Top national stories from the week of Jan. 13

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel’s assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate its Hamas rulers.

The U.S. has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after.”

But in a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a “decisive victory over Hamas.” He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans.

“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”

“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.

More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

More than 24,600 Palestinians have been killed, some 85% of the narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and the United Nations says a quarter of the population is starving.

Hundreds of thousands have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and packed into southern Gaza, where shelters run by the United Nations are overflowing and massive tent camps have gone up. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza, often killing women and children.

Early Thursday, medics said an Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Dr. Talat Barhoum at Rafah’s el-Najjar Hospital confirmed the toll and said dozens more were wounded. Associated Press footage from the hospital showed relatives weeping over the bodies of loved ones.

“They were suffering from hunger, they were dying from hunger, and now they have also been hit,” said Mahmoud Qassim, a relative of some of those who were killed.

Footage emerged Thursday of Israeli troops blowing up the main campus of a university outside Gaza City in a controlled detonation — one of multiple universities they have destroyed. The video, apparently taken by drone, showed a giant explosion engulfing the complex of buildings of Al-Israa University.

The university, a private institution founded in 2014, said in a statement that its main building for graduate studies and bachelor’s colleges were destroyed. It said Israeli forces seized the complex 70 days ago and used it as a base. It was unclear when the explosion took place. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

According to Hamas, Israeli forces have destroyed more than 390 schools, universities, and educational institutions across Gaza.

Internet and mobile services in Gaza have been down for five days, the longest of several outages during the war, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks. The outages complicate rescue efforts and make it difficult to obtain information about the latest strikes and casualties.

There was meanwhile no word on whether medicines that entered the territory Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by France and Qatar had been distributed to dozens hostages with chronic illnesses who are being held by Hamas.

WAR REVERBERATES ACROSS REGION

The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iran-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Low-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target international shipping despite United States-led airstrikes.

The Israeli military said it fired an interceptor at a “suspicious aerial target” — likely a drone or missile — approaching over the Red Sea on Thursday, triggering air raid sirens in the southern Israeli coastal city of Eilat. The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel that mostly fell short or were intercepted and shot down.

Iran has meanwhile launched a series of missile attacks targeting what it described as an Israeli spy base in Iraq and militant bases in Syria as well as in Pakistan, which carried out reprisal strikes against what it described as militant hideouts in Iran early Thursday.

It was not clear if the strikes in Syria and Pakistan were related to the Gaza war. But they showcased Iran's ability to carry out long-range missile attacks at a time of heightened tensions with Israel and the U.S., which has provided crucial support for the Gaza offensive and carried out its own strikes against Iran-allied groups in Syria and Iraq.

Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas to ensure it can never repeat an attack like the one on Oct. 7. Militants burst through Israel’s border defenses and stormed through several communities that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.

Israel has also vowed to return all the hostages remaining in captivity after more than 100 — mostly women and children — were released during a November cease-fire in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Family members and supporters were marking the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, in a somber ceremony Thursday in Tel Aviv.

The red-haired infant and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were captured along with their mother, Shiri, and their father, Yarden. All four remain in captivity.

MEDICINES BOUND FOR HOSTAGES ENTER GAZA

The agreement to ship in medicines was the first to be brokered between the warring sides since November. Hamas said that for every box of medicine bound for the hostages, 1,000 would be sent for Palestinian civilians, in addition to food and humanitarian aid.

Qatar confirmed late Wednesday that the medicine had entered Gaza, but it was not yet clear if it had been distributed to the hostages, who are being held in secret locations, including underground bunkers.

Both France and Hamas had said the International Committee for the Red Cross, which helped facilitate the hostage releases, would have a role in distributing the medications. But on Thursday, the Red Cross said “the mechanism that was agreed to does not involve the ICRC playing any part in its implementation, including the delivery of medication.”

Hamas has continued to fight back across Gaza, even in the most devastated areas, and launch rockets into Israel. It says it will not release any more hostages until there is a permanent cease-fire, something Israel and the United States, its top ally, have ruled out.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 24,620 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, around two-thirds of them women and children, with over 61,800 wounded. It says many other dead and wounded are trapped under rubble or unreachable because of the fighting. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it fights in dense residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 193 of its own soldiers have been killed since the Gaza ground offensive began.

___

Jeffery reported from London and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

___

Israel-Hamas war at 100 days

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president's son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.

The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that the two parties have agreed for Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on Feb. 28.

“His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates,” Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary panel, said in a statement. "We look forward to Hunter Biden’s testimony.”

A request for comment from Hunter Biden's attorneys was not immediately returned.

Republicans had been set to advance a contempt resolution against him to the House floor this week but called it off Tuesday to give the attorneys additional time to negotiate.

