US sees signs of progress on deal to release hostages, bring temporary pause to Israel-Hamas war

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. negotiators are making progress on a potential agreement under which Israel would pause military operations against Hamas in Gaza for two months in exchange for the release of more than 100 hostages who were captured in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to two senior administration officials.

The officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said Saturday that emerging terms of the yet-to-be sealed deal would play out over two phases.

In the first phase, fighting would stop to allow for the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages to be released by Hamas.

Israel and Hamas would then aim to work out details during the first 30 days of the pause for a second phase in which Israeli soldiers and civilian men would be released. The emerging deal also calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

While the proposed deal would not end the war, U.S. officials are hopeful that such an agreement could lay the groundwork for a durable resolution to the conflict.

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Embattled UN agency warns its aid operation in Gaza is 'collapsing' over a wave of funding cuts

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The head of the main U.N. aid agency in the war-battered Gaza Strip warned late Saturday that its work is collapsing after nine countries decided to cut funding over allegations that several agency employees had participated in the deadly Hamas attack against Israel four months ago.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said he was shocked such decisions were taken as “famine looms” in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. “Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment,” he wrote on X. “This stains all of us.”

His warning came a day after he announced he had fired and was investigating several agency employees over allegations that they participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. The United States, which said 12 agency employees were under investigation, immediately said it is suspending funding, followed by several other countries, including Britain, Italy and Finland.

The agency, which has 13,000 employees in Gaza, most of them Palestinians, is the main organization aiding Gaza’s population amid the humanitarian disaster. More than 2 million of the territory's 2.3 million people depend on it for “sheer survival,” including food and shelter, Lazzarini said, warning this lifeline can “collapse any time now.”

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, destroyed vast swaths of Gaza and displaced nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people. The Hamas attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 hostages were taken.

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How Taiwan beat back disinformation and preserved the integrity of its election

WASHINGTON (AP) — The rumors about vote fraud started swirling as the ballots in Taiwan’s closely watched presidential election were tallied on Jan. 13. There were baseless claims that people had fabricated votes and that officials had miscounted and skewed the results.

In a widely shared video, a woman recording votes mistakenly enters one in the column for the wrong candidate. The message was clear: The election could not be trusted. The results were faked.

It could have been Taiwan's Jan. 6 moment. But it wasn't.

Worries that China would use disinformation to undermine the integrity of Taiwan's vote dogged the recent election, a key moment in the young democracy's development that highlighted tensions with its much larger neighbor.

In repelling disinformation, Chinese and domestic, Taiwan offers an example to other democracies holding elections this year.

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Community health centers serve 1 in 11 Americans. They're a safety net under stress

Elisa Reyes has come to Plaza del Sol Family Health Center for doctor’s appointments for more than a decade. Though she moved away a while ago, the 33-year-old keeps returning, even if it means a two-hour roundtrip bus ride.

That’s because her two children see the same doctor she does. Because when she’s sick, she can walk in without an appointment. Because the staff at the Queens clinic helped her apply for health insurance and food stamps.

“I feel at home. They also speak my language,” Reyes said in Spanish. “I feel comfortable.”

Plaza del Sol is one of two dozen sites run by Urban Health Plan Inc., which is one of nearly 1,400 federally designated community health centers. One in 11 Americans rely on these to get routine medical care, social services and, in some cases, fresh food.

The clinics serve as a critical safety net in every state and U.S. territory for low-income people of all ages. But it’s a safety net under stress.

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What happened at the nation's first nitrogen gas execution: An AP eyewitness account

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — As witnesses including five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the nation's first execution using nitrogen gas.

Critics who had worried the new execution method would be cruel and experimental said Smith’s final moments Thursday night proved they were right. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, however, characterized it on Friday as a “textbook” execution.

Here is an eyewitness account of how it unfolded. Times, unless otherwise noted, are according to a clock on the execution chamber wall at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.

MASK CHECK

The curtains between the viewing room and the execution chamber opened at 7:53 p.m. Smith, wearing a tan prison uniform, was already strapped to the gurney and draped in a white sheet.

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Crew extinguish fire on tanker hit by Houthi missile off Yemen after US targets rebels in airstrike

JERUSALEM (AP) — The crew aboard a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker hit by a missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels extinguished an hourslong fire onboard the stricken vessel Saturday sparked by the strike, authorities said.

