Israeli airstrikes rock southern suburbs of Beirut and cut off a key crossing into Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in southern suburbs of Beirut and another that cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
The new wave of strikes came after Israel warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon that are outside a United Nations-declared buffer zone, as the yearlong conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah escalates.
Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. A series of attacks before the incursion killed some of the group's key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived on Friday in Beirut, where he was expected to discuss the war between Israel and Hezbollah with Lebanese officials.
Araghchi’s visit to Beirut came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
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A year later, Israeli survivors reflect on the lingering toll of Oct. 7
Lilach Almog walks past the remains of a police station seized by Hamas militants and buildings pockmarked by bullets in her southern Israeli town multiple times a day.
“Every corner has become a memorial,” she said. “Even if you want to forget for a bit, you can’t. You look outside at the wall and it reminds you of everything all over again.”
Almog joined the roughly 120,000 Israelis displaced by the Israel-Hamas war but has returned home to constant reminders of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
A year later, survivors reflect on that day that changed everything. They hid in bedrooms, bomb shelters, safe rooms and beneath trees as Hamas militants poured across the border. In the aftermath, they've mourned loved ones, struggled with anxiety, suffered survivor's guilt and questioned whether they will ever return home to places that still bear the scars of their ordeal.
The force of a blast at the police station across from her apartment building knocked Almog off her feet on Oct. 7.
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As search for Helene's victims drags into second week, sheriff says rescuers 'will not rest'
PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — The search for victims of Hurricane Helene dragged into its second week on Friday, as exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continued to work long days — navigating past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides — to reach the isolated and the missing.
“We know these are hard times, but please know we’re coming," Sheriff Quentin Miller of Buncombe County, North Carolina, said at a Thursday evening press briefing. “We’re coming to get you. We’re coming to pick up our people.”
With at least 215 killed, Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, and dozens or possibly hundreds of people are still unaccounted for. Roughly half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in South Carolina and Georgia.
In Buncombe County alone, 72 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, Miller said. Buncombe includes the tourist hub of Asheville, the region's most populous city. Still, the sheriff holds out hope that many of the missing are alive.
His message to them?
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Dockworkers' union to suspend strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract
DETROIT (AP) — The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports reached a deal Thursday to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract.
The union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is to resume working immediately. The temporary end to the strike came after the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, reached a tentative agreement on wages, the union and ports said in a joint statement.
A person briefed on the agreement said the ports sweetened their wage offer from about 50% over six years to 62%. The person didn’t want to be identified because the agreement is tentative. Any wage increase would have to be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.
The union went on strike early Tuesday after its contract expired in a dispute over pay and the automation of tasks at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas. The strike came at the peak of the holiday shopping season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming into and out of the United States.
The walkout raised the risk of shortages of goods on store shelves if it lasted more than a few weeks. Most retailers, though, had stocked up or shipped items early in anticipation of the dockworkers' strike.
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Harris and Trump battle for labor support as dockworkers suspend strike
DETROIT (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the union stronghold of Flint on Friday as she battles with Donald Trump for working-class voters who could tip the scales in this year's election.
Her appearance in the battleground state of Michigan comes the day after U.S. dockworkers suspended their strike in hopes of reaching a new contract, sparing the country a damaging episode of labor unrest that could have rattled the economy. A tentative agreement was reached to raise salaries, although other issues still need to be resolved.
Harris issued a statement saying the development “indicates progress toward a strong contract and represents the power of collective bargaining.” She added that “dockworkers deserve a fair share for their hard work getting essential goods out to communities across America.”
Unions have long been a bedrock of support for Democrats, but Harris has failed to secure some key endorsements. The International Association of Fire Fighters announced this week that it wouldn't back a candidate this year, following a similar announcement from the Teamsters. Both unions endorsed Joe Biden four years ago.
It's not a total cold shoulder for Harris. Some Teamsters locals are supporting her, and she won quick endorsements from national teachers unions, the building trades, the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers after replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
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Filing in Trump case details remarkable schism with Pence over rejecting 2020 election loss
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days before rioters roamed the halls of the U.S. Capitol threatening to “hang Mike Pence,” Donald Trump told his vice president that people are going to “hate your guts” and “think you're stupid” if he failed to stop the 2020 election certification.
