4 law officers serving warrant are killed, 4 wounded in shootout at North Carolina home, police say
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Four law officers serving a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm were killed and four other officers were wounded in a shootout Monday at a North Carolina home, police said.
Some of the officers who rushed to the Charlotte neighborhood to rescue the first wave of downed officers were wounded as a second shooter began firing on them after they killed the wanted man, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said.
“Today we lost some heroes who were out simply trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said at a news conference.
After a three-hour standoff, the suburban Charlotte home was torn open. Armored vehicles smashed into it, ripping off windows and entire doorways that were left broken. Several armored vehicles were parked across yards, some with tree branches dangling off them.
The U.S. Marshals Task Force was fired on by the wanted suspect as they approached the house and the man was killed in the front yard, Jennings said. His name was not released, but the chief said he was wanted as a felon illegally possessing a weapon.
___
Israel-Hamas war protesters and police clash on Texas campus, Columbia University begins suspensions
NEW YORK (AP) — Protesters and police clashed Monday at the University of Texas in a confrontation that resulted in dozens of arrests, and Columbia University began suspending students as colleges around the U.S. begged pro-Palestinian demonstrators to clear out tent encampments as commencement ceremonies approach.
From coast to coast, demonstrators are sparring over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll, and the number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000 as the final days of class wrap up. The outcry is forcing colleges to reckon with their financial ties to Israel, as well as their support for free speech. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
The protests have even spread to Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard. In Canada, student protest camps have popped up at the University of Ottawa, McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, The Canadian Press reported.
At the University of Texas at Austin, an attorney said at least 40 demonstrators had been arrested Monday on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, some of them by officers in riot gear who encircled about 100 sitting protesters, dragging or carrying them out one by one amid screams. Another group of demonstrators trapped police and a van full of arrestees between buildings, creating a mass of bodies pushing and shoving and prompting the officers to use pepper spray and flash-bang devices to clear the crowd.
The confrontation was an escalation on the 53,000-student campus in the state’s capital, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.
___
What is the International Criminal Court and why it has Israeli officials worried
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Body
Israeli officials sound increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court could issue arrest warrants for the country’s leaders more than six months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has written in general terms about ICC action against Israeli troops and officials, and Israel’s foreign ministry has said it is also tracking reports of pending action.
The ICC was established in 2002 as the permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities – war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
The Rome Statute creating the ICC was adopted in 1998 and entered into force when it got 60 ratifications on July 1, 2002. The U.N. General Assembly endorsed the ICC, but the court is independent.
___
Ahead of visit to Israel, US’s Blinken presses Hamas to accept new proposal for Gaza cease-fire
CAIRO (AP) — The United States stepped up pressure Monday for a cease-fire deal in Gaza as the secretary of state said a new proposal had been put to Hamas, whose officials were in Cairo talking to Egyptian mediators. Israeli airstrikes killed 26 people in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, according to hospital records.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ahead of a visit to Israel this week, urged Hamas to accept the latest proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.
The terms were not made public. But according to an Egyptian official and Israeli media, Israel has softened its position, lowering the number of hostages it demands that Hamas free during the initial six-week phase of the cease-fire in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
One question is whether that will be enough to overcome Hamas concerns over the cease-fire’s second phase.
Hamas has demanded assurances that an eventual release of all hostages will bring a complete end to Israel’s nearly seven-month assault in Gaza and a withdrawal of its troops from the devastated territory. Israel has offered only an extended pause, vowing to resume its offensive once it is over. The issue has repeatedly obstructed efforts by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators during months of talks.
___
Backers of a ban on gender care for minors in Kansas fail to override the governor’s veto
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas failed Monday to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
The vote was 82-43 in the state House to reverse Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, but that was two votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority.
Two Republicans who’d backed the bill earlier voted against overriding the veto, citing their concerns about provisions that included one that would have barred state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender youth.
The House’s vote came after the Senate voted 27-13 to override the veto, with the exact two-thirds majority required in that chamber.
