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  • 250 arrested in France as protesters clash with police

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    PARIS — Protesters blocked roads, lit blazes and were met with volleys of tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, heaping pressure on President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire.

    What You Need To Know

    • Protesters have blocked roads and set fires in Paris and across France, clashing with police in a bid to pressure President Emmanuel Macron

    • The protests on Wednesday are challenging Macron’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu

    • The interior ministry reported 250 arrests during the nationwide demonstrations

    • The “Block Everything” movement, which started online over the summer, aims to disrupt the country
    • It opposes budget cuts and other grievances

    The government’s interior ministry announced 250 arrests in the first hours of what was a planned day of nationwide demonstrations against Macron, budget cuts and other complaints.

    Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests.

    Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the southwest, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.

    Spreading protests

    The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice in 2018-2019.

    After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts.

    Nevertheless, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.

    Macron was installing a new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on Tuesday, and the protests immediately presented him with a challenge.

    Groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris’ beltway during the morning rush hour and were dispersed by police and tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up trash cans and hurled objects at police officers. Paris police reported 159 arrests through the morning.

    Around 100 others were taken into police custody elsewhere in France, according to the interior ministry count. Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread — from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the southeast.

    A weary nation

    With France gripped by a prolonged cycle of instability, where minority governments installed by Macron have lurched from crisis to crisis, the movement also had support from people who didn’t protest.

    “There’s a lot of weariness, shared weariness, a lot of frustration that things aren’t moving forward,” said Lila, a Paris office worker who asked that her family name not be published. “That, in part, explains these blockades and this generalized unhappiness.”

    Some criticized the disruptions.

    “It’s a bit excessive,” said Bertrand Rivard, an accounting worker on his way to a meeting in Paris. “We live in a democracy and the people should not block the country because the government doesn’t take the right decisions.”

    The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats. Its call for a day of blockades, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest came as Bayrou was preparing plans to massively slash public spending — by 44 billion euros ($51 billion) — to rein in France’s growing deficit and trillions in debts. He also proposed the elimination of two public holidays from the country’s annual calendar — which proved wildly unpopular.

    Lecornu, the new prime minister who previously served as minister of defense, now inherits the task of addressing France’s budget difficulties, facing the same political instability and widespread hostility to Macron that contributed to Bayrou’s undoing.

    Macron’s governments have been on particularly shaky ground since he dissolved the National Assembly last year, triggering an unscheduled legislative election that stacked the lower house of parliament with opponents of the French president.

    A spontaneous movement

    “Block Everything” grew virally online with no clear identified leadership and a broad array of complaints — many targeting budget cuts, broader inequality and Macron himself.

    Retailleau, a conservative who allied with Macron’s centrist camp to serve as interior minister in Bayrou’s government and is now in a caretaker role until Lecornu puts his Cabinet together, alleged Wednesday that left-wing radicals have hijacked the protest movement, even though it has an apparent broad range of supporters. Appeals for non-violence accompanied its online protest calls.

    Retailleau alleged that elected politicians who have backed the movement are attempting “to create a climate of insurrection in France” and he said some protesters appeared hell-bent on fighting with police.

    “We have, in fact, small groups that are seasoned, mobile, often wearing masks and hoods, dressed in black, which in reality are the recognized signs, the DNA, of … extreme-left and ultra-left movements,” Retailleau said.

    The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump asks Supreme Court for emergency order to keep foreign aid frozen

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.

     

    What You Need To Know

    • The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen

    • The Republican administration filed its appeal Monday

    • The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority last used by a president roughly 50 years ago

    • Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30

     

    The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

    Last week, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold the funding was likely illegal.

    Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter on Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.

    He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That’s when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent.

    Ali said Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal for the Trump administration to withhold the money. The law is “explicit that it is congressional action — not the President’s transmission of a special message — that triggers rescission of the earlier appropriations,” he wrote.

    The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development programs. The administration turned to the high court after a panel of federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.

    Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the ruling “an unlawful injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless interbranch conflict.” He urged the justices to immediately block it.

    But lawyers for the nonprofit organizations that sued the government said it’s the funding freeze that violates federal law, noting that it has shut down funding for even the most urgent lifesaving programs abroad.

    “This marks the third time in this case alone that the Administration has run to the Supreme Court in a supposed emergency posture to seek relief from circumstances of its own making — this time to defend the illegal tactic of a ‘pocket rescission,’” attorney Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, lead counsel for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition plaintiffs, said in a statement. “The Administration is effectively asking the Supreme Court to bless its attempt to unlawfully accumulate power.”

    Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

    The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.

    “This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.

    In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.

    After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court and the judge issued the order that’s now being challenged.

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    Associated Press

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  • DHS: 475 detained in immigration raid at Georgia Hyundai plant

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    SAVANNAH, Ga. — About 475 people were detained in an immigration enforcement action at a Hyundai factory in Georgia on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    In a press briefing Friday, the special agent in charge of the effort said the department executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices at the factory where the South Korean auto giant manufactures electric vehicles.

    What You Need To Know

    • About 475 people were detained in an immigration enforcement action at a Hyundai factory in Georgia on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    • In a press briefing Friday, the special agent in charge of the effort said the department executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices at the factory where the South Korean auto giant manufactures electric vehicles.

    • No criminal charges have been filed in what Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank said was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of DHS investigations
    • A majority of the 475 people who were detained were South Korean nationals, and all were illegally present in the United States or working unlawfully in the country, Schrank said

    “This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,” Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank said Friday.

    No criminal charges have been filed in what Schrank said was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations.

    A majority of the 475 people who were detained were South Korean nationals, and all were illegally present in the United States or working unlawfully in the country, Schrank said. He added that they had entered the country through a variety of means, including illegally crossing the border, entering through a visa waiver that prohibited them from working and overstaying visas. 

    “Each individual was questioned on their status,” Schrank said. “Their documents were checked.”

    Those determined to be illegally present have been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal.

    The arrests were the result of a monthslong investigation conducted through a collaboration of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security; ICE; the U.S. Labor Department; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the IRS; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Georgia State Patrol. 

    Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.

    ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.

    In a televised statement, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae Myung said the country is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.

    “The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” he said.

    At an event with President Donald Trump earlier this year, Hyundai announced it would invest an additional $5 billion in the United States, on top of an already announced $21 billion it had committed for U.S. investments from 2025 to 2028. The company plans to build a new steel plant in Louisiana, expand its U.S. auto production and create a robotics innovation hub.

    Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.

    The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

    Hyundai and LG’s battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said in a statement that it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities” and paused construction of the battery site to assist their work.

    Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.

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    Susan Carpenter, Associated Press

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  • Death toll in Lisbon streetcar crash rises to 16 amid day of mourning

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    LISBON, Portugal — The death toll in the crash of a famous Lisbon streetcar popular with tourists stood at 16 on Thursday after another person died from their injuries while receiving hospital care, an emergency services official said.

    What You Need To Know

    • The death toll in the crash of a famous Lisbon streetcar popular with tourists stood at 16 on Thursday after another person died from their injuries while receiving hospital care, an emergency services official said.

    • A Portuguese emergency services official said Thursday that the dead were all adults. The head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency declined to provide their names or nationalities

    • The official said that their families would be informed first, and she said that another 21 people were injured in Wednesday’s crash

    • More than half were foreigners

    Officials revised the death toll lower after saying earlier it was 17.

    The dead were all adults, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters. She didn’t provide their names or nationalities, saying that their families would be informed first.

