‘We have nothing.’ As Israel attacks Rafah, Palestinians are living in tents and scrounging for food
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over the past three weeks, Israel’s offensive in Rafah has sent nearly a million Palestinians fleeing the southern Gaza city and scattering across a wide area. Most have been displaced multiple times already during Israel’s nearly 8-month-old war in Gaza. With the amount of aid arrivals plummeting, Palestinians have largely been on their own to resettle their families and find the basics of life. Their tent camps stretch for 10 miles along Gaza’s coast where families scrounge for food and wood. A schoolteacher living with his wife, children and extended family in a tent says they have nothing and it’s destroying them mentally.
Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a ‘tragic mistake’
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians. Local officials say at least 45 people were killed in Sunday’s strike. It only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas. Netanyahu did not elaborate on the error. Israel’s military initially said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. As details of the strike and fire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of civilians.
At least 22 dead in Memorial Day weekend storms that devastated several US states
A series of powerful storms in the central and southern U.S. over the Memorial Day holiday weekend has killed at least 22 people as they left a wide trail of destroyed homes, businesses and power outages. The destructive storms caused deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky and were just north of an oppressive early season heat wave setting records from south Texas to Florida. Forecasters said the severe weather could shift to the East Coat later Monday and warned millions of people outdoors for the holiday to watch the skies.
In Trump’s hush money trial, prosecutors and defense lawyers are poised to make final pitch to jury
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial are set to deliver closing arguments. Each side wants to score final points with the jury Tuesday before it starts deliberating the fate of the first former American president charged with felony crimes. The arguments are expected to last the entire day. They’ll give the attorneys one last chance to address the jury hearing the landmark case. After four weeks of testimony, the lawyers’ arguments set the stage for deliberations in the case charging Trump in connection with payments during the 2016 election to prevent a porn actor from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter. The Republican ex-president denies wrongdoing.
Voter outreach groups targeted by new laws in several GOP-led states are struggling to do their work
WASHINGTON (AP) — Laws passed in several Republican-controlled states after the 2020 presidential election have criminalized much of the work done by voter outreach groups. Advocates are finding it difficult to adapt as they try to register and educate potential voters with just months to go before this year’s presidential election. In-person activities have been eliminated or severely cut back, and staffing has been reduced. Voting rights experts say it’s another tactic to strip access to the ballot box, especially for minority voters, who mostly benefit from third-party voter registration.
Fears rise a second landslide and disease outbreak loom at site of Papua New Guinea disaster
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea’s mass-casualty disaster. U.N. official Serhan Aktoprak said Tuesday the mass of debris that devastated Yambali village in the South Pacific nation’s remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday is becoming more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble. The United Nations’ migrant agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people. The agency estimates 670 villagers have died, while Papua New Guinea’s government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 were buried.
Last year’s deadly heat wave in metro Phoenix didn’t discriminate
PHOENIX (AP) — The victims of last summer’s staggering 31-day streak of daily temperatures reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit and over were old and young, male and female, homeless and well-to-do, Black, white, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American. There was a 19-year-old man addicted to fentanyl who collapsed in a roasting alley. A 96-year-old military veteran died in the hospital after being found unresponsive in his home without air conditioning. More than 400 of the 645 heat-related deaths Maricopa County public health officials have confirmed for 2023 were during that wave stretching from the last day in June through all of July.
Biden says each generation has to ‘earn’ freedom, in solemn Memorial Day remarks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making a Memorial Day pledge that his country will continue the work of the nation’s fallen toward a more perfect union, “for which they lived, and for which they died.” Delivering remarks at a solemn remembrance ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden says each generation must ensure the sacrifice of the country’s service members is not in vain. Says Biden: “Freedom has never been guaranteed. Every generation has to earn it, fight for it, defend it in the battle between autocracy and democracy, between the greed of a few, and the rights of many.”
Bill Walton, Hall of Fame player who became a star broadcaster, dies of cancer at 71
Bill Walton, who starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Hall of Fame center for his NBA career and one of the biggest stars of basketball broadcasting, has died. The league announced that Walton died Monday after a prolonged fight with cancer. He was 71. Walton was the NBA’s MVP in the 1977-78 season, a two-time champion and a member of both the NBA’s 50th anniversary and 75th anniversary teams. That followed a college career in which he was a two-time champion at UCLA and a three-time national player of the year.
Celtics rally late again to close out Pacers for 4-0 sweep in Eastern Conference finals
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Derrick White’s tiebreaking 3-pointer with 43 seconds left gave Boston the lead and the Celtics closed out a four-game sweep of the Indiana Pacers 105-102 to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in three years. White finished with 16 points and only two 3s in the game. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 29 points while Jayson Tatum added 26 points. Indiana, which again played without two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton, lost its second straight at home — both in the final minute after giving up leads. Andrew Nembhard had 24 points, 10 assists and six rebounds but missed a potentially tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds and the Pacers never go the ball again.
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