AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT
Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes on Gaza City
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City early Monday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fourth war with Gaza's Hamas rulers would rage on.
Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes in an attack that was heavier, on a wider area and lasted longer than a series of air raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed - the deadliest single attack in the latest round of violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza. The earlier Israeli airstrikes flattened three buildings.
Local media reports said the main coastal road west of the city, security compounds and open spaces were among the targets hit early Monday. The power distribution company said the airstrikes damaged a line feeding electricity from the only power plant to large parts of southern Gaza City.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
In a televised address on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel's attacks were continuing at "full-force" and would "take time." Israel "wants to levy a heavy price" on the Hamas militant group, he said, flanked by his defense minister and political rival, Benny Gantz, in a show of unity.
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Calls mount for Gaza-Israel cease-fire, greater US efforts
U.N. Security Council diplomats and Muslim foreign ministers convened emergency meetings Sunday to demand a stop to civilian bloodshed as Israeli warplanes carried out the deadliest single attacks in nearly a week of unrelenting Hamas rocket barrages and Israeli airstrikes.
President Joe Biden gave no signs of stepping up any pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire despite calls from some Democrats for the Biden administration to get more involved. His ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told an emergency high-level meeting of the Security Council that the United States was "working tirelessly through diplomatic channels" to stop the fighting.
But as fighting in Israel and Gaza surged to its worst levels since 2014 and the international outcry grew, the Biden administration - determined to wrench U.S. foreign policy focus away from the Middle East and Afghanistan - has declined to ratchet up any public demands on Israel to agree to a cease-fire or further deepen U.S. diplomatic involvement. Appeals by other countries for Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and Israel to stop their fire showed no sign of progress.
Thomas-Greenfield warned that the return to armed conflict would only put a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict even further out of reach. However, the United States, Israel's closest ally, has so far blocked days of efforts by China, Norway and Tunisia to get the Security Council to issue a statement, including a call for the cessation of hostilities.
In Israel, Hady Amr, a deputy assistant dispatched by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to try to de-escalate the crisis, met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who thanked the U.S. for its support.
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AP´s top editor calls for probe into Israeli airstrike
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press´ top editor on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, saying the public deserves to know the facts.
Separately, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel´s bombing of a building housing the media organizations as a possible war crime.
Sally Buzbee, AP´s executive editor, said the Israeli government has yet to provide clear evidence supporting its attack, which leveled the 12-story al-Jalaa tower.
The Israeli military, which gave AP journalists and other tenants about an hour to evacuate, claimed Hamas used the building for a military intelligence office and weapons development. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel was compiling evidence for the U.S. but declined to commit to providing it within the next two days.
"We´re in the middle of fighting," Conricus said Sunday. "That´s in process and I´m sure in due time that information will be presented."
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Israeli paramedics: 2 dead in synagogue bleacher collapse
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli medics said at least two people were killed and more than 150 injured after a bleacher collapsed at an uncompleted West Bank synagogue on Sunday, the eve of a major Jewish holiday.
The bleacher was packed with ultra-Orthodox worshippers and collapsed during prayers at the beginning of Shavuot. A spokesman for Magen David Adom told Channel 13 that paramedics had treated over 157 people for injuries and pronounced two dead, a man in his 50s and a 12-year-old boy.
Rescue workers were on the scene, treating the injured and taking people to the hospital. The collapse comes weeks after 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed in a stampede at a religious festival in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it dispatched medics and other search and rescue troops to assist at the scene. Army helicopters were airlifting the injured.
Amateur footage showed the collapse Sunday during evening prayers in Givat Zeev, a West Bank settlement just north of Jerusalem. The ultra-Orthodox synagogue was packed with hundreds of people.
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Some aren't ready to give up masks despite new CDC guidance
Like more than 120 million other Americans, Jan Massie is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and can pretty much give up wearing a mask under the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But she's still covering her face, even as the temperature rises in her native Alabama, because of benefits she says are too great to give up.
The retired educator didn't catch the illness caused by the new coronavirus, and she also didn't get the flu or her twice-yearly colds while masked during the pandemic. Unlike some, she's not gotten any hostile blowback in public for wearing a mask. So why quit now?
"I´ve worn a mask where it really wasn´t required," Massie, who lives in suburban Birmingham, said Saturday. "Many people, more than I expected, still are, too."
With COVID-19 cases on the decline after more than 580,000 deaths and with more than a third of the U.S. population fully vaccinated, millions are deciding whether to continue wearing face masks, which were both a shield against infection and a point of heated political debate over the last year. People have myriad reasons for deciding to stop, or continuing to wear, a mask.
