Iran ceasefire tested as cargo ship catches fire and Kuwait reports drone attack
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The shaky ceasefire in the Iran war was tested again on Sunday when a cargo ship caught fire after being hit by an unknown projectile off Qatar’s coast, and Kuwait's military reported an attack by drones, without specifying where they came from.
The attacks were the latest threats to a month-old ceasefire, which the Trump administration says remains in effect. It has faced difficulties, with Iran restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway key to the global flow of oil, and the U.S. imposing a blockade of Iranian ports.
Washington has been awaiting Iran’s response to a new proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the strait to shipping and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
One of the main sticking points in the negotiations is the fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
In an interview with Iranian state media, a spokesman for the Iranian military said that forces were on “full readiness” to protect nuclear sites where the uranium is stored.
Passengers start disembarking from hantavirus-stricken cruise ship in Spain's Canary Islands
TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — Passengers started disembarking on Sunday from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship anchored off Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, hours after arriving there as evacuation plans got underway.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene said that some people were seen reaching land after leaving the ship. Nobody among the more than 140 people on the MV Hondius is showing symptoms of the virus, Spanish authorities, the World Health Organization and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said.
Spain’s health ministry said that Spanish nationals would be the first to leave the ship, and would be ferried off in small launch boats that carry between five and 10 people.
The cruise ship reached Tenerife early Sunday morning, after leaving Cape Verde on May 6.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.
Israeli drone strikes near Beirut kill 4 and southern airstrikes kill at least 13
BEIRUT (AP) — Three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles just south of Beirut on Saturday killed four people while a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter, state media and the Health Ministry said.
The three drone strikes south of Beirut marked another escalation since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on April 17. Both Israel and Hezbollah have continued their daily attacks despite the truce.
On Wednesday night, Israel’s air force carried out an airstrike on a southern suburb in which Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah military official. It was the first strike near the capital since the ceasefire was reached.
Two of the strikes on Saturday took place on the highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon in which several people were wounded, while the third happened on a road leading to Lebanon’s Chouf region killing three, the state-run National News Agency said.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw a dead body on the highway in the town of Saadiyat.
Experts wonder 'Where is the CDC?' as a hantavirus outbreak unfolds on a cruise ship
NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.
In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.
To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.
To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.
“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”
Tennessee redistricting plan splits Memphis neighbors and reshapes midterms as other states follow
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — For 21 years, Steve Fowler and Sam Wilson have performed together in a band on Memphis’ renowned Beale Street. And for the past decade, the men have been neighbors on a quiet, leafy avenue.
But as of Thursday, they will no longer cast the same ballot despite living across the street from each other.
That’s because Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature redrew the congressional district of Memphis, which has long enjoyed its own Democratic-leaning U.S. House seat. Now, the city is split into three Republican-leaning districts, its majority-Black population sliced up and bound to mostly white, rural and conservative communities along lines that branch away from Fowler and Wilson’s East Memphis neighborhood.
A line runs down the middle of the street, placing Fowler in the 8th Congressional District, which runs hundreds of miles to central Tennessee across a dozen counties. Wilson is zoned for the 9th District, which extends across most of the state’s southern border before curving up to encompass the largely white and affluent Nashville suburbs.
“I think it’s horrible,” said Fowler, who is white. “This isn’t just going to be bad for Black folks in Memphis, but poor whites in these new districts also aren’t going to get services. How are any of these congressmen going to serve all these different counties?”
Recommended for you
President of Parks and Rec? Trump asserts authority over public spaces in DC
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge weighing the future of an expansive Washington park insisted this week she had no intention of becoming Amy Poehler, the actress who spent seven seasons memorably playing the head of a local parks and recreation department.
But President Donald Trump might be interested in the role.
Shortly after the United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday, Trump made a quick jaunt to the National Mall to review the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that he ordered repainted a color he describes as “American flag blue.”
The project has been on his mind lately. During an hour-plus speech Monday to small-business owners, Trump spent about nine minutes talking about the paint job, detailing the granite floor and boasting that he whittled the renovation's cost to $1.9 million from what he said was an initial $350 million estimate.
Trump's next project might be East Potomac Park, home to an affordable, accessible public golf course with views of the Washington Monument.
Rejecting church and state separation is on the wish list for Trump's religious liberty commission
One member calls for a Presidential Medal of Freedom for a baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Another calls for court interventions by the Department of Justice on behalf of Amish parents fighting New York vaccine requirements and Catholic nuns challenging that state’s requirement that they accommodate hospice patients’ gender identities.
And the chair of the Religious Liberty Commission is calling for a federal hotline with this automated recording: “There is no separation of church and state.”
These are just some of the recommendations that members of the advisory panel formed by President Donald Trump last year want to see included in the commission’s final report.
That report is still in the works, but commissioners had an opportunity to describe their wish lists during their most recent meeting in April. There was little dissent as the commissioners, most drawn from Trump’s base of conservative Christian supporters, covered the items they want in the report.
Person dies after being hit by Frontier Airlines plane that was taking off at Denver airport
A person who jumped a fence and was on a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff, airport authorities said. The collision sparked an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.
A spokesperson for the airport said the person, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”
Iran war disruptions spark higher costs and lost income in Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tariqul Islam lost his savings after setbacks in his clothing business about a year and a half ago and turned to ride-sharing on his motorbike to make ends meet. Until recently, he spent hours in fuel lines as supply disruptions linked to the war in Iran ripple into Bangladesh.
The 53-year-old father of four fears the strain will worsen if the war drags on, saying long hours waiting for fuel have sharply cut his income and made it increasingly difficult to support his family in Dhaka, the nation's capital, including a daughter at university and a son in college.
“My family was managing fairly well through ride-sharing," he said. “But after the fuel shortage began, I would buy fuel one day and run the bike for two days. As a result, I had to sit idle for one day, which reduced my income.”
The strain in Islam's household reflects a broader squeeze in Bangladesh, heavily dependent on imported fuel, where energy shortages have disrupted daily life, slowed industrial output and raised concerns about economic growth as global tensions push up costs and strain supplies.
Conditions have eased slightly in recent days, with shorter queues at fuel stations after the government increased supplies, but concerns persist across sectors.
Bobby Cox, manager of Braves' teams that ruled National League and won 1995 World Series, dies at 84
ATLANTA (AP) — Bobby Cox, the folksy manager of the Atlanta Braves whose teams ruled the National League during the 1990s and gave the city its first major title as well as World Series trips that fell short, died Saturday. He was 84.
Cox died in Marietta, Georgia, according to the Atlanta Braves. He had a stroke in 2019 and heart issues that complicated his recovery.
“Bobby was the best manager to ever wear a Braves uniform. He led our team to 14 straight division titles, five National League pennants, and the unforgettable World Series title in 1995. His Braves managerial legacy will never be matched,” the Braves said in a statement.
Cox took over a last-place team in June 1990 and led the Braves to a worst-to-first finish in 1991, losing the World Series to the Minnesota Twins in seven games. That was the start of what was to become a record 14 consecutive division titles, a feat no professional team in any sport had accomplished.
He managed the Braves for 25 years and led Atlanta to its first World Series title in 1995, retired after the 2010 season and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.