    Another 21 people were injured in Wednesday’s crash, she said, adding that they were men and women between the ages of 24 and 65 as well as a 3-year-old child.

    The injured included Portuguese people as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea and Cape Verde, she said.

    The range of nationalities reflected how big a draw the renowned 19th-century streetcar was for tourists who are packing the Portuguese capital during the summer season. Portugal observed a national day of mourning Thursday after the capital’s worst disaster in recent history.

    British tourist heard a ‘horrendous crash’

    Felicity Ferriter, a 70-year-old British tourist, had just arrived with her husband at a hotel near the crash site and was unpacking her suitcase when she heard “a horrendous crash.”

    “We heard it, we heard the bang,” she told The Associated Press outside her hotel.

    The couple had seen the streetcar when they arrived and intended to ride on it the next day.

    “It was to be one of the highlights of our holiday,” she said. “It could have been us.”

    She said that the emergency response was “amazing.” Police and ambulances quickly “flooded in,” she said.

    The yellow-and-white streetcar, known as Elevador da Gloria, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels on, its sides and top crumpled. It crashed into a building where the road bends, leaving parts of the mostly metal vehicle crushed.

    Italian tourist won’t ride one again

    The electric streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables, with the descending car helping with its weight to pull up the other one. The car can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is also commonly used by Lisbon residents.

    Francesca di Bello, a 23-year-old tourist from Italy on vacation in Lisbon with her family, had been on the Elevador da Gloria a few hours before the derailment.

    They walked by the cordoned-off crash site on Thursday, shocked by the crumpled wreckage. Asked if she would ride a funicular again in Portugal or elsewhere, Di Bello was emphatic. “Definitely not,” she said.

    Though authorities gave no details about those killed, the transport workers’ trade union SITRA said that the streetcar’s brakeman, André Marques, was among the dead.

    One of Lisbon’s big tourist draws

    The 19th-century streetcar is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions and is usually packed with foreigners at this time of year for its short and picturesque trip up and down one of the city’s steep hills.

    Teams of pathologists at the National Forensics Institute, reinforced by colleagues from three other Portuguese cities, worked through the night on autopsies, which were expected to be concluded early Thursday, officials said. The injured were admitted to several hospitals in the Lisbon region.

    Detectives from Portugal’s judicial police force, which investigates serious incidents, photographed the rails and the wreckage on the deserted road.

    Officials declined to speculate on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have caused the derailment.

    “It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” witness Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese television channel SIC. She described the streetcar as out of control and seeming to have no brakes, and said she watched passersby run into the middle of the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, or Freedom Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare.

    The crash occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. local time. Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.

    Service halted as inspections ordered

    The service, inaugurated in 1885, goes up and down a few hundred meters of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road in tandem with one going the opposite way. It goes between between Restauradores Square and the Bairro Alto neighborhood renowned for its nightlife.

    Lisbon’s City Council halted operations of three other famous funicular streetcars in the city while immediate inspections were carried out.

    The Elevador da Gloria is classified as a national monument.

    Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the brief rides on the popular streetcar.

    Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said that scheduled maintenance had been carried out. It offered its deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media post, and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes.

    President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning. “It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.

    “A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which left in mourning their families and dismayed the whole country,” the government said in a statement.

    European Union flags at the European Parliament and European Commission in Brussels flew at half-staff. Multiple EU leaders expressed their condolences on social media.

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    Associated Press

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  • Israel kills Hamas spokesperson; security cabinet meets on expanding offensive

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military announced Sunday that it killed a longtime spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, as the country’s security cabinet met to discuss the expanding offensive in some of Gaza‘s most populated areas.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Israeli military announced Sunday that it killed a longtime spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, as the country’s security cabinet met to discuss the expanding offensive in some of Gaza’s most populated areas

    • There were no plans to discuss negotiations for a ceasefire at the meeting, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media

    • Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz identified the spokesperson as Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre for the official who represented Hamas’ Qassam Brigades

    • Israel has killed many of Hamas’ military and political leaders as it attempts to dismantle the group and prevent an attack like the one on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in southern Israel

    There were no plans to discuss negotiations for a ceasefire at the meeting, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

    Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz identified the spokesperson as Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre for the official who represented Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. He was killed over the weekend. Hamas has not commented on the claim.

    Obeida’s last statement was issued Friday as Israel began the initial stages of the new offensive and declared Gaza City a combat zone. His statement said the militants would do their best to protect living hostages but warned that they would be in areas of fighting. He said the remains of dead hostages would “disappear forever.”

    Israel’s military said the spokesperson, whom it identified as Hudahaifa Kahlout, had been behind the release of videos showing hostages as well as footage of the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war.

    Israel has killed many of Hamas’ military and political leaders as it attempts to dismantle the group and prevent an attack like the one on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.

    A ‘death trap’ while seeking food

    At least 43 Palestinians were killed since Saturday, most of them in Gaza City, according to local hospitals. Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, said 29 bodies were brought to its morgue, including 10 people killed while seeking aid and others struck across the city.

    “Where are the resistance fighters that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu claims he is bombing? Does he consider stones resistance fighters?” said a relative of one of the dead at Shifa Hospital, who did not give her name. She said they would not be displaced.

    Hospital officials reported 11 other fatalities from strikes and gunfire. Al-Awda Hospital said seven of them were civilians trying to reach aid.

    Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire on crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone that bisects Gaza.

    “We were trying to get food, but we were met with the occupation’s bullets,” said Ragheb Abu Lebda, who saw at least three people bleeding from gunshot wounds. “It’s a death trap.”

    The corridor has become increasingly perilous. Civilians have been killed as United Nations humanitarian convoys are overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, or shot on their way to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed U.S. contractor.

    The GHF told The Associated Press that there was “no incident at or near our site today.” Israel’s military did not respond to questions about Sunday’s casualties.

    Too exhausted to evacuate

    Israel for weeks has been operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and the Jabaliya refugee camp to prepare for the offensive’s initial stages. The military has intensified air attacks on coastal areas of the city, including Rimal.

    In Rimal, quiet Palestinians looked through the rubble after a strike, some venturing into the upper floors of shattered buildings that were still standing. A child tried to pull a shopping cart loaded with plastic jugs over the debris.

    The military has urged the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City to flee south, but many say they are exhausted after repeated displacements or unconvinced that any safe place in Gaza remains.

    The United Nations says about 65,000 Palestinians have evacuated since Aug. 1, including 23,199 in the past week. More than 90% of the over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least once during the war, many of them multiple times, according to the U.N.

    Israel has signaled that aid to Gaza City could be cut, and it has announced new infrastructure projects in southern Gaza — steps that Palestinians say amount to forced displacement.

    More deaths from hunger

    Seven more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the last 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday.

    That brought the adult death toll from malnutrition-related causes to 215 since June when the ministry started to count them, it said, and 124 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began.

    A flotilla of ships departed Sunday from Barcelona for Gaza with humanitarian aid and activists on board, seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the territory. Similar attempts in the past have failed.

    At least 63,371 Palestinians have died during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but that around half have been women and children.

    The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes the figures but has not provided its own.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. plans to remove nearly 700 unaccompanied migrant children, senator says

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who had come to the U.S. without their parents, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and the Central American country said it was ready to take them in.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Trump administration plans to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who crossed into the U.S. without their parents, according to a letter that Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon sent Friday to the office responsible for caring for the children in the U.S.

    • Wyden argues that “this move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from”

    • Guatemala’s foreign minister says the government has told the U.S. it’s willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors

    • The move is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, even as the treatment of unaccompanied children is one of the most sensitive issues in immigration

    The removals would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-established obligation to these children,” Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for migrant children who arrive in the U.S. alone.

