AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

It’s not just Israeli bombs that have killed children in Gaza. Now some are dying of hunger too

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — It’s not just Israeli bombs that have killed children in war-ravaged Gaza — now some are dying of hunger.

Officials have been warning for months that Israel’s siege and offensive were pushing the Palestinian territory into famine.

Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces and has suffered long cutoffs of food supplies. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Health Ministry. Most of the dead are children — including ones as old as 15 — as well as a 72-year-old man.

Particularly vulnerable children are also beginning to succumb in the south, where access to aid is more regular.

At the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, 16 premature babies have died of malnutrition-related causes over the past five weeks, one of the senior doctors told The Associated Press.

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A ship with Gaza aid is preparing to inaugurate a sea route from Cyprus to the war-ravaged strip

LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — A ship bearing humanitarian aid was making preparations to leave Cyprus and head for Gaza, the European Commission president said Friday as international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the besieged territory that is facing widespread hunger after five months of war.

The opening of the corridor, along with the recent inauguration of airdrops of aid, showed increasing frustration with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a new international willingness to work around Israeli restrictions.

The vessel belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group will make a pilot voyage to test the corridor in the coming days, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Cyprus, where she’s inspecting preparations for it. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a U.S. charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.

Israel said Friday it welcomed the maritime corridor, but cautioned it would also need security checks.

“The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after a security check according to Israeli standards,” Lior Haiat, spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, said on X, formerly Twitter.

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RNC votes to install Donald Trump’s handpicked chair as former president tightens control of party

HOUSTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee voted Friday to install Donald Trump’s handpicked leadership team, completing his takeover of the national party as the former president closes in on a third straight presidential nomination.

Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump’s false theories of voter fraud, was elected the party’s new national chairman in a vote Friday morning in Houston. Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.

Trump’s team is promising not to use the RNC to pay his mounting personal legal bills. But Trump and his lieutenants will have firm control of the party’s political and fundraising machinery with limited, if any, internal pushback.

“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected.

Whatley will carry the top title, replacing longtime chair Ronna McDaniel after she fell out of favor with key figures in the former president’s “Make America Great Again” movement. But he will be surrounded by people closer to Trump.

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Trump attorneys post $92 million bond to support jury award to E. Jean Carroll in defamation suit

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has secured a $91.6 million bond sufficient to cover the money he owes to writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit while he appeals the jury’s verdict, the former president’s lawyer told a court on Friday.

Attorney Alina Habba filed papers with the New York judge to show that Trump had secured the bond from the Federal Insurance Co., a unit of the insurance giant Chubb. The bond would cover the $83.3 million judgement in the lawsuit, plus interest.

Habba simultaneously filed a notice showing Trump, the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is appealing the verdict. The posting of the bond was a necessary step to delay payment of the award until the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can rule on Trump’s legal challenge.

The filings came a day after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan refused to delay a Monday deadline for posting a bond to ensure that Carroll, 80, can collect the judgement if it remains intact following appeals.

Trump faces financial pressure to set aside money to cover both the judgment in the Carroll case and an even bigger one in a lawsuit in which he was found liable for lying about his wealth in financial statements given to banks.

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Foreigners trapped in violence-torn Haiti wait desperately for a way out

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dozens of foreigners, including many from the United States and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country’s international airports.

They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work. Now, they are locked down in hotels and homes, unable to leave by air, sea or land as Haiti remains paralyzed by the mayhem and the gangs’ demands that Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign.

“We are seriously trapped,” said Richard Phillips, a 65-year-old from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, who has traveled to Haiti more than three dozen times to work on projects for the United Nations, USAID and now, a Haitian nonprofit called Papyrus.

After arriving in Haiti in late February, Phillips flew to the southern coastal city of Les Cayes to teach farmers and others how to operate and repair tractors, cultivators, planters and other machinery in an area known for its corn, rice, peas and beans.

Once his work was done, Phillips flew to the capital, Port-au-Prince, only to find that his flight had been canceled. He stayed at a nearby hotel, but the gunfire was relentless, so moved on to a safer area.

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Former president of Honduras convicted in US of aiding drug traffickers

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted Friday in New York of charges that he conspired with drug traffickers and used his military and national police force to enable tons of cocaine to make it unhindered into the United States.

