Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Nearly three dozen trucks entered Gaza on Sunday in the largest aid convoy since the war between Israel and Hamas began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of needs after thousands of people broke into warehouses to take flour and basic hygiene products.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, as Israeli tanks and infantry pursued what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion. The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.
Communications were restored to most of Gaza's 2.3 million people Sunday after an Israeli bombardment described by residents as the most intense of the war knocked out phone and internet services late Friday.
Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt, a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar, told The Associated Press.
After visiting the Rafah crossing, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called the suffering of civilians “profound" and said he had not been able to enter Gaza. “These are the most tragic of days,” said Karim Khan, whose court has been investigating the actions of Israeli and Palestinian authorities since 2014.
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Mission impossible? Biden says Mideast leaders must consider a two-state solution after the war ends
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says could be a “long and difficult” new stage, President Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality.
It's one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a priority.
“There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6,” Biden told reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week.
“It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” Biden said.
The push for a two-state solution — one in which Israel would co-exist with an independent Palestinian state — has eluded U.S. presidents and Middle East diplomats for decades. It's been put on the back burner since the last American-led effort at peace talks collapsed in 2014 amid disagreements on Israeli settlements, the release of Palestinian prisoners and other issues.
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'Friends' creators, actors, family mourn Matthew Perry: 'The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken'
Matthew Perry was widely mourned this weekend by friends, co-stars and some very famous fans, including his childhood classmate, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; his “Friends” mom Morgan Fairchild; and even Adele.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on NBC’s “Friends” for 10 seasons, was found dead at his Los Angeles home on Saturday. He was 54.
“This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken,” “Friends” co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, along with executive producer Kevin Bright, said in a joint statement Sunday.
“We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew’s passing," Kauffman, Crane and Bright wrote. “We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment - not just to his work, but in life as well. He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart.”
Perry's family also gave a statement to People Magazine, writing that they are heartbroken by the loss.
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More than 1,000 pay tribute to Maine's mass shooting victims on day of prayer, reflection on tragedy
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — More than 1,000 people packed a cavernous church Sunday night, and hundreds more spilled outside, to hug, sing, weep and seek comfort in the wake of Maine’s most deadly mass shooting.
The crowd gathered for the vigil at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, where days earlier a gunman fatally shot 18 people.
Some people put their heads in their hands and wept when the names were read aloud. At one point, members of the crowd raised their hands to say “I love you” in American Sign Language in honor of the four members of Maine’s deaf community killed in the shooting.
“We will not be defined by the tragedies that happened,” said the Rev. Todd Little from the First United Pentecostal Church. “Fear, anxiety and trepidation will not dictate our present or our future.”
The vigil came two days after the body of suspected gunman Robert Card was found. The 40-year-old's body was discovered in a trailer at a recycling center in Lisbon Falls. Card died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound though it was unclear when, authorities said. Card was also suspected of injuring 13 people in the shooting rampage Wednesday night in Lewiston.
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Hundreds storm airport in Russia in antisemitic riot over arrival of plane from Israel
MOSCOW (AP) — Hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region and onto the landing field Sunday, chanting antisemitic slogans and seeking passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, Russian news agencies and social media reported.
Russian news reports said the crowd surrounded the airliner, which belonged to Russian carrier Red Wings.
Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. Dagestan’s Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included police officers and civilians.
Video on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli.
In a statement Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.”
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UAW escalates strike against lone holdout GM after landing tentative pacts with Stellantis and Ford
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union has widened its strike against General Motors, the lone holdout among the three Detroit automakers, after reaching a tentative contract agreement with Jeep maker Stellantis.
The escalated walkout began Saturday evening at a Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, GM's largest in North America, just hours after the Stellantic deal was reached. Its nearly 4,000 workers join about 14,000 already striking at GM factories in Texas, Michigan and Missouri.
The UAW did not immediately explain what prompted the new action after 44 days of targeted strikes. The added pressure on GM is substantial as Spring Hill makes engines for vehicles assembled in a total of nine plants as far afield as Mexico, including Silverado and Sierra pickups. One plant already on strike it supplies with engines, in Arlington Texas, makes full-size SUVs including the Tahoe and Suburban. Vehicles assembled at Spring Hill include the electric Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Acadia and Cadillac crossover SUVs.
“The Spring Hill walkout affects so much of GM’s production that the company is likely to settle quickly or close down most production,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor. The union wants to wrap negotiations with all three automakers so "Ford and Stellantis workers don’t vote down (their) tentative agreements because they want to see what GM workers get.”
