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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Wednesday it targeted and killed the new leader of Hamas' military wing duringairstrikes in Gaza Cityless than two weeks after killing his predecessor.

Israel Palestinians Gaza

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz and the Israeli military said the strikes carried out Tuesday killed Mohammed Odeh. Hamas did not comment on Odeh.

At least five people were killed and 12 injured in Tuesday’s strike on a market including Odeh, his wife, son and daughter and another woman, local hospitals said. The attack came on the eve ofEid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

Thousands of people gathered Wednesday for the joint funeral of Odeh's family in Gaza City. Mourners covered the four bodies with green Hamas flags and marched from a mosque through the city, chanting and firing shots in the air. Some carried posters with Odeh's poster emblazoned with the words “one of the chiefs of staffs of the Qassam Brigades,” referring to Hamas' military wing.

Katz called him “one of the architects” of theOct. 7, 2023, attacksthat triggered over two years of war in Gaza and said it was the fourth time Israel has killed the head of Hamas’ military wing since that massacre.Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the previous head, was killed on May 16.

“We pledged to eliminate everyone who led the October 7 massacre and this is what we will do: they are all bound to die, everywhere,” Katz wrote on X on Wednesday. “We pledged that Hamas will not hold civilian or military rule.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is preparing for elections in the fall, also threatened that Israel will target everyone involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

A grim Eid in Gaza

The attack came as Muslims prepared forEid al-Adha, normally a joyous time of family gatherings and large meals.

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The holiday once again is subdued this year in Gaza, where the vast majority of people remain displaced and live in tents or temporary shelters after a devastating war. Around 90% of Gaza’s more than 2 million people have lost their homes, according to U.N. estimates, with most of them now sheltering in huge tent camps with rat infestations and pools of sewage. They are dependent on aid to survive.

Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice,” is an Islamic holiday celebrated by millions of Muslims across the globe. The four-day holiday, which begins duringthe Hajj pilgrimage, also is known for being a joyous occasion during which families gather, and children are given new clothes and gifts.

“This is not Eid ... we’re dead,” said Mahmoud Saqer, a displaced man from Khan Younis, who described people as being distressed by the ongoing human suffering and killings in the territory.

In Khan Younis and Gaza City, amid destroyed buildings, including a ruined mosque, people gathered for Eid prayers with few signs of celebration beyond a few clusters of balloons lining one street. Tahrir al-Khatib said the joy that accompanies Eid has been silenced in Gaza.

“There’s no Eid. My children were killed. Eid is only for the people who lost no one,” said Ayda Al-Banna, a displaced women from Gaza City, who prayed Eid prayers with her granddaughter.

Fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza

A ceasefirereached between Israel and Hamasin October remains fragile. Israeli attacks have killed more than 880 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect. Israel says its attacks are in response to violations by Hamas or threats to its soldiers, but Palestinian health officials say scores of civilians have been among the dead. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed during this period in Gaza.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks in October 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says over 72,803 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, does not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths. ___

Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled contributed from Cairo.

By Aaron Ross and Emma Farge

FILE PHOTO: Congolese Dr. Tibenderana Katho Blaise who died of Ebola virus buried in Bunia

LONDON/NAIROBI/GENEVA, May 27 (Reuters) - In an Ebola outbreak, hours matter.

Yet the response to the deadly and fast-spreading epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is weeks if not months behind - and missing thousands of people who may be at risk.

Interviews with global health officials and documents from a meeting led by the World Health Organization and Africa Centres ‌for Disease Control and Prevention show how behind the curve authorities are in fighting the latest outbreak.

Caused by a strain of the virus known as Bundibugyo for which there is no vaccine or treatment, ‌the outbreak has already caused a suspected 220 deaths and 900 cases, according to the WHO. It has spread to Uganda, where there are seven cases.

Health teams are racing to find thousands of people who may have been exposed to the virus while also grappling with myriad challenges ​that make it difficult to contain.

