Israel weighs Hamas’ latest response to Gaza cease-fire proposal as diplomatic efforts are revived
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet was set to convene Thursday to discuss Hamas’ latest response to a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, as diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the nine-month war stirred back to life after a weekslong hiatus. Fighting, meanwhile, intensified between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, with the militant group saying it fired more than 200 rockets and exploding drones into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli airstrike the day before. The relatively low-level conflict has literally set the border ablaze and raised fears of a potentially even more devastating war in the Middle East.
Hezbollah fires over 200 rockets into Israel after killing of senior commander
BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese Hezbollah group says it has launched over 200 rockets at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders. The attack by the Iran-backed militant group on Thursday was one of the largest in the monthslong conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, with tensions boiling in recent weeks. The Israeli military said “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” had entered its territory from Lebanon, many of which it said were intercepted. There were no immediate reports of casualties. It said about 160 “projectiles” were launched toward the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and over 15 drones into Israeli territory, but that it had intercepted some of them.
Biden at 81: Often sharp and focused but sometimes confused and forgetful
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s conduct behind closed doors, in the Oval Office, on Air Force One and in meetings around the world is described in the same dual way by those who regularly see him in action. He is often sharp and focused. But he also has moments, particularly later in the evening, when his thoughts seem jumbled and he trails off mid-sentence or seems confused. Sometimes he doesn’t grasp the finer points of policy details. He occasionally forgets people’s names, stares blankly and moves slowly around the room. Biden’s occasional struggles with focus may not be unusual for someone his age.
FACT FOCUS: Trump wasn’t exonerated by the presidential immunity ruling, even though he says he was
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday misrepresented in a social media post what the U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday ruling on presidential immunity means for his civil and criminal cases. “TOTAL EXONERATION!” he wrote in the post on his Truth Social platform. “It is clear that the Supreme Court’s Brilliantly Written and Historic Decision ENDS all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the WHITE HOUSE AND DOJ INSPIRED CIVIL HOAXES in New York.” But none of Trump’s pending cases have been dismissed as a result of the ruling, nor have the verdicts already reached against him been overturned. The ruling does amount to a major victory for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose legal strategy has focused on delaying court proceedings until after the 2024 election.
Labour is hopeful and Conservatives morose as voters deliver their verdict on UK’s election day
LONDON (AP) — British voters are picking a new government Thursday in a parliamentary election that is widely expected to bring the Labour Party to power against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric. A jaded electorate is delivering its verdict on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010. Polls opened at 40,000 polling stations in a vast variety of locales including church halls, a laundromat and a crematorium. Hundreds of communities are locked in tight contests in which traditional party loyalties come second to more immediate concerns about the economy, crumbling infrastructure and the National Health Service.
Ukraine’s army retreats from positions as Russia gets closer to seizing strategically important town
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said its army has retreated from a neighborhood in the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in the eastern Donetsk region which has been reduced to rubble under a months-long Russian assault. Chasiv Yar lies a short distance west Bakhmut, which was captured by Russia last year after a bitter 10-month battle. For months, Russian forces have focused on capturing Chasiv Yar, a town which occupies a strategic, elevated location. Its fall would put nearby cities in jeopardy, compromise critical Ukrainian supply routes and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of seizing the entire Donetsk region.
Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after leaving destruction in Jamaica and eastern Caribbean
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico’s Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake. What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened slightly but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight. Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge, but in nightlife hotspots like Playa del Carmen and Tulum tourists still took one more night on the town.
The questions about Biden’s age and fitness are reminiscent of another campaign: Reagan’s in 1984
The age question for presidential candidates is more than four decades old. President Ronald Reagan answered it with a pledge to resign if he became impaired, and later with a clever joke that reset his campaign from a stumbling debate performance to a 49-state landslide and a second term. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” Reagan said to the question he knew was coming in perhaps the most famous mic-drop moment in campaign history. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience roared, even Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale laughed — and Reagan’s reelection was back on track.
Americans to celebrate Fourth of July with parades, cookouts — and lots of fireworks
Many Americans weren’t letting worries about their pocketbooks keep them from traveling and enjoying fireworks as they celebrate their nation’s birth with parades, cookouts and fiery splashes of colors against the evening sky. Travel records were projected to fall, with people already jamming airports and crowding highways ahead of the Fourth of July to get to their destinations. Fireworks also were expected to reach an all-time high with an untold number of backyard displays in addition to 16,000 professional shows lighting up the horizon from sea to shining sea, a consumer fireworks industry group said. “This is how we celebrate. It’s the bombs bursting in air.
With Taylor Swift heading to Germany, one city has taken her name — at least for a few weeks
BERLIN (AP) — The Swifties are about to take over the German city formerly known as Gelsenkirchen, where American superstar Taylor Swift is set to give three Eras Tour concerts later this month. In honor of the singer, the city has renamed itself “Swiftkirchen” — at least temporarily — to welcome the tens of thousands of fans who are expected to come for her shows on July 17, 18 and 19, German news agency dpa reported. A yellow city sign with the new name — which translates roughtly to “Swift’s Church” — was unveiled Tuesday by Swift fan Aleshanee Westhoff, who suggested the name to the city’s mayor and started a petition a few weeks ago.
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