Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are hit again
BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel warned people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.
In Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura was hit again, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn’t clear who fired. It occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for a second straight day. Israel, which has warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn’t immediately respond to questions.
Hunger warnings emerged again in northern Gaza as residents said they hadn't received aid since the beginning of the month. The U.N. World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since Oct. 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain there.
Israel’s military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Amid Israel's war with Hezbollah, a top U.N. official, Carl Skau, told The Associated Press he's concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airport might be taken out of service. More than 1 million people have been displaced.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired more than 300 projectiles over Yom Kippur, the holiest and most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket strikes on Israeli military positions and said fighters engaged an Israeli infantry unit attempting to enter Lebanese territory.
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Floridians cleaning up from Hurricane Milton are hampered by a widespread fuel shortage
CORTEZ, Fla. (AP) — Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton, many of whom were journeying home after fleeing hundreds of miles to escape the storm, spent much of Saturday searching for gas as a fuel shortage gripped the state.
In St. Petersburg, scores of people lined up at a station that had no gas, hoping it would arrive soon. Among them was Daniel Thornton and his 9-year-old daughter Magnolia, who arrived at the station at 7 a.m. and were still waiting four hours later.
“They told me they have gas coming but they don’t know when it’s going to be here,” he said. “I have no choice. I have to sit here all day with her until I get gas.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday morning that the state opened three fuel distribution sites and planned to open several more. Residents can get 10 gallons (37.85 liters) each, free of charge, he said.
“Obviously as power gets restored ... and the Port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option,” DeSantis said.
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Far from where Hurricane Milton's eye hit, tornadoes wrought unexpected damage
WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) — Tony Brazzale, a diving boat captain who has lived for 10 years in his Wellington home in southeastern Florida, wasn't worried about Hurricane Milton. The storm's center was forecast to make landfall on the opposite side of the peninsula and then cross the state well to the north of his family.
But on Wednesday afternoon as the hurricane began to pummel the state, he stood outside his house and watched as a tornado loomed in the sky. He took video on his phone. The pressure dropped, and his wife said her ears were popping. It was time to go inside.
The twister shattered windows in the home, tore off roof shingles, ripped a tree from the ground and left branches and other debris scattered in the yard. Two days later Brazzale was wearing safety goggles and using a chainsaw as he cleaned up the damage.
“The hurricane was a nonevent for us,” he said. “Had it not been for an F-3 tornado, the entire thing would have been a nonevent for us.”
It was one of dozens of tornadoes spawned by Milton that hit South Florida far from where the storm made landfall near Sarasota. One of them killed at least six people in Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce, about an hour's drive north from Wellington.
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Fight for House raging in districts ringing NYC where Trump struggled but other Republicans thrived
NELSONVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Voters in a ring of congressional districts encircling New York City where Republican candidates often do well but Donald Trump struggled in 2020 could decide which party controls the U.S. House for the next two years.
Eleven districts within a 90-mile drive of Manhattan are expected to be among the country's most closely contested House races on Election Day.
Republicans hold a slim 6-5 edge now in the nearly contiguous circle that starts in the Long Island suburbs, cuts through western Connecticut and New York's Hudson River Valley and Catskills regions, then carves through eastern Pennsylvania before curling back into New Jersey.
Both parties have a shot at picking up seats across the broad territory of dense suburbs, leafy exurbs and former mill towns. Democrats have made the region an important part of their strategy to reclaim a House majority, but voters in the districts have been far from uniform in their thinking in recent elections.
They have been united in two key ways: Most have been open to Republican candidates, but they also have shown an aversion to Trump. That means having the former president at the top of the GOP ballot this year could be decisive in congressional races unless opposition to him has softened or voters in the region are willing to split their tickets.
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Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama had frank words for Black men who may be considering sitting out the election.
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh.
America's first Black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris' chances of becoming the second.
Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states such as Pennsylvania in her tight race with Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.
Obama's comments belie that Black men still overwhelmingly back Harris. But her campaign and allies have worked hard trying to shore up support with this critical group of voters — and addressing questions about potential misogyny.
