Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hospital and emergency response workers say Israeli strikes have killed at least 42 people in Gaza. Children were among the dead in the strikes that occurred overnight and into Friday. A journalist was among the dead. Health workers and Israel’s military have traded claims over reported evacuation orders for two hospitals in the territory’s largely isolated north. The assertions over Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals occurred as stalled ceasefire talks to end nearly 15 months of war were set to resume in Qatar. Israelis also woke up to attacks as the military said missiles were fired from Yemen. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

A missing surfer in Australia is believed dead in a shark attack, police say

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities say a surfer missing in Australia is believed dead in a shark attack and they are searching the waters where the man disappeared. The 28-year-old was at a popular surf beach in South Australia where a man was killed by a white shark in 2023. A witness who saw the shark attack on Thursday evening local time at Granites Beach, near the coastal town of Streaky Bay, rode into the sea on a jet ski and retrieved the man’s surfboard, police told local media, but there was no sign of the victim. Shark attacks in Australia are rare.

Trump’s strength and unpredictability can help end the war in Ukraine, Zelenskyy says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “strong and unpredictable” and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Zelenskyy says it won’t be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day as Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could do. Zelenskyy said in a Ukrainian television interview late Thursday that fighting on the battlefield “can end quite quickly if Trump is strong in his position.” Trump takes office on Jan. 20. He hasn’t publicly fleshed out his policy on Ukraine but his previous comments have put a question mark over whether the United States will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest and most important military backer.

South Korea’s impeached president defies warrant after hourslong standoff

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean investigators left the president’s official residence after a nearly six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It’s the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month. President Yoon Suk Yeol has resisted investigators’ attempts to question him for weeks. The last time he is known to have left the residence was on Dec. 12 when he went to the nearby presidential office to make a televised statement to the nation. Yoon made a defiant statement that he will fight efforts to oust him.