Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 16 and traps others in damaged buildings
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 16 civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.
The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings. Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a 3-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her 8-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.
The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities.
Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.
“A large-scale attack and an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in response to the attack, urging more support from the U.S. and European countries.
US bombs Iranian military sites, then downs missiles Tehran fired at troops in Kuwait
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States said Monday that it bombed radar and drone sites in Iran after Tehran shot down an American drone over the weekend. Iran then said it targeted American soldiers in Kuwait with missiles, which the U.S. says it shot down.
The nominal ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. has been repeatedly tested with back-and-forth attacks, though officials from both countries are still trying to negotiate an end to the war. It’s not clear how close they are to a deal — and there is always the risk that an attack could derail those talks.
Fighting has also been escalating between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, despite their nominal ceasefire, and that has increasingly threatened the emerging deal to extend the Iran war ceasefire.
On Monday afternoon U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to dial back their fighting after he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and communicated with Hezbollah through mediators. Moments later, though, Israel said it had detected missile launches from Lebanon and warned Israelis in part of northern Israel to take cover in protected spaces.
Meantime, Iran maintained its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies and driving up the price of fuel around the world, with far-reaching consequences. A cargo ship came under attack off Iraq Monday afternoon, the British military said.
Israel kills 8 in southern Lebanon, a day after Trump said Israel and Hezbollah to de-escalate
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed eight people, including a father and his son and daughter, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial back fighting.
Israel threatened on Monday to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing panic in the Lebanese capital as thousands fled to safer areas and Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel. Israeli forces recently made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years, but Beirut has been mostly spared over the past six weeks, apart from two targeted attacks on the city’s southern suburbs in May.
Trump later announced after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and communicating with the Lebanese militant group through mediators that “there will be no Troops going to Beirut."
Lebanon's State-run National News Agency reported Tuesday that an Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatiyeh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian town of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son. The Lebanese army said two soldiers were lightly wounded when a separate drone targeted them on a road outside the city.
A drone strike on the village of Jibchit killed two Syrians who worked at a plant nursery, the agency reported, while another on the nearby village of Toul killed two people. A third strike hit a car near the village of Harouf, killing one person.
Rubio to testify before Congress for the first time since the start of the Iran war
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to face a litany of questions Tuesday about the Trump administration's fragile or stalling diplomatic efforts around the world when he appears for back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Iran war began.
The former Republican senator will sit before House and Senate committees to make the State Department's annual budget request. But the focus is likely to shift quickly to the already unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been further tested in recent days by back-and-forth attacks.
Cabinet members, including Rubio, have defended President Donald Trump's decision to launch the conflict despite promises over the years not to engage in “forever wars” in the Middle East. That work has been made more difficult by Trump's shifting goals for the conflict.
While Rubio is testifying before Congress for the first time since the Iran war started on Feb. 28, he took part in a classified briefing for lawmakers days after the first U.S. and Israeli strikes. He faced Democrats' anger over the lack of congressional approval but strong support from most Republicans for taking action against one of America's oldest adversaries.
In the two months since the war began, however, a small but growing faction of Republicans have joined Democrats in questioning the astronomical price tag and overall economic consequences of the conflict as they head into midterm elections in the fall.
Republican senators want more answers on $1.8 billion settlement fund as Trump considers its future
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps after the Justice Department said it would comply with a court order pausing the implementation of a $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate President Donald Trump’s political allies.
GOP senators who revolted against the settlement before leaving for a Memorial Day recess two weeks ago say they want more information from the administration about the future of the fund, which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Meanwhile, Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with it at all, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
Caught in the middle is legislation that would fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies for three years. Republicans abruptly left town without passing it after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the judgment fund, forcing Republicans to go on the record for or against it and endangering the money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
Returning to Washington on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wasn’t sure if the immigration spending bill would move this week.
“To be determined,” he told reporters.
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Global shares mostly gain as Trump claims Israel and Hezbollah agree to tone down fighting
TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly rose Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to dial back fighting.
France's CAC 40 jumped nearly 1.0% in early trading to 8,223.71, while the German DAX gained 1.1% to 25,275.57. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.3% to 10,372.39.
U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.3% at 51,004.00. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1% to 7,605.75.
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3% to finish at 66,734.24. South Korea's Kospi inched up 0.2% to 8,801.49.
The Hang Seng gained 2.5% to 26,038.32, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.4% to 4,075.10.
Trump reconsidering $1.8 billion fund, AP source says, as Justice Department temporarily pauses it
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday, as the Justice Department also said it would temporarily pause the program's implementation in compliance with a court order.
The potential retreat is a nod to the legal setbacks the fund has encountered since it was announced two weeks ago and a recognition of the mounting political backlash from Republicans concerned by a lack of oversight of the money disbursement and the possibility of payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump administration had defended the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” established to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, as an appropriate corrective measure for what officials insist was weaponized law enforcement during the Biden administration.
But while some Trump supporters — including participants in the Capitol riot — celebrated the announcement of the fund, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile. The outrage came to a head last month at a closed-door meeting between senators and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described on a recent episode of his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
The furor has especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the judgement fund.
Police investigate Iowa man suspected of killing 6 of his relatives and then himself
MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in Iowa are investigating the fatal shootings of six people who they believe were killed by a relative who took his own life when confronted by police Monday.
Police were called Monday to a home in Muscatine, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Cedar Rapids, where they found four people fatally shot, Muscatine Police Chief Anthony Kies said during a news conference.
Officers later found the suspect, 52-year-old Ryan Willis McFarland, of Muscatine, on a trail in the city, Kies said.
“While talking to Ryan Willis McFarland, he took his own life,” he said.
Two other men who also are believed to be relatives of McFarland were later found fatally shot elsewhere in the city, according to Kies. One man was found in his home and the other was discovered dead inside a business, he said.
'I gave birth in the street': Conflict makes childbirth risky in parts of Africa
BIRAO, Central African Republic (AP) — The agony began for Maude Ahmad Fadala shortly after sunset.
Her baby was coming. She was in a refugee camp, weakened by typhoid. There were no camp facilities for what was about to happen, and she had no money to travel. She struggled to her feet and started walking.
She stopped every few minutes, gripped by pain from contractions, then could go no farther.
“I gave birth in the street," she said. "There was no doctor, no midwife, and no one holding my hand.”
What to watch in Tuesday's primaries as Democrats try to defend California and make inroads in Iowa
WASHINGTON (AP) — For a state that's home to Hollywood, there isn't much star power in California's governor race. It's a somewhat different story in Los Angeles, where a reality television personality is running for mayor as the city prepares to host the Olympics.
More primaries are being held on Tuesday as well. Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk.
Here are some things to watch as voters in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota cast ballots.
Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jerry Brown. Gavin Newsom.
The governor's office in California typically attracts some of the highest-wattage names in politics, but not this year.
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