# Heavy rains leave parts of England and Europe swamped in floodwaters
By **BRIAN MELLEY**
January 5, 2024. 11:26 AM EST

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**LONDON (AP)** - Residents of riverside towns in England that were swamped by rains that washed over Europe this week bailed out Friday as flooding disrupted train service and officials warned that waters could rise in the days ahead.

A powerful storm that brought damaging winds inundated more than 1,000 homes and businesses and left several communities under muddy brown water, officials said. Buildings and cars were submerged as streets turned to streams, farmland was flooded and boats were torn from their moorings.

A landslide and floodwaters disrupted train travel on several lines operating out of London and on routes in southwest England that stretch into Wales.

"It's been a terrible start to the new year," Ken Button said as he pumped water out of the furniture shop where he works in the town of Newark-on-Trent. "We'll have to see what we can salvage."

Heavy rains also left parts other parts of Europe under water as a cold snap gripped northern areas of the continent.

Water levels remained extremely high in the Netherlands on Friday. Many flood plains in the low-lying nation were inundated and residents in some towns around the Ijsselmeer inland sea near Amsterdam used sandbags to protect their homes.

Dozens of Ukrainian refugees were evacuated overnight from a hotel near the town of Monnickendam north of Amsterdam after it was cut off by floodwaters, local broadcaster NH Nieuws reported.

Several roads in the north and northwest of the Netherlands were closed Friday because of flooding.

In France, a flood warning issued at the highest level was lifted near the Belgian border as waters receded.

But several hundred people had to be evacuated and thousands of homes were damaged in a repeat of floods that hit the same region of France in November.

French authorities warned that waterways would likely remain extremely high in the coming weeks.

In the U.K., the ground was already saturated from a series of fall tempests when Storm Henk struck with intense rainfall. Even as drier weather arrived, hundreds of flood warnings were in place Friday and the Environment Agency warned that the impact from flooding could last another five days.

"There's really nowhere for the water to go," Caroline Douglass, the flood director for the agency, told the BBC. "The ground is completely saturated, so in that situation we get more flooding and greater impacts than we've seen, and probably in areas where people aren't used to."

Almost every river in England was listed as exceptionally high by the agency and some set records. The River Itchen in Southampton doubled its previous record for December.

The River Trent through Nottinghamshire county topped its banks, leading the county to declare a major incident, which can help it obtain government assistance. Residents of a trailer park for those over age 55 were evacuated.

Firefighters helped about 50 people evacuate their homes in the Hackney Wick section of East London after a canal burst its banks.

Aerial footage showed where narrow rivers had escaped their channel and spread across lower-lying land.

In Gloucestershire, a county in southwest England, residents waded down a street in knee-deep water. A man with a handsaw strapped to his back canoed across a meadow in the town of Henley-on-Thames.

Cars parked in the town of Wallingford were buried up to their windows in water. A long canal boat that broke free of its tether had tipped on its side and was pinned against a bridge on the River Soar in Leicestershire county.


# Lawyer for alleged victim of Dani Alves files legal complaint after video circulates on social media
By **JOSEPH WILSON**
January 5, 2024. 9:52 AM EST

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**BARCELONA, Spain (AP)** - The lawyer representing the woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves has filed a legal complaint with Spanish authorities after a video circulated on social media that reportedly reveals the identity of her client.

Ester García, the lawyer of the alleged victim, told The Associated Press on Friday that her office filed the legal complaint. Spanish newspaper La Vanguardía said García filed the complaint with Catalan police in Barcelona.

In the video, alleged images of the young woman are shown along with information supposedly revealing her name and other personal data.

The Spanish state prosecutors' office in Barcelona told the AP that it was analyzing the video to see if there were grounds to open a formal investigation. Spanish law forbids the publication of material revealing the identity of someone without their consent.

The prosecutors' office has also asked the Barcelona-based court to ensure it guarantees the privacy of the trial that is scheduled to begin on Feb. 5.

Alves is accused of sexually assaulting the woman in a Barcelona night club in December 2022. The former Barcelona right back has been in pre-trial jail since January 2023. His requests to be released on bail have been rejected because the court considered him a flight risk.

Alves has denied any wrongdoing. He initially claimed he did not have any sexual contact with the woman, but then later said he had consensual sex with the accuser. He was indicted by an investigative judge in August when the court said there was enough evidence to open a trial.

State prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence if found guilty. The victim's lawyers want him to spend 12 years behind bars.

The 40-year-old Alves won 42 soccer titles, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil. He played at his third World Cup in 2022 in Qatar.


# After 16-year restoration, Greece unveils palace where Alexander the Great became king
By **DEREK GATOPOULOS** and **COSTAS KANTOURIS**
January 5, 2024. 9:22 AM EST

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**ANCIENT AIGAI, Greece (AP)** - It was the largest building of classical Greece: the palace where Alexander the Great was proclaimed king before he launched a conquest that took him as far as modern-day Afghanistan.

The Palace of Aigai in northern Greece was fully reopened Friday following a 16-year renovation that cost more than 20 million euros ($22 million) and included financial support from the European Union.

It was built more than 2,300 years ago during the reign of Alexander's father, Phillip II, who had transformed the kingdom of Macedonia into a dominant military power of ancient Greece. Aigai was its royal capital.

"After many years of painstaking work, we can reveal the palace ... What we are doing today is an event of global importance," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at an inauguration event at the site Friday.

The palace contained column-rimmed courtyards, courts, places of worship, and spacious banquet halls, its floors decorated with patterned marble and intricate mosaics. The building covered a ground area of 15,000 sq. meters (160,000 sq feet), a little under the area covered by the U.S. Capitol building.

Shaped like two adjoining, unequally sized, square donuts, the Palace of Aigai was the administrative and spiritual center of the kingdom. The palace remains and nearby royal tombs are a United Nations World Heritage Site at the area next to the modern village of Vergina. Like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, the marble columns were resurrected by fitting pieces of stone unearthed in the ruins together with replica replacement parts.

Some 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of the port city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, Aigai drew international attention in the late 1970s during burial mound excavations in the area of rolling green hills with patches of wild poppies and daffodils.

The late Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos led the digs and discovered the royal tombs, recovering a gold casket and other gold artifacts as well as the bones widely believed to belong to Philip II. The discoveries revealed the sophistication of the ancient Macedonians, who had often been sidelined in historical accounts by attention on Athens.

Angeliki Kottaridi was still an archaeology student at university when she joined the project as a young assistant. She devoted her life's work to the excavations and decades later became the driving force behind the new museum at Aigai, which opened a year ago, and the palace restoration.

She retired on Dec. 31 as head of the region's archaeological service and was honored at Friday's ceremony.

"What you discover is stones scattered in the dirt, and pieces of mosaics here and there," Kottaridi told state television ahead of Friday's inauguration.

"Then you have to assemble things and that's the real joy of the researcher," Kottariridi said. "So when people ask me what makes me happy, I tell them it's not the moment something is revealed. It's the moment you realize you can take the knowledge one step further."

The renovated site will open to the public Sunday.


# China calls for peaceful coexistence and promises pandas on the 45th anniversary of U.S.-China ties
By **KEN MORITSUGU**
January 5, 2024. 9:45 AM EST

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**BEIJING (AP)** - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and transcend their differences like they did when they established diplomatic relations 45 years ago this week.

Wang also promised that giant pandas would return to the U.S. - and specifically California - by the end of the year.

"China-U.S. cooperation is no longer a dispensable option for the two countries or even for the world, but a must-answer question that must be seriously addressed," he said.

Wang struck a relatively positive note at a lavish banquet marking the anniversary with 300 guests at a hall in the sprawling Diaoyutai state guest house complex in the Chinese capital.

The two countries are trying to navigate - and avoid a war - in what may be their most difficult waters since the U.S. ended official ties with Taiwan and recognized the communist government in Beijing as the government of China on Jan. 1, 1979.

China's rise as an economic and military power is challenging long-standing American leadership in the Asia region and globally.

"The world is currently undergoing profound changes unseen in a century," Wang said. "We must think about how to calibrate the direction of the large ship of China-U.S. relations (and) avoid hidden reefs and dangerous shoals."

Both Wang and David Meale, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, cited congratulatory letters exchanged by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday's anniversary.

Meale, who spoke after Wang, said Biden expressed his commitment to managing the relationship responsibly and said he looked forward to building on the progress made by past leaders of the two countries.

Wang did criticize the use of "the big stick of sanctions" and engaging in power games, charges that China often levels at the United States. He denied that China seeks to supplant any other country and called on the U.S. to respect China's development path and core interests.