The agreement concludes months of contentious back-and-forth between President Joe Biden's son and Republicans who have been investigating his overseas business dealings for over a year in a so far futile effort to connect it to his father.

Republicans, led by Comer and Jordan, first subpoenaed the younger Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting by mid-December. Biden and his attorneys refused to comply with the private interview, saying that it would allow information to be selectively leaked and manipulated by House Republicans and insisted that he would only testify in a public setting.

When Republicans denied those terms, Hunter Biden and his attorneys made two separate appearances at the U.S. Capitol, further angering congressional investigators. In both instances, Biden again refused to testify privately, instead delivering statements to the press where he defended his business affairs and castigated the yearslong investigations into him and his family.

The impeachment inquiry into the president, which began in September, has focused heavily on Hunter Biden and his international business affairs, questioning whether the president profited from that work. It has so far failed to uncover evidence directly implicating Joe Biden in wrongdoing involving his son’s work.

Read more:

Photos: Hunter Biden through the years

SANTA FE, N.M. — A grand jury indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on an involuntary manslaughter charge in a 2021 fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico, reviving a dormant case against the A-list actor.

Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used.

Defense attorneys for Baldwin indicated they’ll fight the charges.

“We look forward to our day in court," said Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, defense attorneys for Baldwin, in an email.

While the proceeding is shrouded in secrecy, two of the witnesses seen at the courthouse included crew members — one who was present when the fatal shot was fired and another who had walked off the set the day before due to safety concerns.

Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger, and the gun fired.

The charges have again put Baldwin in legal trouble and created the possibility of prison time for an actor who has been a TV and movie mainstay for nearly 40 years, with roles in the early blockbuster “The Hunt for Red October," Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” and the sitcom “30 Rock."

Judges recently agreed to put on hold several civil lawsuits seeking compensation from Baldwin and producers of “Rust” after prosecutors said they would present charges to a grand jury. Plaintiffs in those suits include members of the film crew.

Special prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. They later pivoted and began weighing whether to refile a charge against Baldwin after receiving a new analysis of the gun.

The analysis from experts in ballistics and forensic testing relied on replacement parts to reassemble the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts of the pistol were broken during testing by the FBI. The report examined the gun and markings it left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger had to have been pulled or depressed.

The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Forensic Science Services in Arizona stated that although Baldwin repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, “given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver.”

Nation & World

Morning headlines: Frigid weather in the past week blamed for more than 40 deaths nationwide

• Associated Press

The weapons supervisor on the movie set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in the case. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.

“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a suspended sentence of six months of probation. He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the shooting.

An earlier FBI report on the agency’s analysis of the gun found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could go off without pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer, such as by dropping the weapon.

The only way the testers could get it to fire was by striking the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the cartridge, or by pulling the trigger while it was fully cocked. The gun eventually broke during testing.

Weather

Dolly Parton releases surprise songs for her 78th birthday

• By Marianne Garvey, CNN

The 2021 shooting resulted in a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death claims filed by members of Hutchins’ family, centered on accusations that the defendants were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those allegations.

The Rust Movie Productions company has paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators after a scathing narrative of failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before the fatal shooting.

The filming of “Rust” resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the cinematographer’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer.

Read more:

DENVER (AP) — The shooter who killed five people and endangered the lives of over 40 others at a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs was charged with federal hate crimes Tuesday.

The charges, which include gun counts, after Anderson Aldrich, 23 , pleaded guilty last June in state court to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder — one for each person at Club Q during the attack on Nov. 19, 2022.

Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, also pleaded no contest to state charges for hate crimes charges under a plea agreement. The plea was an acknowledgment there was a good chance Aldrich would be convicted of those crimes without admitting guilt. The pleas carried the same weight as a conviction.

The federal charges follow an FBI investigation into the shooting that was confirmed after Aldrich’s sentencing in state court. At the time, District Attorney Michael Allen said the threat of the death penalty in the federal system was a “big part of what motivated the defendant” to plead guilty to the state charges.

Get the full story here:

22 of America's deadliest mass shootings in the past 10 years

July 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado

Dec. 14, 2012: Newtown, Connecticut

Sept. 16, 2013: Washington, D.C.

June 17, 2015: Charleston, South Carolina

Oct. 1, 2015: Roseburg, Oregon

Dec. 2, 2015: San Bernardino, California

June 12, 2016: Orlando, Florida

Oct. 1, 2017: Las Vegas, Nevada

Nov. 5, 2017: Sutherland Springs, Texas

Feb. 14, 2018: Parkland, Florida

May 18, 2018: Santa Fe, Texas

Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Nov. 7, 2018: Thousand Oaks, California

May 31, 2019: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Aug. 3, 2019: El Paso, Texas

Aug. 4, 2019: Dayton, Ohio

Aug. 31, 2019: Midland, Texas

March 16, 2021: Atlanta

March 22, 2021: Boulder, Colorado

April 15, 2021: Indianapolis

May 14, 2022: Buffalo, New York

May 24, 2022: Uvalde, Texas

UVALDE, Texas — Police officials who responded to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas “demonstrated no urgency” in setting up a command post and failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday that identifies “cascading failures” in law enforcement’s handling of one of the deadliest massacres at a school in American history.

