Live updates | Hamas is expected to respond soon to a proposal that includes hostage releases

A senior Hamas official said Friday the group will respond “very soon” to a proposal that includes extended pauses in Gaza fighting and phased exchanges of Hamas-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas and other militants in Gaza are holding dozens of hostages, after having abducted about 250 during their deadly Oct. 7 attack … Read more

Live updates | 150 people are killed in Gaza in 24 hours, Health Ministry says

Gaza’s Health Ministry says 150 people have been killed in the territory in the last 24 hours and another 313 were wounded as Israeli forces continue to battle militants, even in the northern part of the territory. The north, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened, was the initial target of Israel’s ground offensive in late … Read more

Nearly 400 Ethiopians have died of starvation recently. Millions more need food aid

KAMPALA, Uganda — Nearly 400 people have died of starvation in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions in recent months, the national ombudsman said Tuesday, a rare admission of hunger-related deaths by a federal body. Local officials have previously reported starvation deaths in their districts, but Ethiopia’s federal government has insisted these reports are “completely wrong”. … Read more

Live updates | Israeli forces raid a West Bank hospital, killing 3 Palestinian militants

Israeli forces have killed three Palestinian militants in a raid on a hospital in the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The Israeli military said forces entered the Ibn Sina hospital in the northern city of Jenin early Tuesday where they shot and killed the three … Read more

France’s protesting farmers encircle Paris with tractor barricades, vowing a ‘siege’ over grievances

JOSSIGNY, France — JOSSIGNY, France (AP) — Protesting farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades Monday, using hundreds of lumbering tractors and mounds of hay bales to block highways leading to France’s capital to pressure the government over the future of their industry, which has been shaken by repercussions of the Ukraine war. The blockading of … Read more

Live updates | UN aid agency serving Palestinians in Gaza faces more funding cuts amid Oct 7 claims

The U.N. aid agency serving Palestinians in Gaza faced more funding cuts Monday amid accusations that 12 of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. An Israeli document obtained by The Associated Press on Monday details Israeli claims that U.N. teachers and a social worker employed by the … Read more

Movie Review: In ‘I.S.S.,’ war on Earth disrupts life aboard the International Space Station

With war raging in Ukraine and U.S.-Russia relations below freezing, the Cold War movie may be alive, again, too. After decades when fears of mutual destruction and nuclear fallout filtered into movies from “Fail Safe” to “WarGames,” anxiety over current Russian-American geopolitics plays a provocative role in the new space thriller “I.S.S.” Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film, … Read more

UN agency chiefs say Gaza needs more aid to arrive faster

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Gaza urgently needs more aid or its desperate population will suffer widespread famine and disease, the heads of three major U.N. agencies warned Monday, as authorities in the enclave reported that the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 24,000. While the U.N. agency chiefs did not directly point a … Read more

Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86. The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, … Read more

Live updates | Palestinian refugee camps shelled in central Gaza as Israel seeks to expand offensive

Israel is apparently preparing to expand its ground offensive in Gaza into a third section of the territory. Palestinian refugee camps were bombarded in central Gaza on Tuesday, residents said. More than 20,600 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in … Read more