The giant pandas in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., returned to China last year, and some feared that China would stop lending pandas to American zoos because of the tensions between the two countries.

But Xi raised hope for California in November when he told an audience in San Francisco that China was ready to continue cooperating with the U.S. on pandas and "do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians."

Wang told Friday's banquet audience that "preparations are ready for a giant panda return to California within the year."


# Global food prices declined from record highs in 2022, the UN says. Except for these two staples
January 5, 2024. 10:30 AM EST

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**ROME (AP)** - Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia's war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, was 13.7% lower last year than the 2022 average, but its measures of sugar and rice prices growing in that time.

Last month, the index dropped some 10% compared with December 2022. The drop in food commodity prices in 2023 comes despite a difficult year for food security around the world.

Climate effects like dry weather, flooding and the naturally occurring El Nino phenomenon, combined with fallout from conflicts like the war in Ukraine, bans on food trade that have added to food inflation and weaker currencies have hurt developing nations especially.

While food commodities like grain have fallen from painful surges in 2022, the relief often hasn't made it to the real world of shopkeepers, street vendors and families trying to make ends meet.

More than 333 million people faced acute levels of food insecurity in 2023, according to another U.N. agency, the World Food Program.

Rice and sugar in particular were problematic last year because of climate effects in growing regions of Asia, and prices have risen in response, especially in African nations.

With the exception of rice, the FAO's grain index last year was 15.4% below the 2022 average, "reflecting well supplied global markets." That's despite Russia pulling out of a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Countries buying wheat have found supply elsewhere, notably from Russia, with prices lower than they were before the war began, analysts say.

The FAO's rice index was up 21% last year because of India's export restrictions on some types of rice and concerns about the impact of El Niño on rice production. That has meant higher prices for low-income families, including places like Senegal and Kenya.

Similarly, the agency's sugar index last year hit its highest level since 2011, expanding 26.7% from 2022 because of concerns about low supplies. That followed unusually dry weather damaging harvests in India and Thailand, the world's second- and third-largest exporters.

The sugar index improved in the last month of 2023, however, hitting a nine-month low because of strong supply from Brazil, the biggest sugar exporter, and India lowering its use for ethanol production.

Meanwhile, meat, dairy and vegetable oil prices dropped from 2022, with vegetable oil - a major export from the Black Sea region that saw big spikes after Russia invaded Ukraine - hitting a three-year low as global supplies improved, FAO said.


# Official suggests Polish president check social media security after odd tweet from private account
January 5, 2024. 9:21 AM EST

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**WARSAW, Poland (AP)** - Poland's minister of digital affairs suggested Friday that President Andrzej Duda check the security of access to his social accounts after a bizarre tweet went out that was almost immediately removed.

The tweet published Thursday on Duda's private account said: "Tell him to ask his wife what 'having balls' means. She knows!"

The tweet was quickly deleted, but internet users took screenshots that were shared, creating amusement but also criticism that the head of state wasn't being cautious enough with his online behavior.

Duda's office has not explained what the message published on X, formerly Twitter, referred to, nor did it explain how it was published.

The government, led by Duda's political rival, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, suggested the president should exercise greater caution and said it could offer security assistance.

"Due to the fact that an unusual entry appeared on President Andrzej Duda's account on the X website, which disappeared quite quickly, I asked the president to check the security of access to his social accounts," Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski tweeted.

In the past, Duda has engaged with anonymous users of social media. He also took calls from Russian pranksters who pretended to be the United Nations secretary-general and the French president.


# Companies pull ads from TV station after comments on tattooing and sending migrants to Auschwitz
By **VANESSA GERA**
January 5, 2024. 9:05 AM EST

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**WARSAW, Poland (AP)** - Prosecutors in Poland are investigating after commentators joked on a right-wing television station that migrants should be sent to Auschwitz or be tattooed or microchipped like dogs, and some companies have pulled advertising from the broadcaster.

The remarks were made over the past week by guests on TV Republika, a private station whose role as a platform for conservative views grew after the national conservative party, Law and Justice, lost control of the Polish government and public media.

During its eight years in power, Law and Justice turned taxpayer-funded state television into a platform for programming that cast largescale migration into Europe as an existential danger. The state media broadcast conspiracy theories, such as a claim that liberal elites wanted to force people to eat bugs, as well as antisemitic and homophobic content and attacks on the party's opponents, including the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Spreading hate speech is a crime under Polish law. While public TV stations were shielded from market and legal pressures under the previous government, TV Republika now faces both.

IKEA said it was pulling its advertising from the station, prompting some conservative politicians to urge people to boycott the Swedish home goods giant. Other companies, including Carrefour and MasterCard subsequently said they were pulling their ads, too.

The controversial on-air statements were made as the European Union has been trying to overhaul its outdated asylum system, including with a plan to relocate migrants who arrived illegally in recent years.

Jan Pietrzak, a satirist and actor, said Sunday on TV Republika that he had "cruel joke" in response that idea.

"We have barracks for immigrants: in Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Stutthof," Pietrzak said, referring to concentration and death camps that Nazi German forces operated in occupied Poland during World War II.

Three days later, Marek Król, a former editor of the Polish weekly news magazine Wprost, said migrants could be chipped like dogs, referring to microchips that can help reunite lost pets with their owners, but that it would be cheaper to tattoo numbers on their left arms.

Pietrzak has since appeared on air. TV Republika's programming director, Michał Rachoń, said the channel deeply disagreed with Król's statement but did not say he was being banned from its airwaves, Rachoń said the station "is the home of freedom of speech, but also a place of respect for every human being."

A right-wing lawmaker, Marek Jakubiak, then compared immigrants to "unnecessary waste." In that case, Rachoń, who was the host, asked him to avoid "ugly comparisons."

Prime Minister Tusk strongly condemned recent outbursts of xenophobia and said it resulted from such people and their ideas being rewarded for years by the former government and by current President Andrzej Duda.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum condemned the "immoral political statements regarding refugees."

"This has gone beyond the limits of what is acceptable in the civilized world," director Piotr Cywiński said.

Rafał Pankowski, head of the Never Again anti-racism association, said he was shocked by the comments but heartened by the disgust expressed on social media and the companies pulling advertising.

"It came to the point where society, or a big part of society, is just fed up with all this hate speech," Pankowski said. "The awareness and impatience have been growing for quite some time."


# Italian opposition demands investigation after hundreds give fascist salute at Rome rally
By **FRANCES D'EMILIO**
January 8, 2024. 4:32 PM EST

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**ROME (AP)** - Opposition politicians in Italy on Monday demanded that the government, headed by far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni, explain how hundreds of demonstrators were able to give a banned fascist salute at a Rome rally without any police intervention.

The rally Sunday night in a working-class neighborhood commemorated the slaying in 1978 of two members of a neo-fascist youth group in an attack later claimed by extreme-left militants.

At one point in the rally, participants raised their right arm in a straight-armed salute that harks back to the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Under post-war legislation, use of fascist symbolism, including the straight-armed salute also known as the Roman salute, is banned.

Democratic Party chief Elly Schlein, who heads the largest opposition party in the legislature, was among those demanding Monday that Meloni's interior minister appear in Parliament to explain why police apparently did nothing to stop the rally.

Schlein and others outraged by the use of the fascist-salute in the rally noted with irony that last month, when a theater-goer at La Scala's opera house's premier shouted "Long live anti-fascist Italy!" The man was quickly surrounded by police from Italy's anti-terrorism squad.

"If you shout 'Long live anti-fascist Italy' in a theater, you get identified (by police); if you go to a neo-fascist gathering with Roman salutes and banner, you don't," said Schlein in a post of the social media platform X. Then she added: "Meloni has nothing to say?"

Rai state television said Monday evening that Italian police were investigating the mass salute at the rally.

Deputy Premier Antoni Tajani, who leads a center-right party in Meloni's 14-month-old coalition, was pressed by reporters about the flap over the fascist salute.

"We're a force that certainly isn't fascist, we're anti-fascist," Tajani said at a news conference on another matter. Tajani, who also serves as foreign minister, noted that under Italian law, supporting fascism is banned. All rallies "in support of dictatorships must be condemned," he said.

Leaders of Italy's tiny Jewish community also expressed dismay over the fascist salute.

"It's right to recall the victims of political violence, but in 2024 this can't happen with hundreds of people who give the Roman salute," Ruth Dureghello, who for several years led Rome's Jewish community, wrote on X.

