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Monday, May 6, 2024

5/6 WAKE-UP CALL: Israel Fires Rockets After 3 Soldiers Killed


Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas armed wing, near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday. Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza that Israel said killed three of its soldiers. Israel's military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the area of the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. Other crossings remained open.

Hamas' armed wing said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base by the crossing, but did not confirm where it fired them from. Hamas media quoted a source close to the group as saying the commercial crossing was not the target. More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Shortly after the Hamas attack, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah killing three people and wounding several others, Palestinian medics said.

ISRAEL FACING BIG RISK:  Israel wants to go into Rafah. It's taking a big risk. Israel insists on targeting Rafah in Gaza to eliminate Hamas. Its military will somehow have to thread the needle between not doing so much damage that it inflames international outrage, further impairs its crucial relationship with the U.S. and kills some of the Israeli hostages believed to be held there, while not going in so softly that it fails to rout Hamas and puts its own soldiers at risk. The broader effort to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia in hopes of realigning the balance in the Middle East is in the equation as well. Those considerations are sharpening as talks for a possible cease-fire deal enter a crucial phase. Negotiators are gathering in Cairo this weekend, but a main sticking point remains: Hamas wants a path to a permanent cease-fire while Israel insists on retaining the right to fight on, including in Rafah.

➤PRO HAMAS CAMPUS PROTESTOS RECEIVED TRAINING: Pro-Palestinian campus protesters received training from activist groups before campus protests. The tactics underlying some of the demonstrations were the result of months of training, planning and encouragement by longtime activists and left-wing groups. 

At Columbia University, organizers researched past protests and engaged with groups such as the National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus demonstrations and former Black Panthers. They also picked up skills needed to pull off an effective protest movement from participating in Black Lives Matter marches or student labor organizing. Some have raised concerns over what they call the antisemitic rhetoric on campus—though protesters have denied these assertions, noting that many of those in the encampments are Jewish themselves.

➤TRUMP CLAIMS GAG ORDER IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE: Trump and his campaign have been barred from speaking about Matthew Colangelo, a lead prosecutor in the case who spent two years serving in the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) as acting associate attorney general. After working near the top of the DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland, Colangelo joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel in December 2022. Many have raised questions about Colangelo’s move from DOJ to work in the Manhattan DA’s office at the same time District Attorney Alvin Bragg was investigating Trump for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.


➤TRUMP COMPARES BIDEN ADMIN TO GESTAPO: Former President Donald Trump at a Republican retreat compared President Joe Biden’s administration to the Nazi secret police, according to multiple outlets that obtained audio recordings of his comments. “These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me.” Trump also claimed that the criminal charges he faces, including allegations he falsified business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to a former porn star, were politically motivated.

➤I95 REOPENS IN CT:  Interstate 95 in southwest Connecticut reopened in both directions Sunday, just days after a three-vehicle crash caused a gas tanker to erupt into flames, damaging an overpass and closing traffic on the busy highway. Gov. Ned Lamont and Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto announced that the interstate in Norwalk, Connecticut, would fully reopen by 10 a.m. Sunday after it was closed for days. Officials had initially anticipated the interstate to be reopened by Monday morning before rush hour. Connecticut State Police said a vehicle hit the tanker, which was carrying 8,500 gallons of fuel at the time, while it was attempting to merge lanes. The tanker then struck a tractor-trailer in another lane and burst into flames, damaging the overpass above the interstate.

➤ARKANSAS WON'T COMPLY: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Arkansas won’t comply with federal trans student rules . . . Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) said Thursday that Arkansas will not comply with new federal regulations that would ban discrimination of LGBT students under federal law. The move comes as other Republican-lead states made similar defiant moves against the Biden administration. Sanders said Arkansas will continue to enforce bathroom restrictions, which could become invalid with the Biden administration’s new order. “My message to Joe Biden and the federal government is we will not comply,” Sanders said Thursday.

