Israeli strikes hit Rafah after Biden warns Netanyahu to have 'credible' plan to protect civilians
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A series of Israeli strikes early Monday hit Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the four-month Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has been signaling its ground offensive in Gaza may soon target the densely populated city on the Egyptian border. On Sunday, the White House said President Joe Biden had warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel should not conduct a military operation against Hamas in Rafah without a “credible and executable” plan to protect civilians.
The strikes hit around Kuwait Hospital early Monday morning, an Associated Press journalist in Rafah said. Some of those wounded in the strikes had been brought to the hospital.
The Israeli military said it struck “terror targets in the area of Shaboura” — which is a district in Rafah. The military statement said the series of strikes had concluded, without elaborating on the targets or assessing the potential damage or casualties.
Palestinian health officials did not immediately offer any casualty information.
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Super Bowl Live Updates | Usher rocks Vegas with help from Lil Jon, Ludacris
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Live updates from the Super Bowl in Las Vegas:
A steady stream of stars joined Usher during his 13-minute halftime show. H.E.R. took the field with a guitar solo, and he made a costume change into a purple and black sparkling suit with roller skates, which he used to glide in circles around the stage.
Lil Jon joined, starting with a rousing snippet of his “Turn Down for What” before Usher’s biggest, hit, “Yeah,” began blaring on the stadium speakers.
Lil Jon and Ludacris – with shoulder pads and big afro – recreated their roles on Usher’s 2004 recording of the song from the midfield stage as the R&B star danced amid a bedazzled crowd to close the show.
Alicia Keys joined Usher as a surprise guest during his halftime show, singing her “If I Ain’t Got You” while standing at a midfield piano that looked like a red hunk of abstract sculpture.
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Allies fear the US is becoming less reliable, with growing concern over a possible Trump return
LONDON (AP) — As chances rise of a Joe Biden-Donald Trump rematch in the U.S. presidential election, America’s allies are bracing for a bumpy ride.
Many worry that a second term for Trump would be an earthquake, but tremors already abound — and concerns are rising that the U.S. could grow less dependable regardless of who wins. With a divided electorate and gridlock in Congress, the next American president could easily become consumed by manifold challenges at home — before even beginning to address flashpoints around the world, from Ukraine to the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent verdict was blunt: America’s “first priority is itself.”
The first Trump administration stress-tested the bonds between the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Europe. Trump derided the leaders of some friendly nations, including Germany’s Angela Merkel and Britain’s Theresa May, while praising authoritarians such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He has called China’s Xi Jinping “brilliant” and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán “a great leader.”
In campaign speeches, Trump remains skeptical of organizations such as NATO, often lamenting the billions the U.S. spends on the military alliance whose support has been critical to Ukraine’s fight against Russia's invasion.
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Woman firing long gun in Joel Osteen's church killed by 2 off-duty officers; young boy with her hurt
HOUSTON (AP) — A woman in a trenchcoat opened fire with a long gun inside celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Texas before being gunned down by two off-duty officers who confronted her, sending worshippers rushing from the building between busy Sunday services, authorities said.
The woman entered the Houston church with a 5-year-old boy shortly before 2 p.m. and the child was shot and critically injured. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said it was not clear whether the child was struck by the off-duty officers who returned fire. He said a 57-year-old man also was shot and wounded.
The child was in critical condition at a children's hospital, while the man was stable at a different hospital with a hip wound.
Finner said that after the woman began shooting, both officers “engaged” her and the woman was killed. He said that unfortunately “a 5-year-old kid was hit" although he released no immediate details on how the confrontation unfolded.
He praised the officers for quickly confronting the woman, adding, “She had a long gun, and it could have been a lot worse."
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Senators push forward with Ukraine aid package as their leaders say the world is watching
WASHINGTON (AP) — As former President Donald Trump and a growing number of Republicans oppose U.S. aid to Ukraine, the Senate's leaders argued in strong terms on Sunday that the money is crucial to pushing back against Russian President Vladimir Putin and maintaining America's global standing.
In the Capitol for a rare weekend session, the Senate voted again to move forward with the assistance as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky issued stark warnings about the consequences of abandoning longtime U.S. allies in Europe.
“Today it’s no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world are on the United States Senate,” McConnell said. “Our allies and partners are hoping that the indispensable nation, the leader of the free world, has the resolve to continue.”