The Justice Department report, the most comprehensive federal accounting of the haphazard police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, identifies a vast array of problems from failed communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have, even as terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and agonized parents begged officers to go in.

“The victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School deserved better,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 — and the response by officials in the hours and days after — was a failure. As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers — many of whom had been shot — were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside.”

Even for a mass shooting that has already been the subject of intense scrutiny and in-depth examinations, the nearly 600-page Justice Department report adds to the public understanding of how police in Uvalde failed to stop an attack that killed 19 children and two staff members.

Uvalde, a community of more than 15,000, continues to struggle with the trauma left by the killing of 19 elementary students and two teachers, and remains divided on questions of accountability for officers’ actions and inaction.

The shooting has already been picked over in legislative hearings, news reports and a damning report by Texas lawmakers who faulted law enforcement at every level with failing “to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”

Uvalde school district officers arrived within three minutes of Ramos’ arrival at the school and ran toward the classroom, but as they approached, Ramos fired from inside the classroom. Two officers were hit by shrapnel and police retreated to take cover.

“An active shooter with access to victims should never be considered and treated as a barricaded subject,” the report says, with the word “never” emphasized in italics.

In the 20 months since the Justice Department announced its review, footage showing police waiting in a hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where the gunman opened fire has become the target of national ridicule.

Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Uvalde on Wednesday ahead of the release of the report, visiting murals of the victims that have been painted around the center of the town. Later that night, Justice Department officials privately briefed family members at a community center in Uvalde before the findings were made public.

Berlinda Arreola, whose granddaughter was killed in the shooting, said following Wednesday night's meeting that accountability remained in the hands of local prosecutors who are separately conducting a criminal investigation into the police response.

“I have a lot of emotions right now. I don’t have a lot of words to say,” Arreola said.

The review by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services was launched just days after the shooting, and local prosecutors are still evaluating a separate criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers. Several of the officers involved have lost their jobs.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell said in a statement Wednesday that she had not been given an advance copy of the Justice Department’s report but had been informed it does not address any potential criminal charges.

How police respond to mass shootings around the country has been scrutinized since the tragedy in Uvalde, about 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott initially praised the courage of officers' response and blame was later cast heavily on local authorities in Uvalde. But an 80-page report from a panel of state lawmakers and investigations by journalists laid bare how over the course of more than 70 minutes, a mass of officers went in and out of the school with weapons drawn but did not go inside the classroom where the shooting was taking place. The 376 officers at the scene included state police, Uvalde police, school officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The delayed response countered active-shooter training that emphasizes confronting the gunman, a standard established more than two decades ago after the mass shooting at Columbine High School showed that waiting cost lives. As what happened during the shooting has become clear, the families of some victims have blasted police as cowards and demanded resignations.

At least five officers have lost their jobs, including two Department of Public Safety officers and Uvalde’s school police chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander during the attack.

___

Bleiberg reported from Dallas, Tucker and Whitehurst reported from Washington, D.C.

___

Photos: Scenes of mourning in Uvalde

WASHINGTON — In a notable test Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders forced colleagues to decide whether to investigate human rights abuses in the Israel-Hamas war, a step toward potentially limiting U.S. military aid to Israel as its devastating attacks on Gaza grind past 100 days.

Senators overwhelmingly rejected the effort, a first of its kind tapping into a decades-old law that would require the U.S. State Department to, within 30 days, produce a report on whether the Israeli war effort in Gaza is violating human rights and international accords. If the administration failed to do so, U.S. military aid to Israel, long assured without question, could be quickly halted.

But the roll call vote begins to reveal the depth of unease among U.S. lawmakers over Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas. With no apparent end to the bombardment, Israel’s attacks against Palestinians, an attempt to root out Hamas leaders, are viewed by some as disproportional to the initial terrorist attack on Israel.

In all, 11 senators joined Sanders in the procedural vote, mostly Democrats from across the party's spectrum, while 72 opposed.

“To my mind, Israel has the absolute right to defend itself from Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack on October 7, no question about that,” Sanders told AP during an interview Monday ahead of the vote.

“But what Israel does not have a right to do — using military assistance from the United States — does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people,” said Sanders, the independent from Vermont. “And in my view, that’s what has been happening.”

