By MIKE CATALINI, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments Monday over whether President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey since earlier this year.

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The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing in Philadelphia over Habba’s appointment, which a lower court judge said in August was done with a “novel series of legal and personnel moves” and that she was not lawfully serving as U.S attorney for New Jersey.

The judge’s order said that her actions since July could be declared void but put his order on hold so the U.S. Justice Department could appeal.

Habba is validly serving in the role under a federal statute that permits the first assistant attorney, a post she was appointed to by the Trump administration, the government said in court briefs ahead of Monday’s hearing.

A similar dynamic is playing out in Nevada, where a federal judge disqualified the administration’s pick to be U.S. attorney there.

In the Habba case, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann’s decision came after several people charged with federal crimes in New Jersey challenged the legality of Habba’s tenure. They sought to block the charges, arguing she didn’t have the authority to prosecute their cases after her 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney expired.

Habba was Trump’s attorney in criminal and civil proceedings before he was elected to a second term. She served as a White House adviser briefly before Trump named her as a federal prosecutor in March.

Shortly after her appointment, she said in an interview she hoped to help “turn New Jersey red,” a rare overt political expression from a prosecutor, and said she planned to investigate the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general.

She then brought a trespassing charge, eventually dropped, against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka stemming from his visit to a federal immigration detention center.

Habba later charged Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault stemming from the same incident, a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress other than for corruption. McIver denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. The case is pending.

Questions about whether Habba would continue in the job arose in July when her temporary appointment was ending and it became clear New Jersey’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, would not back her appointment.

With her appointment expiring, federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career prosecutor who had served as her second in-command.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi then fired the prosecutor installed by the judges and renamed Habba as acting U.S. attorney. The Justice Department said the judges acted prematurely and said Trump had the authority to appoint his preferred candidate to enforce federal laws in the state.

Brann’s ruling said the president’s appointments are still subject to the time limits and power-sharing rules laid out in federal law.

By SAM MEDNICK, SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two of U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys traveled to Israel Monday to shore up the tenuous ceasefire that’s holding in Gaza, a day after the fragile deal faced its first major flareup as Israel threatened to halt aid transfers and killed dozens in strikes after it accused Hamas of killing two soldiers.

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Israel resumes ceasefire in Gaza and says aid deliveries will restart Monday

The Israeli military announced it resumed enforcing the ceasefire late Sunday. Aid deliveries will resume Monday through multiple crossings after Israeli inspection, in line with the agreement, according to an Israeli security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.

By early afternoon, it was not immediately clear if the flow of aid had restarted.

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said on Monday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about developments in the region.

She said U.S. Vice President JD Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance, would also be visiting the country and meeting with Netanyahu, but didn’t provide a timeline.

There was no immediate confirmation from Washington regarding the vice president’s visit.

A fragile truce

More than a week has passed since the start of the U.S.-proposed truce aimed at ending two years of war. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that Hamas has been “quite rambunctious” and “they’ve been doing some shooting.”

He also suggested that the violence might be the fault of “rebels” within the organization rather than its leadership.

Since the ceasefire started, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets in Gaza, clashing with armed groups and killing alleged gangsters in what the militant group says is an attempt to restore law and order in areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said militants had fired at troops in areas of Rafah city that are Israeli-controlled according to agreed-upon ceasefire lines.

Retaliatory strikes by Israel killed 45 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which says a total of 80 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 11.

Hamas, which continued to accuse Israel of multiple ceasefire violations, said communication with its remaining units in Rafah had been cut off for months and “we are not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas.”

The next stage of ceasefire

The next stage is expected to focus on disarming Hamas, Israeli withdrawal from additional areas it controls in Gaza, and future governance of the devastated territory. The U.S. plan proposes the establishment of an internationally backed authority.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program on the weekend, Kushner said the success or failure of the deal would depend on whether Israel and the international mechanism could create a viable alternative to Hamas.

“If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future,” he said.

A Hamas delegation led by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya was in Cairo to follow up on the implementation of the ceasefire deal with mediators and other Palestinian groups.

Fears ceasefire may not hold up

Palestinians in Gaza are wary that the deal may fall apart after Sunday’s flare-up.

Funeral services were held Monday for some of the dozens of people killed earlier by Israeli strikes across the strip. Associated Press footage showed mourners lining up for funeral prayers behind bodies draped in white sheets.

“There should be concerns as long as the matters have yet to be settled,” said Hossam Ahmed, a displaced person from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

There is also concern about how much aid Israel is letting into Gaza, which is part of the agreement.

In their Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel that sparked the war, Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said on Monday that it will consider whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can legally own guns, the latest firearm case to come before the court since its 2022 decision expanding gun rights.

President Donald Trump’s administration asked the justices to revive a case against a Texas man charged with a felony because he allegedly had a gun in his home and acknowledged being a regular pot user. The Justice Department appealed after a lower court largely struck down a law that bars people who use any illegal drugs from having guns.

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The Republican administration favors Second Amendment rights, but government attorneys argued that this ban is a justifiable restriction.

They asked the court to reinstate a case against Ali Danial Hemani. His lawyers got the felony charge tossed out after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the blanket ban is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s expanded view of gun rights. The appellate judges found it could still be used against people accused of being high and armed at the same time, though.

Hemani’s attorneys argue the broadly written law puts millions of people at risk of technical violations since at least 20% of Americans have tried pot, according to government health data. About half of states legalized recreational marijuana, but it’s still illegal under federal law.

The Justice Department argues the law is valid when used against regular drug users because they pose a serious public safety risk. The government said the FBI found Hemani’s gun and cocaine in a search of his home as they probed travel and communications allegedly linked to Iran. The gun charge was the only one filed, however, and his lawyers said the other allegations were irrelevant and were mentioned only to make him seem more dangerous.

The case marks another flashpoint in the application of the Supreme Court’s new test for firearm restrictions. The conservative majority found in 2022 that the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to carry guns in public for self-defense and any firearm restrictions must have a strong grounding in the nation’s history.

The landmark 2022 ruling led to a cascade of challenges to firearm laws around the country, though the justices have since upheld a different federal law intended to protect victims of domestic violence by barring guns from people under restraining orders.

BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday accused the U.S. National Security Agency of carrying out cyberattacks on its national time center, saying any damage to related facilities could have disrupted network communications, financial systems and power supply.

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The Ministry of State Security alleged that the U.S. agency had exploited vulnerabilities in the messaging services of a foreign mobile phone brand to steal sensitive information from devices of the National Time Service Center’s staff in 2022. It did not specify the brand.

The U.S. agency also used 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to target the center’s multiple internal network systems and attempted to infiltrate a key timing system between 2023 and 2024, it said in a post on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform.

The ministry said it had evidence but did not provide it in the post.

It said the time center is responsible for generating and distributing China’s standard time, in addition to providing timing services to industries such as communications, finance, power, transport and defense. The ministry added that it had provided guidance to the center to eliminate the risks.

“The U.S. is accusing others of what it does itself, repeatedly hyping up claims about Chinese cyber threats,” the post said.

Western governments in recent years have alleged hackers linked to the Chinese government have targeted officials, journalists, corporations and others. The ministry’s statement could fuel tensions between Washington and Beijing, on top of trade, technology and Taiwan issues.

The U.S. Embassy did not address the Chinese allegation in an emailed response.

The response focused on China’s cyberattacks, calling them the most active and persistent threat to the U.S. government and companies.