    “This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” the Democratic senator wrote, asking for the deportation plans to be terminated.

    It is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, which include plans to surge officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, ramping up deportations and ending protections for people who have had permission to live and work in the United States.

    Guatemala says it’s ready to take in the children

    Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Martínez said Friday that the government has told the U.S. it is willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived unaccompanied to the United States and are being held in U.S. facilities.

    Guatemala is particularly concerned about minors who could age out of the facilities for children and be sent to adult detention centers, he said. The exact number of children to be returned remains in flux, but they are currently discussing a little over 600. He said no date has been set yet for their return.

    That would be almost double what Guatemala previously agreed to. The head of the country’s immigration service said last month that the government was looking to repatriate 341 unaccompanied minors who were being held in U.S. facilities.

    “The idea is to bring them back before they reach 18 years old so that they are not taken to an adult detention center,” Guatemala Immigration Institute Director Danilo Rivera said at the time. He said it would be done at Guatemala’s expense and would be a form of voluntary return.

    The plan was announced by President Bernardo Arévalo, who said then that the government had a moral and legal obligation to advocate for the children. His comments came days after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala.

    Wyden’s letter says the children ‘will be forcibly removed’

    The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest move, which was first reported by CNN.

    Quoting unidentified whistleblowers, Wyden’s letter said children who do not have a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor or who don’t have an asylum case already underway, “will be forcibly removed from the country.”

    “Unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable children entrusted to the government’s care,” Wyden wrote. “In many cases, these children and their families have had to make the unthinkable choice to face danger and separation in search of safety.”

    The idea of repatriating such a large number of children to their home country also raised concerns with activists who work with children navigating the immigration process.

    “We are outraged by the Trump administration’s renewed assault on the rights of immigrant children,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “We are not fooled by their attempt to mask these efforts as mere ‘repatriations.’ This is yet another calculated attempt to sever what little due process remains in the immigration system.”

    Due to their age and the trauma unaccompanied immigrant children have often experienced getting to the U.S., their treatment is one of the most sensitive issues in immigration. Advocacy groups already have sued to ask courts to halt new Trump administration vetting procedures for unaccompanied children, saying the changes are keeping families separated longer and are inhumane.

    Migrant children traveling without their parents or guardians are handed over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement when they are encountered by officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. Once in the U.S., they often live in government-supervised shelters or with foster care families until they can be released to a sponsor — usually a family member — living in the country.

    They can request asylum, juvenile immigration status or visas for victims of sexual exploitation.

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    Associated Press

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  • Colleges struggle as Trump policies send international enrollment plummeting

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    One international student after another told the University of Central Missouri this summer that they couldn’t get a visa, and many struggled to even land an interview for one.

    What You Need To Know

    • Signs of a decline in international students have unsettled colleges around the U.S., but some schools are especially vulnerable

    • Colleges with large numbers of foreign students and small endowments have little financial cushion to protect them from steep losses in tuition money

    • International students represent at least 20% of enrollment at more than 100 colleges with endowments of less than $250,000 per student, according to an Associated Press analysis

    • Many are small Christian colleges, but the group also includes large universities such as Northeastern and Carnegie Mellon

    Even though demand was just as high as ever, half as many new international graduate students showed up for fall classes compared to last year.

    The decline represents a hit to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public university that operates close to its margins with an endowment of only $65 million. International students typically account for nearly a quarter of its tuition revenue.

    “We aren’t able to subsidize domestic students as much when we have fewer international students who are bringing revenue to us,” said Roger Best, the university’s president.

    Signs of a decline in international students have unsettled colleges around the U.S. Colleges with large numbers of foreign students and small endowments have little financial cushion to protect them from steep losses in tuition money.

    International students represent at least 20% of enrollment at more than 100 colleges with endowments of less than $250,000 per student, according to an Associated Press analysis. Many are small Christian colleges, but the group also includes large universities such as Northeastern and Carnegie Mellon.

    The extent of the change in enrollment will not be clear until the fall, Some groups have forecast a decline of as much as 40%, with a huge impact on college budgets and the wider U.S. economy.

    International students face new scrutiny on several fronts

    As part of a broader effort to reshape higher education, President Donald Trump has pressed colleges to limit their numbers of international students and heightened scrutiny of student visas. His administration has moved to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, and new student visa appointments were put on hold for weeks as it ramped up vetting of applicants’ social media.

    On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said it will propose a rule that would put new limits on the time foreign students can stay in the U.S.

    The policies have introduced severe financial instability for colleges, said Justin Gest, a professor at George Mason University who studies the politics of immigration.

    Foreign students are not eligible for federal financial aid and often pay full price for tuition — double or even triple the in-state rate paid by domestic students at public universities.

    “To put it more dollars and cents-wise, if an international student comes in and pays $80,000 a year in tuition, that gives universities the flexibility to offer lower fees and more scholarship money to American students,” Gest said.

    A Sudanese student barely made it to the U.S. for the start of classes

    Ahmed Ahmed, a Sudanese student, nearly didn’t make it to the U.S. for his freshman year at the University of Rochester.

    The Trump administration in June announced a travel ban on 12 countries, including Sudan. Diplomatic officials assured Ahmed he could still enter the U.S. because his visa was issued before the ban. But when he tried to board a flight to leave for the U.S. from Uganda, where he stayed with family during the summer, he was turned away and advised to contact an embassy about his visa.

    With the help of the University of Rochester’s international office, Ahmed was able to book another flight.

    At Rochester, where he received a scholarship to study electrical engineering, Ahmed, 19, said he feels supported by the staff. But he also finds himself on edge and understands why other students might not want to subject themselves to the scrutiny in the U.S., particularly those who are entirely paying their own way.

    “I feel like I made it through, but I’m one of the last people to make it through,” he said.

    Colleges are taking steps to blunt the impact

    In recent years, international students have made up about 30% of enrollment at Central Missouri, which has a total of around 12,800 students. In anticipation of the hit to international enrollment, Central Missouri cut a cost-of-living raise for employees. It has pushed off infrastructure improvements planned for its campus and has been looking for other ways to cut costs.

    Small schools — typically classified as those with no more than 5,000 students — tend to have less financial flexibility and will be especially vulnerable, said Dick Startz, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Lee University, a Christian institution with 3,500 students in Tennessee, is expecting 50 to 60 international students enrolled this fall, down from 82 the previous school year, representing a significant drop in revenue for the school, said Roy Y. Chan, the university’s director of graduate studies.

    The school already has increased tuition by 20% over the past five years to account for a decrease in overall enrollment, he said.

    “Since we’re a smaller liberal arts campus, tuition cost is our main, primary revenue,” Chan said, as opposed to government funding or donations.

    The strains on international enrollment only add to distress for schools already on the financial brink.

    Colleges around the country have been closing as they cope with declines in domestic enrollment, a consequence of changing demographics and the effects of the pandemic. Nationwide, private colleges have been closing at a rate of about two per month, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

    The number of high school graduates in the U.S. is expected to decline through 2041, when there will be 13% fewer compared to 2024, according to projections from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

    “That means that if you lost participation from international students, it’s even worse,” Startz said.

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  • Judge issues order blocking Trump effort to expand speedy deportations

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    WASHINGTON — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States.