Sunday's 67-27 vote to move forward on the $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other countries comes as former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is trying to kill the assistance and has escalated his attacks on the NATO military alliance.
Trump posted on his social media platform over the weekend that the U.S. should consider loaning Ukraine money, not giving it to them, saying that “The United States of America should be ‘stupid’ no longer!”
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NATO leader says Trump puts allies at risk by saying Russia can 'do whatever the hell they want’
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The head of the NATO military alliance warned Sunday that Donald Trump was putting the safety of U.S. troops and their allies at risk after the Republican presidential front-runner said Russia should be able to do "whatever the hell they want" to NATO members who don't meet their defense spending targets.
“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Speaking Saturday at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Trump recalled how as president he told an unidentified NATO member that he would “encourage” Russia to do as it wishes in cases of NATO allies who are “delinquent.”
“‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying. “‘No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
Trump’s remarks caused deep concern in Poland, which was under Russian control in past centuries, and where anxieties are high over the war Russia is waging just across the Polish border in Ukraine.
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Defense Secretary Austin hospitalized with bladder issue, transfers powers to his deputy
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized again Sunday to address a bladder issue as he continues to recover from prostate cancer and has transferred authorities to his deputy, the Pentagon said.
Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December and continues to deal with complications from his treatment.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, he was transported by his security detail to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center "to be seen for symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue," Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
While Austin initially intended to retain the "functions and duties of his office,” at about 5 p.m. Sunday he transferred those authorities to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. As of Sunday evening, he remained hospitalized, Ryder said.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was notified, as well as the White House and Congress.
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First lady questions whether special counsel referenced son's death to score political points
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — First lady Jill Biden said in an email to campaign donors that she didn't know what the special counsel was trying to achieve when he suggested President Joe Biden could not remember when his son Beau died.
”We should give everyone grace, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points," she wrote in the email Saturday. "If you’ve experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years -- you measure it in grief."
It was an emphatic defense of her husband in a note to supporters as Biden's team worked to alleviate Democratic concerns over the alarms raised by a special counsel about Biden’s age and memory, in a report determining that Biden would not be charged with any criminal activity for possessing classified documents after he left office.
Biden campaign officials said Sunday that Jill Biden's message was the best-performing email since the president's initial email launching his campaign on April 25, though they would not say how much money had been raised because of it.
Special counsel Robert Hur found the president should not face charges for retaining the documents, and described as a hypothetical defense that the 81-year-old president could show his memory was “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations," and added that during an interview with investigators that Biden couldn't recall ”even within years" when his oldest son Beau had died.
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Russia launches barrage of 45 drones over Ukraine as Kyiv changes more military leaders
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched 45 drones over Ukraine in a five-and-a-half-hour barrage Sunday, officials said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued the reshuffle of his war cabinet as the war enters its third year.
In a statement, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 40 of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over nine different regions, including on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Kyiv.
The attack targeted agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, officials for Ukraine’s southern defense forces wrote on Telegram. They said that a strike in the Mykolaiv region had injured one person, sparking a fire and damaging residential buildings.
Another person was injured in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region when a blaze broke out due to falling debris from a destroyed drone, said the head of the region’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak.
Border police in Moldova also said Sunday that fragments of a “Shahed-type drone” were found near the southern town of Etulia close to the border with Ukraine, but that the debris posed no danger to communities nearby.
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This small New York village made guns for 200 years. What happens when Remington leaves?
ILION, N.Y. (AP) — Remington began here two centuries ago and generations of workers have turned out rifles and shotguns at the massive firearms factory in the middle of this blue-collar village in the heart of New York’s Mohawk Valley.
Now residents of Ilion are bracing for Remington’s exit, ending an era that began when Eliphalet Remington forged his first rifle barrel nearby in 1816.
The nation’s oldest gun-maker recently announced plans to shutter the factory in the company's original home early next month, citing the steep cost of running the historic plant. Remington is consolidating its operations in Georgia, a state the company says is friendlier to the firearms industry.
The company’s recent history has been marked by a lawsuit after the Sandy Hook school massacre and bankruptcy filings that led to new ownership of the Ilion plant, where the workforce has dwindled from about 1,300 workers more than a decade ago to around 300.
But the move still stings for the village of 7,600 people, who face the prospect of a dramatic revenue loss and a vacant, sprawling factory.
The Associated Press