Under the bill, social transitioning includes “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress,” and the rule against promoting it would have applied to state workers who care for children. The measure doesn’t spell out what constitutes promoting it.
___
Supreme Court rejects Musk appeal over social media posts that must be approved by Tesla
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Elon Musk over a settlement with securities regulators that requires him to get approval in advance of some social media posts that relate to Tesla, the electric vehicle company he leads.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower-court rulings against Musk, who complained that the requirement amounts to “prior restraint” on his speech in violation of the First Amendment.
The case stems from messages Musk posted on Twitter in 2018 in which he claimed he had secured funding to take Tesla private. The tweets caused the company’s share price to jump and led to a temporary halt in trading.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission included a requirement that his posts on Twitter, now known as X, be approved first by a Tesla attorney. It also called for Musk and Tesla to pay civil fines over the tweets in which Musk said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
The funding wasn’t secured, and Tesla remains public.
___
Abducted retired Catholic bishop who mediated between cartels in Mexico is located, hospitalized
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A retired Roman Catholic bishop who was famous for trying to mediate between drug cartels in Mexico was located and taken to a hospital after apparently being briefly kidnapped, the Mexican Council of Bishops said Monday.
The church leadership in Mexico said in a statement earlier that Msgr. Salvador Rangel, a bishop emeritus, disappeared on Saturday and called on his captors to release him.
But the council later said he “has been located and is in the hospital,” without specifying how he had been found or released, or providing the extent of his injuries.
Uriel Carmona, the chief prosecutor of Morelos state, where the bishop disappeared, said “preliminary indications are that it may have been an ‘express’ kidnapping.”
In Mexico, regular kidnappings are often lengthy affairs involving long negotiations over ransom demands. “Express” kidnappings, on the other hand, are quick abductions usually carried out by low-level criminals were ransom demands are lower, precisely so the money can be handed over more quickly.
___
President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discuss migration in latest call
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about cooperating on migration policy as the U.S. leader continues to deliberate whether to take executive action that would crack down on the number of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border.
The call occurred on Sunday at Biden’s request, López Obrador said during his daily news conference Monday in Mexico City. In a joint statement, Biden and López Obrador said the call centered on their joint efforts to “effectively manage” migration and “strengthen operational efficiency” on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We talk periodically,” López Obrador said. “I seek him out, he seeks me out, we chat.”
The joint statement said Biden and López Obrador have directed their national security aides to “immediately” put in place concrete measures to reduce the number of unauthorized border crossings. The policies would also protect human rights, according to the statement. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not elaborate what those new measures were, nor would officials from the National Security Council.
The Mexican leader said the two countries have made progress in controlling unauthorized migration by persuading many migrants not to use illegal methods to move from country to country. López Obrador also applauded a January decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed Border Patrol agents to resume cutting razor wire that the state of Texas had installed along the border to try and deter migration.
___
Winner of $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot is an immigrant from Laos who has cancer
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — One of the winners of a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot this month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland, told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday that he and his 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, are taking half the money, and the rest is going to a friend, Laiza Chao, 55, of the Portland suburb of Milwaukie. Chao had chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them. They are taking a lump sum payment, $422 million after taxes.
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” he said, adding that he’d “find a good doctor for myself.”
Saephan, who has two young children, said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, “How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”
After they bought the shared tickets, Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Saephan and said, “We’re billionaires.” It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day they won.
___
U.S. and Mexico drop bid to host 2027 World Cup, Brazil and joint German-Dutch-Belgian bids remain
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Soccer Federation and its Mexican counterpart dropped their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup on Monday and said they instead will focus on trying to host the 2031 tournament.
The decision left a proposal from Brazil and a joint Germany-Netherlands-Belgium plan competing to be picked for 2027 by the FIFA Congress that meets May 17 in Bangkok.
The USSF said the 2031 bid will call for FIFA to invest equally in the men’s and women’s World Cups.
FIFA said last year it planned to spend $896 million in prize money for the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The governing body devoted $110 million in prize money for last year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe,” USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “I’m proud of our commitment to provide equitable experiences for the players, fans and all our stakeholders. Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe.”
The Associated Press
