The Latest | Israel denies Palestinian claim its forces killed 20 near Gaza aid distribution center
The Palestinian Health Ministry accused Israeli forces of launching an attack near an aid distribution point in war-wracked northern Gaza, killing 20 people and wounding 155 others. The Israeli military said those reports “are false,” adding it was assessing the violence that occurred late Thursday “with the thoroughness that it deserves.”
The international community has been pushing for more aid to enter Gaza, frustrated with the growing humanitarian crisis and with Israel’s restrictions that have prevented more aid getting in by land. Australia announced early Friday it would resume funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians and pledged additional money to UNICEF to provide urgent services in Gaza.
An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food was nearing the shores of the enclave Friday. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, the United Nations has warned, and the territory's Health Ministry says more than 31,314 Palestinians have been killed. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in southern Israel during the Hamas-led incursion on Oct. 7 that sparked the war. Around 250 people were abducted, and Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages.
Currently:
___
Suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels strikes a ship in the Red Sea, though crew reportedly safe
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck a ship in the Red Sea early Friday, causing damage to the vessel, authorities said.
The attack off the port city of Hodeida comes as part of the rebels' campaign against shipping over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship reported being “struck by a missile."
“The vessel has sustained some damage,” the UKMTO added. It described the crew as being “safe” and said the ship was continuing on its way, suggesting the damage wasn't severe. The private security firm Ambrey also reported the attack.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it typically takes the rebels hours to acknowledge their assaults.
___
Judge rejects bid by Donald Trump to throw out classified documents case on constitutional grounds
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected one bid by Donald Trump to throw out out his classified documents criminal case, and appeared skeptical during hours of arguments of a separate effort to scuttle the prosecution ahead of trial.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a two-page order saying that though the Trump team had raised “various arguments warranting serious consideration,” a dismissal of charges was not merited. The case involves boxes of records, some highly classified, that Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he left the White House.
Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by the former president, had made clear during more than three-and-a-half hours of arguments that she was reluctant to dismiss one of the four criminal cases against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. She said at one point that a dismissal of the indictment would be “difficult to see” and that it would be “quite an extraordinary” step to strike down an Espionage Act statute that underpins the bulk of the felony counts against Trump but that his lawyers contend is unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling from Cannon is a modest win for special counsel Jack Smith's team, which in addition to the classified documents case is pursuing a separate prosecution of Trump on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But it left unanswered questions over when the case might proceed to trial and only covered one of the two motions argued in court on Thursday. A separate motion about whether Trump was permitted under the Presidential Records Act to retain the documents after he left the White House remains pending, but the judge also seemed disinclined to throw out the case on those grounds.
___
Russians are voting in an election that holds little suspense after Putin crushed dissent
Voters headed to the polls in Russia on Friday for a three-day presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule by six more years after he stifled dissent.
The election takes place against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has crippled independent media and prominent rights groups and given Putin full control of the political system.
It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is making small, if slow, gains. Ukraine, meanwhile, has made Moscow look vulnerable behind the front line: Long-range drone attacks have struck deep inside Russia, while high-tech drones have put its Black Sea fleet on the defensive.
Voters are casting their ballots Friday through Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, as well as in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine. Russians also can vote online, the first time the option has been used in a presidential contest; more than 200,000 people in Moscow voted online soon after the polls opened, authorities said.
The election holds little suspense since Putin, 71, is running for his fifth term virtually unchallenged. His political opponents are either in jail or in exile abroad, and the fiercest of them, Alexei Navalny, died in a remote Arctic penal colony last month. The three other candidates on the ballot are low-profile politicians from token opposition parties that toe the Kremlin’s line.
___
Using coercion, Russia has successfully imposed its citizenship in Ukraine’s occupied territories
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — He and his parents were among the last in their village to take a Russian passport, but the pressure was becoming unbearable.
By his third beating at the hands of the Russian soldiers occupying Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vyacheslav Ryabkov caved. The soldiers broke two of his ribs, but his face was not bruised for his unsmiling passport photo, taken in September 2023.
It wasn’t enough.
In December, they caught the welder on his way home from work. Then one slammed his rifle butt down on Ryabkov’s face, smashing the bridge of his nose.
“Why don’t you fight for us? You already have a Russian passport,” they demanded. The beating continued as the 42-year-old fell unconscious.
___
Ohio police confirm 2 dead in fierce storm that damaged homes and businesses in 3 states
WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — Police in Ohio confirmed two deaths resulting from a fierce storm system that unleashed suspected twisters and damaged homes and businesses in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana on Thursday.
Chief Deputy Joe Kopus of the Logan County Sheriff's Office in Bellefontaine, Ohio, confirmed the fatalities in an email to The Associated Press early Friday. He said there likely would be more fatalities discovered, noting there was heavy damage in Lakeview, Midway, Orchard Island and Russells Point.
