Families in Gaza search desperately for food and water, wait in long lines for aid
MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Stranded in a corner of southern Gaza, members of the Abu Jarad family are clinging to a strict survival routine. They fled their comfortable three-bedroom home in northern Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly three months ago. The 10-person family now squeezes into a 16-square meter (172-square foot) tent on a garbage-strewn sandy plot, part of a sprawling encampment of displaced Palestinians. Every family member is assigned daily tasks, from collecting twigs to build a fire for cooking, to scouring the city’s markets for vegetables. But their best efforts can’t mask their desperation. At night “dogs are hovering over the tents,” said Awatif Abu Jarad, an older member of the family.
Blinken heads to the Mideast again as fears of regional conflict surge
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Biden administration grapples with an increasingly tense and unstable situation in the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the region this weekend for the fourth time in three months on a tour expected to focus largely on easing resurgent fears that the Israel-Hamas war could erupt into a broader conflict. With international criticism of Israel’s operations in Gaza mounting, growing U.S. concerns about the end game, and more immediate worries about a recent explosion in attacks in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, Blinken will have a packed and difficult agenda. He leaves just days after a suspected Israeli attack killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut and, while a White House spokesman said “nobody should be shedding a tear” over his death, it could further complicate Blinken’s mission.
Israeli defense minister lays out vision for next steps of Gaza war ahead of Blinken visit
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s defense minister on Thursday laid out his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza, describing how Israeli forces would shift to an apparently scaled-down “ new combat approach” in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory “for as long as necessary.” Ahead of a visit by the U.S. secretary of state, Yoav Gallant also outlined a proposal for how Gaza would be run once Hamas is defeated, with Israel keeping security control while an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body runs day-to-day administration, and the U.S. and other countries oversee rebuilding.
Teen kills 6th grader, wounds 5 others and takes own life in Iowa high school shooting, police say
PERRY, Iowa (AP) — A teen armed with a shotgun and a handgun unleashed terror at an Iowa high school on the first day of classes in the new year, authorities said, killing a sixth grader and wounding five others as people hunkered down in classrooms, barricaded offices and fled the barrage of bullets. The suspect, a 17-year-old student at the school in Perry, died of what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said. An administrator, later identified by his alma mater as Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, was among the five wounded Thursday as students returned from winter break.
Capitol riot, 3 years later: Hundreds of convictions, yet 1 major mystery is unsolved
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines. They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV. Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over. “We can not replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S.
Nikki Haley draws more attacks from Republican rivals after a televised town hall in Iowa
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nikki Haley’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination are ratcheting up their attacks on her as Iowa’s first-in-the-nation voting draws closer. The barbed news releases, attack ads and amped up back-and-forth come as the former South Carolina governor and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis battle for a distant second place to former President Donald Trump with less than two weeks until Iowa’s leadoff caucuses. DeSantis and Haley each appeared on CNN Thursday night for separate town halls in Iowa. For months, Trump has trained his focus on DeSantis, who has long argued that he’s the party’s best chance at unseating Trump from atop the field.
Iran mourns those slain in Islamic State-claimed suicide blasts as death toll rises to 89
KERMAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Friday mourned those slain in an Islamic State group-claimed suicide bombing targeting a commemoration for a general slain in a U.S. drone strike in 2020, as the death toll in the attack rose to at least 89. Despite the militants claiming responsibility for the attack, the wider tensions shaking the Middle East during Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip became intertwined with the funeral in the usually peaceful city of Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran. The top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard linked the attack to the U.S.
Survivors are found in homes smashed by Japan quake that killed 94 people. Dozens are still missing
WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A woman was pulled carefully from the rubble 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan’s western coast. Despite rescue efforts, the death toll Friday grew to at least 94 people, and the number of missing was lowered to 222 after it shot up the previous day. An older man was found alive Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture. His daughter called out, “Dad, dad,” as a flock of firefighters got him out on a stretcher, praising him for holding on for so long after Monday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is freed on parole after serving 9 years in girlfriend’s death
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole after serving nearly nine years in prison for killing his girlfriend and is now at home, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said Friday. The department gave no more details of Pistorius’ release. The announcement came at around 8:30 a.m., indicating corrections officials had released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner from the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in the South African capital, Pretoria, in the early hours. Pistorius has served nearly nine years of his 13 years and five months murder sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Court records bring new, unwanted attention to rich and famous in Jeffrey Epstein’s social circle
NEW YORK (AP) — Before and after he was exposed as a pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein loved to mingle with the world’s elite. The millionaire invited politicians and academics to his private island and luxury homes. He offered celebrities rides on his private jet. He and his girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, hung out with princes and supermodels. They made donations that brought them into contact with leading philanthropists. After Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, many of those people have apologized for associating with him and said they were unaware he was habitually abusing underage girls.
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