The attack on the Marlin Luanda further complicated the Red Sea crisis caused by the Iranian-backed rebels' attacks over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The tanker carried Russian-produced naphtha, a flammable oil, drawing Moscow further into a conflict that so far it had blamed on the U.S.

Early Saturday, U.S. forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed at the Red Sea and prepared to launch, the U.S. military’s Central Command said. That attack came after the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, had to shoot down a Houthi missile targeting it.

The Marlin Luanda burned for hours in the Gulf of Aden until being extinguished Saturday, said Trafigura, a Singapore-based trading firm. Its crew of 25 Indian nationals and two Sri Lankans were still trying to battle the blaze sparked by the missile strike, it said. No one was injured by the blast, it added.

“We are pleased to confirm that all crew on board the Marlin Luanda are safe and the fire in the cargo tank has been fully extinguished,” Trafigura said. “The vessel is now sailing towards a safe harbor.”

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Donald Trump is on the hook for $88.3 million in defamation damages. What happens next?

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, Donald Trump hurled insults at E. Jean Carroll, saying the advice columnist fabricated a sexual assault allegation against him to sell a book.

Will Trump keep that up, now that he's been hit with a $83.3 million defamation judgment?

A jury on Friday found that Trump had maliciously damaged Carroll's reputation in 2019 after she went public with her accusations. Jurors awarded her $18 million to compensate for the personal harm she experienced, then added $65 million more to punish Trump — and maybe prevent him from continuing to go after her on social media.

A different jury concluded last May that Trump was responsible for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996. Those jurors awarded Carroll $5 million. If both judgments stand, Trump would owe her a total of $88.3 million.

Trump and his lawyers have promised to appeal.

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Mexico confirms some Mayan ruin sites are unreachable because of gang violence and land conflicts

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government has acknowledged that at least two well-known Mayan ruin sites are unreachable by visitors because of a toxic mix of cartel violence and land disputes.

But two tourist guides in the southern state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, say two other sites that the government claims are still open to visitors can only be reached by passing though drug gang checkpoints.

The explosion of drug cartel violence in Chiapas since last year has left the Yaxchilán ruin site completely cut off, the government conceded Friday.

The tour guides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they must still work in the area, said that gunmen and checkpoints are often seen on the road to another site, Bonampak, famous for its murals.

They say that to get to yet another archaeological site, Lagartero, travelers are forced to hand over identification and cellphones at cartel checkpoints.

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Mystery deaths of 3 Chiefs fans fuels speculation but police say there's still no sign of foul play

It has been three weeks since three Kansas City fans joined friends to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers in the final game of the regular season. Their bodies were found in a friend's backyard two days later. Police still haven't said how the men died, but affirmed Saturday amid intense public speculation that they still have no evidence of foul play.

It’s common for police to decline to comment much on an investigation before it’s complete. So here's a look at what's known and not known in a mystery that has gained widespread attention on social media and the internet despite — or perhaps because of — the lack of solid information.

Police accounts say Ricky Johnson, 38; Clayton McGeeney, 36; and David Harrington, 37; went to the home of a friend in Kansas City, Missouri, to watch the Chiefs game Jan. 7. None of them made it home. Two nights later, McGeeney's fiancé went to the home looking for him.

“When there was no answer at the door, she broke into the basement of the residence and located an unknown dead body on the back porch. Officers responded to the back porch and confirmed there was a dead body. Upon further investigation, officers located two other dead bodies in the back yard,” an initial police report on the incident said. “There were no obvious signs of foul play observed at or near the crime scene.”

Police say there are still no signs that any crime was committed.

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Jokic, Nuggets fend off gritty 76ers 111-105 as Embiid sits out for 4th consecutive time in Denver

DENVER (AP) — This matinee was no marquee, not with one of its co-stars missing again.

The Denver Nuggets fended off the gritty, short-handed Philadelphia 76ers 111-105 on Saturday behind 26 points and 16 rebounds from Nikole Jokic, who was again denied his rematch with fellow MVP contender Joel Embiid.

Philadelphia's star center missed the Sixers’ game at Denver for a fourth consecutive season after the team’s medical staff determined he shouldn’t play on his balky left knee.

Denying hoops fans another marquee matchup between the last two NBA MVPs, the Sixers scratched Embiid minutes before tipoff after he grimaced through his warmups.

“He really wanted to play, and the medical team did not deem him fit to play today,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “That's too bad for those fans. That's too bad.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2024