Israel faces new calls for truce after killing of hostages raises alarm about its conduct in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s government faced calls for a cease-fire from some of its closest European allies on Sunday after a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, fueled global concerns about the conduct of the 10-week-old war in Gaza.

Israeli protesters are urging their government to renew negotiations with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whom Israel has vowed to destroy. Israel is also expected to face pressure to scale back major combat operations when U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits Monday. Washington is expressing growing unease with civilian casualties even as it provides vital military and diplomatic support.

The war has flattened large parts of northern Gaza, killed thousands of civilians and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many are in crowded shelters and tent camps. Some 1.9 million Palestinians — about 90% of Gaza’s population — have fled their homes.

They survive off a trickle of humanitarian aid. Dozens of desperate Palestinians surrounded aid trucks after they drove in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, forcing some to stop before climbing aboard, pulling down boxes and carrying them off. Other trucks appeared to be guarded by masked people carrying sticks.

Israel said aid passed directly from Israel into Gaza for the first time Sunday, with 79 trucks entering from Kerem Shalom, where around 500 trucks entered daily before the war. Another 120 trucks entered via Rafah along with six trucks carrying fuel or cooking gas, said Wael Abu Omar, Palestinian Crossings Authority spokesman.

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Black American solidarity with Palestinians is rising and testing longstanding ties to Jewish allies

Cydney Wallace, a Black Jewish community activist, never felt compelled to travel to Israel, though “Next year in Jerusalem” was a constant refrain at her Chicago synagogue.

The 39-year-old said she had plenty to focus on at home, where she frequently gives talks on addressing anti-Black sentiment in the American Jewish community and dismantling white supremacy in the U.S.

“I know what I’m fighting for here,” she said.

That all changed when she visited Israel and the West Bank at the invitation of a Palestinian American community organizer from Chicago’s south side, along with two dozen other Black Americans and Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders.

The trip, which began Sept. 26, enhanced Wallace’s understanding of the struggles of Palestinians living in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation. But, horrifyingly, it was cut short by the unprecedented Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants. In Israel’s ensuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, shocking images of destruction and death seen around the world have mobilized activists in the U.S. and elsewhere.

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Senate border security talks grind on as Trump invokes Nazi-era ‘blood’ rhetoric against immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time slipping, White House and Senate negotiators struggled Sunday to reach a U.S. border security deal that would unlock President Joe Biden’s request for billions of dollars worth of military aid for Ukraine and other national security needs before senators leave town for the holiday recess.

The Biden administration, which is becoming more deeply involved in the talks, is facing pressure from all sides over any deal. Negotiators insist they are making progress, but a hoped-for framework did not emerge. Republican leaders signaled that without bill text, an upcoming procedural would likely fail.

The talks come as Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner in 2024, delivered alarming anti-immigrant remarks about “blood” purity over the weekend, echoing Nazi slogans of World War II at a political rally.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump said about the record numbers of immigrants coming to the U.S. without immediate legal status.

Speaking in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, Trump, drew on words similar to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kempf” as the former U.S. president berated Biden’s team over the flow of migrants. “All over the world they’re pouring into our country,” Trump said.

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Trump says Nevada fake electors treated ‘unfairly’ during rally in Reno

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump called out three of Nevada’s fake electors Sunday, saying they’re being treated unfairly less than 24 hours before they are scheduled to be arraigned for signing certificates falsely stating Trump won the state in 2020.

Trump did not directly mention the charges nor the upcoming court date during a rally in Reno, but he cast the fake electors as victims in a brief portion of a speech that spanned more than an hour.

“A tremendous man, tremendous guy, gets treated so unfairly and he loves this country and he loves this state,” Trump said of Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, who was one of six Republicans indicted earlier this month by a Nevada grand jury.

Trump’s sympathy for the fake electors who tried to help him cling to power after his 2020 defeat comes amid growing alarm about his authoritarian rhetoric as he looks to return to the White House.

Nevada is the fourth state to choose delegates for the Republican presidential nomination, the first in the West and the first with a sizeable Latino population. But it’s gotten little attention from the GOP contenders, who have focused their time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

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Haley slams DeSantis for stumping in Iowa with Massie, who’s opposed votes condemning antisemitism

ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) — Nikki Haley denounced Republican presidential rival Ron DeSantis in Iowa Sunday for campaigning in the state with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, the lone House Republican who voted last week against a GOP resolution condemning antisemitism on university campuses.

“You can’t be pro-Israel and bring the most anti-Israel Republican into this state, who voted against fighting antisemitism on college campuses,” Haley said. “And that’s who he brought to your state.”

Coming at the end of a campaign event at a suburban Des Moines bar and grill, Haley’s criticism of DeSantis for campaigning with Massie on Saturday marks the increased pressure for the two to emerge from Iowa as the stronger alternative to former President Donald Trump.

Trump is the heavy favorite to win Iowa’s leadoff caucuses on Jan. 15. Last week at a campaign event in eastern Iowa, Trump stressed that an Iowa blowout would help him rally the party early in the 2024 voting. “The margin of victory is very important, it’s just very important,” Trump told his audience in Coralville.