    What You Need To Know

    • A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States

    • It’s a setback for the Republican administration’s efforts to remove migrants from the country without appearing before a judge first

    • U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion issued Friday night that the effort is based on the argument “that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them”

    • The administration says the judge’s ruling ignores federal law and Trump’s power under the Constitution

    The move is a setback for the President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute to quickly remove some migrants in the country illegally without appearing before a judge first.

    Trump promised to engineer a massive deportation operation during his 2024 campaign if voters returned him to the White House. And he set a goal of carrying out 1 million deportations a year in his second term.

    But U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb suggested the administration’s expanded use of the expedited removal of migrants is trampling on individuals’ due process rights.

    “In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion issued Friday night. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”

    The Department of Homeland Security announced shortly after Trump came to office in January that it was expanding the use of expedited removal, the fast-track deportation of undocumented migrants who have been in the U.S. less than two years.

    The effort has triggered lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups.

    DHS in a statement said Cobb’s “ruling ignores the President’s clear authorities under both Article II of the Constitution and the plain language of federal law.” It said Trump “has a mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst” and that “we have the law, facts, and common sense on our side.”

    Before the administration’s push to expand such speedy deportations, expedited removal was only used for migrants who were stopped within 100 miles of the border and who had been in the U.S. for less than 14 days.

    Cobb, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, didn’t question the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, or its application at the border.

    “It merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process,” she wrote.

    She added that “prioritizing speed over all else will inevitably lead the Government to erroneously remove people via this truncated process.”

    Cobb earlier this month agreed to temporarily block the administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under a process known as humanitarian parole. The ruling could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

    In that case the judge said Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand expedited removal for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.

    Since May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After the arrests, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.

    Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.

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  • Israel declares Gaza’s largest city combat zone as death toll surpasses 63,000

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    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone and recovered the remains of two hostages on Friday as the army launched the “initial stages” of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll in Gaza has risen to 63,025 in the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas

    • The latest figure was released on Friday as Palestinians faced the start of Israel’s expanded offensive in Gaza City and as Israel said its military had recovered the remains of two hostages

    • The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said the bodies of 59 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours.

    • It said five people had died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 322, including 121 children, since the war began

    As the military announced the resumption of fighting, health officials said the death toll in Gaza has risen to 63,025, with 59 new deaths reported by hospitals over the last 24 hours. Aid groups and a church sheltering people said they would stay in Gaza City, refusing to abandon the hungry and displaced who depend on them.

    The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in the city, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering while enduring famine. The military has in recent days ramped up strikes in neighborhoods on the city’s outskirts.

    Plumes of smoke and thunderous blasts could be seen and heard across the border in southern Israel on Friday morning.

    Israel has called Gaza City a Hamas stronghold, alleging that a network of tunnels remain in use by militants after several previous large-scale raids on the area throughout nearly 23 months of war.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that crippling Hamas’ capabilities in the city is critical to shielding Israel from a repeat of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

    While United Nations agencies and aid groups condemned the offensive’s announced start, people in Gaza City said it made little difference: Strikes already have been intensifying and the aid reaching them was insufficient.

    Mohamed Aboul Hadi said it made no difference.

    “The massacres never stopped, even during the humanitarian pauses,” he said in a text message sent from Gaza City.

    More than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday. The ministry’s count — 63,025 — does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. It also said five people had died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 322, including 121 children, since the war began.

    The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

    Some refuse to leave as Gaza City assault begins

    Facing international criticism, Israel instituted what it called “tactical pauses” in Gaza City last month that it said were geared toward letting in more food and aid. The pauses included a suspension of fighting from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., though aid groups have said deliveries remained challenging due to blockade, looting and Israeli restrictions.

    Midday Friday, the military said it had suspended pauses, marking the latest escalation after weeks of preparatory strikes in some of the city’s neighborhoods and calling up tens of thousands of reservists.

    “We will intensify our strikes until we bring back all the kidnapped hostages and dismantle Hamas,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said.

    Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, has for days urged Palestinians in Gaza City to flee south, calling evacuation “inevitable.”

    The U.N. said Thursday that 23,000 people had evacuated over the past week, but many Palestinians in Gaza City say they are exhausted after multiple displacements and question leaving when there is nowhere safe and any journey is costly.

    The Holy Family Church of Gaza City told The Associated Press on Friday that the roughly 440 people sheltering there would remain along with members of the clergy who would assist them.

    Farid Jubran said the church had left the decision up to the people even though they had few recourse to insulate themselves from fighting.

    “When we feel danger, people get closer to the walls or whatever, it’s more protected,” he said, noting the church had few specific defenses.

    The UN’s humanitarian agency said its staff and NGOs also would remain on the ground.

    Aid groups say they weren’t notified

    As Israel suspended pauses on Friday in Gaza City, the military did not say whether they had notified residents or aid groups of the impending declaration ahead of the 11:30 a.m. announcement.

    Norwegian Refugee Council, which coordinates a coalition of aid groups active in Gaza, said it had not received notification that Israel’s “tactical pauses” would be suspended.

    The U.N. said Thursday the besieged strip could lose half of its hospital bed capacity during an expanded assault on Gaza City.

    “We cannot provide health services to 2 million people besieged in the south,” said Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, noting a forcible evacuation of the strip’s largest city would be an environmental and health catastrophe.

    The suspension of the pause also comes one week after the world’s leading food security authority declared Gaza City was being gripped by famine after months of warnings.

    Remains of hostages recovered

    Israel on Friday said its military had recovered the remains of two hostages — Ilan Weiss and another left unnamed.

    “The campaign to return the hostages continues continuously. We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our hostages home — both the living and the dead,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

    Weiss, 55, was killed in the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities near Gaza that Hamas-led militants stormed on Oct. 7.

    For the families of hostages, the return of their remains meets a central demand and brings some closure, but also is a reminder of hostages who remain in Gaza.

    “At least they have closure,” said Rubi Chen, whose son was abducted during the Oct. 7 attack and is believed to be dead. “There are still 49 families waiting to have that closure.”

    Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants, nearly 50 remain in Gaza including 20 that Israel believes to be alive.

    Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has organized large-scale protests demanding a ceasefire to return the hostages, mourned the losses and said Israeli leaders should prioritize a deal to return both the living and the dead.

    “We call on the Israeli government to enter negotiations and stay at the table until every last hostage comes home. Time is running out for the hostages,” it said in a statement.

    Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals.

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  • U.S. economy grows 3.3% in second quarter, government says

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy rebounded this spring from a first-quarter downturn caused by fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. economy rebounded this spring from a first-quarter downturn caused by fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade wars

    • In an upgrade from its first estimate, the Commerce Department said Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — expanded at a 3.3% annual pace from April through June after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of 2025

    • The department had initially estimated second-quarter growth at 3%

    In an upgrade from its first estimate, the Commerce Department said Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — expanded at a 3.3% annual pace from April through June after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of 2025. The department had initially estimated second-quarter growth at 3%.

    The first-quarter GDP drop, the first retreat of the U.S. economy in three years, was mainly caused by a surge in imports — which are subtracted from GDP — as businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of Trump’s tariffs. That trend reversed as expected in the second quarter: Imports fell at a 29.8% pace, boosting April-June growth by more than 5 percentage points.

    The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending and private investment were a bit stronger in the second quarter than it had first estimated.

    Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of GDP, grew at a 1.6% annual pace, lackluster but better than 0.5% in the first quarter and the 1.4% the government initially estimated for the second.

    Even with an upward revision, private investment dropped at a 13.8% annual pace from April through June. That would be biggest drop since the second quarter of 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. A reduction in private inventories cut almost 3.3 percentage points off second-quarter GDP growth.

