Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds more prisoners hours after a massive attack on Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds more prisoners Saturday as part of a major swap that amounted to a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire.

The exchange came hours after Kyiv came under a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack that left at least 15 people injured, and authorities in Ukraine said the capital again came under a combined aerial drone and missile attack early Sunday, injuring 11. The attack is still going on.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s defense ministry said each side brought home 307 more soldiers on Saturday, a day after each released a total of 390 combatants and civilians. Further releases expected over the weekend are set to make the swap the largest in more than three years of war.

“We expect more to come tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel. Russia's defense ministry also said it expected the exchange to be continued, though it did not give details.

Hours earlier, explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard throughout Kyiv as many sought shelter in subway stations as Russian drones and missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital overnight.

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Trump's speech to West Point graduates mixes praise, politics and grievances

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump used the first service academy commencement address of his second term Saturday to laud graduating West Point cadets for their accomplishments and career choice while also veering sharply into a campaign-style recitation of political boasts and long-held grievances.

“In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history,” Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. “And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”

Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, the Republican president told the 1,002 members of the class of 2025 at the U.S. Military Academy that the United States is the “hottest country in the world” and underscored an “America First” ethos for the military.

“We’re getting rid of distractions and we’re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,” Trump said. He later said that “the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,” a reference to drag shows on military bases that Democratic President Joe Biden's administration halted after Republican criticism.

Trump said the cadets were graduating at a “defining moment” in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into “nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.” He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, “critical race theory” and types of training he called divisive and political.

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9 of a doctor's 10 children are killed in Israel's latest strikes in Gaza

CAIRO (AP) — The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza 's Health Ministry said Saturday, a toll that doesn't include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.

Nine of a doctor's 10 children were among those killed in Israel’s renewed military offensive, colleagues and the Health Ministry said.

Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family's house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatric department, told The Associated Press.

Najjar's husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday's strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.

The dead children ranged in age from 7 months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, told the AP that two of the children remained under the rubble.

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Cannes awards Palme d'Or to Iranian revenge drama 'It Was Just an Accident'

Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday for his revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident," handing the festival's top prize to a director who had been banned from leaving Iran for more than 15 years.

Cate Blanchett presented the award to Panahi, who three years ago was imprisoned in Iran before going on a hunger strike. For a decade and a half, he has made films clandestinely in his native country, including one film ("This Is Not a Film") made in his living room, and another ("Taxi") set in a car.

The crowd rose in a thunderous standing ovation for the filmmaker, who immediately threw up his arms and leaned back in his seat in disbelief before applauding his collaborators and the audience around him. On stage, Panahi was cheered by Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche, who in 2010 in Cannes held up Panahi's name to honor the director when he was under house arrest.

On stage, Panahi said what mattered most was freedom in his country.

“Let us join forces,” said Panahi. “No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do. The cinema is a society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing.”

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Arson suspected as power outage in southeast France disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival

CANNES, France (AP) — French authorities believe arson may have played a role in a power outage Saturday in southeast France that threatened to jeopardize the Cannes Film Festival’s closing celebrations, including the much-anticipated Palme d’Or ceremony.

Power was restored hours before the ceremony, around 3 p.m. local time, as music began blasting again from beachfront speakers. The end of the blackout was greeted with loud cheers from locals.

Authorities were investigating the likelihood of arson in a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes that weakened the grid overnight, a spokesperson for the French national gendarmerie said.

The power outage happened hours later, after a high-voltage line fell at another location. Authorities were investigating what caused that line to collapse.

About 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes area lost electricity.

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Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The only time the Palestinian man wasn't bound or blindfolded, he said, was when he was used by Israeli soldiers as their human shield.

Dressed in army fatigues with a camera fixed to his forehead, Ayman Abu Hamadan was forced into houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they were clear of bombs and gunmen, he said. When one unit finished with him, he was passed to the next.

“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we'll kill you,'" the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, describing the 2 1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in northern Gaza.

Orders often came from the top, and at times nearly every platoon used a Palestinian to clear locations, said an Israeli officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Several Palestinians and soldiers told the AP that Israeli troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. The dangerous practice has become ubiquitous during 19 months of war, they said.

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You should wear sunscreen even if you have darker skin. Here's why

NEW YORK (AP) — People with darker skin still need to wear sunscreen — for more reasons than one.

Too much ultraviolet exposure from the sun can lead to sunburn, dark spots and wrinkles, and increased risk of skin cancer.

The melanin in darker skin offers some extra protection from the sun, but dermatologists say that isn’t enough on its own.

"Everyone needs sunscreen. But the reasons that one might be reaching for sunscreen may differ depending on your skin tone,” said Dr. Jenna Lester, who founded the Skin of Color Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco.

White people are overall more likely to get skin cancer compared to Black and Hispanic people. But Black and Hispanic people are less likely to survive the most dangerous kind of skin cancer called melanoma, according to the American Cancer Society.

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A stabbing at Hamburg's central train station causes multiple injuries. A woman is arrested

BERLIN (AP) — A stabbing attack at the busy central train station in the German city of Hamburg left multiple people injured, some of them in life-threatening condition, authorities said. A woman was arrested as the suspect.

The attacker targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14 in the station at around 6 p.m., according to police. The station in downtown Hamburg, Germany’s second-biggest city, is a major hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.

Police said that "several” people had life-threatening injuries, but didn't give specific figures. Late Friday evening, Hamburg's fire service said that 17 people were hurt in total — four of them with life-threatening injuries, another six with serious injuries and seven with light injuries, German news agency dpa reported.

Police said a 39-year-old woman, a German national, was arrested at the scene without putting up resistance and that they believe after watching video footage that she acted alone. They secured the knife.

There was no immediate indication of any political motive, and investigators were looking into whether the suspect may have been mentally ill, police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth said.

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Music talent agent among dead after jet crashes into San Diego neighborhood

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.

With the home engulfed in flames and jet fuel rolling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles ignited while residents in the neighborhood of U.S. Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4 a.m. by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions. Out their windows, they saw a wall of fire.

“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window, police officer Anthony Carrasco said.

Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement. Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Hanson is perhaps best known for its earworm 1990s pop hit, “MMMBop.” Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.

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Ex-Minneapolis police chief recalls 'absolutely gut-wrenching' moment of seeing George Floyd video

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo vividly remembers receiving a call around midnight from a community activist. The caller told him to watch a video spreading on social media of a white officer pinning a Black man to the ground, despite his fading pleas of “I can't breathe.”

The dying man was George Floyd. The officer was Derek Chauvin. And Arradondo was the city's first Black police chief.

“It was absolutely gut-wrenching,” Arradondo, 58, recalled in an interview ahead of the fifth anniversary of Floyd's murder.

What he saw conflicted with what his own people had told him about the deadly encounter, and he knew immediately it would mean changes for his department and city. But he acknowledged he didn't immediately foresee how deeply Floyd's death would reverberate in the U.S. and around the world.

“I served for 32 years," he said. "But there's no doubt May 25th, 2020, is a defining moment for me in my public service career.”

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