DeSantis and Haley have increasingly sparred publicly, as they have during debates, while ads by groups supporting each have sought to stall the other’s movement in Iowa with less than a month until the caucuses.

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Storm drenches Florida and causes floods in South Carolina as it moves up East Coast

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (AP) — An intense late-year storm barreled up the East Coast on Sunday with heavy rains and strong winds that shattered rainfall records, forced water rescues from flooded streets and washed out holiday celebrations.

Authorities rescued dozens of motorists stranded by floodwaters in South Carolina’s waterfront community of Georgetown, Georgetown County spokesperson Jackie Broach said. More than 9 inches (22.9 centimeters) of rain fell in the area situated between Charleston and Myrtle Beach since late Saturday.

“It’s not just the areas that we normally see flooding, that are flood-prone,” Broach said. “It’s areas that we’re not really expecting to have flooding issues…It’s like a tropical storm, it just happens to be in December.”

The tide in Charleston Harbor hit its fourth highest level on record and was “well above the highest tide for a non-tropical system,” according to the National Weather Service.

Rising sea levels driven by human-caused climate change mean even relatively weak weather systems can now produce storm surges previously associated with hurricanes, said Meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder of the Weather Underground. In South Carolina that’s worsened by natural subsidence along the coast.

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Chilean voters reject conservative constitution, after defeating leftist charter last year

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Voters rejected on Sunday a proposed conservative constitution to replace Chile’s dictatorship-era charter, showing both the deep division in the South American country and the inability of political sectors to address people’s demands for change made four years ago.

With nearly all votes counted late Sunday, about 55.8% had voted “no” to the new charter, with about 44.2% in favor.

The vote came more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention and one that many characterized as one of the world’s most progressive charters.

The new document, largely written by conservative councilors, was more conservative than the one it had sought to replace, because it would have deepened free-market principles, reduced state intervention and might have limited some women’s rights.

The process to write a new constitution began after 2019 street protests, when thousands of people complained about inequality in one of Latin America’s most politically stable and economically strongest countries.

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Serbia’s populists claim a sweeping victory in the country’s parliamentary election

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s governing populists claimed a sweeping victory Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election, which was marred by reports of major irregularities both during a tense campaign and on voting day.

Acting Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that with half the ballots counted, the governing Serbian Progressive Party’s projections showed it won 47% percent of the vote and expected to hold around 130 seats in the 250-member assembly. The main opposition Serbia Against Violence group won around 23%, Brnabic said.

The main contest in the parliamentary and local elections was between President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressives and the centrist coalition that sought to undermine the populists who have ruled the troubled Balkan state since 2012.

The Serbia Against Violence opposition coalition was expected to mount its biggest challenge for the city council in Belgrade, with analysts saying an opposition victory in the capital would seriously dent Vucic’s hardline rule in the country.

Vucic, however, said his party was also leading in the vote in the capital, though he added that post-election coalition negotiations would determine who governs in Belgrade.

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North Korea fires long-range ballistic missile into sea in resumption of weapons launches

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea Monday in a resumption of its high-profile weapons testing activities, its neighbors said, as the North vows strong responses against U.S. and South Korean moves to boost their nuclear deterrence plans.

South Korea’s military said in a statement that the North Korean missile flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It said the missile was launched on an elevated angle, an apparent attempt to avoid neighboring countries.

The statement called the launch “a grave provocation” that threatens international peace. It also noted the launch violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic missile activities by North Korea.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said it also spotted a ballistic missile launch by North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that he had so far received no report of injuries or damages from the missile launch and that he planned to hold a National Security Council meeting to discuss the test.

The launch, the North’s first ICBM test-flight in about five months, was its second weapons firing in less than a day. On Sunday night, the North launched a short-range ballistic missile, also into the water off its east coast, according to South Korean, Japanese and U.S. governments.

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As 2023 holidays dawn, face masks have settled in as an occasional feature of the American landscape

NEW YORK (AP) — The scene: A crowded shopping center in the weeks before Christmas. Or a warehouse store. Or maybe a packed airport terminal or a commuter train station or another place where large groups gather.

There are people — lots of people. But look around, and it’s clear one thing is largely absent these days: face masks.

Yes, there’s the odd one here and there, but nothing like it was three years ago at the dawn of the COVID pandemic’s first winter holidays — an American moment of contentiousness, accusation and scorn on both sides of the mask debate.

As 2023 draws to an end, with promises of holiday parties and crowds and lots of inadvertent exchanges of shared air, mask-wearing is much more off than on around the country even as COVID’s long tail lingers. The days of anything approaching a widespread mask mandate would be like the Ghost of Christmas Past, a glimpse into what was.

Look at it a different way, though: These days, mask-wearing has become just another thing that simply happens in America. In a country where the mention of a mask prior to the pandemic usually meant Halloween or a costume party, it’s a new way of being that hasn’t gone away even if most people aren’t doing it regularly.