(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Boxes and bags of humanitarian aid delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, are seen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution center run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the group’s sites, though hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials.

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 54 others, including 14 children, according to hospital officials.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting unrest at the food distribution center, causing the stampede. For the first time since its operations began in May, “a large number” of people in the crowd were armed with pistols, GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay told reporters. He said an American medic was stabbed and wounded.

GHF said the Israeli military had warned it on Wednesday that Hamas had infiltrated the crowd, but did not provide evidence for any Hamas presence, aside from a photo of a pistol that it said one of its contractors had confiscated. As law and order have broken down after months of war, Gaza has seen the rise of criminal gangs and tribal groups that carry weapons and steal and resell aid.

Witnesses said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in entrance.

Since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. GHF’s four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds.

Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, and the territory is teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security experts.

Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos, witnesses say

GHF said it believed that 19 of the dead died from trampling at its food distribution center between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah and one was killed by a stabbing in the crowd.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. It was not clear if the shootings took place during the crush or earlier on the road to the center. Witnesses said Israeli troops fired toward the crowds as they headed to it. GHF said a contractor fired warning shots in the air in order to rescue a child from the stampede.

Witnesses said that thousands of Palestinians arrived at the site early in the morning, and the American contractors guarding it did not open the gates. It was not clear if it was before the site’s opening time or if it was not operating at all, since schedules often change. GHF said the gates were open.

The crowd surged forward at the turnstiles in the fenced-in entranceway, said one survivor, Ahmed Abu Amra.

“The Americans were calling out on the loudspeakers, ‘Go back, go back.’ But no one could turn around because it was so crowded,” he said. “Everyone was on top of each other. We tried to pull out the people who were underneath, but we couldn’t. The Americans were throwing stun grenades at us.”

Other witnesses said the contractors used pepper spray as well. The Health Ministry said tear gas was used, but GHF denied that.

GHF said it believed Hamas elements in the crowd fomented the unrest. It said the American medic had tried to tackle a man with a pistol before being stabbed by another man.

Distribution has often been chaotic

Distribution at the GHF sites has often been chaotic. Boxes of food are left stacked on the ground inside the center and, once opened, crowds charge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF itself.

In videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds back behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots can also be heard.

The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering Gaza.

Strikes kill dozens as Israel opens a new military corridor

Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. Strikes in central Gaza killed 13 people, including three children. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military tunnels and weapons storage facilities.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that hospitals have received a total of 94 bodies over the past 24 hours, with another 252 wounded.

Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas.

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a new corridor — the fourth — that bisects Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they say is a pressure tactic against Hamas. In the past, these narrow strips of land have been a serious hurdle during ceasefire negotiations, as Israel has said it wants to maintain control over them.

Indirect negotiations in Qatar between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill, after 21 months of war, which began with the militants’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Syrian government soldiers drive in front of a house that was burned during the clashes between the Syrian government forces and Druze militias on the outskirts of Sweida city, southern Syria, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.

Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria’s Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement.

Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement.

Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus

The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military.

The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians.

The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria’s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in footage on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel’s actions as sowing division.

“We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities,” he said, specifically addressing Druze people in Syria. “We reject any attempt — foreign or domestic — to sow division within our ranks. We are all partners in this land, and we will not allow any group to distort the beautiful image that Syria and its diversity represent.”

He said Israel sought to break Syrian unity and turn the country into a theater of chaos but that Syrians were rejecting division.

He said Syrians did not fear renewed war but sought the path of Syrian interest over destruction. “We assigned local factions and Druze spiritual leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in (Sweida), recognizing the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid dragging the country” into a new war, he said.

Syria’s new, primarily Sunni Muslim, authorities have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.

No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces.

Israel threatens further escalation

Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad’s fall.

That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the “painful blows have begun.”

Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders, saying it doesn’t want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

Kats said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”

An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a “multitude of scenarios” and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights.

Syria’s Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday.

Druze fear for the lives of relatives in Sweida

Reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate.

In Jaramana, near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she feared that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, was dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan commuted to Sweida for work and was trapped there when the clashes erupted.

Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husband’s colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal.

“They shot my husband in the hip, from what I could gather,” she said, struggling to hold back tears. “The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened.”

A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted.