    Spending and investment by the federal government fell at a 4.7% annual clip on top of a 4.6% drop in the first quarter.

    A category within the GDP data that measures the economy’s underlying strength came in stronger than first reported, growing 1.9% from April-June, same as in the first quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

    Since returning to the White House, Trump has overturned decades of U.S. policy that had favored freer trade. He’s slapped double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth and targeted specific products for tariffs, too, including steel, aluminum and autos.

    Trump sees tariffs as a way to protect American industry, lure factories back to the United States and help pay for the massive tax cuts he signed into law July 4.

    But mainstream economists — viewed with disdain by Trump and his advisers — say that his tariffs will damage the economy, raising costs and making protected U.S. companies less efficient. They note that tariffs are paid by importers in the United States, who try to pass along the cost to their customers via higher prices. Therefore, tariffs can be inflationary — though their impact so far has been modest.

    The erratic way Trump has imposed the tariffs — announcing and suspending them, then coming up with new ones — has left businesses bewildered and uncertain about investments and hiring.

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  • Denmark summons U.S. envoy over claims of interference in Greenland

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    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country for talks after the main national broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.

    What You Need To Know

    • The top U.S. diplomat in Denmark has been summoned by the government after a report that people connected to Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland

    • Danish broadcaster DR reported Wednesday that at least three Americans have been involved in these operations

    • They allegedly compiled lists of U.S.-friendly Greenlanders and tried to influence local politics

    • The Danish Security and Intelligence Service believes Greenland is a target for influence campaigns, and said it is strengthening its efforts and presence in Greenland in cooperation with authorities there

    Public broadcaster DR said Danish government and security sources which it didn’t name, as well as unidentified sources in Greenland and the U.S., believe that at least three American nationals with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in the territory.

    One of those people allegedly compiled a list of U.S.-friendly Greenlanders, collected names of people opposed to Trump and got locals to point out cases that could be used to cast Denmark in a bad light in American media. Two others have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, businesspeople and locals, according to the report.

    The White House did not offer an immediate comment.

    An influence operation is an organized effort to shape how people in a society think in order to achieve certain political, military or other objectives.

    Trump has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.

    Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S., and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the U.S. gathering intelligence there.

    DR said its story was based on information from a total of eight sources, who believe the goal is to weaken relations with Denmark from within Greenlandic society. It said it had been unable to clarify whether the Americans were working at their own initiative or on orders from someone else. It said it knows their names but chose not to publish them in order to protect its sources. The Associated Press could not independently confirm the report.

    “We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement. “It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.

    “Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will of course be unacceptable. In that light, I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the U.S. chargé d’affaires for a meeting at the Ministry.”

    Cooperation between the governments of Denmark and Greenland “is close and based on mutual trust,” he added.

    The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen directed queries on the issue to Washington.

    The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said it believes that “particularly in the current situation, Greenland is a target for influence campaigns of various kinds” that could aim to create divisions in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.

    It said it “assesses that this could be done by exploiting existing or fabricated disagreements, for example in connection with well-known individual cases, or by promoting or amplifying certain viewpoints in Greenland regarding the Kingdom, the United States, or other countries with a particular interest in Greenland.”

    The service, known by its Danish acronym PET, said that in recent years it has “continuously strengthened” its efforts and presence in Greenland in cooperation with authorities there, and will continue to do so.

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  • Officials: AP freelancer among 5 journalists killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza killed five journalists Monday, including a freelancer who worked for The Associated Press, according to health officials.

    What You Need To Know

    • Health officials say Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza has killed five journalists, including a freelancer who worked for The Associated Press

    • Mariam Dagga was a visual journalist who freelanced for the AP during the war, as well as other news outlets

    • The AP said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, along with those of other journalists

    • The head of the Health Ministry’s records department said that 20 people were killed in Monday’s strikes on Nasser Hospital

    Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist, freelanced for the AP during the war, as well as other news outlets. The AP said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, along with those of other journalists.

    Two missiles hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in quick succession, medical officials said. In all, 20 people were killed, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.

    The Israel-Hamas war has been one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers, with at least 192 journalists killed in Gaza in the 22-month conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Comparatively, 18 journalists have been killed so far in Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to the CPJ.

    Dagga, who has a 13-year-old son who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war, frequently based herself at Nasser, most recently reporting on the hospital’s doctors struggling to save children from starvation. Independent Arabia, the Arabic language version of the British Independent, said Dagga also worked with the organization.

    “We are doing everything we can to keep our journalists in Gaza safe as they continue to provide crucial eyewitness reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions,” the AP said.

    Al Jazeera confirmed that journalist Mohammed Salama was also among those who were killed in the Nasser strike. Reuters reported that its contractor cameraman Hussam al-Masri and Moaz Abu Taha, a freelancer who worked occasionally for the organization, were killed. The agency’s contractor photographer Hatem Khaled was wounded.

    Ahmad Abu Aziz was also killed, according to Health Ministry official al-Waheidi. He had worked as a freelancer for Middle East Eye, a U.K.-based media outlet, the organization said.

    The Israeli military said its troops carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital and that it would conduct an investigation into the incident. The military said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such.”

    Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of Reporters Without Borders, said press freedom advocates had never seen such a severe step backward for reporters’ safety. He noted that journalists have been killed both in indiscriminate strikes and in targeted attacks that Israel’s military has acknowledged carrying out.

    “They are doing everything they can to silence independent voices that are trying to report on Gaza,” Bruttin said.

    In some cases, such as with Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who was targeted and killed by Israel earlier this month, Israel has accused journalists in Gaza of being part of militant groups. Israel’s military asserted that al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif previously dismissed as baseless.

    Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media from covering the war. News organizations instead rely largely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza — as well as residents — to show the world what is happening there. Israel often questions the affiliations and biases of Palestinian journalists but doesn’t permit others in.

    Many of the journalists working in Gaza are facing the same struggles to find food, for themselves and their families, as the people they are covering.

    In one of Dagga’s last social media posts on Sunday, she published a selfie of herself.

    Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Dagga’s son is 13, not 12, and to correct the spelling of the last name of the one of the journalists to Salama, not Salam.

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  • Moscow says Kyiv has struck a nuclear power plant

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    Russia accused Ukraine Sunday of launching drone attacks that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region overnight, as Ukraine celebrated 34 years since its independence.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russia has accused Ukraine of drone strikes that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant in the Kursk region 

    • The fire was quickly extinguished with no injuries, though a transformer was damaged

    •  Radiation levels remained normal. The U.N. nuclear watchdog called for protecting all nuclear facilities

    • Russia claimed to have shot down 95 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine intercepted 48 of 72 Russian drones

    Russian officials said several power and energy facilities were targeted in the overnight strikes. The fire at the nuclear facility was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported, according to the plant’s press service on Telegram. While the attack damaged a transformer, radiation levels remained within normal ranges.

    The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it was aware of media reports that a transformer at the plants had caught fire “due to military activity,” but hadn’t received independent confirmation. It said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that “every nuclear facility must be protected at all times.”

    Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack.

    Firefighters also responded to a blaze at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region, home to a major fuel export terminal. The regional governor said approximately 10 Ukrainian drones were shot down, with debris igniting the fire.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted 95 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Sunday.

    Russia fired 72 drones and decoys, along with a cruise missile, into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 48 drones were shot down or jammed.

    The incidents occurred as Ukraine marked independence day, commemorating its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered remarks in a video address from Kyiv’s Independence Square, emphasizing the nation’s resolve.

