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Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps in Gaza while UN agencies call siege an ‘outrage’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials said. The strikes came as the U.S. keeps urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. On Saturday Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry i...

Trump’s business and political ambitions poised to converge as he testifies in New York civil case

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump takes the stand Monday in a Manhattan courtroom to testify in his civil fraud trial, it will be an undeniable spectacle: A former president and the leading Republican presidential candidate defending himself against allegations that he dramatically inflated his net worth.The charges cut to the very heart of the brand Trump spent decades carefully crafting and put him at risk of losing control of much of his business empire.But the appearance may also mark the beginning of what will likely be a defining feature of the 2024 election if Trump becomes his party’s nominee: a major candidate, on trial, using the witness stand as a campaign platform as he eyes a return to the White House while facing multiple criminal indictments.“It’s going to be a stunning moment. This is dramatic enough if he was simply an ex-president facing these charges. But the fact that he is the overwhelming favorite to run the GOP, it makes this a staggering Monday,” said p...

Man accused of Antarctic assault was then sent to remote icefield with young graduate students

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man accused of physically assaulting a woman at a U.S. research station in Antarctica was then sent to a remote icefield where he was tasked with protecting the safety of a professor and three young graduate students, and he remained there for a full week after a warrant for his arrest was issued, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.Stephen Tyler Bieneman has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault over the incident last November at McMurdo Station, which his lawyer said was nothing more than “horseplay.” The case is due to go to trial Monday in Honolulu.The National Science Foundation declined to answer AP questions about why Bieneman was sent out into the field in a critical safety role while under investigation. The case raises further questions about decision-making in the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is already under scrutiny. An AP investigation in August uncovered a pattern of women at McMurdo who said their claims of sexual har...

Why one survivor of domestic violence wants the Supreme Court to uphold a gun control law

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ruth Glenn knows from harrowing personal experience the danger of putting a gun in the hands of a violent spouse or partner, the issue at the heart of a case before the Supreme Court.On a beautiful June evening in 1992, Glenn was shot three times, twice in the head, and left for dead outside a Denver car wash.The shooter was her estranged husband, Cedric, who was under a court order to stay away from Glenn. But there was no federal law on the books at the time that prohibited him from having a gun.Two years later, Congress put such a law in place, prohibiting people facing domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. “He would not have been able to access that gun if we had these current laws in place,” Glenn said in an interview with The Associated Press that took place outside the Supreme Court.The high court is hearing arguments Tuesday in a challenge to the 1994 law. The closely watched case is the first one involving guns to reach the justices since ...

Inspired by online dating, AI tool for adoption matchmaking falls short for vulnerable foster kids

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

Some are orphans, others seized from their parents. Many are older and have overwhelming needs or disabilities. Most bear the scars of trauma from being hauled between foster homes, torn from siblings or sexually and physically abused.Child protective services agencies have wrestled for decades with how to find lasting homes for such vulnerable children and teens – a challenge so enormous that social workers can never guarantee a perfect fit.Into this morass stepped Thea Ramirez with what she touted as a technological solution – an artificial intelligence-powered tool that ultimately can predict which adoptive families will stay together. Ramirez claimed this algorithm, designed by former researchers at an online dating service, could boost successful adoptions across the U.S. and promote efficiency at cash-strapped child welfare agencies.“We’re using science – not merely preferences – to establish a score capable of predicting long-term success,” Ramirez said in an April 2021 YouTu...

Can a Floridian win the presidency? It hasn’t happened yet as Trump and DeSantis vie to be first

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida governor wins reelection by record numbers and later finds himself running as a party conservative in a crowded presidential primary. In New Hampshire, he tip-toes around the explosive abortions rights issue, discusses ongoing Israeli military operations, promises he’ll secure the Mexican border and warns that the current administration’s fiscal insanity will cause more inflation, not reduce it.While it sounds like Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, this was former Florida Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew in 1984. Askew dropped out of the race after finishing eighth in New Hampshire. DeSantis is looking to avoid a similar fate as he prepares for the third GOP debate this week in his home state.If DeSantis or former President Donald Trump eventually is elected president next year, it would be the first time Americans have chosen a Floridian to lead them. Trump was a New York snowbird with a second home in Palm Beach when he was first elec...

Does an AI tool help boost adoptions? Key takeaways from an AP Investigation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

Former social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence -powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids. But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, raising questions about the ability of artificial intelligence to solve such enduring human problems. Two states dropped the tool with only a few adoptions at the end of their initial pilots. Social workers in Florida, Georgia and Virginia told AP that Family-Match wasn’t useful and often led them to unwilling families. Florida agencies, on the other hand, reported a more positive experience with the algorithm, saying that it assisted them in tapping into a broader pool of prospective parents. Ramirez declined interview requests but said in an email that “Family-Match is a valuable tool and helpful to users actively using it to sup...

Father of July 4th parade mass shooting suspect to stand trial for assist in gun license application

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — The father of a man charged in a deadly Fourth of July parade shooting in suburban Chicago will stand trial starting Monday accused of helping his teenage son obtain a gun license even after he had threatened violence.Robert Crimo Jr. is charged with seven counts of reckless conduct — one for each person his son, Robert Crimo III, is accused of killing in Highland Park on Independence Day last year. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison term. In 2019, at the age of 19, Crimo III was too young to apply for his own gun license, but he could apply with the sponsorship of a parent or guardian. His father sponsored his application, even though just months earlier a relative reported to police that Crimo III had a collection of knives and had threatened to “kill everyone.”Crimo Jr. was arrested in December 2022, and pleaded not guilty this year to seven counts of reckless conduct. He waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Judge George Strickland will hear...

Google’s antitrust headaches compound with another trial, this one targeting its Play Store

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google on Monday will try to protect a lucrative piece of its internet empire at the same time it’s still entangled in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century. The latest threat will unfold in a San Francisco federal court, where a 10-person jury will decide whether Google’s digital payment processing system in the Play Store that distributes apps for phones running on its Android software has been illegally driving up prices for consumers and developers.The trial before U.S. District Judge James Donato is scheduled to last until just before Christmas and include testimony from longtime Google executive Sundar Pichai, who is now CEO of the company’s parent, Alphabet Inc.Pichai recently took the witness stand in Washington D.C. during an antitrust trial pitting Google’s long-running dominance of internet search against the U.S. Justice Department’s attempt to undercut it on the grounds the the company has been abusing its pow...

Stock market today: Asian markets advance after Wall Street logs its best week in nearly a year

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:11:54 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares advanced Monday following Wall Street gains last week that were buoyed by hopes for early interest rate cuts.U.S. futures were higher and oil prices gained as the Israeli military announced late Sunday that it had encircled Gaza City and cut the besieged coastal strip in two, fueling investors’ fears of a deepening conflict.South Korean stocks surged 4.2% to 2,469.21, after the government restored a ban on short-selling, aiming to prevent illegal use of the trading tactic that is often used by hedge funds and investors. Short-selling refers to selling borrowed shares to profit from price declines.Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 2.4% to 32,720.52. However, the country’s services activity in October expanded at its slowest pace this year, raising concerns about weakness in a key sector driving Japanese economic activity. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.7% to 17,962.64 and the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.9% at 3,057.50. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200...