5:40 p.m. EDT National News Summary

Flooding forces people from homes in some parts of Iowa while much of US broils again in heat

Floodwaters have forced people out of their homes in parts of Iowa, the result of weeks of rain. Meanwhile, much of the United States is longing for relief from yet another round of extraordinary heat Saturday. Sirens blared after midnight in Rock Valley, Iowa. People in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain. Elsewhere in the U.S., the miserable grip of heat and humidity continues. The National Weather Service says roughly 15 million people are under a heat warning while another 90 million are under a heat advisory.

At least 39 people killed in Israeli strikes across northern Gaza, officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian and hospital officials said at least 39 people have been killed by Israeli strikes across northern Gaza. The deaths Saturday come a day after at least 25 people were killed in strikes on tent camps and 50 wounded near the southern city of Rafah. Fadel Naem, director of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press that more than three dozen bodies arrived at the hospital. The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said they pulled approximately the same number of bodies from a building hit by an Israeli strike in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels target ship in the Gulf of Aden as the Eisenhower aircraft carrier heads home

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has targeted a commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden but apparently caused no damage. Meanwhile, the U.S. military has ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America’s response to the Houthi attacks, to return home after a twice-extended tour. The USS Theodore Roosevelt will take the Eisenhower’s place after a scheduled exercise in the Indo-Pacific. The fire late Friday by the Houthis comes after the sinking this week of the ship Tutor. That marked what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Biden and allied Republicans are trying to rally GOP women in swing-state suburbs away from Trump

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies are trying to replicate their success with suburban women, who helped the Democrat beat Donald Trump in swing states like Pennsylvania four years ago. This year, they are signaling they can win a small number of Republican women who may be opposed to a second Trump presidency. But in dozens of interviews this month in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, the most competitive of Philadelphia’s largest suburban counties four years ago, there was little evidence that traditional Republicans were ready to abandon Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in significant numbers.

Now an abortion rights advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 22-year-old woman who’s become a vocal reproductive rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend. It’s part of a 2024 election push around the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional protections for abortion in that the landmark Supreme Court case. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022 that ended the federal right to abortion, roughly half the nation has restrictions in place. And at least 10 states have no exceptions for rape or incest.

Trump endorses Ten Commandments in schools, implores evangelical Christians to vote in November

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has told a group of evangelicals that they “cannot afford to sit on the sidelines” of the 2024 election, imploring them at one point to “go and vote, Christians, please!” He also endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in schools and elsewhere. Trump, speaking to a group of politically influential evangelical Christians in Washington on Saturday, drew cheers as he invoked a new law signed in Louisiana this week requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, calling it “a crazy world” that people would be opposed to it.

LGBTQ+ librarians grapple with attacks on books – and on themselves

Worldwide Pride Month events are underway but they are coming at a time when many people who identify as LGBTQ+ say they are facing increasing difficulties at work, ranging from being repeatedly misgendered to physically assaulted. For gender nonconforming library workers in particular, they are also grappling with growing calls for book bans across the U.S., with books about gender identity, sexual orientation and race topping the list of most criticized titles and making the attacks all the more personal. The American Library Association documented the highest-ever number of titles targeted for censorship in 2023 in more than 20 years of tracking. Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age story ‘Gender Queer’ was the most criticized library book for the third straight year.

A U.S. envoy visits Hanoi days after Putin, saying US-Vietnam trust is at ‘all-time high’

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A senior U.S. diplomat has held talks in Vietnam and said that the trust between the two countries is at an “all-time high,” just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Hanoi. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink insisted that his trip was unrelated to Putin’s visit on Thursday. Vietnam had elevated the United States to its highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, last year, putting it at the same level as China and Russia. The elevation of the U.S. ties suggested that Vietnam wanted to hedge its friendships as Western companies look to diversify their supply chains away from China.

Rescuers find family of 6 dead in landslide in eastern China, as severe weather warning extended

BEIJING (AP) — Six people who were missing were found dead by rescuers in Fujian province, state media reported Saturday, adding to the extreme weather deaths after downpours caused landslides in the area, even as authorities extended a warning of more severe weather ahead. A family of six were found dead in a local temple by rescuers after days of searching in Fujian’s Shanghang county, according to the state-backed Hongxing news. They had gone to the temple looking for shelter, as the temple was on higher ground, but the building was toppled by a landslide, killing the family. On Friday, authorities reported 47 people dead in neighboring Guangdong province, which has seen historic flooding caused by the rains.

South Africa’s new government brings Black and white together. It’s also reviving racial tensions

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s new coalition government has brought a Black president and a white opposition leader together in an image of unity. But the power-sharing agreement between the African National Congress party and one of South Africa’s few white-led parties has unwittingly renewed some racial tensions. Many Black South Africans have expressed discomfort with a white-led party being back in power, even in a coalition. It shows how the country is haunted by the racist apartheid system that ended 30 years ago but is still felt by millions of the Black majority who were brutally oppressed by a white government.

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