The New Year’s Day warning wasn’t the first time Trump pressured Pence to overturn the election results. Nor was it the last. In what came to be known as “Operation Pence Card,” Trump spent weeks publicly and privately pushing his vice president to help him stay in power after losing.
“You’re too honest,” Trump berated his vice president in that Jan. 1 morning call.
After they hung up, the president tweeted a reminder for his followers to come to Washington for the “BIG Protest Rally” just days away — what would become the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
The exchanges between the president and his vice president, detailed in special counsel Jack Smith’s court filing this week, show the extraordinary lengths Trump went to overturn the 2020 election, even as he lays the groundwork to challenge this year's contest, if he loses.
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Collapse of national security elites' cyber firm leaves bitter wake
WASHINGTON (AP) — The future was once dazzling for IronNet.
Founded by a former director of the National Security Agency and stacked with elite members of the U.S. intelligence establishment, IronNet promised it was going to revolutionize the way governments and corporations combat cyberattacks.
Its pitch — combining the prowess of ex-government hackers with cutting-edge software – was initially a hit. Shortly after going public in 2021, the company’s value shot past $3 billion.
Yet, as blazing as IronNet started, it burned out.
Last September the never-profitable company announced it was shutting down and firing its employees after running out of money, providing yet another example of a tech firm that faltered after failing to deliver on overhyped promises.
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Did this happen to me also? Korean adoptees question their past and ask how to find their families
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Dozens of South Korean adoptees, many in tears, have responded to an investigation led by The Associated Press and documented by Frontline (PBS) last week on Korean adoptions. The investigation reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea’s foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies.
Here are some of the problems adoptees who responded say they faced, along with tips for finding histories and birth families.
Kyla Postrel's paperwork tells two different stories, neither of which she’s sure is true.
After a DNA test last year, Postrel found a half-brother who was also adopted to the West. Comparing their paperwork made her even more skeptical of the stories they’d been told. But part of her is reluctant to keep looking "for something that may or may not exist and could be absolutely devastating.”
She has been flooded with messages from other adoptees looking for help, and tells them not to be disappointed if they can't track down their stories.
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Los Angeles prosecutors to review new evidence in Menendez brothers' 1996 murder conviction
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new evidence in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez to determine whether they should be serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago, the city's district attorney said Thursday.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said during a news conference that there is no question Erik Menendez, 53, and his 56-year-old brother, Lyle Menendez, committed the murders, but his office will be reviewing new evidence and will make a decision on whether a resentencing is warranted in the notorious case that captured national attention.
The new evidence presented in a petition includes a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.
The brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them. Their attorneys argue that because of society's changing views on sexual abuse, that the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole today.
Bryan Freedman, the extended family’s lawyers, said they strongly support the brothers’ release.
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Record-setting number of transgender candidates risk their lives in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Benny Briolly beamed as she strode through the concrete favela alleyway in a snow-white dress, volunteers proudly waving campaign flags emblazoned with her face.
The city councilwoman and nearly 1,000 other transgender politicians are running Sunday in every one of Brazil's 26 states, according to the nation’s electoral court, which is tracking them for the first time. The number of candidacies has tripled since the last local elections four years ago, when trans rights group Antra mapped them.
As trans people have set their sights on political office, many have been met with intimidation efforts bent on turning them away, including a candidate in Brazil’s biggest city who survived an assassination attempt last week.
More trans people — 100 — were murdered in Brazil last year than in any other country, according to Transgender Europe, a network of global non-profits that tracks the data. Those precise statistics are almost certainly driven by a combination of poor reporting elsewhere and Brazil's active network of advocates, but experts agree that transphobia is ubiquitous.
On International Women’s Day last year, Nikolas Ferreira — the federal lawmaker who received more votes than any other — donned a blond wig in Congress’ lower house. He said it allowed him to speak as a woman and denounce trans people.
The Associated Press