    “We are building a Ukraine that will have enough strength and power to live in security and peace,” Zelenskyy said, calling for a “just peace.”

    “What our future will be is up to us alone,” he said, in a nod to the U.S.–Russia summit in Alaska earlier in August, which many feared would leave Ukrainian and European interests sidelined.

    “And the world knows this. And the world respects this. It respects Ukraine. It perceives Ukraine as an equal,” he said.

    U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg was in attendance at independence day celebrations in Kyiv, during which Zelenskyy awarded him the Ukrainian Order of Merit, of the 1st degree.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Kyiv on Sunday morning for meetings with Zelenskyy.

    “On this special day — Ukraine’s Independence Day — it is especially important for us to feel the support of our friends. And Canada has always stood by our side,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff.

    Norway announced significant new military aid Sunday, pledging about $695 million for air defense systems. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Norway and Germany are jointly funding two Patriot systems, including missiles, with Norway also helping procure air defense radar.

    Pope Leo XIV prayed Sunday for peace in Ukraine as he marked the country’s independence day with a special appeal during his weekly noon blessing. He said the faithful were joining Ukrainians “asking that the Lord give peace to their martyred country.”

    Leo also sent a telegram to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to mark independence day, which the Ukrainian leader posted on X along with similar notes from other world leaders.

    In the letter, Leo assured his prayers for all Ukrainians who are suffering, and wrote: “I implore the Lord to move the hearts of people of good will, that the clamor of arms may fall silent and give way to dialogue, opening the path to peace for the good of all.”

    Meanwhile, fighting continued on the front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russia claimed Saturday that its forces had seized two villages in the Donetsk region.

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  • Israel to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists for expanded Gaza operation

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    JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Wednesday it would call up tens of thousands of reservists and extend the service of others for an expanded military operation in Gaza City.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Israeli military has announced plans to call up tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded operation in Gaza City

    • Defense Minister Israel Katz approved the plan, which involves deploying 60,000 reservists and extending service for 20,000 more

    • This move comes amid international concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where many residents are displaced and facing famine

    • The operation aims to target Hamas’ underground tunnel network, according to Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity

    Defense Minister Israel Katz approved plans to begin a new phase of operations in some of Gaza’s most densely populated areas, Israel’s military said Wednesday. The scheme, expected to receive the final approval from the chief of staff in the coming days, includes calling up 60,000 reservists and extending the service of an additional 20,000 currently serving.

    In a country of fewer than 10 million people, the call-up of so many reservists carries both economic and political weight and comes days after hundreds of thousands rallied for a ceasefire.

    This comes as negotiators scramble to bring Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire ending 22 months of fighting, while international leaders and rights groups warn an expanded assault could deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with most residents displaced, neighborhoods in ruins, and communities facing the threat of famine.

    A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said that troops will operate in parts of Gaza City where they have not yet been deployed and where Israel believes Hamas is still active. Israeli troops in the Zeitoun and Jabaliya — a built-up refugee camp in Gaza City — are already preparing the groundwork for the expanded operation.

    Gaza City is both Hamas’ military and governing stronghold and one of the last places of refuge in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas’ vast underground tunnel network there, the official added.

    Although Israel has targeted and killed much of Hamas’ senior leadership, parts of the militant group are actively regrouping and carrying out attacks, including launching rockets towards Israel, the official said.

    Gaza City operation could begin within days

    It remains unclear when the operation will begin, but it could be a matter of days and such a mobilization of reservists is the largest in months.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the objective of the war is to secure the release of remaining hostages and ensure Hamas and other militants can never again threaten Israel.

    The planned offensive, first announced earlier this month, comes amid heightened international condemnation of Israel’s restrictions on food and medicine reaching Gaza and fears of another mass displacement among Palestinians.

    AP journalists saw small groups heading south from the city this week, but how many will voluntarily flee remains unclear. Some said they were waiting to see how events unfold before moving yet again, and many insist nowhere is safe from airstrikes.

    “What we’re seeing in Gaza is nothing short of apocalyptic reality for children, for their families, and for this generation,” Ahmed Alhendawi, regional director of Save the Children, said in an interview. “The plight and the struggle of this generation of Gaza is beyond being described in words.”

    Exhausted reservists question war’s goals

    The call-up comes as a growing campaign of exhausted reservists accuses the government of perpetuating the war for political reasons and failing to bring home remaining hostages.

    The families of the hostages and former army and intelligence chiefs have also expressed opposition to the expanded operation in Gaza City. Most of the families of the hostages want an immediate ceasefire and worry an expanded assault could imperil bringing the 50 hostages still in Gaza home. Israel believes that 20 are still alive.

    Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who has organized veterans campaigning to end the war, said many reservists are exhausted after repeated tours lasting hundreds of days and resentful of those not called up at all. Most now just want to return to their lives.

    “Even those that are not ideologically against the current war or the government’s new plans don’t want to go because of fatigue or their families or their businesses,” he said.

    Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

    Israel still to respond to ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas

    Arab mediators and Hamas said this week the leaders of the Palestinian militant group had agreed to ceasefire terms, though similar announcements have been made in the past that did not lead to a lasting truce.

    Egypt and Qatar have said they have been waiting for Israel’s response to the ceasefire proposal. “The ball is now in Israel’s court,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdelattay said Tuesday.

    An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said Israel is in constant contact with the mediators in an effort to secure the release of the hostages.

    Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will oppose a deal that doesn’t include the “complete defeat of Hamas.”

    More than 62,122 people have been killed during Israel’s 22-month offensive, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half of them.

    In addition to that toll, 154 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when the ministry began counting such deaths, and 112 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began.

    Far-right Israeli minister shares more prison footage

    Israel’s far-right national security minister on Wednesday released footage of Israeli prisons showing images of Gaza’s destruction to Palestinian inmates.

    A video posted on Telegram by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shows him pointing to an image of Palestinians walking amid rubble and half-collapsed buildings, saying they were being shown to security prisoners.

    “So they understand that the people of Israel are not messing around,” he wrote.

    Ben-Gvir’s prison visit comes amid a string of provocative moves. It’s less than a week after he published a video of himself admonishing an imprisoned Palestinian leader in a face-to-face meeting inside a prison, saying Israel will confront anyone who acts against the country and “wipe them out.”

    Two and a half weeks ago, he visited and prayed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, triggering regional condemnation and fears that the provocative move could further escalate tensions.

    Netanyahu’s government depends on backing from the far-right, which opposes negotiations for a phased ceasefire in Gaza. Ben-Gvir said Monday that Netanyahu didn’t have a mandate to pursue such a truce.

    The far-right bloc nabbed a victory on Wednesday when Israel gave final approval for a controversial settlement project east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The development in what’s called E1 would effectively cut the territory in two, and Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.

    Israel says it killed Hamas militant involved in abduction of father whose family was taken hostage

    Israel’s military said Wednesday it had killed a Hamas militant who stormed a kibbutz and abducted Yarden Bibas, the father of three whose wife and two young children were also kidnapped on Oct. 7.

    The Bibas family became one of Israel’s most closely followed hostage cases after body camera footage of the mother and her young children being abducted was circulated widely in Israel and abroad. The three were later killed during the war, while Yarden was released.

    In a statement, Bibas called the killing of his alleged kidnapper “a small part of my closure” and said he was still awaiting the return of hostages held in Gaza.

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    Associated Press

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  • Palestinians say Israel struck Gaza clinic during polio campaign. Israel denies

    Palestinians say Israel struck Gaza clinic during polio campaign. Israel denies

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    Palestinian officials say an Israeli drone strike on a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated for polio wounded six people, including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.

