Russia hammers Kyiv in largest missile and drone barrage since war in Ukraine began

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Waves of drone and missile attacks targeted Kyiv overnight into Friday in the largest aerial assault since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began more than three years ago, officials said, amid a renewed Russian push to capture more of its neighbor's land.

The barrage injured at least 23 people and inflicted severe damage across multiple districts of the capital in a seven-hour onslaught. Blasts lit up the night sky and echoed across the city as air raid sirens wailed. The blue lights of emergency vehicles reflected off high-rise buildings, and debris blocked city streets.

“It was a harsh, sleepless night,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities. Less than a week ago Russia launched what was then the largest aerial assault of the war. That strategy has coincided with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure.

Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine during the night, the country’s air force said. The majority were Shahed drones, but Russia also launched 11 missiles in the attack.

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The House gives final approval to Trump's big tax bill in a milestone for his second-term agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump’s big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final passage Thursday in Congress, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline.

The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting for more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill.

Trump celebrated his political victory in Iowa, where he attended the kickoff for a year of events marking the country's upcoming 250th anniversary.

“I want to thank Republican congressmen and women, because what they did is incredible,” he said. The president complained that Democrats voted against the bill because “they hate Trump — but I hate them too.”

Trump said he plans to sign the legislation on Friday at the White House.

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What's in Trump's big bill that passed Congress and will soon become law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans muscled President Donald Trump's tax and spending cut bill through the House on Thursday, the final step necessary to get the bill to his desk by the GOP's self-imposed deadline of July 4th.

At nearly 900 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

Democrats united against the legislation, but were powerless to stop it as long as Republicans stayed united. The Senate passed the bill, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. The House passed an earlier iteration of the bill in May with just one vote to spare. It passed the final version 218-214.

Here's the latest on what's in the bill and when some of its provisions go into effect.

Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

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Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. arrested by ICE for deportation, federal officials say

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Famed Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has been arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application and will be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges, U.S. federal officials said Thursday.

The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California. The Department of Homeland Security said officials determined Chávez should be arrested on June 27, a day before the fight. It was unclear why they waited to act for days after the high-profile event.

The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City near Hollywood.

“The current allegations are outrageous and simply another headline to terrorize the community,” Goldstein said.

Many people across Southern California are on edge as immigration arrests have ramped up, prompting protests and the federal deployment of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to downtown Los Angeles.

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World shares are mostly down as Trump’s tariff deadline looms, while US stocks set records

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — World shares mostly fell on Friday even as U.S. stocks climbed further into record heights as the clock ticks on President Donald Trump’s July 9 tariff deadline.

In early trading in Europe, Germany's DAX shed 0.8% to 23,730.61, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.1% to 7,666.91. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.4% to 8,790.21. The futures for S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial average were both 0.5% lower.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 recovered early losses, gaining 0.1% to 39,810.88, while South Korea’s KOSPI index was fell 2% to 3,054.28.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.6% to 23,916.06 while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,472.32.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 8,603.00 while India's Sensex index shed 0.1% to 83,148.45.

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Trump kicks off a yearlong celebration of America's 250th anniversary in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump turned a heartland festival for the United States' upcoming 250th anniversary into a celebration of himself, basking in a crowd of supporters Thursday night shortly after Congress approved tax cut legislation that he championed.

On the eve of the July 4th holiday, Trump said “there could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago, when Congress passed the one big beautiful bill to make America great again.”

The Republican president plans to sign the legislation Friday during a picnic at the White House, while stealth bombers and fighter jets that participated in recent airstrikes in Iran fly overhead, a symbolic synthesis of the overwhelming force that he’s deployed to reshape Washington and the country.

“We’ve saved our country,” he boasted after taking the stage, pumping his fists while singer Lee Greenwood belted out Trump’s campaign trail anthem “God Bless the USA.” In addition to tax breaks, the legislation boosts funding for deportations while cutting back on healthcare and food assistance for low income people.

The event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines was the opening act for a yearlong birthday party to mark two and a half centuries of American independence. The plans will culminate next summer with a massive fair on the National Mall in Washington featuring exhibits from every state.

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Strikes kill 94 Palestinians in Gaza, including 45 people waiting for aid, authorities say

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza late Wednesday and Thursday, including 45 who were attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Families wept over the bodies from a strike that hit a tent camp during the night as displaced people slept in southern Gaza. At least 13 members of a single family were killed, including at least six children under 12.

“My children, my children … my beloved,” wailed Intisar Abu Assi, sobbing over the bodies of her son and daughters and their young children. Another woman kissed the forehead of a dead little girl wrapped in a blanket on the floor of the morgue at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.

In central Gaza, a boy stroked the face of his dead sister, 6-year-old Heba Abu Etiwi, in a morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital. The girl and another of her brothers were among eight people killed when a strike Wednesday evening hit near a stand selling falafel.

A separate strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people also killed 15 people.

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First immigration detainees arrive at Florida center in the Everglades

The first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.

“People are there,” Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he didn't immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.

“Next stop: back to where they came from,” Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday. He’s been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal.

“Stood up in record time under @GovRonDeSantis ’ leadership & in coordination with @DHSgov & @ICEgov, Florida is proud to help facilitate @realDonaldTrump ’s mission to enforce immigration law,” the account for the Florida Division of Emergency Management posted to the social media site X on Thursday. Requests for additional information from the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and FDEM, which is building the site, were not returned early Thursday afternoon.

The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.

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A strike by air traffic controllers is disrupting travel to, from and over France

PARIS (AP) — About 40% of flights were canceled Friday at all Paris airports and tens of thousands of passengers were rearranging plans at the height of the summer travel season because of a strike by French air traffic controllers seeking better working conditions.

Disruptions started hitting airports around France on Thursday and intensified Friday. The national civil aviation authority asked airlines to cancel 40% of flights Friday at Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports serving Paris, half of flights in Nice and 30% of flights in Marseille, Lyon and some other cities.

Despite the preventive cancelations, the authority warned in a statement that ?disruptions and long delays are to be expected at all French airports.”

Ryanair was among airlines that announced widespread disruptions, saying in a statement it canceled more than 400 flights affecting 70,000 passengers. The company said the strike affects all its flights over French airspace, as well as traffic in and out of French airports, and urged the European Union to reform air traffic rules.

One of the two unions leading the strike, UNSA-ICNA, said in a statement there are not enough employees to handle surging air travel and that inflation is eating away at salaries. The unions also are protesting new reform measures aiming to more tightly monitor their work, prompted by a near-collision at the Bordeaux airport.

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Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues

Some hospitals in the U.S. are without essential staff because international doctors who were set to start their medical training this week were delayed by the Trump administration's travel and visa restrictions.

It's unclear exactly how many foreign medical residents were unable to start their assignments, but six medical residents interviewed by The Associated Press say they’ve undergone years of training and work only to be stopped at the finish line by what is usually a procedural step.

“I don’t want to give up,” said a permanent Canadian resident who matched to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Harrisburg but had her visa denied because she is a citizen of Afghanistan. She requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “But the situation also seems so helpless.”

Initially, the medical community was worried that hundreds of positions — many in hospitals in low-income or rural areas of the U.S. — could be affected. The pause on interviews for J-1 visas for approved work or study-related programs was lifted in mid-June.

The national nonprofit that facilitates the residency match process said the visa situation is resolving, but it will take weeks to know with confidence how many medical residents have had the start of their careers derailed because they got their visa too late or were blocked by President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries, according to people who coordinate the residents’ training.

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