AP News Summary: 7:51 a.m. EDT – National News

Latest deadly weather in US kills at least 18 as storms carve path of ruin across multiple states

VALLEY VIEW, Texas (AP) — Powerful storms have killed at least 18 people, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The storms obliterated homes and destroyed a truck stop where drivers took shelter during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S. Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park. Five people were killed in Arkansas, two in Oklahoma and one in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of residents were without power across the region.

Palestinian medics say Israeli airstrikes kill 35 in Gaza’s Rafah as displaced people are hit

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health workers say Israeli attacks have killed at least 35 people and hit tents for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. They say “numerous” others are trapped in flaming debris. Sunday’s attacks came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population had sought shelter before Israel’s incursion. Israel’s army says it hit a Hamas installation where senior Hamas members were located. Gaza’s Health Ministry says women and children make up most of the dead and dozens of wounded.

EU-Israel relations take a nosedive as Spain, Ireland set to formally recognize a Palestinian state

BRUSSELS (AP) — Relations between the European Union and Israel took a nosedive on the eve of the diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state by EU members Ireland and Spain. Spain has suggested sanctions should be considered against Israel for its continued attacks in the southern Gaza city of Rafah while Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Spain that its consulate in Jerusalem will not be allowed to help Palestinians. EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell threw his full weight to support the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor is seeking an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, including the leader of Hamas.

Papua New Guinea says Friday’s landslide buried more than 2,000 people and formally asks for help

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A Papua New Guinea government official has told the United Nations more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive by a landslide Friday. The official formally asked for international help. The government figure is roughly triple a U.N. estimate of 670 killed in the landslide in the South Pacific island nation’s mountainous interior. In a letter seen by The Associated Press to the United Nations resident coordinator dated Sunday, the acting director of the South Pacific island nation’s National Disaster Center Luseta Laso Mana said the landslide “buried more than 2000 people alive” and caused “major destruction” at Yambali village in the Enga province. Estimates of the casualties have varied widely.

Here’s what every key witness said at Donald Trump’s hush money trial. Closing arguments are coming

NEW YORK (AP) — Testimony is over at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York after a parade of 22 witnesses, including a porn actor, tabloid publisher and White House insiders. Prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to make their closing arguments on Tuesday. After that, it’ll be up to 12 jurors to decide whether prosecutors have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump illegally falsified records at his company as part of an effort to keep embarrassing stories from becoming public during his 2016 presidential campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty. A conviction could come down to how the jurors interpret the testimony they heard and which witnesses they found credible.

China premier agrees on cooperation with Seoul, Tokyo but issues veiled rebuke against their US ties

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — China’s premier has agreed to revive three-way cooperation with South Korea and Japan in the face of shared challenges but issued a veiled rebuke against the two countries’ expanding security cooperation with the United States. Chinese Premier Li Qiang met South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul in what was their countries’ first such trilateral meeting in more than four years. Many experts say just restarting the countries’ highest-level annual meeting is a positive sign for cooperation among the three Northeast Asian neighbors.

China has threatened trade with some countries after feuds. They’re calling ‘the firm’ for help

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has set up an eight-person team known as “the firm” to provide help to countries cut off from Chinese trade. The team emerged after Washington stepped in to help Lithuania when the northern European country found its cargo shipments to and from China stranded two years ago during a feud over Taiwan. State Department officials say Washington sees ”the firm” as an emergency response when a country fears facing economic pressure from China. The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. says Beijing opposes economic coercion and calls the American allegation “completely unfounded.”

Russian POWs get to make phone calls home. Ukrainians don’t. A growing movement wants that to change

FAR WESTERN UKRAINE (AP) — For hundreds of Russian soldiers taken prisoner, phone calls home can offer a bit of comfort and hope. It’s a lifeline unavailable to Ukrainian POWs, whose families have gone without hearing their voices. Now, Ukrainian families of POWs are demanding an end to the calls to Russia. They’re appealing a decision to block a petition that got more than 25,000 signatures. The families’ anger and the petition rejection come amid widespread reports of systematic mistreatment of Ukrainians in Russian captivity. Ukraine has regularly opened its main POW camp to the Red Cross, the U.N. and journalists. The Associated Press recently visited the western Ukraine site. It’s a full day’s journey from the front lines. The visit took place on condition its location not be revealed.

Forced to rebuild a life at 12, a Haitian girl joins thousands seeking an escape from gang violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — With thousands of people in Haiti driven from their homes by gang violence, some children find distraction from their harsh lives in arts classes. One girl, 12-year-old Juliana St. Vil, takes an acting class that is the highlight of her day. Her father was killed in gang violence, and her family was driven from their home. Now she sleeps on the floor of a shelter with her mother and sisters. She is among millions of Haitians living in fear as they try to rebuild their lives.

Military labs do the detective work to identify soldiers decades after they died in World War II

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AP) — Generations of American families have grown up not knowing exactly what happened to their loved ones who died while serving their country in World War II and other conflicts. But a federal lab tucked away above the bowling alley at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha and a sister lab in Hawaii are steadily answering those lingering questions. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency experts strive to offer about 200 families annually the chance to honor their relatives with a proper burial. Advances in DNA technology, combined with innovative techniques including comparing bones to chest X-rays taken by the military, mean the labs can identify more of the missing soldiers every year.