Mussolini's anti-Jewish laws helped pave the way for the deportation of Italian Jews during the German occupation of Rome in the latter years of World War II.

The rally was held on the anniversary of the youths slaying outside an office of what was then the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, a party formed after World War II that attracted nostalgists for Mussolini. After the two youths were slain, a third far-right youth was killed during clashes with police in demonstrations that followed.

Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has its roots in neo-fascism, has taken her distance from Mussolini's dictatorship, declaring that " the Italian right has handed fascism over to history for decades now."

The late 1970s saw Italy blooded by violence by extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing proponents. The bloody deeds included deadly bombings linked to the far-right, and assassinations and kidnapping claimed by the Red Brigades and other left-wing extremists.


# Uvalde report: 376 officers but 'egregiously poor' decisions
By **JAKE BLEIBERG** and **PAUL J. WEBER**
July 17, 2022. 11:55 PM EST

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UVALDE, Texas (AP) - Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but "egregiously poor decision-making" resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed, according to a damning investigative report released Sunday.

The nearly 80-page report was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas town for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers.

Altogether, the report and more than three hours of newly released body camera footage from the May 24 tragedy amounted to the fullest account to date of one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Some families blasted police as cowards and demanded resignations.

"At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety," the report said.

The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building - and it is "almost certain" that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered, according to the report, which laid out in detail numerous failures. Among them:

- No one assumed command despite scores of officers being on the scene.

- The commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a bullet-proof shield and working master key for the classroom, which may have not even been needed, before entering the classroom.

- A Uvalde Police Department officer said he heard about 911 calls that had come from inside the classroom, and that his understanding was the officers on one side of the building knew there were victims trapped inside. Still, no one tried to breach the classroom.

The report - the most complete account yet of the hesitant and haphazard response to the May 24 massacre - was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives. Swiftly, the findings set in motion at least one fallout: Lt. Mariano Pargas, a Uvalde Police Department officer who was the city's acting police chief during the massacre, was placed on administrative leave.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said an investigation would be launched to determine whether Pargas should have taken command of the scene. He also disclosed for the first time that some officers had left the force since the shooting but did not provide an exact number, saying it was as many as three.

"It's a joke. They're a joke. They've got no business wearing a badge. None of them do," Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazar, who was among those killed, said Sunday.

Anger flashed in Uvalde even over how the report was rolled out: Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, whose daughter survived the shooting, shouted at the three-member Texas House committee as they left a news conference after the findings were released.

Committee members had invited families of the victims to discuss the report privately, but Quintanilla-Taylor said the committee should have taken questions from the community, not just the media. "I'm pissed. They need to come back and give us their undivided attention," she said later.

"These leaders are not leaders," she said.

According to the report, 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school. The overwhelming majority of those who responded were federal and state law enforcement. That included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.

"Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any 'villains' in the course of its investigation," the report said. "There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making."

The report noted that many of the hundreds of law enforcement responders who rushed to the school were better trained and equipped than the school district police - which the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police force, previously faulted for not going into the room sooner.

Investigators said it was not their job to determine whether officers should be held accountable, saying that decisions rests with each law enforcement agency. Prior to Sunday, only one of the hundreds of officers on the scene - Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief - was known to have been on leave.

"Everyone who came on the scene talked about this being chaotic," said Texas state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican who led the investigation.

Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol did not immediately return requests for comment Sunday.

The report followed weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement who were on the scene of the shooting.

No single officer has received as much scrutiny since the shooting as Arredondo, who also resigned from his newly appointed seat on the City Council after the shooting. Arredondo told the committee he treated the shooter as "barricaded subject," according to the report, and defended never treating the scene as an active-shooter situation because he did not have visual contact with the gunman.

Arredondo also tried to find a key for the classrooms, but no one ever bothered to see if the doors were locked, according to the report.

"Arredondo's search for a key consumed his attention and wasted precious time, delaying the breach of the classrooms," the report read.

The report criticized as "lackadaisical" the approach of the hundreds of officers who surrounded the school and said that they should have recognized that Arredondo remaining in the school without reliable communication was "inconsistent" with him being the scene commander. The report concluded that some officers waited because they relied on bad information while others "had enough information to know better."

Hours after the report was released, Uvalde officials separately made public for the first time hours of body camera footage from the city's police officers who responded to the attack. It includes video of several officers reacting to word from a dispatcher, roughly 30 minutes after the shooting began, that a child in the room had called 911.

"The room is full of victims. Child 911 call," an officer says.

Other body camera video from Uvalde Staff Sgt.. Eduardo Canales, the head of the city's SWAT team, shows the officer approaching the classrooms when gunfire rings out at 11:37 a.m. Canales asks if he's bleeding, and later says he's bleeding from his ear.

A minute later, Canales says: "Dude, we've got to get in there. We've got to get in there, he just keeps shooting. We've got to get in there." Another officer can be heard saying "DPS is sending their people."

It is 72 minutes later, at 12:50 p.m., when officers finally breach the classrooms and kill the shooter.

Calls for police accountability have grown in Uvalde since the shooting.

The report is the result of one of several investigations into the shooting, including another led by the Justice Department. A report earlier this month by tactical experts at Texas State University alleged that a Uvalde police officer had a chance to stop the gunman before he went inside the school armed with an AR-15.

But in an example of the conflicting statements and disputed accounts since the shooting, McLaughlin has said that never happened. Officers told the committee that the person they thought was the gunman was actually a school coach.

The earlier report had been done at the request of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which McLaughlin has increasingly criticized and accused of trying to minimize the role of its troopers during the massacre. Steve McCraw, the head of Texas DPS, has called the police response an abject failure.

The committee didn't "receive medical evidence" to show that police breaching the classroom sooner would have saved lives, but it concluded that "it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue."

Michael Brown, whose 9-year-old son was in the cafeteria at Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting and survived, came to the committee's news conference Sunday carrying signs saying " We Want Accountability" and "Prosecute Pete Arredondo."

Brown said he has not yet read the report but already knows enough to say that police "have blood on their hands."

"It's disgusting. Disgusting," he said. "They're cowards."


# Texas state police won't punish more officers over Uvalde
By **PAUL J. WEBER**
February 10, 2023. 5:14 PM EST

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**AUSTIN, Texas (AP)** - Texas state police will not discipline any more of its officers over the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead as heavily armed agents hesitated to confront the lone gunman, a spokesperson confirmed Friday.

The decision is a turning point nearly nine months after one of the worst school attacks in U.S. history, and the widespread outrage over the officers who allowed more than 70 minutes to go by before stopping the massacre.

It also raises new questions about how many of the nearly 400 law enforcement personnel who were at Robb Elementary School last May might face discipline. They came from a constellation of agencies in South Texas, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Border Patrol and local police. Two DPS officers have been fired, and one of them is appealing his termination.

In total, five officers in Texas who were on the scene that day are known to have either been fired or resigned.

State police had 91 officers on the scene, more than any other law enforcement agency. Travis Considine, a spokesman for the department, confirmed Friday that four of seven officers placed under internal review after the shooting were cleared of wrongdoing. DPS Director Steve McCraw told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday that no others would face discipline.

"Just the two," McCraw said.

Officers on the scene waited more than 70 minutes before a team finally breached a fourth-grade classroom and confronted the 18-year-old gunman, who had been armed with an AR-15 style rifle and fired more than 140 rounds inside the school, according to an investigative report by Texas lawmakers.

Body camera video, school surveillance footage and witness accounts have since laid bare the lengthy inaction by police and how no officers rushed to stop the attack. McCraw has called the response an "abject failure."

The first DPS officer was fired in October. Another of the seven resigned before the review was finished, then joined the Uvalde school district as a campus police officer. She was fired less than 24 hours after outraged parents in Uvalde found out about her hiring.

Uvalde's school police chief at the the time of the attack was fired in August and the city's acting police chief that day later stepped down.

Several parents of the victims have demanded for months that McCraw resign. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Uvalde, has also said McCraw should go. But the longtime DPS director reiterated to reporters Thursday that he planned to stay on the job.


# Columnist accusing Trump of sex assault faces cross-examination in a New York courtroom
By **JAKE OFFENHARTZ** and **LARRY NEUMEISTER**
January 18, 2024. 6:26 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - With former President Donald Trump no longer in the courtroom Thursday, a columnist who accused him of sexually attacking her concluded her testimony with an emphatic denial that she had benefited from the publicity that followed the allegations.