Problems at a local level include lack of basic supplies as well as mistrust from a community scarred by previous outbreaks. Globally, the response is hampered by the withdrawal of the U.S. from the WHO and wider funding cuts, many health sources said.

Documents from Friday's virtual coordination meeting show that, as of last week, only 7% of the 1,261 people identified as contacts of suspected Ebola patients had been found and followed up. The WHO put the number at more than 2,000 on Wednesday.

‘OUTPACING THE RESPONSE’

The outbreak is "outpacing the response", WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on Wednesday.

"Attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible."

In eastern Congo, the worst-hit area, hospitals have been ‌attacked and isolation tents burned by angry mobs reclaiming bodies of loved ones, ⁠apparently unaware of risks from infectious corpses.

That is hindering the operation to stop the spread of the virus and track those at risk in an area already wracked with conflict and with poor health infrastructure, three experts said.

In a document summary of the meeting on Friday, the partners agreed that reaching more contacts is now the key priority as funding ⁠and emergency response personnel trickle in.

"Bottom line: No vaccine exists. No therapy exists. The virus circulated undetected for six weeks. Cross-border spread is confirmed. Healthcare workers are dying. Every day without a fully resourced response is a day the outbreak gains ground," a presentation by the WHO Africa team from the meeting reads.

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a leading South African epidemiologist and one of the key figures advising Africa CDC, said the outbreak was moving at “breakneck speed”.

“If you had to choose a bad place for ​this ​to happen, it would be Ituri,” he added of the province at its epicentre.

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While Congolese officials are well-versed in fighting Ebola - this ​is the 17th outbreak since 1976 - shortages remain a problem, including of the right ‌tests to detect Bundibugyo rather than other Ebola viruses.

This was also a factor delaying initial detection.

“There are very few people on the ground – and there are other problems as well, like getting fuel for the vehicles. It goes on and on,” Karim said.

U.S. MISSING

Several sources, including one U.S. official briefed on the Ebola response and another working with WHO, said problems would have been solved more easily and quickly in the past, when the U.S. worked with WHO and often co-led the international response to outbreaks.

The U.S. left the organization in January and has cut international aid funding more broadly, alongside a number of other wealthy countries.

“The organisations that would have been able to do this work are not there anymore,” said one U.S. official briefed on the response.

Amadou Bocoum, CARE’s country director, said his emergency response team had been cut by a third.

With the scale and origins of the outbreak unclear, it was a "hell ‌of a job" to find all potential cases and contacts, said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the WHO's emergency committee.

Ebola spreads ​through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people once they have symptoms, contaminated materials, and bodies of those who have ​died with the illness. The contacts of Ebola patients need to be found and then watched over for ​21 days, the incubation period of the virus. If they get symptoms, they can isolate, stopping further spread.

“We’re going back to the basics of Ebola outbreak responses when we didn't ‌have the means to contain it like we did before vaccines and therapeutics,” said ​Dr. Alan Gonzalez, deputy director of operations for Medecins Sans ​Frontieres, which has asked staff worldwide to apply to reinforce the workforce in Congo.

There is also a major psychological obstacle.

“People are afraid,” said Mamadou Kaba Barry, head of mission in Congo for the Alliance for International Medical Action, which has run 60 health centres in Ituri for several years. He said some cases are disappearing and other suspected cases are not being reported because of the mistrust.

He and many others ​fear a repeat of the worst-ever Ebola outbreak, which spread across West Africa in ‌2014-2016 and caused more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.

“In West Africa, people hid, thinking, 'What's the point of dying and having my family unable to recover my body?'" he said, adding that ​a decade on, some lessons still need to be learned.

“We never get used to Ebola. It's always frightening.”

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Aaron Ross in Nairobi, Emma Farge and Olivia Le ​Poidevin in Geneva, Clement Bonnerot in Dakar, and Silvia Aloisi in Nairobi; Editing by Silvia Aloisi and Andrew Cawthorne)

WASHINGTON — It looks like a rollercoaster soaring above the White House.

But this isn't a theme park.