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Donald Trump holds a rally in California, a state he's almost certain to lose
COACHELLA, Calif. (AP) — With the presidency on the line in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Donald Trump spent Saturday night in solidly liberal California, seeking to link Vice President Kamala Harris to what he described as the failures of her home state.
Trump is almost certain to lose California, and that won’t change after his Saturday stop in Coachella, a desert city east of Los Angeles best known for the annual music festival bearing its name. Still, Trump took advantage of his visit to tear into the nation's most populous state, bringing up its recent struggles with homelessness, water shortages and a lack of affordability. Harris, the Democratic nominee, was previously the state’s junior senator and attorney general.
“We’re not going to let Kamala Harris do to America what she did to California,” Trump said, referring to the state as as “Paradise Lost.”
The former president lost California in a landslide in 2020. He did get 6 million-plus votes, more than any GOP presidential candidate before, and his margins topped 70% in some rural counties that typically favor conservatives on the ballot.
That’s an enormous pool of potential volunteers to work on state races and participate in phone banks into the most contested states. And Trump drew media coverage in the Los Angeles market, the second-largest in the country.
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Ted Cruz and Colin Allred wage another big US Senate fight in Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Attack ads on every TV break. Campaign money pouring in. And on a sunny Saturday, a crowd stretching out the door for a campaign rally at Tulip's, a popular Fort Worth nightclub — this time for Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker trying to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Texas is having one of those Octobers again.
With Democrats defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans, Allred's bid could be their best chance to flip a seat next month and preserve their thin Senate majority. Cruz is imploring Republican supporters to take the challenge seriously, six years after his narrow victory over Beto O’Rourke revealed fault lines for Republicans after decades of dominance in Texas.
But Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator, is doing things his own way. Out for more than the moral victories Texas Democrats have settled for since 1994 — the last time they won a statewide election — Allred has run to the center and away from O’Rourke’s barnstorming and break-the-rules blueprint. The different look has frustrated some Democrats, but amid signs of a competitive race with less than a month to go, Allred is sticking to the script.
“Beto didn’t win, but he was successful,” said Ryan Armstrong, 21, who was registering voters outside Tulip’s on a clipboard still adorned with a “Beto for Texas” sticker. “I have a lot of hope that (Allred) will win, but I honestly don’t know if he’s done enough.”
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Transit systems are targeting fare evaders to win back riders leery about crime
CHICAGO (AP) — Dominique Davenport was waiting for a ride home after getting off the MetroLink light rail one night in East St. Louis, Illinois, when he heard an argument followed by gunshots behind him on the station's platform.
A teenager had been killed, the latest act of violence for a St. Louis-area transit system with a reputation for crime and where anyone could board without even showing a ticket.
“You could just be getting off work and somebody gets an attitude," Davenport said. “Big drug addicts, drug dealers, you’ve got so many different personalities, so many different types of people who go through things. And everybody catches the train.”
As transportation hubs across the country attempt to win back riders who haven't returned since the pandemic — 26% as of September 2023 — one major obstacle is the sometimes inaccurate perception that transit crime is on the rise. Many systems are bulking up enforcement and targeting their efforts on people who try to ride without paying.
MetroLink has begun adding 8-foot (2.4-meter) metal gates to ensure customers can't enter the platform without a valid fare card. That's a major change from the honor system the two-state light rail had employed since its inception in 1993, with fares only enforced through onboard spot checks and the threat of fines for repeat violators.
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NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will scour Jupiter moon for the ingredients for life
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth.
Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust where an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there.
“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur.
Its massive solar panels make Clipper the biggest craft built by NASA to investigate another planet. It will take 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter and will sneak within 16 miles (25 kilometers) of Europa's surface — considerably closer than any other spacecraft.
Liftoff is targeted for this month aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission cost: $5.2 billion.
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Dense breasts can make it harder to spot cancer on a mammogram
When a woman has a mammogram, the most important finding is whether there’s any sign of breast cancer.
The second most important finding is whether her breasts are dense.
Since early September, a new U.S. rule requires mammography centers to inform women about their breast density — information that isn’t entirely new for some women because many states already had similar requirements.
Here’s what to know about why breast density is important.
No, dense breasts are not bad. In fact, they’re quite normal. About 40% of women ages 40 and older have dense breasts.
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