Sinwar's killing opens up opportunity and much uncertainty for the war in Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and the mastermind of the group’s Oct. 7 attack, is a dramatic turning point in the brutal yearlong war that it touched off.

Sinwar’s killing on Thursday decapitates the Palestinian militant group that has already been reeling from months of assassinations up and down its ranks. And it is a potent symbolic achievement for Israel in its battle to destroy Hamas.

The killing, coming just 10 days after Israelis and Palestinians marked a year since the deadliest fighting in their decades-old conflict erupted, could set the stage for how the remainder of the war plays out, or even prompt its conclusion — depending on how Israel and Hamas choose to proceed.

Sinwar, who was appointed head of Hamas after its previous leader was killed in a blast in July blamed on Israel, spent years building up Hamas’ military strength and is believed to have devised the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. After that assault, when Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted about 250 others, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas and kill each one of its leaders.

With Sinwar at the top of that wanted list, his death is a major achievement for Israel. Analysts say Sinwar’s killing has presented Israel, which has struggled to articulate an exit strategy from Gaza, with an off-ramp to end the war.

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Israel says it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel’s most-wanted man.

Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an attack that stunned the country. They also presented it as a turning point in the campaign to destroy Hamas, urging the group to surrender and release some 100 hostages still in Gaza.

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the start of the day after Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

U.S. officials expressed hopes for a cease-fire with Sinwar out of the picture. But eliminating him may not end the devastating war, during which Israel has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.

Sinwar's death is a crippling blow to Hamas, but the group, which receives support from Iran, has proven resilient to past losses of leaders. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of Sinwar’s death.

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Texas Supreme Court halts execution of man in shaken baby case after lawmakers' last-minute appeal

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court halted Thursday night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

Supporters of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, turned to the Texas high court, which normally does not get involved in criminal cases, after both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, earlier in the day rejected appeals to halt his lethal injection.

Robertson’s supporters include a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who say Roberson is innocent and was convicted on faulty scientific evidence.

Hours after the original execution time of 6 p.m. local time had passed in Texas, Roberson had remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from the death chamber at the Walls Unit in Hunstville.

Gov. Greg Abbott had authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor and has not spoken publicly about the case.

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Harris campaign features less talk of joy and more head-on digs at Trump as Election Day nears

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Joy Olson proudly wore a “Make America Joyful Again” button Thursday as she waited in line to attend a Kamala Harris rally. But that doesn’t mean the 70-year-old retiree with the happiest of names wants the Democratic nominee to shy away from taking the heat to Republican Donald Trump.

“I’m tired of her being so nice sometimes,” said Olson, who called Trump “evil and scary.” She added: “I hope she calls him out.”

That’s exactly what the vice president is doing as the campaign enters its final days.

Less than three weeks from Election Day, Harris is closing out her campaign painting a dark vision of the country if Trump is sent back to the White House, including airing video clips at her own rallies of the Republican nominee’s more alarming rhetoric.

“Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged and will stop at nothing to claim unchecked power for himself,” Harris said Thursday in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

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Trump attends Al Smith charity dinner with his wife, Melania, while Harris appears virtually

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is trading the rally stage for comedy Thursday night as he headlines the annual Al Smith charity dinner, where he was jeered eight years ago while delivering an especially pointed speech.

Vice President Kamala Harris skipped attending the event in person as she campaigned in Wisconsin, breaking with presidential tradition. But she will appear onscreen in a recorded video, organizers said.

The white tie dinner in New York raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally offered candidates from both parties the chance to trade light-hearted barbs, poke fun at themselves, and show that they can get along — or at least pretend to — for one night in the election's final stretch.

It's often the last time the two nominees share a stage before Election Day.

Trump is being joined at the dinner by his wife, Melania, who has been an infrequent presence on the campaign trail.

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Republicans appeal a Georgia judge’s ruling that invalidates seven election rules

ATLANTA (AP) — National and state Republicans on Thursday appealed a judge's ruling that said seven election rules recently passed by Georgia's State Election Board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

The Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party are appealing a ruling from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox, who ruled Wednesday that the State Election Board did not have the authority to pass the rules and ordered it to immediately inform all state and local election officials that the rules are void and not to be followed.

The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention — one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.

In a statement Thursday announcing the appeal. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley accused Cox of “the very worst of judicial activism.”

“By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s commonsense rules passed to safeguard Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with the Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability, and the integrity of our elections,” Whatley said. "We have immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure commonsense rules are in place for the election — we will not let this stand.”

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Texas sues doctor and accuses her of violating ban on gender-affirming care

DALLAS (AP) — Texas has sued a Dallas doctor over accusations of providing gender-affirming care to youths, marking one of the first times a state has sought to enforce recent bans driven by Republicans.

The lawsuit announced by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday alleges that Dr. May Lau, a physician in the Dallas area, provided hormones to over 20 minors in violation of a Texas ban that took effect last year.

It is the first time Texas has tried to enforce the law, said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. He also said he was not aware of other states that have tried to enforce similar bans.

“Today, enforcement begins against those who have violated the law,” Paxton's office said in the lawsuit, which was filed in suburban Collin County.

The Texas law prevents transgender people under 18 from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries, though surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.

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One Direction were the internet's first boy band, and Liam Payne its grounding force

Liam Payne's voice is the first one heard in the culture-shifting boy band One Direction's debut single: “What Makes You Beautiful” launches into a bouncy guitar riff, a cheeky and borderline gratuitous cowbell and then, Payne.

“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / You’re turning heads when you walk through the door,” he sings, in a few words assuring a cross-section of generations that he's got your back, girl, and you should like yourself a little bit more.

Payne, who died Wednesday after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at just 31, was also the last solo voice on the band's final single, “History” — effectively opening and closing the monolithic run of one of the biggest boy bands of all time.

While the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear — Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” although they didn't offer details on how they established that or whether it was intentional — in life, Payne was a critical part of the internet's first boy band, one that secured an indelible place in the hearts of millennial and Gen Z fans.

Before One Direction became One Direction, its members auditioned for the U.K.'s “The X Factor” separately. The judges decided to put five promising, but not yet excellent, boys into a group. They were Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Payne, who together finished third in the 2010 competition.

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Scientists show how sperm and egg come together like a key in a lock

How a sperm and an egg fuse together has long been a mystery.

New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.

“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.

The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.

Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.

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King Charles III's visit rekindles Australia's debate on ending ties to the British monarchy

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — King Charles III and Queen Camilla will arrive in Sydney on Friday for the first Australian visit by a reigning monarch in more than a decade, a trip that has rekindled debate about the nation’s constitutional links to Britain.

The Sydney Opera House's iconic sails will be illuminated with images of previous royal visits to welcome the couple, whose six-day trip will be brief by royal standards. Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which led to the scaled-down itinerary.

He is only the second reigning British monarch to visit Australia. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, became the first 70 years ago.

While the welcome will be warm, Australia's national and state leaders want the royals removed from their constitution.

Monarchists expect the visit will strengthen Australians' connection to their sovereign. Opponents hope for a rejection of the concept that someone from the other side of the world is Australia's head of state.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024