefighters gaining 4% overnight.

The Line Fire, which grew slightly overnight to 60 square miles in the San Bernardino Mountains, was 36% contained Sunday.

Authorities have said a delivery driver purposely started the Line Fire in Southern California on Sept. 5. Arson-related charges have been filed against Justin Wayne Halstenberg, who is accused of starting the Line Fire. He is due to be arraigned on Monday.

The Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties remained at 37 square miles and 19% containment as of Sunday.

In northern Nevada, Washoe County fire officials say evacuations will be lifted Sunday for all homes — the last of nearly 20,000 evacuees.

Billionaire returns to Earth after spacewalk

A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.

SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.

They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles following Tuesday’s liftoff.

Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.

Calif. firefighters union critical of Trump threat

The president of the California Professional Firefighters union said this weekend that former President Trump “should be ashamed” of his threat to withhold federal firefighting aid to the state if he were elected.

Brian K. Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters union, which represents more than 35,000 firefighters, said in a statement Saturday evening that it “is shocking that we have a presidential candidate who is threatening our public safety.”

“His rhetoric is dangerous, his ideas on public safety are dangerous, and his ignorant rhetoric has grown exponentially,” Rice said.

Trump, in a news conference at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club on Friday, said that, in a second term, he would stop sending California federal firefighting aid unless Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted his policy priorities on issues such as water and taxes.

Fatal police shooting in Philly investigated

Authorities in suburban Philadelphia say they are investigating the death of a man who officials allege charged at police officers with a weapon before he was shot and killed by an officer.

The Montgomery County district attorney’s office said East Greenville police responded to a domestic call after an 18-year-old called 911 shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday to report a physical assault. Prosecutors said officers arrived to find a man barricaded in the basement of the home and allege that he was threatening to harm law enforcement.

Officers breached the basement door at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday to find the man armed with a machete and hatchet, according to the prosecutors. They said the man “charged at police officers” and refused to drop his weapon.

An attempt to hit the man with a stun gun failed to stop him, and an officer from the Upper Perk police department in Pennsburg fired his weapon, striking the man. Police rendered aid but the man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after midnight, prosecutors said.

Accused Idaho killer moved to Boise jail

The man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students has been booked into jail in Boise, where his trial was moved last week, Ada County records showed on Sunday.

Idaho’s Supreme Court on Thursday moved the trial of Bryan Kohberger after his defense attorneys argued that extensive media coverage and strong emotions in the community of Moscow, Idaho, where the killings occurred, would make it difficult to find an impartial jury.

Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022.

When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

The new trial venue in Boise is about 300 miles from Moscow. Prosecutors unsuccessfully argued they could find impartial jurors in Moscow by bringing in a large pool to choose from. They also said the move inconveniences the family members of victims, attorneys, and witnesses.

Storm Ileana now a tropical depression

Storm Ileana has weakened to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

The tropical storm formed Thursday off Mexico’s Pacific coast as it moved ashore, making landfall on the coast of the Mexican state of Sinaloa Saturday, a day after it pounded the resort-studded Los Cabos.

On Sunday, wind speed dropped to 35 mph, NOAA said in an advisory, as Ileana was nearly 30 miles southwest of Los Mochis, Mexico, and moving west-northwest at 2 mph.

8 people die trying to cross English Channel

At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday.

The tragedy occurred Saturday just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.

A French rescue ship was deployed to the area and rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants on the beach, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.

“Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said.

— From news services