The Stellantis deal mirrors one reached last week with Ford, and saves jobs at several plants, the UAW said.
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Hurricane Otis death toll rises to 48, missing now number 36 as search and recovery work continues
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — At least 48 people died when Category 5 Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, most of them in Acapulco, Mexican authorities said Sunday as the death toll continued to climb and families buried loved ones.
Mexico's civil defense agency said in a statement that 43 of the dead were in the resort city of Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez. Guerrero state's governor had earlier raised the number of missing to 36 from 10 a day earlier. The death toll increased after authorities had raised it to 39 on Saturday.
In Acapulco, families held funerals for the dead on Sunday and continued the search for essentials while government workers and volunteers cleared streets clogged with muck and debris from the powerful Category 5 hurricane.
Katy Barrera, 30, said Sunday that her aunt’s family was buried under a landslide when tons of mud and rock tumbled down onto their home. Her aunt's body was found with the remains of their three children ranging in age from 2 to 21. Her uncle was still missing. Separately, Barrera’s own mother and brother also remained missing.
“The water came in with the rocks, the mud and totally buried them,” Barrera, who was standing outside a local morgue, said of her aunt's family.
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Federal judge reimposes limited gag order in Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case in Washington on Sunday reimposed a narrow gag order barring him from making public comments targeting prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses.
The reinstatement of the gag order was revealed in a brief notation on the online case docket Sunday night, but the order itself was not immediately available, making it impossible to see the judge’s rationale or the precise contours of the restrictions.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the federal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, had temporarily lifted the gag order as she considered the former president's request to keep it on hold while he challenges the restrictions on his speech in higher courts.
But Chutkan agreed to reinstate the order after prosecutors cited Trump's recent social media comments about his former chief of staff they said represented an attempt to influence and intimidate a likely witness in the case.
The order is a fresh reminder that Trump's penchant for incendiary and bitter rants about the four criminal cases that he's facing, though politically beneficial in rallying his supporters as he seeks to reclaim the White House, carry practical consequences in court. Two separate judges have now imposed orders mandating that he rein in his speech, with the jurist presiding over a civil fraud trial in New York issuing a monetary fine last week.
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How extreme weather in the US may have affected the pumpkins you picked this year for Halloween
Hudson, Colo. (AP) —
Alan Mazzotti can see the Rocky Mountains about 30 miles west of his pumpkin patch in northeast Colorado on a clear day. He could tell the snow was abundant last winter, and verified it up close when he floated through fresh powder alongside his wife and three sons at the popular Winter Park Resort.
But one season of above-average snowfall wasn't enough to refill the dwindling reservoir he relies on to irrigate his pumpkins. He received news this spring that his water delivery would be about half of what it was from the previous season, so he planted just half of his typical pumpkin crop. Then heavy rains in May and June brought plenty of water and turned fields into a muddy mess, preventing any additional planting many farmers might have wanted to do.
“By time it started raining and the rain started to affect our reservoir supplies and everything else, it was just too late for this year,” Mazzotti said.
For some pumpkin growers in states like Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, this year's pumpkin crop was a reminder of the water challenges hitting agriculture across the Southwest and West as human-caused climate change exacerbates drought and heat extremes. Some farmers lost 20% or more of their predicted yields; others, like Mazzotti, left some land bare. Labor costs and inflation are also narrowing margins, hitting farmers' ability to profit off what they sell to garden centers and pumpkin patches.
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Arrest made in Halloween weekend's fatal shooting of 2 in Tampa; 18 more victims injured
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man has been arrested in Tampa, Florida, in a mass shooting that erupted during Halloween festivities early Sunday. Two people were killed and 18 injured, police said.
At least two shooters opened fire just before 3 a.m. in the Ybor City area, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a news conference at the scene. Later Sunday he said detectives arrested Tyrell Stephen Phillips, 22, in connection with the shooting. He was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm.
“My heart goes out to the families," Bercaw said in a news briefing posted online. He called the gun violence “extremely tragic" and said police would not tolerate it.
Earlier, authorities said one suspect was in custody and at least one other was being sought, but Bercaw did not immediately say Sunday afternoon whether police were seeking anyone else after Phillips' arrest.
“We make arrests quickly," Bercaw said in the briefing. “We have a sense of urgency and if you are going to be out there with a gun, you are going to pay for it.”
The Associated Press