The jury returned its verdict at a federal court after a two-week trial, which has been closely followed in his home country. Hernandez was convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and two weapons counts. The charges carry a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison and a potential maximum of life. Sentencing was set for June 26.

Hernandez, 55, who served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people, patted a defense attorney, Renato Stabile, on the back as they stood along with everyone else in the courtroom while the jurors filed out after the reading of the verdict.

When the news reached nearly 100 opponents of Hernandez on the street outside the courthouse, they applauded and began jumping into the air to celebrate the outcome.

The scene in the courtroom was subdued and Hernandez seemed relaxed as the verdict on three counts was announced by the jury foreperson. At times, Hernandez had his hands folded before him or one leg crossed over the other as each juror was asked to affirm the verdict. They all did.

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The NYPD is using social media to target critics. That brings its own set of worries

NEW YORK (AP) — The first “NYPD: Most Wanted” video was meant to be intimidating.

Over a pounding soundtrack, the montage cuts among stock images and body-camera footage of actual police raids. A fake gun discharges. Real officers break down a door, barking orders at a man asleep on a couch.

As a key turns in a jail cell lock, a New York City police deputy appears on screen to announce the arrest of a teenage suspect — not the person seen in the video moments earlier — in a shooting on a Bronx subway platform.

Produced in-house by the New York Police Department and promoted across its official social media channels, the dramatic two-minute clip reflects a concerted effort by the nation’s largest police force to engage the public and influence policy through a more aggressive online presence.

The strategic shift has brought criticism from former NYPD officials and civil liberties groups who say police leaders shouldn’t use public resources to advance their own policy agenda or attack other civil servants. But the NYPD hasn’t backed down.

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Biden in a hot mic moment shows his growing frustration with Netanyahu over Gaza humanitarian crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ‘s growing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to mount, with the Democrat captured on a hot mic saying that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a “come to Jesus meeting.”

The comments by Biden came as he spoke with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., on the floor of the House chamber following Thursday night’s State of the Union address.

In the exchange, Bennet congratulates Biden on his speech and urges the president to keep pressing Netanyahu on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were also part of the brief conversation.

Biden then responds using Netanyahu’s nickname, saying, “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.”

An aide to the president standing nearby then speaks quietly into the president’s ear, appearing to alert Biden that microphones remained on as he worked the room.

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OpenAI has ‘full confidence’ in CEO Sam Altman after investigation, reinstates him to board

OpenAI is reinstating CEO Sam Altman to its board of directors and said it has “full confidence” in his leadership after the conclusion of an outside investigation into the company’s turmoil.

The ChatGPT maker tapped the law firm WilmerHale to look into what led the company to abruptly fire Altman in November, only to rehire him days later. After months of investigation, it found that Altman’s ouster was a “consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust” between him and the prior board, OpenAI said in a summary of the findings Friday. It did not release the full report.

OpenAI also announced it has added three women to its board of directors: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, a former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, a former Sony general counsel; and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo.

The actions are a way for the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company to show investors and customers that it is trying to move past the internal conflicts that nearly destroyed it last year and made global headlines.

“I’m pleased this whole thing is over,” Altman told reporters Friday, adding that he’s been disheartened to see “people with an agenda” leaking information to try to harm the company or its mission and “pit us against each other.” At the same time, he said he’s learned from the experience and apologized for a dispute with a former board member he could have handled “with more grace and care.”

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Peru arrests an Iranian man accused of planning an attack on an Israeli citizen

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Police in Peru announced the arrest Friday of an Iranian citizen who was purportedly a member of Iran’s Quds Force and allegedly planned to kill an Israeli citizen in the South American country.

Gen. Óscar Arriola, Peru’s police chief, said in a press conference that Majid Azizi, 56, was arrested Thursday in Lima, along with two Peruvian citizens.

Arriola said authorities thwarted the attack against the Israeli. He did not identify the intended target for security reasons. Police are still looking for a third Peruvian they think was in charge of the plot to kill the Israeli man, he said.

Arriola said Azizi entered Lima on March 3, and they were alerted about him by foreign intelligence offices.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently confirm whether Azizi is a member of the Quds Force. Iranian authorities did not comment, and Iranian state media did not acknowledge the arrest early Saturday.