    What You Need To Know

    • Palestinian officials say an Israeli drone strike on a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated for polio wounded six people, including four children
    • The Israeli military denied responsibility. The alleged strike occurred Saturday in northern Gaza, which has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year
    • Israel has been carrying out another offensive there in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands
    • It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts

    The alleged strike occurred Saturday in northern Gaza, which has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year. Israel has been carrying out another offensive there in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

    It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

    Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.

    The World Health Organization and the U.N. children’s agency, known as UNICEF, which are jointly carrying out the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike.

    “The reports of this attack are even more disturbing as the Sheikh Radwan Clinic is one of the health points where parents can get their children vaccinated,” said Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF.

    “Today’s attack occurred while the humanitarian pause was still in effect, despite assurances given that the pause would be respected from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.”

    Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the (Israeli military) did not strike in the area at the specified time.”

    A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began Saturday in parts of northern Gaza. It had been postponed from Oct. 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of assurances for humanitarian pauses, a U.N. statement said.

    The administration of the first dose was carried out in September across the Gaza Strip, including areas of northern Gaza that are now completely sealed off. Health officials said the campaign’s first round, and the administration of the second dose across central and southern Gaza, were successful.

    At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from areas of north Gaza toward Gaza City in the past few weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which are inaccessible, according to the U.N.

    The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints.”

    They say 90% of children in every community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

    The campaign was launched after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.

    The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children.

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    Associated Press

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  • Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33, truck ramming near Tel Aviv kills 1

    Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33, truck ramming near Tel Aviv kills 1

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    Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as Israel’s offensive in the hard-hit and isolated area entered a third week and the U.N. secretary-general called the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable.” Israel said it targeted militants.

    In a separate development, a truck rammed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding more than 30. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming occurred outside a military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

    What You Need To Know

    • Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children
    • Israel’s offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week Sunday
    • The U.N. secretary-general calls the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable”
    • In a separate development, Israeli medics say a truck rammed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding more than 30
    • Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader says Israeli strikes on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation. It was Israel’s first open attack on its archenemy

    Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, said Israeli strikes on the country on Saturday in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation. It was Israel’s first open attack on its archenemy.

    That exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which include Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

    Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon city in southern Lebanon, with 25 wounded, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. One strike hit a residential building, according to footage taken by an Associated Press reporter.

    The Israeli military said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details. It said five other personnel were severely wounded. An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon wounded five people in Israel, authorities said.

    Netanyahu says strikes on Iran achieved Israel’s goals

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his first public comments on the strikes said “we severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us.”

    Satellite images showed damage to two secretive Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was discontinued in 2003, and another linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran on Sunday said a civilian had been killed, with no details. It earlier said four people with the military air defense were killed.

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said “it is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime.” Khamenei would make any final decision on how Iran responds.

    Later Sunday, protesters disrupted a speech by Netanyahu at a nationally broadcast ceremony for victims of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza. People shouted “Shame on you” and forced Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the’ attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home remaining hostages.

    An Israeli official said Mossad chief David Barnea is traveling to Qatar for cease-fire and hostage release talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.

    Truck ramming in Israel wounds dozens

    In Ramat Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, the truck slammed into a bus as Israelis were returning to work after a holiday, leaving some people stuck under vehicles.

    Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said six of the wounded were in serious condition. The Ichilov Medical Center reported that one person had died.

    Asi Aharoni, a police spokesperson, told reporters the attacker had been “neutralized,” without saying if the assailant was dead.

    Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but did not claim it.

    Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have soared since the war in Gaza began. Israel has carried out regular military raids into the occupied West Bank that have left hundreds dead. Most appear to have been militants killed during shootouts with Israeli forces, but Palestinians taking part in violent protests and civilian bystanders have also been killed.

    ‘Horrific circumstances’ in northern Gaza

    The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in strikes late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. It said another 15 were wounded. The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on militants.

    A Health Ministry official, Hussein Mohesin, said 11 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli army did not immediately comment. Israel has struck a number of such shelters, often killing women and children, saying it targets militants hiding among civilians.

    Israel has waged a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement.

    Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which has suffered the heaviest destruction of the war. Israel has severely limited the entry of basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north — one raided over the weekend — say they have been overwhelmed by waves of wounded.

    The U.N. secretary-general in a statement by his spokesperson noted “harrowing levels of death.” The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday described the civilian population in “horrific circumstances.”

    The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

    The offensive has devastated much of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crowded into squalid tent camps, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.

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  • Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33, truck ramming near Tel Aviv kills 1

    Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33, truck ramming near Tel Aviv kills 1

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    Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as Israel’s offensive in the hard-hit and isolated area entered a third week and the U.N. secretary-general called the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable.” Israel said it targeted militants.

    In a separate development, a truck rammed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding more than 30. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming occurred outside a military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

    What You Need To Know

    • Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children
    • Israel’s offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week Sunday
    • The U.N. secretary-general calls the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable”
    • In a separate development, Israeli medics say a truck rammed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding more than 30
    • Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader says Israeli strikes on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation. It was Israel’s first open attack on its archenemy

    Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, said Israeli strikes on the country on Saturday in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation. It was Israel’s first open attack on its archenemy.

    That exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which include Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

    Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon city in southern Lebanon, with 25 wounded, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. One strike hit a residential building, according to footage taken by an Associated Press reporter.

    The Israeli military said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details. It said five other personnel were severely wounded. An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon wounded five people in Israel, authorities said.

    Netanyahu says strikes on Iran achieved Israel’s goals

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his first public comments on the strikes said “we severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us.”

    Satellite images showed damage to two secretive Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was discontinued in 2003, and another linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran on Sunday said a civilian had been killed, with no details. It earlier said four people with the military air defense were killed.

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said “it is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime.” Khamenei would make any final decision on how Iran responds.

    Later Sunday, protesters disrupted a speech by Netanyahu at a nationally broadcast ceremony for victims of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza. People shouted “Shame on you” and forced Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the’ attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home remaining hostages.

    An Israeli official said Mossad chief David Barnea is traveling to Qatar for cease-fire and hostage release talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.

    Truck ramming in Israel wounds dozens

    In Ramat Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, the truck slammed into a bus as Israelis were returning to work after a holiday, leaving some people stuck under vehicles.

    Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said six of the wounded were in serious condition. The Ichilov Medical Center reported that one person had died.

    Asi Aharoni, a police spokesperson, told reporters the attacker had been “neutralized,” without saying if the assailant was dead.

    Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but did not claim it.

    Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have soared since the war in Gaza began. Israel has carried out regular military raids into the occupied West Bank that have left hundreds dead. Most appear to have been militants killed during shootouts with Israeli forces, but Palestinians taking part in violent protests and civilian bystanders have also been killed.

    ‘Horrific circumstances’ in northern Gaza

    The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in strikes late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. It said another 15 were wounded. The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on militants.

    A Health Ministry official, Hussein Mohesin, said 11 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli army did not immediately comment. Israel has struck a number of such shelters, often killing women and children, saying it targets militants hiding among civilians.

    Israel has waged a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement.

    Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which has suffered the heaviest destruction of the war. Israel has severely limited the entry of basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north — one raided over the weekend — say they have been overwhelmed by waves of wounded.

    The U.N. secretary-general in a statement by his spokesperson noted “harrowing levels of death.” The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday described the civilian population in “horrific circumstances.”

    The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

    The offensive has devastated much of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crowded into squalid tent camps, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.