Many are ready to put aside the sadness, isolation and wariness of the pandemic. Ditching face masks - even ones bedazzled with sequins or sports team logos - is a visible, liberating way to move ahead. Yet others are still worried about new virus variants and the off-chance they might contract the virus and pass it along to others, though the risks of both are greatly reduced for those who are fully vaccinated.
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Trump critic Cheney cautions Jan. 6 riot could happen again
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Liz Cheney, newly ousted from House Republican leadership for challenging former President Donald Trump, criticized GOP colleagues Sunday for downplaying the Jan. 6 riot and condoning Trump´s lies that the 2020 election was stolen, saying they were "complicit" in undermining democracy.
In television interviews, the Wyoming Republican said there was "no question" an attack like Jan. 6 could happen again if Trump's claims go unchecked.
"I think it´s dangerous," Cheney said. "I think that we have to recognize how quickly things can unravel. We have to recognize what it means for the nation to have a former president who has not conceded and who continues to suggest that our electoral system cannot function, cannot do the will of the people."
"We´ve seen not only his provocation of the attack, but his refusal to send help when it was needed, his refusal to immediately say, `Stop,'" she added.
Asked in a separate interview if she believes House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the No. 3 leadership job, are complicit by embracing Trump, Cheney responded: "They are."
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Second Amendment sanctuaries facing 1st court test in Oregon
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The first court test of whether local governments can ban police from enforcing certain gun laws is playing out in a rural Oregon county, one of a wave of U.S. counties declaring itself a Second Amendment sanctuary.
The measure that voters in the logging area of Columbia County narrowly approved last year forbids local officials from enforcing most federal and state gun laws and could impose thousands of dollars in fines on those who try.
Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions have been adopted by some 1,200 local governments in states around the U.S., including Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois and Florida, according to Shawn Fields, an assistant professor of law at Campbell University who tracks them. Many are symbolic, but some, like in Columbia County, carry legal force.
The movement took off around 2018, as states considered stricter gun laws in the wake of mass shootings, including a high school shooting near Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and made survivors into high-profile gun control activists.
After President Joe Biden took office, conservative lawmakers in several states proposed banning police from enforcing federal gun measures, and at least one proposal in Arizona has been signed into law.
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Report: Microsoft investigated Gates before he left board
NEW YORK (AP) - Board members at Microsoft Corp. made a decision in 2020 that it wasn't appropriate for its co-founder Bill Gates to continue sitting on its board as they investigated the billionaire´s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Citing unnamed sources, The Journal reported online Sunday that board members looking into the matter hired a law firm in late 2019 to conduct an investigation after a Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship with Gates over several years.
The Journal reported that Gates resigned before the board's investigation was finished, citing another person familiar with the matter.
An unnamed spokeswoman for Gates acknowledged to The Journal that there was an affair almost 20 years ago, and that it ended "amicably." The spokesperson told The Journal that "his decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter.""
When he left Microsoft's board last year, Gates said he was stepping down to focus on philanthropy.
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Crews battle Los Angeles wildfire that forced evacuations
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A smoky wildfire churning through a Los Angeles canyon community gained strength Sunday as about a thousand residents remained under evacuation orders while others were warned they should get ready to leave, authorities said.
Cool, moist weather early in the day gave firefighters a break, but by afternoon flames starting moving again in steep terrain where tinder-dry vegetation hasn't burned in a half-century, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
"We're definitely seeing increased fire activity," said department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported in the wildfire that broke out late Friday in the Santa Monica Mountains. It smoldered for much of Saturday before erupting in the afternoon.
A thousand or so residents of the Topanga Canyon area were ordered to evacuate their homes as flames raced along ridges, sending a huge plume of smoke and raining ash across surrounding neighborhoods and the U.S. 101 freeway to the north.
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Fauci says pandemic exposed 'undeniable effects of racism'
ATLANTA (AP) - The immunologist who leads the COVID-19 response in the United States said Sunday that "the undeniable effects of racism" have led to unacceptable health disparities that especially hurt African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans during the pandemic.
"COVID-19 has shone a bright light on our own society´s failings," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a graduation ceremony for Emory University.
Speaking by webcast from Washington, Fauci told the graduates in Atlanta that many members of minority groups work in essential jobs where they might be exposed to the coronavirus. He also said they are more likely to become infected if exposed because of medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes or obesity.
"Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants," Fauci said. "Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society."
Fauci said correcting societal wrongs will take a commitment of decades, and he urged the graduates to be part of the solution.