A Trump attorney tried to show the jury that E. Jean Carroll has achieved the fame, if not the fortune, she desired after the publication of a memoir accusing Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Carroll responded: "No, my status was lowered. I'm partaking in this trial to bring my own reputation and status back."

The testimony came on the third day of a trial in Manhattan federal court that will determine what damages, if any, Trump owes for remarks he made about Carroll when he was president. A jury has already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and defaming her in a separate round of denials he made following his presidency.

In her final day on the witness stand, Carroll said her allegations against Trump - first made public in a 2019 article in New York Magazine - had brought her an unexpected degree of infamy, along with death threats.

An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, countered that Carroll's social media followers increased "exponentially" since the allegations, adding that she had gained professional opportunities and social standing among left-leaning celebrities.

"I've been invited to two parties," Carroll responded dryly, before adding: "Yes, I'm more well known and I'm hated by a lot more people."

Trump, who had attended the first two days of the trial, was in Florida Thursday for the funeral of his mother-in-law.

During the previous day's proceeding, he was scolded by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and threatened with expulsion after a lawyer for Carroll complained he was grumbling about the case loudly enough that jurors could hear him.

Though he was absent from the courtroom Thursday, Trump's presence still loomed over the proceedings, as lawyers for Carroll played a video of his press conference from the previous evening describing the trial as "rigged" and Carroll as "a person I never knew."

On Thursday, Habba also showed jurors a series of mean tweets sent to Carroll in the hours after her allegations became public in 2019 but before Trump released his first public statements - an apparent effort to prove the vitriol directed at Carroll was unrelated to the former president's statements.

"They follow Donald Trump. They want to emulate him," Carroll said. "They're standing up for the man they admire."

The judge quickly shut down the line of questioning, saying it was "simply repetitious."

Carroll has testified that her life changed dramatically after Trump branded her a liar, claimed he never met her and asserted that she made her claims against him to promote her book and damage him politically. She said she lives in fear, sleeps with a loaded gun beside her and wishes she could boost her security but doesn't have enough money.

Last May, a jury in the same courtroom awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower in spring 1996 and then defamed her with statements in October 2022.

In that verdict, jurors rejected Carroll's claim that she was raped, finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. The judge said the jury's decision was based on "the narrow, technical meaning" of rape in New York penal law and that, in his analysis, the verdict did not mean that Carroll "failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.'"

Trump did not attend that trial and has said recently on the campaign trail that he was advised by his attorney to stay away.

Trump has been animated during his two days in the courtroom this week, shaking his head at testimony he disagreed with, passing notes to his lawyers and speaking to them while jurors were in the room.

During his confrontation with the judge on Wednesday, Trump responded to the threat to eject him from the courtroom with: "I would love it."

That prompted the judge to say: "I know you would. You just can't control yourself in these circumstances, apparently."

After he left the courthouse Wednesday, Trump told reporters that Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, was "a nasty judge" and a "Trump-hating guy" who was "obviously not impartial."

Sometime next week, the jury will be asked to determine damages. Carroll is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more in punitive damages.

Northwestern University sociologist Ashlee Humphreys, who testified at last year's trial, told the jury Thursday that Trump's 2019 statements had caused between $7.2 million and $12.1 million in harm to Carroll's reputation after they were seen or heard about up 104 million times through social, print and broadcast media. Her estimates were based on what she said it would cost to repair Carroll's reputation.

Habba said in an opening statement that Carroll should not receive more money, particularly since the death threats and comments she receives on social media are not unusual for public figures with a strong social media presence.

"Regardless of a few mean tweets, Ms. Carroll is now more famous than she has ever been in her life, and loved and respected by many, which was her goal," Habba told jurors.


# Wastewater tests can find mpox, study finds. Expect more bugs to be tracked that way
By **MIKE STOBBE**
January 18, 2024. 1:01 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - Wastewater testing does a good job at detecting mpox infections, U.S. health officials said in a report Thursday that bolsters a push to use sewage to track more diseases.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that over the course of a week, there was a 32% likelihood the tests would detect the presence of at least one person infected with mpox in a population ranging from thousands to millions.

Amy Kirby, who oversees the CDC's wastewater surveillance work, said initially they didn't know if the tests would work for a rare infection like mpox.

"It turns out it worked really very well," she said.

The chance that the tests could detect infections rose as more people were infected. When there were 15 or more people infected in a community, there was a 76% chance wastewater testing could find mpox.

The water that goes down a sink, shower drain or toilet can carry bits of viruses or bacteria that come off the skin or are excreted in urine or poop. Studies have shown wastewater testing can be an early warning system, signaling a bug has hit a community even before doctors start reporting cases.

Whole cities can be watched from a single sample, said Joshua Levy, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California who has studied wastewater monitoring and develops related technology.

"Almost every kind of virus that we've gone looking for is detectable," Levy said.

The U.S. monitoring system is growing but still a patchwork. Currently, 863 of the nation's 3,143 counties - roughly a quarter - are reporting wastewater data to the CDC. Those are larger counties that are home to most of the U.S. population, but it misses a lot of rural homes that aren't hooked up to municipal sewage systems.

This approach to disease tracking rose to prominence in 2020, when health officials began testing wastewater for genetic evidence of the coronavirus. It has grown into a mainstay of the CDC's COVID-19 tracking as fewer nasal swab test results are reported.

In 2022, the CDC began working with a small group of cities to also look for polio in wastewater. That same year also saw a new effort to look for mpox, previously known as monkeypox, which erupted in outbreaks in the U.S. and other countries.

In the new study, the CDC looked at wastewater samples from 89 sites in 16 states, taken from August 2022 through May 2023. When mpox DNA was detected, the researchers checked cases reported by doctors "to basically see if we were seeing the same thing," said the CDC's Carly Adams, the lead author of the report.

It not only worked, the approach appears to be more sensitive for detecting mpox than COVID-19, CDC officials said. CDC officials, however, cautioned it is difficult to do head-to-head-comparisons, because of differences among germs and how well doctors are diagnosing and reporting cases of various diseases.

The CDC has also begun collecting data for flu and RSV - about 40 states have been testing for those viruses and reporting that data. The agency isn't yet posting it publicly as officials work through the best ways to display it, though Kirby said it should go live by next fall.

The agency also plans to start tracking germs that are resistant to antibiotics. And Kirby said by early next year the agency would start monitoring some food poisoning bugs.

"Wastewater surveillance is outperforming everyone's expectations," Kirby said. "We are really excited to see where else we can apply this new tool to help us understand disease in communities."


# Take these steps to protect yourself from winter weather dangers
By **JUAN A. LOZANO**
January 17, 2024. 6:29 PM EST

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**HOUSTON (AP)** - The arctic blast of winter weather that is gripping much of the U.S. this week is also bringing with it various hazards that people have to contend with to keep warm and safe.

These dangers can include carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia and frozen pipes that can burst and make homes unlivable.

Public safety officials and experts say there are multiple ways people can prepare themselves to avoid these winter weather hazards and keep themselves safe.

## STAYING SAFE INSIDE YOUR HOME
Officials say that during a winter storm, people should stay indoors. But home heating systems running for hours can increase the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning as the deadly fumes can be produced by furnaces, stoves and heaters, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Carbon monoxide can also be created when people use portable generators or run cars in their garages to stay warm or charge their phones.

Dr. Alex Harding, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said because carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless, people won't necessarily be aware of it.

"The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be really insidious. They can sneak up on patients and can range from just developing a headache or maybe a little bit of nausea to all the way to losing consciousness and seizures," he said.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said residents should not operate generators inside their homes or even in their garages.

"We all don't want you to sacrifice safety for warmth," Peña said.

## DEALING WITH HYPOTHERMIA
Prolonged exposure to frigid temperatures can put people at risk to hypothermia, a condition that happens when one's body loses heat faster than it can produce it.

"Hypothermia is definitely one of the bigger concerns, especially if we do have any kind of certainty in like power grids or electricity failing," Harding said.

The danger of hypothermia is greater for someone who is outside, exposed to wind gusts and isn't wearing appropriate clothing or has clothing that gets wet.

"If they have a safe place that's warm, where they can hunker down, where they have water and food and all those kind of necessities ... then that's going to limit their exposure to those risks," Hardin said.

But vulnerable populations like people with disabilities or homeless individuals can have problems with finding a warm and safe place to stay. In Houston, officials have worked in recent years to improve their services for disabled individuals and homeless people during winter weather and other situations, like natural disasters, said Julian Ochoa, who is the Houston Office of Emergency Management's emergency preparedness manager for vulnerable populations.

