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Hamas Surprise Attack out of Gaza Stuns Israel and Leaves Hundreds Dead in Fighting, Retaliation Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday, killing dozens and stunning the country. Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.” https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2

Kevin McCarthy Voted Out as Speaker of the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history, The 216-210 vote, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives, throws the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, brought forward the “motion to vacate” drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership. https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555

Trump Charged by Justice Department for Efforts to Overturn His 2020 Presidential Election Loss Donald Trump was charged Tuesday in a Justice Department investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a frantic but ultimately failed endeavor that culminated in the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. The indictment, the third criminal case brought against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024, follows a long-running federal investigation into schemes by Trump and his allies to subvert the peaceful transfer of power and keep him in office despite a decisive loss to Joe Biden. https://apnews.com/article/trump-indicted-jan-6-investigation-special-counsel-debb59bb7a4d9f93f7e2dace01feccdc

Scientists Discover That Universe Is Awash in Gravitational Waves Scientists on Wednesday unveiled evidence that gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted by Albert Einstein more than a century ago, are permeating the universe at low frequencies - creating a cosmic background hum. https://www.reuters.com/science/scientists-discover-that-universe-is-awash-gravitational-waves-2023-06-29/

Russia Says Wagner Group’s Leader Will Move to Belarus After His Rebellious March Challenged Putin The head of the private Russian military company Wagner will move to neighboring Belarus as part of deal to defuse rebellion tensions and the criminal case against him will be closed, the Kremlin said Saturday. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troops who joined him in the uprising will not face prosecution and those who did not will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-wagner-prigozhin-9acbdf1eda849692ca0423a4116058d1

Russian Mercenary Chief Who Called for Rebellion Confirms He and His Troops Reached City in Russia The owner of the Wagner private military contractor who called for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister confirmed Saturday morning that he and his troops have reached a key Russian city after crossing the border from Ukraine. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-wagner-prigozhin-9acbdf1eda849692ca0423a4116058d1

Trump Charged over Classified Documents in 1st Federal Indictment of an Ex-President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was indicted for mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw. The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if he’s convicted. https://apnews.com/article/trump-justice-department-indictment-classified-documents-miami-182ac44fde89767bc0c3e634f61686bd

WHO Downgrades COVID Pandemic, Says It’s No Longer Emergency The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide. The announcement, made more than three years after WHO declared the coronavirus an international crisis, offers some relief, if not an ending, to a pandemic that stirred fear and suspicion, hand-wringing and finger-pointing across the globe. https://apnews.com/article/who-declares-covid-emergency-over-pandemic-8b6445735df5218b5d9d6ec32fa047ca

Grand Jury Votes to Indict Donald Trump in New York Mr. Trump will be the first former president to face criminal charges. The precise charges are not yet known, but the case is focused on a hush-money payment to a porn star during his 2016 campaign. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/30/nyregion/trump-indictment-news

Powerful Quake Kills At Least 360 People in Turkey, Syria A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors in the rubble in cities and towns across the area. At least 360 were killed and hundreds injured, and the toll was expected to rise. https://apnews.com/article/earthquake-shakes-turkey-b927808f6a5c54bdb669120faa40b7bc

Pro-Bolsonaro Protesters Storm Brazil’s Congress in Capital Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress in the capital on Sunday, climbing on top of its roof and breaking the glass in its windows. https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-government-caribbean-0c03c098a5e2a09ac534412c30ae8355

McCarthy Elected House Speaker in Vote 15 after Chaotic Week Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions boiling over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern. After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to become supporters, including the chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, leaving him just a few shy of seizing the gavel for the new Congress. https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-house-of-representatives-kevin-mccarthy-us-republican-party-0938c7358f41c83759246f8949ac7c15

Barbara Walters, Trailblazing TV Icon, Dies at 93 Barbara Walters, the trailblazing television news broadcaster and longtime ABC News anchor and correspondent who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died. She was 93. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/barbara-walters-trailblazing-tv-icon-dies-93/story?id=41435083

Pelé, Brazil’s Mighty King of ‘Beautiful Game,’ Has Died Pelé, the Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the last century, died Thursday. He was 82. The standard-bearer of “the beautiful game” had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021. He had been hospitalized for the last month with multiple ailments. https://apnews.com/article/pele-soccer-star-dead-f2c5f7d2771b96dbd854cb025ab2563a

Peru’s President Quickly Ousted After Moving to Dissolve Congress Peru’s president on Wednesday announced the dissolution of Congress and the installation of an emergency government to rule by decree, in a stunning move that political leaders across the spectrum were quick to denounce as a coup attempt. President Pedro Castillo spoke hours before Congress had scheduled a vote on impeaching Mr. Castillo on corruption charges. After Mr. Castillo’s announcement, Congress moved up its meeting and swiftly voted to remove him from office. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/world/americas/peru-pedro-castillo-coup.html

Artemis I Mission Takes Flight in Historic Leap Forward for NASA’s Moon Program The historic Artemis I mission took flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of anticipation. The milestone event kicked off a journey that will send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon, paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/world/artemis-1-launch-nasa-scn/index.html

At Least 132 Killed in India as Suspension Bridge Collapses At least 132 people were killed after a century-old pedestrian bridge collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday evening, sending hundreds plunging into the Machchhu River, officials said. https://nyti.ms/3sMbfQx

Lula Defeats Bolsonaro to Become Brazil’s President — Again Brazil’s electoral authority said Sunday that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Worker’s Party defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to become the country’s next president. https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-religion-caribbean-voting-ed2130a095ca42ff1be324a3dea9f355

South Korea Halloween Crush Kills 59, Injures 150 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63440849

Putin Illegally Annexes Ukraine Land; Kyiv Seeks NATO Entry Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to illegally annex more occupied Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of his seven-month invasion. Ukraine’s president immediately countered with a surprise application to join the NATO military alliance. Putin’s land-grab and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s signing of what he said is an “accelerated” NATO membership application sent the two leaders speeding even faster on a collision course that is cranking up fears of a full-blown conflict between Russia and the West. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-moscow-referendums-dad270d8dccf8873ba7fe7758c387933