An Illinois judge sentenced a man to 53 years in prison on Friday for the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old boy in 2023 and the nonfatal stabbing of the boy’s mother, an attack that jurors found to have been motivated by anti-Muslim hate.

The killing of Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian American kindergartner who loved Legos and soccer, attracted international attention in October 2023, just days after Hamas attacked Israel. The attack on Wadee and his mother, Hanan Shaheen, was “brutal and heinous,” Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak said as she announced the sentence of the man, Joseph M. Czuba, on murder and hate crime charges.

Authorities quickly arrested and charged Czuba after the attack. Prosecutors said Czuba, 73, had rented rooms to Wadee’s mother in Plainfield Township, Illinois, for two years with no significant problems. But they said he had grown paranoid and violent after listening to radio coverage of the unfolding conflict in the Middle East.

In court on Friday in Joliet, Illinois, Mahmoud Yousef, an uncle of Wadee’s father, said no sentence would be satisfying to the family.

Yousef said the family could not fathom what led to such an act. “That’s more than just hate; that went way beyond that,” Yousef said. “We’re talking about a 6-year-old kid whose father had plans for him.”

He asked Czuba to explain himself.

“For peace of mind, Joseph, say something,” Yousef said as he looked directly at Czuba.

Wearing a red jail jumpsuit, Czuba declined to speak at the hearing. His lawyer argued before the sentence was handed down that he had not received a fair trial. He could have received a sentence of life in prison.

Army copter prompts aborted DCA landings

Federal transportation safety officials Friday were investigating after two commercial flights aborted landings because an Army helicopter had entered the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where helicopter traffic has been restricted since a fatal collision in January.

Air traffic controllers instructed Delta Air Lines Flight 1671 and Republic Airways Flight 5825 to abort their landings around 2:30 p.m. Thursday because of the helicopter’s presence, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has begun an investigation along with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The helicopter was a Black Hawk headed to the nearby Pentagon, the safety board said.

Both planes later landed safely, but the episode prompted outrage among officials in Washington.

“Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post, using the airport’s code. He said he would speak to the Defense Department about “why the hell our rules were disregarded.”

Reform UK party wins in local elections

Nigel Farage’s insurgent anti-immigration party, Reform UK, scored a significant, if razor-thin, victory Friday in a parliamentary special election in the northwest of England and made sweeping gains in municipalities across England.

The results served notice that Farage, an ally of President Donald Trump, is again a rising force in British politics.

Reform’s candidate, Sarah Pochin, won by just six votes over her Labour opponent, Karen Shore, in Runcorn and Helsby, seizing what had been a safe seat for the governing Labour Party until the incumbent, Mike Amesbury, resigned after being convicted of assault for punching one of his constituents.

The outcome — the tightest in such an election in modern history — was so close that the vote, 12,645 to 12,639, had to be recounted, delaying the official announcement for hours.

But the victory was just the start of an impressive show of strength by Reform in local elections held Thursday across England.

More than 1,600 municipal seats were up for grabs, and Reform had won 540 of them by Friday afternoon, seizing control of seven municipalities. That gave the insurgent party its first taste of power, albeit in the lowest tier of government.

With heavy losses for the main opposition Conservative Party and a disappointing outcome for Labour, the results will deliver a jolt to British politics.

7 killed, 8 injured in Yellowstone crash

A pickup truck and a tour van with foreigner visitors — including two people from Italy — collided on a highway leading to Yellowstone National Park, leaving seven people dead and eight others injured, Idaho State Police said.

The crash happened just before 7:15 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 20 near Henry’s Lake State Park in eastern Idaho, police said in a news release. The state park is roughly 16 miles west of Yellowstone National Park.

Police have not said what exactly caused the wreck, but the Dodge Ram truck was traveling west while the Mercedes van was traveling east toward Yellowstone when it happened.

Both vehicles caught fire, police said.

The driver of the pickup and six people inside the Mercedes passenger van died. The truck driver was identified Friday as Isaih Moreno, 25, of Humble, Texas. Identifying the others will take some time because of the fire, according to police.

The van was carrying a tour group of 14 people, and the surviving occupants were taken to hospitals with injuries, police said.

Explosions rock ship carrying Gaza aid

A ship carrying 16 people and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip was rocked by explosions early Friday off the coast of Malta, setting the vessel on fire and putting it at risk of sinking, according to the human rights group operating the ship.

The ship and its crew were safe after a tugboat helped extinguish the blaze following a mayday call, the government of Malta said in a statement. It did not say what had caused the fire, adding that authorities were monitoring the ship, which was in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.

The ship, called Conscience and operated by a group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Tunisia this week carrying human rights activists and aid. The group has sought to challenge Israel and Egypt’s blockade of Gaza by trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the territory by sea.

Before going to Gaza, the ship was scheduled to stop in Malta and pick up about 40 more people, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, said Yasemin Acar, a spokesperson for the group.

The source of the explosion has not been determined, and it was not known whether the ship had been deliberately targeted.

Harry says he desires family reconciliation

Prince Harry said he would love to reconcile with his family in Britain during an emotional BBC interview in which he admitted he had no idea about the prognosis of his father, King Charles III, who has cancer, and expressed a desire to end their painful rift.

The interview was released hours after Harry lost the latest round of his legal battle over his publicly funded security in the country.

Speaking in California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and their two children, Harry said, “I would love reconciliation with my family.” He added, “There’s no point continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has. He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. But it would be nice to reconcile.”

The king announced that he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in early 2024 and has been receiving weekly treatments since then.

U.S. aircraft carrier will remain in Middle East

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for a second time, keeping it there another week so the U.S. can maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi rebels, according to a U.S. official.

In late March, Hegseth extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis. The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it is expected the Truman and its strike group warships will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, requested that the Truman be extended again, according to officials. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group arrived in the region a few weeks ago and are operating in the Gulf of Aden. The Truman, along with two destroyers and a cruiser in its strike group, is in the Red Sea.

George Ryan, former Ill. governor, dies at 91

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, disgraced by a corruption scandal that landed him in prison yet heralded by some for clearing the state’s death row, has died. He was 91.

Kankakee County Coroner Robert Gessner, a family friend, said Ryan died Friday afternoon at his home in Kankakee, where he was receiving hospice care.

Ryan started out a small-town pharmacist but wound up running one of the country’s largest states. Along the way, the tough-on-crime Republican experienced a conversion on the death penalty and won international praise by halting executions as governor and, eventually, emptying death row.

He served only one term as governor, from 1999 to 2003, that ended amid accusations he used government offices to reward friends, win elections and hide corruption that played a role in the fiery deaths of six children. Eventually, Ryan was convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison.

‘Laugh-In’ comic Ruth Buzzi dies at 88

Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and made over 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, died Thursday. She was 88.

Buzzi died at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstadt said. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and was in hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband Kent Perkins, had posted a statement on Buzzi’s Facebook page, thanking her many fans and telling them: “She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them.”

Buzzi won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for the NBC show that ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot.

— From news services