## PROTECTING YOUR HOME'S PIPES
Frozen pipes in a home during severe winter weather is a particular problem in parts of the South, including in Houston, as such equipment is often located outside of structures. But other parts of the country also have to deal with this problem.

Jose Parra, a master plumber with Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical in Houston, advises people to insulate any pipes that are exposed to the outside, turn off and drain sprinkler systems and let faucets inside a home drip during freezing temperatures so water can run through the pipes and protect them.

"A lot of what we're fixing, I would say 80% to 90%, could have been prevented with just a little bit of work ahead of time," Parra said.


# Why the back-to-back health announcements from King Charles III and Kate were so unusual
By **SYLVIA HUI** and **JILL LAWLESS**
January 18, 2024. 2:00 PM EST

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**LONDON (AP)** - The double health announcements from the United Kingdom's royal family - on Kate, the Princess of Wales' abdominal surgery and King Charles III 's prostate treatment - have put a spotlight on the private lives of senior royals.

Details of royal health are always a tricky issue in the U.K., because members of the monarchy are private individuals but also, in a sense, public property. Charles, 75, is head of state, and Kate, 42, is destined to be queen when her husband Prince William succeeds his father on the throne.

The brief media statements on the health scares were so unusual that they dominated Thursday's newspaper front pages, with headlines calling them "royal health bombshells."

The disclosure of Charles' and Kate's health details was seen by some royal observers as a sign that the monarchy is adapting to modern communications after centuries of staying tight-lipped about health matters.

## WHAT WAS ANNOUNCED?
Royal officials announced Wednesday that Kate had undergone "planned" abdominal surgery and was expected to remain in The London Clinic, a private hospital, for 10 to 14 days. She isn't expected to resume public duties until April.

The princess' office at Kensington Palace didn't offer further details, but said that her condition wasn't cancerous. Though she has generally experienced good health and is seen as fit and sporty, Kate was hospitalized during her pregnancies because of severe morning sickness.

William also has postponed some official duties so that he can devote time to his wife and their three children. He visited his wife on Thursday, and British media reported that the Princess of Wales was "doing well."

Soon after the announcement of Kate's hospitalization, Buckingham Palace said that Charles will undergo a "corrective procedure" for an enlarged prostate next week. The palace said the king's condition is benign. Queen Camilla said Thursday that Charles was "fine" and "looking forward to getting back to work."

## A HISTORY OF SECRECY
When U.K. monarchs had real power, news of illness was withheld for fear it might weaken their authority. The habit of secrecy lingered after royals became constitutional figureheads.

The British public wasn't told that Charles' grandfather, King George VI, had lung cancer before his death in February 1952 at the age of 56, and some historians have claimed that the king himself wasn't told he was terminally ill. The public death announcement said only that the king had "passed peacefully away in his sleep."

His father, King George V, died in 1936 after suffering from heart and lung disease. A half-century later, diary extracts were published revealing that the king's physician had injected the terminally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to speed his death - partly so it could be announced in the morning newspapers "rather than the less appropriate evening journals."

## GREATER OPENNESS?
The U.K. and international media have been focused on the health of Britain's senior royals in recent years as the late Queen Elizabeth II faded from public view during the last months of her 70-year reign.

Even then, few specific details were released about the late monarch's condition. The public was told only that the queen was suffering from "mobility issues." The cause of her death in September 2022 at the age of 96 was listed on the death certificate simply as "old age."

Wednesday's announcements gave more details than the public would have expected in the past.

Some royal experts said that while the latest statement on Kate was coy and shrouded in some secrecy, the one on Charles showed that the monarch was keen to try a new and more open kind of communication.

The publicity was seen as a decision by Charles to help boost awareness of prostate health, and encourage other men to have their prostates checked.

"I think it symbolizes the kind of campaigning king that Charles is - he wants to put this issue on the agenda by being quite open and candid," Ed Owens, a royal historian and author, told The Associated Press. "We know that King Charles wants to talk about issues of personal significance - and there's nothing more significant or personal to him than his health."

Releasing the news about both royals on the same day was also about news management, Owens added. While Kate's condition sounded more serious, the king's can be seen as a "positive news story to complement a more complicated one in the case of Catherine's health," he said.

"It means that we haven't got the story rolling on about what exactly (Kate's) been suffering from. Rather, we are instead talking about King Charles III and him wanting to set a good example to other men his age," Owens said.

## 'KING'S PUBLIC HEALTH MESSAGE'
One headline dubbed the release of Charles' health details the "King's public health message." It's worked: Prostate Cancer UK, a charity that promotes public awareness of prostate health, says there has been a surge of interest in its work thanks to the royal announcements.

"We have been receiving lots of calls from men and women that are concerned about them and their loved ones, wanting to talk about their prostate problems and signs and symptoms," said Sophie Smith, a senior specialist nurse at the charity.

An enlarged prostate is common in men over age 50. The condition affects how one urinates, and isn't usually a serious health threat. It's not cancer and doesn't lead to an increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

"It's about getting that conversation started," Smith added. "We know that men often don't talk about it, they don't sit with their mates and say, 'I've getting problems going to the toilet.' It's something quite personal, a bit taboo."

## WIDER IMPLICATIONS
While Charles's condition wasn't worrying, the announcements that the monarch, Kate and William would all be out of action in one way or another in the coming days did lead to larger questions about what happens to matters of state in more serious cases.

This is especially of interest because Charles presides over a much more "slimmed-down" monarchy than his predecessors, with just four royals under 65 years old: William, Kate, Charles's younger brother Prince Edward and his wife Sophie.

When monarchs can't undertake their duties on a temporary basis, "Counsellors of State," who include senior royals like Queen Camilla and Prince Harry, can stand in and deputize if needed.

"It points to a fundamental question - how does the king get the monarchy ready for the middle of the 21st century with this smaller family in tow?" Owens said. "I think it points to the fact that he has to reduce the amount of engagements, the amount of work that is being undertaken by this family."


# 6 alleged gang members convicted of killing Chicago rapper FBG Duck in 2020
January 18, 2024. 12:49 PM EST

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**CHICAGO (AP)** - A federal jury has convicted six alleged gang members in the 2020 fatal shooting of Chicago rapper FBG Duck, a killing that prosecutors said was part of long-running violence over gang territories on the city's South Side.

Jurors deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before announcing Wednesday that they had reached a verdict, convicting the six defendants of murder in the aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.

FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot 16 times outside the luxury clothing store Dolce & Gabbana in Chicago's upscale Gold Coast neighborhood on Aug. 4, 2020. The 26-year-old's girlfriend and another man were wounded in the attack.

The jury convicted Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Smart, 25; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34, of murder in the aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder. Liggins, Roberson, Thomas, Smart and Offerd were also convicted of using a firearm in Weekly's murder.

A life sentence is mandatory for a conviction of murder in aid of racketeering. Sentencing hearings for all six are scheduled for August and September.

Prosecutors said Weekly was killed as part of a yearslong gang conflict between factions of the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples on Chicago's South Side. The six defendants were purportedly members or associates of O-Block, a rival faction of Black Disciples, prosecutors said.

Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. attorney in Chicago, said his office will continue working with law enforcement "to prioritize combating the unacceptable level of gang violence in Chicago."

"The jury's verdicts today hold the six defendants accountable for a brutal murder that took the life of Carlton Weekly," Pasqual said in a statement.

Weekly's mother, LaSheena Weekly, wept Wednesday as she listened to the jury verdicts in an overflow courtroom at a federal courthouse in Chicago.

"When I go home and tell my grandkids that their father('s) justice has been served, that's going to be a big burden lifted off my shoulders," she told reporters after the verdicts were announced. "I just want to thank the United States government for doing a very good job in making sure that these guys will never hurt another mom and another child again."


# Transgender candidate facing disqualification in Ohio now cleared to run despite omitting deadname
By **SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON**
January 18, 2024. 7:17 PM EST

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**COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)** - A transgender candidate vying for a seat in the Republican-majority Ohio House was cleared to run Thursday after her certification had been called into question for omitting her former name on qualifying petitions as required by a little-used state elections law.

The Mercer County Board of Elections chose not take up a vote on disqualifying Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from Auglaize County who is one of four transgender individuals campaigning for the Legislature, for not disclosing her previous name on petition paperwork.

Childrey, who legally changed her name in 2020, has said she would have provided her deadname - the name a transgender person was assigned at birth but does not align with their gender identity - if she had known about the law.