The centerpiece of a make-shift UFC arena on the South Lawn of the White House took form on May 25 as construction crews installed asoaring 90-foot tall, open-air structurethat stands out dramatically from most views of the building.

Below the arc will be a 5,000-seat arena and octagon-shaped cage where UFC fighters will square off on June 14 ‒ a spectaclePresident Donald Trumphas promised will be the "biggest event we've ever had at the White House." The event falls on the president's 80th birthday and Flag Day.

Construction on the massive White House overhaulto prepare for the UFC fight got underway last week. Trump has said an additional 75,000-100,000 spectators can watch the UFC event for free on large screens further away from the White House Ellipse. Trump met with UFC CEO Dana White, a close ally, on May 5 to discuss the planning.

More:'All the best fighters': Trump unveils images of planned White House UFC cage

The temporary UFC arena has added to what's suddenly become a crowded White House skyline as two construction cranes for Trump's massive ballroom work on the east side of the White House campus.

The UFC undertaking has forced Trump to cease temporarily cease travel on Marine One to and from the South Lawn and instead rely on motorcade to go back and forth to Joint Base Andrews, where the president boards Air Force One.

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More:Dana White reveals more about UFC Freedom 250 at White House tickets

The UFC fight is part of the administration's year of celebrations to mark the250th anniversaryof the nation's founding.

A mock-up of the UFC structure going up at the White House was recently on display in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Trump was joined in the White House on May 6 by UFC fightersJustin Gaethjeand Ilia Topuria, who are facing off in the headliner fight, as well asAlex Pereiraand Ciryl Gane, who will compete in one of the other seven fights.

"These are real warriors," Trump said of the UFC fighters. "When we talk about warriors, these are warriors."

Trump,an avid sports fan, often held boxing matches at his casinos during his real estate days in the 1980s and 1990s and sat ringside as the likes of Mike Tyson won their fights. In recent years, he's frequently attended UFC fights, including on April 11 in Miami.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:White House fight arena soars high as Trump readies for UFC cage match

The Cincinnati Reds, ranked fourth in the NL Central with a 28-25 record, face the New York Mets, who are fifth in the NL East with a 22-32 record. Cincinnati is favored with a -130 moneyline compared to New York's +100. Chase Burns starts for Cincinnati with a 1.83 ERA, while the Mets' starter is TBD.

How to watch Cincinnati Reds vs. New York Mets

• Date: Tuesday, May 26

• Time: 7:10 p.m. ET / 4:10 p.m. PT

• Where: Citi Field, Flushing, Queens, NY

• TV Channels: SNY, Reds.TV

• Live Stream:ESPN+, MLB.TV | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• Cincinnati Reds: 28-25 (fourth in NL Central)

• New York Mets: 22-32 (fifth in NL East)

Odds

• Spread: New York Mets +1.5

• Moneyline: New York Mets +105 / Cincinnati Reds -130

• Over/Under: 7.5

Starting pitchers

Cincinnati Reds:Chase Burns (6-1, ERA: 1.83, K: 64, WHIP: 0.95)

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New York Mets:TBD

Series:Game 2 of 3 (series tied)

Weather:73°F at first pitch

WASHINGTON — It looks like a rollercoaster soaring above the White House.

But this isn't a theme park.

The centerpiece of a make-shift UFC arena on the South Lawn of the White House took form on May 25 as construction crews installed asoaring 90-foot tall, open-air structurethat stands out dramatically from most views of the building.

Below the arc will be a 5,000-seat arena and octagon-shaped cage where UFC fighters will square off on June 14 ‒ a spectaclePresident Donald Trumphas promised will be the "biggest event we've ever had at the White House." The event falls on the president's 80th birthday and Flag Day.

Construction on the massive White House overhaulto prepare for the UFC fight got underway last week. Trump has said an additional 75,000-100,000 spectators can watch the UFC event for free on large screens further away from the White House Ellipse. Trump met with UFC CEO Dana White, a close ally, on May 5 to discuss the planning.