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    Associated Press

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  • Blinken heads to Middle East for 11th time since Gaza war began

    Blinken heads to Middle East for 11th time since Gaza war began

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading again to the Middle East, making his 11th trip to the region since the Gaza war erupted last year and as Israel steps up attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the Middle East monday for his 11th trip to the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted last year

    • The State Department says Blinken will depart on Monday for a weeklong trip to Israel and a number of Arab countries, on a visit that also comes as Israel weighs retaliation against Iran for ballistic missile attacks earlier this month

    • The trip had been expected after President Joe Biden said he would dispatch Blinken to the region following Israel’s killing of Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar last week

    • Blinken will also raise the importance the administration places on reaching a diplomatic resolution to the escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah



    The State Department said Blinken will depart on Monday for a weeklong trip to Israel and a number of Arab countries, on a visit that also comes as Israel weighs retaliation against Iran for ballistic missile attacks earlier this month.

    The trip had been expected after President Joe Biden said last week he would dispatch Blinken to the region following Israel’s killing of Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar, a move that some believe could open a window for new talks on a cease-fire proposal that has been languishing for months.

    “Throughout the region, Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people. He will continue discussions on post-conflict period planning and emphasize the need to chart a new path forward that enables Palestinians to rebuild their lives and realize their aspirations free from Hamas’ tyranny,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

    He said Blinken would also underscore the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, something that Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made clear in a letter to Israeli officials last week. That letter reminded Israel that the Biden administration could be forced by U.S. law to curtail some forms of military aid should the delivery of humanitarian assistance continue to be hindered.

    In addition to the conflict in Gaza, Blinken will also raise the importance the administration places on reaching a diplomatic resolution to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and elsewhere.

    “He will reaffirm the U.S. commitment to work with partners across the region to de-escalate tensions and provide lasting stability,” Miller said in the statement.

    Since the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the Israeli response, Blinken has traveled to the Middle East 10 times seeking an end to the crisis. His previous trips have yielded little in the way of ending hostilities but he has managed to increase aid deliveries to Gaza in the past.

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    Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press

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  • U.S. Embassy in Lebanon urges Americans to leave ‘now’

    U.S. Embassy in Lebanon urges Americans to leave ‘now’

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    The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on Monday urged American citizens in the country in no uncertain terms to leave “now” amid ongoing fighting between militant group Hezbollah and Israel.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on Monday urged American citizens in the country to leave “now” as fighting between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continues

    • The bulletin says the country’s commercial airport remains open and carriers still have flights, and the federal government has “added thousands of seats in extra capacity to accommodate U.S. citizens and their family members”

    • Fighting between the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group and Israel began roughly a year ago in the aftermath of Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023

    • The conflict has escalated significantly in recent weeks



    “U.S. citizens in Lebanon are strongly encouraged to depart now,” a bulletin from the State Department issued Monday reads, noting that the country’s commercial airport remains open and carriers still have flights.

    The bulletin also noted that the federal government has “added thousands of seats in extra capacity to accommodate U.S. citizens and their family members,” and much of that extra capacity has gone unused — but warned that “these additional flights will not continue indefinitely.”

    The bulletin urges U.S. citizens in Lebanon who need assistance to reach out via an online form that will allow U.S. Embassy staff to help point them in the direction of flights and aid them with emergency passport requests and potentially emergency loans for those eligible.

    For those who do not wish to depart imminently, the State Department implores U.S. citizens to “prepare contingency plans should the situation deteriorate further,” adding: “These alternative plans should not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation.”

    Fighting between the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group and Israel began roughly a year ago in the aftermath of Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah began firing rockets and artillery shells at Israel, which the group said was in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Hezbollah has thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel in the last year; most have been intercepted or missed their targets, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life in the country.

    The conflict escalated in a major way last month when pagers and other devices began detonating across Lebanon, killing dozens and injuring thousands more. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack, which it denied. Israel later carried out bombing campaigns across Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah sites and commanders, killing several, including leader Hassan Nasrallah, and began a ground invasion about two weeks ago.

    In the latest volley of fighting, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 in northern Lebanon, per the Lebanese Red Cross. The strike hit a small apartment building; it’s unclear what the target was.

    The strike follows a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli army base, killing four soldiers and wounding 61 others. Israel vowed a “forceful response” to the attack.

    The United Nations also said recently that Israel fired on peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, injuring more than a dozen. U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said “may constitute a war crime.” Israel has accused Hezbollah of operating near peacekeeping forces and charged that the U.N. is keeping forces there to obstruct military operations against Hezbollah.

    The attacks on U.N. peacekeeping forces have drawn international condemnation. The European Union on Monday called the attacks “completely unacceptable” and rejected Israel’s allegations about the peacekeeping forces.

    Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has vowed to keep up its attacks on Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Israel has said its campaign against Hezbollah is aimed at stopping those attacks so displaced Israelis can feel safe returning to their homes near the Lebanese border.

    Israel says it has sent 1.7 million text messages, 3.4 million voice messages and made 3,700 voice calls notifying civilians in Lebanon to evacuate.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Justin Tasolides

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  • Israel expands its bombardment in Lebanon as tens of thousands flee

    Israel expands its bombardment in Lebanon as tens of thousands flee

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    Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon on Saturday, hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs with a dozen airstrikes and striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in northern Lebanon for the first time.

    What You Need To Know

    • Israel is expanding its bombardment in Lebanon, hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs with a dozen airstrikes and striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in northern Lebanon for the first time

    • Hamas says two members of its military wing have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon

    • Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began almost a year ago, in addition to most of the top leadership of Hezbollah as the fighting has escalated into Lebanon in recent weeks

    • The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians



    The attack on the Beddawi camp near the northern city of Tripoli killed an official with Hamas’ military wing along with his wife and two young daughters, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement. Hamas later said another member of its military wing was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

    Israel’s military said it killed two senior officials with Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon, one near Tripoli. Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began almost a year ago, in addition to most of the top leadership of Hezbollah as the fighting has escalated in Lebanon in recent weeks.

    Plumes of smoke dominated the skyline over Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah commanders and military equipment and aims to drive the militant group away from shared borders.

    At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, paramedics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from homes in less than two weeks since Israel escalated its strikes in Lebanon.

    The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and the Israeli military have traded fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

    Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon while intensifying its airstrikes there and near Beirut. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the intense ground clashes that Israel says have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters.

    Israel’s military on Saturday said about 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with most intercepted.

    Hundreds of thousands of people flee Lebanon

    At least six people were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday, according to the National News Agency, a Lebanese state-run new outlet.

    The Israeli military said special forces were carrying out targeted ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

    Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria fleeing Israeli strikes in less than two weeks, according to a Lebanese government committee.

    Associated Press journalists saw thousands of people continuing to cross the Masnaa Border Crossing on foot, even after Israeli airstrikes left huge craters in the road leading to it on Thursday.

     

    More strikes and evacuation orders in Gaza

     

    Also on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza killed at least nine people.

    One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.

    Another strike hit a house in the northern part of the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said.

    The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes, but it has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

    The Israeli military also warned Palestinians to evacuate along the strategic Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a cease-fire deal earlier this year. The military told people in parts of the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps to evacuate to Muwasi, an area along Gaza’s shore that the military has designated a humanitarian zone.

    It’s unclear how many Palestinians are living in the areas ordered evacuated, parts of which were evacuated previously.

    Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the nearly year-long war, according to the Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Almost 90% of Gaza’s residents are now displaced, amid widespread destruction.

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    Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press

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