Workers say Israeli strikes killed 12 overnight in Gaza, including children

Israeli airstrikes on homes in central Gaza killed at least 12 people, including children, Palestinian hospital workers said Wednesday, including two young brothers whose bodies arrived in pieces.

Israel has been striking homes, shelters and public areas daily since resuming the war with Hamas last month. It has cut off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly two months. U.N. food stockpiles have run out, and aid groups say thousands of Palestinian children are malnourished.

Israel says its blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023. However, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights warned this week that starving civilians as a military tactic constitutes a war crime.

U.K. military launches airstrikes with U.S. targeting Houthi rebels

The British military launched airstrikes with the United States targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said early Wednesday, their first attack in Washington’s new intense campaign targeting the Iranian-backed group.

The United Kingdom offered a detailed explanation for launching the strike, in a departure from the U.S., which has offered few details about what it says are more than 1,000 targets it has hit since beginning its campaign March 15.

The campaign, called “Operation Rough Rider,” has been targeting the rebels as the Trump administration negotiates with their main benefactor, Iran, over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

The U.K. Defense Ministry described the site attacked as a cluster of buildings, about 15 miles south of Sana, used by the Houthis to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Appellate court won’t lift restrictions on DOGE’s access to information

A federal appeals court says it won’t lift restrictions on the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The full panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-6 to keep the ruling from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in place while DOGE pushes forward with an appeal. The appellate decision was released Wednesday.

In April, Hollander issued a preliminary injunction in the case, which was brought by a group of labor unions and retirees who allege DOGE’s recent actions violate privacy laws and present massive information security risks.

Hollander said DOGE staffers could access data that has been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, but only if they undergo training and background checks. She also said DOGE and its staffers must purge any of the non-anonymized Social Security data they have obtained, and she barred them from making changes to the computer code used by the Social Security Administration.

Prosecutor: Officer killed in gunman’s hospital siege was hit by police fire

An officer killed while responding to a Pennsylvania hospital siege was struck by a shotgun blast fired by police that also hit an armed man holding hostages, a prosecutor disclosed at a news conference Wednesday.

The attacker and West York Patrolman Andrew W. Duarte were killed in the gunfire in York on Feb. 22, while several other people were injured.

The shotgun blast also wounded a second officer responding to the intensive care unit, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said in announcing the results of his investigation.

Barker called the officers heroes who ran into a dangerous situation, ready to risk their lives and save hostages. He said attacker Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz “unleashed a torrent of evil” and directly caused Duarte’s death.

Trump administration cuts $1 billion in school mental health grants

The Trump administration is moving to cancel $1 billion in school mental health grants, saying they reflect the priorities of the previous administration.

Grant recipients were notified Tuesday that the funding will not be continued after this year. A gun violence bill signed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 sent $1 billion to the grant programs to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.

A new notice said an Education Department review of the programs found they violated the purpose of civil rights law, conflicted with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit and fairness, and amounted to an inappropriate use of federal money.

The cuts were made public in a social media post from conservative strategist Christopher Rufo, who claimed the money was used to advance “left-wing racialism and discrimination.” He posted excerpts from several grant documents setting goals to hire certain numbers of nonwhite counselors or pursue other diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Belarus releases U.S. citizen who was jailed for years

Belarus on Wednesday released a U.S. citizen who had been jailed on allegations of plotting to assassinate the country’s authoritarian leader, charges his supporters and the U.S. government called bogus.

Youras Ziankovich, a lawyer who has dual Belarusian and U.S. citizenship, was convicted on a number of charges, including plotting a coup against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and given an 11-year sentence in September 2022. He then had six months added to his sentence that year.

In August 2024, a court in Belarus handed Ziankovich an additional two-year sentence on charges of “malicious disobedience to the prison administration,” bringing his overall prison term to 131/2 years.

The U.S. government on Wednesday identified the man as Youras Ziankovich, but his name also has been rendered as Yuras Zyankovich in different news accounts.

Pakistan says it has ‘credible intelligence’ India will attack within days

Pakistan said Wednesday it had “credible intelligence” that India is planning to attack it within days. The nation vowed to respond “very strongly,” as soldiers exchanged gunfire along borders and Pakistanis heeded New Delhi’s orders to leave the country after last week’s deadly attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

India has moved to punish Pakistan after accusing it of backing the attack in Pahalgam, which Islamabad denies, driving tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to their highest point since 2019, when they came close to war after a suicide car bombing in Kashmir. The region is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Pakistan said the intelligence shows that India plans military action against it in the next 24 to 36 hours “on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement.”

There was no immediate comment from Indian officials.

Fire tears through hotel in Kolkata, killing 14

A fire tore through a hotel in the city of Kolkata in eastern India, killing at least 14 people, police said Wednesday.

Senior police officer Manoj Kumar Verma told reporters that the fire broke out Tuesday evening at the Rituraj Hotel in central Kolkata and was doused after an effort that took six fire engines. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that at least one person died when he jumped off the terrace trying to escape.

— Denver Post wire services