By JULIA FRANKEL, NAJIB JOBAIN and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — A member of Israel’s War Cabinet cast doubt on the country’s strategy for releasing hostages held by Hamas, saying only a cease-fire can free them, as the prime minister rejected the United States’ calls to scale back its offensive. The comments by
Continue ReadingMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek will play a night match for the first time at this year’s Australian Open on Saturday when she meets Linda Noskova for a place in the round of 16. Swiatek rallied from 4-1 down in the deciding set against Danielle Collins in the previous round and is trying
Continue ReadingBy Michael Williams, Camila DeChalus and Nikki Carvajal, CNN Washington (CNN) — Several Texas mayors say they are fed up with the hyperpolarization over immigration as tensions between President Joe Biden and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continue to escalate and the border becomes an intractable political issue for both men. Texas leaders attending the United States
Continue ReadingBy JAYAMPATHI PALIPANE Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan authorities say they have arrested tens of thousands of people in a monthlong crackdown on drugs and are vowing to continue despite U.N. criticism of possible human rights violations during the “heavy-handed” operation. Acting police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon told The Associated Press on
Continue ReadingJERUSALEM (AP) — A member of Israel’s War Cabinet has confirmed reports that early in the war against Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli preemptive strike against Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia was called off at the last minute. Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, says he was among those arguing against such a strike in what he
Continue ReadingBy The Associated Press A Russian official says a Ukrainian drone has struck an oil storage depot in western Russia, causing a massive blaze. It is the latest incident in Ukrainian forces’ apparently extended campaign of attacks on Russian soil ahead of the war’s two-year anniversary. Russian officials and news reports said four oil reservoirs
Continue ReadingBy FOSTER KLUG Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan hopes to make the world’s first “pinpoint landing” on the moon, joining a modern push for lunar contact with roots in the Cold War-era space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than an hour after the spacecraft reached the moon, Japan’s space
Continue ReadingBy Maxime Tamsett, CNN (CNN) — Spelman College, a private women’s college in Atlanta, will receive a $100 million gift, which the school says is the largest single donation to a historically Black college or university. The donation comes from longtime Spelman trustee Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, the chairman of the wealth
Continue ReadingBy ZIMO ZHONG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — World markets mostly advanced Friday after Wall Street recouped most of the week’s earlier losses and Japan reported slowing inflation, which may keep its ultra-low interest rates steady. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher and the S&P 500 was up 0.2%. France’s
Continue ReadingBy Harmeet Kaur, CNN (CNN) — Early on Christmas Day in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, Motaz Azaiza shared a terrifying update on X. A quadcopter was flying low above the door of his house, he said, and he feared he was about to be targeted in an Israeli airstrike. As a highly
Continue ReadingDAVAO, Philippines (AP) — A landslide set off by days of heavy rain buried a house where people were holding Christian prayers in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 people, including five children, officials said Friday. Two people were injured, and at least one more villager remained unaccounted for following the landslide in a
Continue ReadingANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s leading soccer club Basaksehir says it’s ended its contract with Israeli player Eden Karzev following a disciplinary probe of his social media post calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza by the Hamas militant group. Thursday’s announcement comes days after another Israeli player, Sagiv Jehezkel, was briefly detained
Continue ReadingBy YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A mother’s love and a yearning for peace flowed from Japanese Empress Masako’s poem, read Friday at an annual celebration of poetry at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The poem sings of how Masako was touched by what her daughter, Princess Aiko, wrote after her school trip
Continue ReadingBy MEAD GRUVER Associated Press WHEATLAND, Wyo. (AP) — Oliver Baez spent two months rehearsing a scene for a school play in which his character confronts another student about bullying a gay student who takes his own life. After much preparation, the 12-year-old’s small scene turned into a big problem among school officials in Wheatland,
Continue ReadingBy Sarah Dewberry, CNN (CNN) — An American Airlines flight attendant faces federal child pornography charges as he is accused of trying to secretly film a 14-year-old girl in an airplane bathroom and having videos of other young girls using lavatories aboard the planes he worked on, prosecutors said. Estes Carter Thompson III was arrested
Continue ReadingBy GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — Seven Republicans vying for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Nevada circled the familiar talking points of GOP politics at a debate on Thursday, while also taking shots at the front-runner, who made an apparently strategic decision not to attend. The debate in a
Continue ReadingSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Marcus Williams hit four 3-pointers and scored 24, Jonathan Mogbo had 23 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth straight double-double and San Francisco cruised to a 90-76 victory over Loyola Marymount on Thursday night. Williams made 10 of 16 shots and missed just once from 3-point range for the Dons
Continue ReadingBRUSSELS (AP) — NATO will launch its biggest military exercises in decades next week with around 90,000 personnel set to take part in months of drills aimed at showing the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia, top officers said Thursday. The exercises come as Russia’s war on Ukraine
Continue ReadingPANAMA CITY (AP) — A severe drought that began last year has forced authorities to slash ship crossings by 36% in the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important trade routes. The new cuts announced Wednesday by authorities in Panama are set to deal an even greater economic blow than previously expected. Canal administrators
Continue ReadingSTANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Freshman Myles Rice finished with a season-high 35 points, Isaac Jones scored 24 and Washington State won for a third straight time at Maples Pavilion, dispatching Stanford with a wire-to-wire 89-75 victory on Thursday night. Rice buried 15 of 24 shots, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range, setting the freshman
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