She had struggled to reach them, but when she did, she said, “I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before.”

Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it.

It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who had taken up arms to fight back while Assad’s forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting.

“It’s the same right now,” she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are “just people who are protecting their province and their families.”

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas

Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses.

The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in “field executions.”

Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington is “very concerned” about the Israel-Syria violence, which he attributed to a “misunderstanding,” and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: A man surveys debris and flood damage along the Guadalupe River, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

(AP) The leader of Camp Mystic had been tracking the weather before the deadly Texas floods, but it is now unclear whether he saw an urgent warning from the National Weather Service that had triggered an emergency alert to phones in the area, a spokesman for camp’s operators said Wednesday.

Richard “Dick” Eastland, the owner of Camp Mystic, began taking action after more than 2 inches of rain had fallen in the area along the Guadalupe River, said Jeff Carr, a spokesman for the family and the camp. He said Eastland had a “home weather station” and was monitoring the rain on July 4.

But after initially portraying to the media this week that Eastland got the weather alerts about a flash flood, Carr told The Associated Press that critical moment in the timeline of the tragedy isn’t as clear as the family and staff first thought. No one in the family or camp staff, Carr said, could now say whether Eastland got the alert at 1:14 a.m.

“It was assumed that just because he had a cellphone on and shortly after that alert, he was calling his family on the walkie-talkies saying, ‘Hey, we got two inches in the last hour. We need to get the canoes up. We got things to do,’ ” Carr said.

The new account by the family comes as Camp Mystic staff has come under scrutiny of their actions, what preventive measures were taken and the camp’s emergency plan leading up to a during the catastrophic flood that has killed at least 132 people.

The flash-flood warning that the National Weather Service issued at 1:14 a.m. on July 4 for Kerr County triggered an emergency alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones. It warned of “a dangerous and life-threatening situation.” The weather service extended the warning at 3:35 a.m. and escalated it to flash-flood emergency at 4:03 a.m.

Eastland died while trying to rescue girls and was found in his Tahoe that was swept away by the floodwaters, Carr said.

Even without a storm, the cellphone coverage at Camp Mystic is spotty at best, so campers and staff turn on their Wi-Fi, Carr said. He called ridiculous criticism that Eastland waited too long before beginning to evacuate the campers, which he said appears to have begun sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.

“Communication was a huge deficiency,” Carr said. “This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden.”

According to Carr, Eastland and others started evacuating girls from cabins nearest the overflowing river and moved them to the camp’s two-story recreation hall. Of the 10 cabins closest to the river, the recreation hall is the furthest at 865 feet (264 meters) with the closest cabin about 315 feet (96 meters), according to an Associated Press analysis of aerial imagery.

To reach Senior Hill, which was on higher ground , they would have had to cross an overflowing creek, Carr said. At times the young campers were climbing hills in bare feet, he said.

Some of the camp’s buildings — which flooded — were in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered a 100-year flood plain. But in response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county’s flood map to remove 15 of the camp’s buildings from the hazard area. Carr said there were “legitimate” reasons for filing appeals and suggested that the maps may not always be accurate.

Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. Crews in helicopters, boats and drones have been searching for victims.

Officials say 97 people in the Kerrville area may still be missing.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is outside court during the Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

There was no specific reason given for her firing, according to one of the people. They spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Maurene Comey was a veteran lawyer in the Southern District of New York, long considered the most elite of the Justice Department’s prosecution offices. Her cases included the sex trafficking prosecution of Epstein, who killed himself behind bars in 2019 as he was awaiting trial, and the recent case against Combs, which ended earlier this month with a mixed verdict.

She didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.

It’s the latest move by the Justice Department to fire lawyers without explanation, which has raised alarm over a disregard for civil service protections designed to prevent terminations for political reasons. The Justice Department has also fired a number of prosecutors who worked on cases that have provoked President Donald Trump’s ire, including some who handled U.S. Capitol riot cases and lawyers and support staff who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump.

Maurene Comey was long seen as a potential target given her father’s fraught relationship over the last decade with the Republican president. The Justice Department recently appeared to acknowledge the existence of an investigation into James Comey, though the basis for that inquiry is unclear.