💸MEET THE NEW COLLEGE PROTESTORS..PARENTS:  Parents paying as much as $90,000 for their sons and daughters to attend elite universities are angry and frustrated with colleges’ responses to the Gaza protests—on both sides of the political divide. Whether their kids are protesting, counterprotesting or trying to stay out of it, parents are demanding that schools do more to keep them safe and learning. “They are not getting the education they expected and paid for,” says Zev Gewurz, a Boston real-estate lawyer whose daughter is a senior at Barnard College in New York City.

➤THIEVES MURDER FOR TIRES: A trio of bandits who allegedly killed three men on a surfing trip in Mexico had targeted the victims’ truck so they could take its tires, prosecutors revealed Sunday. The Baja California Prosecutor’s Office released more grisly details in the murders of Australian brothers Jake, 30, and Callum Robinson, 33, and American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, who were last seen alive on April 27 during a trip in the city of Ensenada. Their bodies of the three surfers found last week were positively identified Sunday by their families, Baja California state prosecutors said Sunday.

➤UKRAINE TALK WITH RUSSIA INEVITABLE: Talks with Russia inevitable, Ukraine officials say Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow: But someday, Ukraine will have to talk with Russia to bring an end to their war, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official and the country's foreign minister said. President Zelenskiy has repeatedly ruled out talks with the Kremlin, and Russia has not been invited to talks in Switzerland scheduled for June on how to end the conflict. Shell shortage: Ukraine's gunners are firing sparingly on advancing Russian forces along the eastern front as they await fresh ammunition after the U.S. approved $61 billion in new aid. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised 3 billion pounds in annual military aid for Ukraine "as long as it takes."

🕇ACTOR BERNARD HILL HAS DIED: Actor Bernard Hill, who famously called his troops to battle as King Theoden of the Rohirrim in “Lord of the Rings” and went down with the “Titanic” as its captain has died. He was 79. 

Hill’s death Sunday was confirmed by his agent, Lou Coulson, who did not give a cause. The actor’s fiancée Alison and son Gabriel were by his side, Coulson said. In 1997 his Captain Edward Smith, one of the few characters in “Titanic” to be based on an actual person, opted to go down with the ship rather than snag a lifeboat spot. The film won 11 Oscars, a number later matched by LOTR’s “Return of the King.” Hill appeared in “The Two Towers,” the second “Lord of the Rings” film, and then rallied his weary, outnumbered troops to battle in the third.


⚾OHTANI GOES DEEP TWICE: Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs, Teoscar Hernandez also went deep and left-hander James Paxton pitched into the seventh inning as the host Los Angeles Dodgers finished off a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 5-1 victory on Sunday. Ohtani's first homer -- a two-run blast -- came two Los Angeles hitters into the game and gave him home runs in back-to-back games for the third time this season. He finished off his first multi-homer game in a Dodgers uniform with a 464-foot rocket to center in the eighth inning.

⚾MLB SCORES: 

  • Phillies 5 Giants 4
  • Rays 7 Mets 6
  • Yankees 5 Tigers 2
  • Orioles 11 Reds 1
  • Dodgers 5 Braves 1
  • D-Backs 11 Padres 4
  • Marlines 12 Athletics 3
  • Cubs 5 Brewers 0
  • White Sox 5 Cardinals 1
  • Rangers 3 Royals 2
  • Red Sox 9 Twins 2
  • Mariners 5 Astros 4
  • Guardians 4 Angels 1
  • Nationals 112 Blue Jays 8
  • Pirates 5 Rockies 3

🏀NBA SCORES:

  • Cavaliers 106 Magic 94

The Cavaliers are shipping up to Boston. The Cavs completed a wild comeback and beat the Orlando Magic 106-94 in Game 7 of their opening-round series Sunday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.The Cavs at one point in the first half trailed by 18 points but pulled off a furious comeback to oust the Magic from the playoffs. It was the first playoff series win for the Cavaliers since 2018, and the first without LeBron James on the roster in three decades.

🏒NHL SCORES
  • Stars 2 Golden Knights 1
  • Rangers 4 Hurricanes 3

➤MONDAY'S WEATHER:



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