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Gaza’s desperate civilians flee or huddle in hopes of safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Desperate Palestinians scrambled for escape from northern Gaza Saturday or huddled by the thousands at a main hospital in the target zone in hopes it would be spared, as Israel intensified warnings of an imminent offensive by air, ground and sea following Hamas militants’ deadly rampage in Israel a week ago. Israel dropped leaflets from the air and redoubled warnings on social media for more than 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The Israeli military said it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a concentrated assault on Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said was their underground hideouts at Gaza City.The U.N. and aid groups say such a rapid exodus along with Israel’s siege of the territory would cause untold human suffering. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis already was mounting Saturday amid a growing shortage of water and medical supplies under a week-old Israeli blockade, whic...

Palestinian Americans watch with dread, as family members in Gaza struggle to stay alive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For the unforeseeable future, Laila El-Haddad has one mission: To get the voices of her fellow Palestinians, along with their pleas for help, out to the rest of the world.From her home office in Columbia, Maryland, El-Haddad frantically juggled phone calls this week from journalists seeking her expertise on Gaza and Palestinian Americans trying to get the attention of their local elected officials. In between the calls, the 45-year-old mother and author checked WhatsApp, the global messaging application, for updates from her own family members in Gaza during their brief windows of electricity and internet access. Electricity was since cut off by Israel and internet outages have made it difficult for many to keep in touch.“I’m just trying to stay sane by doing what I can to help,” El-Haddad said.For many Palestinian Americans, there’s a sense of helplessness and hopelessness as they struggle to hear from loved ones in Gaza. Amid a fuel and water shortage, no electrici...

Pro-Palestinian march in Mississauga calls for end of violence against people of Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

Thousands gathered and marched in Mississauga as part of a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday.The rally, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, saw supporters march down Burnhamthorpe Road and through Mississauga City Centre chanting “Palestine will be free” while calling for a de-escalation of violence against the people of Gaza.“We’re here to uplift our people’s cause, we’re here to call for an end of the seize on Gaza,” said Shatha Mahmoud, one of the event organizers, who added she is concerned for family in the southern town of Rafah.The besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water after Israel cut off water and electricity to the enclave as it intensifies its air attacks in response to a bloody Hamas attack last week.A planeload of World Health Organization supplies landed in Egypt and is destined for Gaza when humanitarian access across the border is possible, the U.N. said Saturday.U...

Piper Laurie, 3-time Oscar nominee with film credits such as “The Hustler” and “Carrie,” dies at 91

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told The Associated Press via email, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.”Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others.She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama “The Hustler”; the film version of Stephen King’s horror classic “Carrie,” in 1976; and the romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God,” in 1986. She also appeared in several acclaimed roles on television and the stage, including in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” in the 199...

Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks mark UNESCO World Heritage designation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — For 400 years, Indigenous North Americans flocked to a group of ceremonial sites in what is present-day Ohio to celebrate their culture and honor their dead. On Saturday, the sheer magnitude of the ancient Hopewell culture’s reach was lifted up as enticement to a new set of visitors from around the world.“We stand upon the shoulders of geniuses, uncommon geniuses who have gone before us. That’s what we are here about today,” Chief Glenna Wallace, of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, told a crowd gathered at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park to dedicate eight sites there and elsewhere in southern Ohio that became UNESCO World Heritage sites last month. She said the honor means that the world now knows of the genius of the Native Americans, whom the 84-year-old grew up seeing histories, textbooks and popular media call “savages.” Wallace commended the innumerable tribal figures, government officials and local advocates who made the desig...

Stephen Rubin, publisher of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and other blockbusters, dies at 81

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Rubin, a longtime publishing executive with an eye for bestsellers and a passion for music and public life who helped launched the career of John Grisham, among others, and released such blockbusters as “The Da Vinci Code” and “Fire and Fury,” has died. He was 81.Rubin died Friday at a hospital in Manhattan after “a brief and sudden illness,” according to his nephew, David Rotter.Book publishing is hard to imagine without the raspy-voiced Rubin, a powerful and colorful presence for decades with his tortoiseshell glasses, stylish suits and wide range of friends and colleagues, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Beverly Sills. He hosted memorable parties at his spacious West Side apartment and was a prime source of gossip and alternately profane and loving assessments of friends, colleagues and the greater world.“He would enter a room and immediately fill it,” close friend Jane Friedman, the former CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, told The Associated Press via email. “...