The White House has rejected the approach from Sanders as “unworkable” as President Joe Biden's administration seeks a transition from Israel and works to ensure support at home and abroad against a stirring backlash to the scenes of destruction from Gaza.

Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, moved to table the measure, arguing it is “counterproductive" and would make it more difficult for the U.S. to prevent escalation of the expanding conflict.

“We do not believe that this resolution is the right vehicle to address these issues. And we don’t think now is the right time. It’s unworkable, quite frankly,” said a statement from the White House National Security Council’s John Kirby.

“The Israelis have indicated they are preparing to transition their operations to a much lower intensity. And we believe that transition will be helpful both in terms of reducing civilian casualties, as well as increasing humanitarian assistance,” Kirby said.

Nation & World

Jason Kelce to retire after 13 seasons with the Eagles, Elton John achieves rare EGOT status, and more top news

• AP, CNN

With repeated overtures to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, including shuttle diplomacy last week by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Biden administration is pushing Israel to shift the intensity of the battle. Some 24,000 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, have been killed and the bombings have destroyed most of the housing units, displacing most of its 2.3 million people in a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Senate action comes as Biden's request for $106 billion supplemental national security aid for Israel as well as Ukraine and other military needs is at a standstill. Republicans in Congress are insisting on attaching vast policy changes to stop the flow of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read more:

Kelly-Moore Paints is shutting down operations nationwide only days after laying off 700 workers and halting production at its Hurst manufacturing plant.

The company said Friday that it unsuccessfully tried to attract new investors to keep the 77-year-old company afloat amid “massive legal and financial burdens that have been weighing on the company for many years.”

Kelly-Moore immediately closed its retail stores and production facilities, including the 330,000-square-foot plant in Hurst that opened in 2017. The company said it plans to fulfill as many customer orders as it can from inventory at its Union City, Calif., distribution facility.

Employees would be paid for time worked, the company said, and it pledged to continue collecting on bills in an attempt to meet accrued benefits, such as paid time off.

“Our owners took on significant financial risks in the acquisition last year,” said Kelly-Moore CEO Charles Gassenheimer in a statement. “Unfortunately, despite their extraordinary efforts after acquiring this distressed business, they simply couldn’t overcome the unexpectedly large challenges, and will be exiting the business.”

Miami-based investment firm Flacks Group bought Kelly-Moore in late 2022. Kelly-Moore had $400 million in annual revenues and 1,200 employees at the time. It sold paint through 157 company-managed stores and resellers.

One of the first things the company did after the acquisition was to move its headquarters from San Carlos, Calif., to Irving, Texas. Gassenheimer said at the time that his goal was to grow revenue to the $800 million to $1 billion range.

The paint maker has been fighting lawsuits for years over using asbestos in its cement and texture products. The practice, banned in 1981, has cost the company over $600 million to settle claims. The company estimates it faces another $170 million in future asbestos liabilities.

“Through the cumulative cash drain caused by legal settlements and the cost of defending ever-continuing case filings, the company’s ability to reinvest in the business – including investments needed to address historical supply chain challenges that were exacerbated by the recent pandemic — has been severely constrained for an extended period of time,” the company’s announcement said.

Clayton Tageson, a 33-year store manager in Clovis, Calif., said he learned by email Friday afternoon that he was out of a job. He started with Kelly-Moore as a part-time driver and worked his way up over 10 years.

“I just feel relieved now,” he said. “This is better than sitting in the dark or hoping that something might change while knowing nothing’s gonna change. At least I have an opportunity now to go find another job.”

Tageson said he and his co-workers had suspicions about the company’s financial condition since his store had been operating for months with limited inventory. “But no one was answering our questions,” he said.

“We were constantly having to tell customers that we didn’t have what they wanted. Maybe (Flacks Group) saw the financials coming down, but that message didn’t come down to us.”

Gassenheimer said the company exhausted all alternatives for rescuing the business. Not even filing for bankruptcy or in-court liquidation could save it, he said, since the company is out of money, leases all of its facilities and doesn’t have assets to pay creditor claims.

“My deepest sympathy goes out to our loyal employees, customers, industry partners and the communities where we do business, who have supported Kelly-Moore throughout its long history,” he said.

The move to Texas was supposed to mold the company for the future by exploring new supply-chain partnerships, planning technology and store upgrades, and resolving many asbestos claims, the company said. But attracting investors or acquirers proved to be futile with additional asbestos suits hanging over the company’s head.

Gassenheimer said he’s disappointed with the outcome.

“The ownership group’s commitment from day one was to fix the business if we could,” he said. “Sadly, no matter how great the Kelly-Moore team, products and reputation for service, we simply couldn’t overcome the massive legal and financial burdens that have been weighing on the company for many years.”

Kelly-Moore was one of the nation’s largest independent paint companies, selling 90% of its products to professional paint contractors and other trade professionals.