"I would have filled out whatever was necessary, because at the end of the day, while it would have been a hit to my pride, there is something much more important than my pride, and that's fighting for this community," Childrey said.

The Ohio law, unfamiliar even to many state elections officials, mandates that candidates disclose any name changes in the past five years on their petition paperwork, with exemptions for changes caused by marriage. But the law isn't listed in the 33-page candidate requirement guide and there is no space on the petition paperwork to list any former names.

All four transgender candidates for the Legislature this year have run into issues with the name-change law, which has been in place in some form for decades but is rarely used - typically in the context of candidates wishing to use a nickname.

The complications in Ohio come at a time when Republican-controlled state governments nationwide have moved to limit transgender rights. Last year, legislatures passed dozens of bills restricting medical care for transgender youth, governing pronoun and bathroom usage at schools and dictating which sports teams transgender athletes can join.

Earlier this month, Ohio's Mercer County Board of Elections received a protest to Childrey's ballot certification from county Republican Party Chairman Robert J. Hibner. Because the ballot is for the upcoming March 19 primary, the board ruled Hibner's protest invalid, as Hibner is from the opposing political party.

The board did not immediately respond to questions regarding the elections law itself and what role it played in Thursday's decision to keep Childrey on the ballot.

If Childrey were to win the Democratic primary, she would likely face Rep. Angie King, a Republican lawmaker who has sponsored anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and voted for bans on gender-affirming care for minors in November's general election.

Childrey told The Associated Press Thursday that it's "nice to take a deep breath" as she and her team now plunge into campaigning.

"Hopefully people will see that this is a marginalized community in Ohio, and yet we're still standing," she said.

Last week, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said his office is open to putting the rule on the candidate guide but not to tweaking the law and it's up to candidates to ensure they comply with Ohio election law.

But Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that the law should be amended and county boards should stop disqualifying transgender candidates on these grounds. DeWine did not say how it might be amended.

"We shouldn't be denying ballot access for that reason," the governor told Cleveland.com's editorial board. "It certainly should be fixed."

DeWine recently vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, but the state House overrode that veto. The Senate is expected to do the same next week.

Vanessa Joy, a real estate photographer from Stark County running for the Ohio House who legally changed her name in 2022, was disqualified earlier this month for omitting her deadname from petition paperwork. She appealed her disqualification but was denied. Joy, who said the current law is a barrier to transgender individuals who want to seek office but do not want to disclose their deadname, is now working with legal counsel and the Ohio Democratic Party to try to change the law.

Ari Faber, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio state Senate from Athens, was cleared to run but must use his deadname since he has not legally changed it.

Bobbie Arnold, a contractor from West Alexandria running as a Democrat for the Ohio House, had her possible disqualification dismissed Tuesday by the Montgomery County Board of Elections and will be on the ballot in the March primary.

However, under the state law, if Arnold or Childrey were to win their elections, they could still be removed from office for not disclosing their deadname and both are consulting with legal counsel about that part of the law.

Arnold hopes that between Joy's work with her own team to change the law and DeWine's call for candidates to stay on the ballot, that won't be an issue come November.

For now, like Childrey, she's excited to start campaigning.

"It's important for the overall well-being of our society that every voice has an opportunity to be heard," said Arnold, who went to Childrey's hearing to support her. "And that's something that we're not experiencing right now in Ohio."

In light of the outcomes of Childrey and Arnold's cases, Joy appealed again Thursday to the Stark County Board of Elections.


# Netanyahu says he told the US that he opposes a Palestinian state in any postwar scenario
By **NAJIB JOBAIN**, **JOSEF FEDERMAN**, and **JACK JEFFERY**
January 19, 2024. 12:05 AM EST

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**JERUSALEM (AP)** - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected calls from the United States to scale back Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip or take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war, drawing an immediate scolding from the White House.

The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel's war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory.

"We obviously see it differently," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

Netanyahu spoke just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have "genuine security" without a pathway toward Palestinian independence. Earlier this week, the White House also announced that it was the "right time" for Israel to lower the intensity of its devastating military offensive in Gaza.

In a nationally televised news conference, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it realizes its goals of destroying Gaza's Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages held by Hamas.

He rejected claims by a growing chorus of Israeli critics that those goals are not achievable, vowing to press ahead for many months. "We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory," Netanyahu said.

Israel launched the offensive after an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage. Roughly 130 hostages are believed by Israel to remain in Hamas captivity. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

Israel's assault, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, caused widespread destruction and uprooted over 80% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes.

The staggering cost of the war has led to increasing calls from the international community to halt the offensive. After initially giving Israel wall-to-wall support in the early days of the war, the United States, Israel's closest ally, has begun to express misgivings and urged Netanyahu to spell out his vision for postwar Gaza.

The United States has said the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs semi-autonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be "revitalized" and return to Gaza. Hamas ousted the authority from Gaza in 2007.

The U.S. has also called for steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem for their state. Those areas were captured by Israel in 1967.

Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blinken said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel's arch-enemy, Iran.

Without a "pathway to a Palestinian state," he said, Israel would not "get genuine security."

At the same conference, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom is ready to establish full relations with Israel as part of a larger political agreement. "But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state," he said.

Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government opposed to Palestinian statehood, repeated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution. He said a Palestinian state would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.

He said Israel "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River," adding: "That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?"

"This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel," he said.

The comments prompted an immediate rebuke from the White House. Kirby said that President Joe Biden would "not stop working" toward a two-state solution.

Before Oct. 7, Israeli society was bitterly divided over Netanyahu's plan for a judicial overhaul. Since the attack, the country has rallied behind the war. But divisions have once again begun to surface over Netanyahu's handling of the war.

Families of the hostages and their many supporters have called for a new cease-fire that could bring them home. Hamas released over 100 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Dozens of people attended a somber gathering in Tel Aviv in solidarity with the family of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, marking his first birthday. The red-haired infant and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were taken hostage along with their mother, Shiri, and their father, Yarden. All four remain in captivity.

Commentators have begun to question whether Netanyahu's objectives are realistic, given the slow pace of the offensive and growing international criticism, including genocide accusations at the United Nations world court, which Israel vehemently denies.

Netanyahu's opponents accuse him of delaying any discussion of postwar scenarios to avoid looming investigations of governmental failures, keep his coalition intact and put off elections. Polls show that the popularity of Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has plummeted during the war.

## MEDICINES BOUND FOR HOSTAGES ENTER GAZA
There was no word Thursday on whether medicines that entered the territory 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.

The agreement was the first to be brokered between the warring sides since November. The deal includes large shipments of medicine, food and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians as well.

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.

The International Committee for the Red Cross, which helped facilitate the hostage releases, said it was not involved in distributing the medicine.

## FIGHTING IN GAZA
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.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians 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.

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.

On Thursday, the Israeli army said it had destroyed "the heart" of Hamas' weapons manufacturing industry near a major north-south road in central Gaza. It said the complex included weapons factories and an extensive tunnel network used to ship arms throughout Gaza.

## WAR REVERBERATES ACROSS REGION
The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iranian-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 city of Eilat. The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel that mostly fell short or were intercepted and shot down.

Meanwhile, Iran has launched a series of missile attacks targeting what it described as an Israeli spy base in Iraq and militant bases in Syria.


# US forces strike Houthi sites in Yemen as Biden says allied action hasn't yet stopped ship attacks
By **ZEKE MILLER**, **AAMER MADHANI**, and **TARA COPP**
January 19, 2024. 10:02 AM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - U.S. forces on Thursday conducted a fifth strike against Iranian-backed Houthi rebel military sites in Yemen as President Joe Biden acknowledged that the American and British bombardment had yet to stop the militants' attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping.

The latest strikes destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles that "were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch," U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. They were conducted by Navy F/A-18 fighter aircraft, the Pentagon said.

Biden said the U.S. would continue the strikes, even though so far they have not stopped the Houthis from continuing to harass commercial and military vessels.

"When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis, no. Are they going to continue, yes," Biden said in an exchange with reporters before departing the White House for a domestic policy speech in North Carolina.

Hours after Biden spoke, Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement that its forces had carried out another missile attack against the Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned cargo ship Chem Ranger. Saree said the attack took place in the Gulf of Aden, the waters just south of Yemen.

That attack did not affect the ship, U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Thursday.

"The crew observed the missiles impact the water near the ship," there were no reported injuries or damage and the ship continued on its way, Central Command said.