The Indiana State Police said there are “many significant injuries” after a tornado tore through the community of Winchester.
“There have been many, many significant injuries, but I don’t know the number. I don’t know where they are. I don’t know what those injuries are,” Indiana State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter told reporters just before midnight Thursday. “There’s a lot that we don’t know yet.”
Earlier in the night, state police said they were investigating reports of deaths but at the news conference Carter said there were “no known fatalities.”
___
Baseball superstar Ohtani and his wife arrive in South Korea for Dodgers-Padres MLB opener
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates on Friday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week.
Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon international airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him.
As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheering slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand and Tanaka smiled, but neither said anything before they took a limousine bus. Fans held placards that read like “GOATANI (Greatest Of All Time is Ohtani) GO" and “Baseball genius Ohtani.”
Before departing for South Korea, Ohtani, a two-way Japanese phenomenon, revealed the identify of his wife by posting a photo of him and Tanaka, an ex-professional basketball player, on his Instagram account. Japanese media had already speculated that Ohtani’s wife was likely Tanaka.
Tanaka, 27, played for the Fujitsu Red Wave in the Women’s Japan Basketball League from 2019-23.
___
Why are so many voters frustrated by the US economy? It's home prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lori Shelton can't fathom ever having the money to buy a home — and that's a major reason why so many voters feel down on the economy ahead of this year's presidential election.
Shelton, 67, drives an Uber to help pay rent in Aurora, Colorado. An advance on her pay covered her apartment's security deposit. But it also cut into her next paycheck, leaving her bank account dangerously low when the rent was due — a cycle that never seems to end.
“I'm always one step behind,” said Shelton, her voice choking up. “It’s a nightmare, it’s a freaking nightmare right now.”
The United States is slogging through a housing affordability crisis that was decades in the making. At the root of this problem: America failed to build enough homes for its growing population. The shortage strikes at the heart of the American dream of homeownership — dampening President Joe Biden's assurances that the U.S. economy is strong and underscoring the degree to which Republican Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive GOP nominee for 2024, has largely overlooked the shortage.
The lack of housing has caused a record number of renters to devote an excessive amount of income to housing, according to a Harvard University analysis. Not enough homes are for sale or being built, keeping prices elevated. Average mortgage rates have more than doubled and further worsened affordability.
___
Trump-backed Senate candidate faces GOP worries that he could be linked to adult website profile
WASHINGTON (AP) — For Republicans eager to regain the Senate majority this year, Ohio offers a prime opportunity to pick up a critical seat.
But ahead of Tuesday's primary election, there's mounting anxiety inside the GOP that Bernie Moreno may emerge with the nomination. After vaulting into the top tier of contenders with a coveted endorsement from Donald Trump, Moreno — who has shifted from a public supporter of LGBTQ rights to a hardline opponent — is confronting questions about the existence of a 2008 profile seeking "Men for 1-on-1 sex” on a casual sexual encounters website called Adult Friend Finder.
“Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling,” reads a caption on a photo-less profile under the username “nardo19672,” according to an Associated Press review of records made public through a massive and well-publicized data breach of the website. Records also show the profile was last accessed about six hours after it was created.
The AP review confirmed that someone with access to Moreno’s email account created the profile, though the AP could not definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself. Questions about the profile have circulated in GOP circles for the past month. On Thursday evening, two days after the AP first asked Moreno’s campaign about the account, the candidate’s lawyer said a former intern created the account as a prank. The lawyer provided a statement from the intern, Dan Ricci, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”
“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago,” Ricci said. The AP couldn't independently confirm Ricci's statement and he didn't immediately respond to messages left for him on multiple phone numbers listed to him. He donated $6,599 to Moreno’s campaign last year, according to campaign finance records.
___
James Crumbley, who bought gun used by son to kill 4 students, guilty of manslaughter in Michigan
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The father of a Michigan school shooter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Thursday, a second conviction against the teen’s parents who were accused of failing to secure a gun at home and doing nothing to address acute signs of his mental turmoil.
The jury verdict means James Crumbley has joined Jennifer Crumbley as a cause of the killing of four students at Oxford High School in 2021, even without pulling the trigger.
They had separate trials as the first U.S. parents to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in February.
The verdicts — one each for the four victims — were read around 7:15 p.m. at the end of a full day of deliberations in Oakland County court.
James Crumbley, 47, who heard the outcome through headphones because of a hearing problem, slowly shook his head from side to side as the jury foreman said “guilty.” A sheriff’s deputy removed a dress tie from his neck, shackled him at the waist and returned him to jail.
The Associated Press