Most recently, she was the lead prosecutor among six female prosecutors in the sex trafficking and racketeering case against Combs. The failure to convict the hip-hop mogul of the main charges, while gaining a conviction on prostitution-related charges that will likely result in a prison sentence of just a few years, was viewed by some fellow lawyers as a rare defeat by prosecutors.

But she was successful in numerous other prosecutions, most notably the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges for helping financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. In that case, she delivered a rebuttal argument during closings, as she did in the Combs case.

Her firing comes as Attorney General Pam Bondi faces intense criticism from some members of Trump’s base for the Justice Department’s decision not to release any more evidence in the government’s possession from Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation. Some right-wing internet personalities, like Laura Loomer, who have been critical of Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files had been calling for Maurene Comey’s firing.

James Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s administration. But his relationship with Trump was strained from the start, and the FBI director resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge personal loyalty to the president — an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Trump soon after fired Comey amid an investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that while Russia interfered with the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.

Trump’s fury at the older Comey continued long after firing him from the bureau, blaming him for a “hoax” and “witch hunt” that shadowed much of his first term.

Comey disclosed contemporaneous memos of his conversations with Trump to a friend so that their content could be revealed to the media, and the following year he published a book calling Trump “ego driven” and likening him to a mafia don. Trump, for his part, has accused Comey and other officials of treason.

(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A new idea was recently encouraged by leaders of the city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police to handle the recent violence in the South Side of Pittsburgh. During the weekend of the Fourth of July in 2025, two police officers got injured because someone threw a firework that was lit at police. Shots were also fired at police during that time. According to a PennDOT spokesperson, closures of East Carson Street are pending approval of a special permit from the city, which PennDOT hasn’t received as of Wednesday night. Sources told KDKA the city is considering a partial shutdown of East Carson Street on Friday and Saturday nights to better control the crowds. Security checkpoints at 10th and 18th streets would also have to be walked through by people if they are incorporated.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A Ford logo is seen on signage at Country Ford in Graham, N.C., Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Ford is recalling nearly 215,000 pickup trucks and large SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because brake fluid can leak and cause longer stopping distances. The recall, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, covers the F-150 pickup from 2016 through 2018, as well as Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs from 2016 and 2017. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Dearborn, MI) According to a recent notice from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, Ford is recalling 694,271 Bronco Sport and Escape SUVs. The reason for the recall of these vehicles is because of a fuel injector that is faulty which may leak, which raises fire risks. Certain 2021-2024 Ford Bronco Sport and certain 2020-2022 Ford Escape vehicles that are equipped with engines of 1.5 Liters are vehicles that are involved in this recall.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Oakmont, PA) A man that is from Oakmont, Pennsylvania got accused of allegedly harassing and threatening the CEO of Tampa General Hospital in Florida. According to a news release on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said 63-year-old Lawrence Brunn was charged with cyber harassment. This is involving comments from Brunn against “J.C.,” who is identified as the CEO of Tampa General Hospital. Brunn has been threatening “J.C.” as far as 2023 and one comment is about him wanting “J.C.: killed by guillotine. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, one post said the CEO “should have his head chopped off” and he “should be scared…of we the people.” Brunn is also accused of sending mail to the residence of the CEO, the homes of his neighbors and the board of trustees for the Tampa General Hospital.

(File Photo of a Police Siren Light)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A roll-over crash occurred in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh early this morning which killed one male teenager and injured three others along Beechwood Boulevard. According to Pittsburgh Public Safety, first responders were dispatched to the 1200 block of Beechwood Boulevard between Beechwood Lane and Gettysburg Street just before 1 a.m. One passenger in the car that crashed is in critical condition while another passenger and the driver are in stable condition. All three got taken to the hospital and the fourth teenager involved died where the scene was at that time. There is an ongoing investigation for this incident. According to public safety officials, the investigation points to speed as a factor in this incident.

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: Farmers examine the growth of fresh marijuana for medical)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Two Pennsylvania lawmakers are currently making a push to legalize marijuana that is recreational in the state of Pennsylvania. The two lawmakers that introduced a bill on Tuesday are Democratic Representative Emily Kinkead and Republican Representative Abby Major. According to a press release, Kinkead stated House Bill 20 plans to establish a “stable, well-regulated cannabis market that prioritizes public safety and public health.” That same press release also states from Kinkead that this market will not let children get exposed to marijuana, help opportunity for economics and to encourage social justice.