The continued harassment of the ships has driven the U.S. and international partners to take extraordinary steps to defend them through a joint mission named Operation Prosperity Guardian, in which the consortium is trying to create a protective umbrella for the vessels by intercepting any missiles or drones that target them. It has also led the U.S. and British militaries to take measures to knock out missile sites, radars and air defense systems to try to tamp down the Houthis' ability to attack.

On Wednesday the U.S. military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against 14 Houthi-controlled sites. That same day, the administration put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing, while also allowing vital humanitarian aid to continue flowing to impoverished Yemenis.

"These strikes will continue for as long as they need to continue," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, adding, "I'm not going to telegraph punches one way or another."

Despite sanctions and military strikes, including a large-scale operation carried out Friday by U.S. and British warships and warplanes that hit more than 60 targets across Yemen, the Houthis keep harassing commercial and military ships. The U.S. has strongly warned Iran to cease providing weapons to the Houthis.

"We never said the Houthis would immediately stop," the Pentagon's deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said at a briefing, when asked why the strikes have not seemed to stop the Houthis. Since the joint U.S. and British operation got underway last Friday, hitting 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets in that initial round, the Houthis' attacks have been "lower scale," Singh said.

For months, the Houthis have claimed attacks on ships in the Red Sea that they say are either linked to Israel or heading to Israeli ports. They say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. But the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.

The attacks have also raised questions as to whether the conflict between Israel and Hamas has already expanded into a wider regional war.

"We don't seek war, we don't think we are at war. We don't want to see a regional war," Singh said.


# Father of American teen killed in West Bank by Israeli fire rails against US support for Israel
By **JULIA FRANKEL** and **NASSER NASSER**
January 20, 2024. 1:29 PM EST

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**AL-MAZRA'A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank (AP)** - The father of an American teen killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank railed against Washington's military support for Israel, as hundreds of mourners buried the 17-year-old in the family's ancestral Palestinian village Saturday.

The death of Tawfiq Ajaq on Friday drew an immediate expression of concern from the White House and a pledge from Israeli police to investigate.

It was the latest fatal shooting in the West Bank, where nearly 370 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza more than three months ago. The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed concern about violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in recent months.

During Saturday's funeral, the teen's father criticized the long-standing U.S. support for Israel. "They are killer machines," he said of Israeli forces. "They are using our tax dollars in the U.S. to support the weapons to kill our own children."

Tawfiq Ajaq was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, relatives said. His parents brought him and his four siblings to the village of Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya last year so they could reconnect with Palestinian culture.

On Saturday, crowds of Palestinians pulsed through village streets, following men who held aloft a stretcher with the teen's body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag.

Hafez Ajaq implored Americans to "see with their own eyes" the ongoing violence in the West Bank.

"The American society does not know the true story," he said. "Come here on the ground and see what's going on. ... How many fathers and mothers have to say goodbye to their children? How many more?"

The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear.

Ajaq's relative, Joe Abdel Qaki, said that Ajaq and a friend were having a barbecue in a village field when he was shot by Israeli fire, once in the head and once in the chest.

Abdel Qaki said he arrived at the field shortly after the shooting and helped transport Ajaq to an ambulance. He said Israeli forces briefly detained him and other Palestinians at the scene, asking for their IDs before the men could get to Ajaq.

He said Ajaq died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Israeli police said they received a report Friday regarding a "firearm discharge, ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian." Police did not identify who fired the shot, though it said the shooting targeted people "purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities along Highway 60," the main north-south thoroughfare in the West Bank.

Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya is located just east of the highway.

Police said the incident would be investigated. Investigations of those involved in fatal shootings of Palestinians by Israel's police and military have rarely yielded speedy results, and indictments are uncommon.

Asked about the shooting, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said that officials at the White House were "seriously concerned about these reports."

"The information is scant at this time. We don't have perfect context about exactly what happened here," Kirby said. "We're going to be in constant touch with counterparts in the region to - to get more information."

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas staged its deadly attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, Israeli forces have clamped down on suspected militants in the West Bank, carrying out near nightly arrest raids.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says 369 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7. Most of the Palestinians were killed during shootouts in the West Bank that the Israeli military says began during operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen. In several documented instances, Israeli forces and settlers have killed Palestinians who witnesses report were not engaged in violence.

The U.S. has given military and diplomatic support to Israel's war on Hamas, but has urged Israel to scale back the intensity of its attacks. Nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israel's offensive, Gaza health officials said.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.


# A man cleared in a 1996 Brooklyn killing said for decades he knew who did it. Prosecutors now agree
By **JENNIFER PELTZ**
January 18, 2024. 9:36 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - A man who served 14 years in prison for a deadly 1990s shooting was exonerated Thursday after prosecutors said they now believe the killer was an acquaintance he has implicated for decades.

"I lost 14 years of my life for a crime that I didn't commit," Steven Ruffin told a Brooklyn judge after sighing with emotion.

Although Ruffin was paroled in 2010 and has since built a career in sanitation in Georgia, he said that getting his manslaughter conviction dismissed and his name cleared "will help me move on."

"If you know you're innocent, don't give up on your case - keep on fighting, because justice will prevail," Ruffin, 45, said outside court. "That's all I've wanted for 30 years: somebody to listen and really hear what I'm saying and look into the things I was telling them."

Prosecutors said they were exploring whether to charge the man they now believe shot 16-year-old James Deligny on a Brooklyn street during a February 1996 confrontation over some stolen earrings. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said after court that charges, if any, wouldn't come immediately.

"You have to be able to convict someone beyond a reasonable doubt, and we have to make sure that that evidence is sufficient to do so," said Gonzalez, who wasn't DA when Ruffin was tried. "You have a lot of factors working against us procedurally, but also factually - unfortunately, this is 30 years ago."

Ruffin's conviction is the latest of more than three dozen that Brooklyn prosecutors have disavowed after reinvestigations over the last decade.

Over a dozen, including Ruffin's, were connected to retired Detective Louis Scarcella. He was lauded in the 1980s and '90s for his case-closing prowess, but defendants have accused him of coercing confessions, engineering dubious witness identifications and other troubling tactics. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors said in their report on the Ruffin case that they "did not discover any misconduct by Scarcella" in the matter. A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney.

Prosecutors said the police investigation - and their office's own at the time - "were wholly inadequate" and tunnel-visioned, failing to look into the person they now believe was the gunman.

The mistaken-identity shooting happened as Ruffin and others were looking for a robber who had just snatched earrings from Ruffin's sister. In fact, Deligny wasn't the robber, authorities say.

Tipsters led police to Ruffin, then a 17-year-old high school student, and the victim's sister identified him in a lineup that a court later deemed flawed. Scarcella wasn't involved in the lineup, but he and another detective questioned Ruffin.

The teen told them, twice, that he saw but wasn't involved in Deligny's shooting, according to police records quoted in prosecutors' report.

Then Scarcella brought the teen's estranged father - a police officer himself - to the precinct. The father later testified that he told his son to "tell the truth," but Ruffin said his father leaned on him to confess.

And he did confess, saying he fired because he thought Deligny was about to pull something out of his jacket. Ruffin told the detectives they could retrieve the gun from his sister's boyfriend, and they did, prosecutors' report said.

Ruffin quickly recanted to his father, who didn't tell the detectives his son had taken back his confession, according to prosecutors' report. The teen went on to testify at his trial that he didn't shoot Deligny but saw and knew the killer - his sister's boyfriend, the one who'd given police the gun, broken up into parts and stuffed into potatoes.

Jurors at Ruffin's trial heard from the boyfriend, but only about his relationships with the defendant, his sister and others in the case. When the jury was out of the room, the boyfriend invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to answer other questions, including where he'd been on the night of the shooting.

Prosecutors didn't release the boyfriend's name Thursday, and the names of lawyers who have represented him weren't immediately available. He told prosecutors during their recent reinvestigation that he had nothing to do with the shooting and didn't give detectives the gun. He also said he never confessed to anyone, though prosecutors say Ruffin's stepfather, sister and late mother all have said he made admissions to them.

Asked Thursday about the boyfriend, Ruffin's lawyers noted that the prospect of any prosecution now is uncertain.

"We only wish that in 1996, Detective Scarcella and others had performed the investigation they should have and been able to get this right the first time," attorney Garrett Ordower said, noting that Deligny's family may now never have the finality of a conviction in his death.

As for Ruffin, he's focused on his future, including promotion opportunities at his job in Atlanta. His now-voided conviction, he said, "never defined me."

"This never really spoke of the person I was or the man I was going to become," he said. "So this, to me, is a great closure of a chapter my life, but my life is still going up."