'A humanitarian disaster:' Chicagoans voice concerns for loved ones trapped in Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Israel gave civilians in Gaza a 24-hour warning to evacuate Friday before an expected large-scale invasion in the midst of launching deadly airstrikes across the region in the past week. Feelings of distress escalate for Palestinians in Chicago as they worry for loved ones scrambling to seek safety.Israeli air raids have reduced buildings to rubble, killed dozens of civilians in the past day and minimized access to safekeeping. The U.N. has warned that evacuating more than half of the population would be calamitous and has urged Israel to reconsider action.More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded in Gaza. Associated Press reported that the morgue at Gaza's biggest hospital has overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim. Hospitals in the northern part of the strip have also been ordered to evacuate. "Evacuation is impossible for most people, there is nowhere to evacuate and no way to get there. This is asking to...

15-year-old girl missing from home on Northwest Side

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Police are searching for a teen girl missing from her home on the city's Northwest Side.According to the Chicago Police Department (CPD), a search is underway for 15-year-old Solange Meneses who has been missing since Saturday, Oct. 7.Officers say the teen girl was last seen at her home in the 4300 block of West Parker Avenue in the Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side.Police say Meneses, who has red and auburn hair and brown eyes, stands 5-foot-1 and weighs around 115 pounds. Police did not provide a description of what the teen was wearing at the time of her disappearance.Officers notified the public about Meneses' disappearance in a news release sent out on Friday afternoon.Anyone with information on the whereabouts of 15-year-old Solange Meneses is asked to contact CPD Area Five SVU detectives at 312-746-6554 or dial 911.Tips for police can also be filed at CPDtip.com. Tips can be left anonymously.

George Floyd mourned by sister on would-be 50th birthday: ‘I thought he would be alive to see it’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

George Floyd’s sister is mourning him on what would have been his 50th birthday.The Minneapolis man, who would have celebrated the milestone on Saturday, was instead killed in May 2020 at the hands of a group of white cops.LaTonya Floyd, 55, remembers her little brother as “just a soul full of joy.”“He should’ve been here,” she told People. “I thought he would be alive to see it I thought he’d live to be 100.”Floyd was just 46 when he was murdered at the hands of Derek Chauvin, who in 2021 was convicted of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The horror of his death, which many saw play out in widely broadcast video, reignited the Black Lives Matter movement.“I’m missing him,” Floyd’s sister told the outlet. “I love him. I just can’t help it, I’m going to cry all day.”Also in 2021, Floyd’s family was awarded $27 million in a settlement with both the ...

Area college football: Drake pummels Tommies 52-21

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:54 GMT

The Drake University football team gave St. Thomas a glimpse of the other side on Saturday, throttling the Tommies 52-21 in a Pioneer Football League game in Des Moines, Iowa.The rout was the Bulldogs’ first victory over the Tommies in three meetings over the past three seasons. It ended St. Thomas’ 13-game win streak in the PFL and could cost the Tommies a shot at another conference championship.Drake improved to 3-3 overall, 3-0 in the PFL. St. Thomas fell to 4-3 and 3-1.The Bulldogs started strong on Saturday, with their very first offensive possession ending in a touchdown. And they finished even stronger, outscoring the Tommies 28-0 in the second half and 21-0 in the third quarter, erasing a 21-14 deficit late in the second quarter to lead 24-21 at the half.Drake dominated, rolling up 556 yards of total offense and 31 first downs to St. Thomas’ 183 total yards and 12 first downs.Bulldogs quarterback Luke Bailey passed for 449 yards and six touchdowns in the ro...