# Trump is joined by South Carolina leaders at New Hampshire rally as he tries to undercut Haley
By **MICHELLE L. PRICE** and **JILL COLVIN**
January 21, 2024. 10:12 AM EST

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**MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)** - Donald Trump surrounded himself with leaders from Nikki Haley's home state in a show of strength before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

Trump was joined at a rally at the NHU Arena in Manchester on Saturday night by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, the state's lieutenant governor and a slew of other senior officials, including the state's attorney general, treasurer and House speaker. The statewide officials, along with U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson, William Timmons and Russell Fry appeared on stage with Trump.

"Almost every politician from South Carolina is endorsing me," Trump declared.

The South Carolinians urged the voters to carry Trump to a win in New Hampshire before the contest moves to their state and its decisive early contest set for next month.

"If you do that and you win by a big margin here, we'll finish the job in South Carolina," said Murrell Smith, the speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The appearances are yet another blow from South Carolina against Haley, who is hoping her appeal among independent and unaffiliated voters will propel her to a strong enough finish in New Hampshire to turn the race into a two-person contest against Trump.

On Friday, the former president and GOP front-runner received the endorsement of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who joined him at a rally in Concord. Scott dropped his own bid for the Republican nomination in November. A dozen years ago, Haley, then serving as governor of their state, elevated Scott from the House by appointing him as senator, making him one of the nation's most prominent Black Republicans.

McMaster and other top officials had already endorsed Trump. Haley has a famously fractious relationship with many of her state's Republican power brokers even as she was twice elected governor - defeating McMaster in the GOP primary the first time.

Her response on Saturday made clear she hadn't forgotten that rivalry.

"I'm sorry, is that the person I ran against for governor and beat?" she asked. "Just checking."

Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney also brushed off the appearances at an event hosted by Bloomberg News, insisting endorsements had "never been Nikki's game."

Trump on Saturday night repeatedly railed against Haley and New Hampshire's voting laws, which allow unaffiliated voters to participate in either the Republican or Democratic primary. The state's more moderate electorate is expected to make the contest much closer than it was in leadoff Iowa, which is considered more conservative.

"Don't listen to polls. Get out and vote. We need a big big win against these terrible people," Trump said.

Haley, meanwhile, highlighted on Saturday a gaffe Trump made at his rally the night before.

Trump repeatedly suggested Haley had been in charge of keeping the Capitol secure on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building to try to stop his election loss from being certified. Haley was not at the Capitol that day. And Trump has consistently downplayed his administration's failure to keep the Capitol safe or his delay in trying to call off the rioters.

"They're saying he got confused. That he was talking about something else, that he was talking about Nancy Pelosi," Haley said. "When you're dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can't have someone else where we question whether they're mentally fit to do this."

Trump, 77, has repeatedly tried to suggest 81-year-old President Joe Biden is not sharp enough to be president and on Saturday sought to defend his own mental acuity. He again bragged of having "aced" a cognitive test he took while president - a test that is, in fact, intended to test for early dementia and other cognitive impairment.

"I don't mind being 80 but I'm 77. That's a big difference," he said.

He added a few minutes later: "I feel my mind is stronger now than it was 25 years ago."

After the rally, Reps. Timmons and Fry called on Haley to leave the race ahead of the South Carolina primary next month.

"We're gonna have another election on Tuesday. But after that, when Trump wins, overwhelmingly, we've to get behind him," Timmons said.

Even with their state's top elected Republicans and much of the congressional delegation in New Hampshire to advocate for Trump this week, some South Carolina voters were undeterred about backing other candidates.

"I'm a strong Republican, and I just vote Republican because I think they have a lot in common with supporting the United States and the regular citizens of the United States," said Sandra Chase, following an event for GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis in Lexington, South Carolina, on Saturday afternoon.

DeSantis, coming off a second-place finish in leadoff Iowa, has shifted some of his focus away from New Hampshire, where the state's independent voters are seen to provide more of an opening for Haley. He's instead been campaigning this weekend in South Carolina.

Chase said she had previously backed Trump but wanted to go in a different direction this year.

"I just want to pick the best candidate, and I think the best candidate is Ron DeSantis," she said. "But I mean, everybody is allowed to support whoever they want to support."


# Former GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson endorses Nikki Haley, says Trump divides America
January 20, 2024. 6:41 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Former Republican presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson endorsed Nikki Haley on Saturday, days before she tries to take on frontrunner Donald Trump in the New Hampshire primary.

Hutchinson is a conservative whose opposition to Trump became central in his longshot bid for the GOP primary before he dropped out Tuesday.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hutchinson said: "Anyone who believes Donald Trump will unite this country has been asleep over the last 8 years. Trump intentionally tries to divide America and will continue to do so."

Hutchinson added: "Go @NikkiHaley in New Hampshire."

Haley's campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

After finishing third in the leadoff contest in Iowa earlier this month, Haley has been looking to appeal to independent and unaffiliated voters in New Hampshire's Jan. 23 primary to garner a strong finish and turn the race against Trump into a two-person contest.

Hutchinson dropped out after finishing sixth in the caucuses.

His backing comes a day after another of their former rivals in the GOP presidential contest, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, endorsed Trump. Another former candidate, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also backed Trump.

Haley last weekend won the support of former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who had fueled speculation that he was preparing for his own third-party bid.

Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.


# DeSantis gets a warm welcome in South Carolina, but even some supporters think he can't beat Trump
By **MEG KINNARD**
January 20, 2024. 5:33 PM EST

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**MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP)** - Ron DeSantis on Saturday tried to frame his White House campaign as the one that can top GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Nikki Haley in pivotal South Carolina, but some who came out to see him in this coastal tourist mecca said they felt the state was likely to go the former president's way in next month's primary.

It was some of the same sentiment as well in DeSantis' stop at a diner in Florence, where the former Navy officer leaned heavily into his experience as the "only veteran running for president."

"Everybody's scared to death of Trump," said Steven Best, a Trump supporter who said he only came out to see DeSantis because his wife wanted to, citing efforts to remove Trump from the ballot over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election as support for his viewpoint.

"I love his message," said David Steding as he and his wife waited for the Florida governor earlier in Myrtle Beach. "I just don't think he's going to win here."

The Stedings were among hundreds waiting to see DeSantis take the stage at a restaurant just off one of the main thoroughfares in Myrtle Beach. He scheduled two other stops Saturday in a state whose primary has historically been influential in determining the party's nominee.

The events reflect his decision to shift his campaign away from New Hampshire and its leadoff Republican primary on Tuesday, where he is not expected to match his finish in last Monday's Iowa causes, won by Trump with DeSantis edging Haley for second.

At his first appearance, DeSantis jabbed at Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, which holds its primary on Feb. 24. In front of video screens displaying the logos of his campaign and super political action committee, he asked the crowd to "tell me major achievements of Nikki Haley when she was governor? Anybody?"

After someone shouted out "gas tax" - which both DeSantis and Trump have accused Haley of trying to raise during her six years in office - DeSantis said it was notable that "nobody named an achievement." He said "the hands would shoot up" if people in a Florida crowd were asked to list his accomplishments during just over one term in office.

DeSantis and Trump have argued that Haley, when governor, flip-flopped over her support for a gas tax. A super PAC supporting Trump's campaign has run a TV ad mashing up clips of State of the State addresses in which she opposed, then called for, such a measure. Haley has characterized the critiques as evidence that her opponents, particularly Trump, are threatened by her candidacy.

Both Trump and DeSantis have omitted a significant part of the gas tax proposal Haley floated in 2015. In the speech her opponents have cited, Haley went on to say that, "in order to get my signature on any gas tax increase," South Carolina would also "need to cut our state income tax by 2%."

That plan died in the Legislature. South Carolina lawmakers ultimately raised the gas tax under her successor, overriding a veto by Gov. Henry McMaster, Trump's top backer in the state.

On Saturday, McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette were among the South Carolina leaders heading to New Hampshire to appear with Trump at a rally there. Sen. Tim Scott, another South Carolinian, endorsed Trump at a New Hampshire event on Friday night.

Awaiting DeSantis, Julie Maid said that she was ready to support DeSantis in South Carolina, despite Trump's lead.

"DeSantis is a straight shooter, and he'll tell you how it is, but not have the dramatics that Trump does," Julie Maid said. "DeSantis is my front-runner."

Standing behind her in line, Steding wasn't so sure.

"I'm here," said Steding, as he and his wife, Shavonne, moved their way along the line snaking into the venue. "I don't know if I'm going to vote for him. But I'm here."