More:'All the best fighters': Trump unveils images of planned White House UFC cage

The temporary UFC arena has added to what's suddenly become a crowded White House skyline as two construction cranes for Trump's massive ballroom work on the east side of the White House campus.

The UFC undertaking has forced Trump to cease temporarily cease travel on Marine One to and from the South Lawn and instead rely on motorcade to go back and forth to Joint Base Andrews, where the president boards Air Force One.

Advertisement

More:Dana White reveals more about UFC Freedom 250 at White House tickets

The UFC fight is part of the administration's year of celebrations to mark the250th anniversaryof the nation's founding.

A mock-up of the UFC structure going up at the White House was recently on display in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Trump was joined in the White House on May 6 by UFC fightersJustin Gaethjeand Ilia Topuria, who are facing off in the headliner fight, as well asAlex Pereiraand Ciryl Gane, who will compete in one of the other seven fights.

"These are real warriors," Trump said of the UFC fighters. "When we talk about warriors, these are warriors."

Trump,an avid sports fan, often held boxing matches at his casinos during his real estate days in the 1980s and 1990s and sat ringside as the likes of Mike Tyson won their fights. In recent years, he's frequently attended UFC fights, including on April 11 in Miami.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:White House fight arena soars high as Trump readies for UFC cage match

Alabama primaries heat up following Supreme Court's redistricting decision 02:24

Washington — A federal district court on Tuesday temporarily blocked Alabama from using a congressional map adopted by state lawmakers in 2023 for the upcomingmidterm elections, finding that the plan, which includes one majority-Black district, is racially discriminatory.

The panel of three judges instead ordered Alabama to continue using a court-selected map that includes two majority-Black districts. Those congressional district lines were used in the 2024 elections.

In theirdecision,the judges found that the redistricting plan adopted by Alabama's GOP-led legislature in 2023, which state officials sought to reimplement for this year's House contests, intentionally discriminated on the basis of race, in violation of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

"Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination," Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer found.

The state can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has already set a special primary for Aug. 11 for four Housedistricts that would be reconfiguredunder the new map. Primaries for the state's remaining House seats unaffected by the redistricting scramble were held last week.

The court rejected the state's argument that mapmakers were driven by party politics when they redrew the House district lines in 2023 and instead found that state lawmakers enacted that map to "distribute Black voters across districts to dilute their votes, at least in part because they were Black."

Still, the district court gave state lawmakers the chance to enact another congressional districting plan for the upcoming House elections, writing that its order requiring Alabama's congressional elections be administered under the court-drawn map expires if the state adopts new voting lines.

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"We acknowledge that our holding is a rare one in the modern era, and we are painfully aware of the gravity of our ruling, but in this unusual posture and on this extensive record, we do not find the issue particularly complex or close," the judge said.

The decision is the latest twist in the long-running legal fight over Alabama's congressional map. The case landed back before the district court after the Supreme Court's landmark decision last month thatweakeneda key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

That ruling, which came in a case involving Louisiana's congressional map, set off a rush in some Southern states to reconfigure their congressional districts to give Republicans an edge and help the GOP hold onto its House majority.

On the heels of its decision in the Louisiana voting rights case, the high courtset aside lower court rulingsthat had blocked Alabama from using the 2023 map and ordered additional proceedings. State officials then acted swiftly to implement the House lines drawn by state lawmakers three years ago.

Alabama's congressional delegation is currently composed of five Republicans and two Democrats. But state GOP officials had hoped that under the new map, they could flip the seat currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat.

Figures said he is "pleased" with the district court's decision blocking the state from using the 2023 House plan, but acknowledged that the state will likely appeal to the Supreme Court.

"This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled," he said.

Alabama's GOP-controlled legislature crafted new district lines in 2023 after their original map, crafted after the 2020 Census, was found to likely violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The 2023 map included a single majority-Black district, but the district court blocked the state from using those congressional districts in the 2024 elections. Instead, those contests were held under a remedial map adopted by the court.

Japan's Ryuichi Oiwa carded a 61 in the second round on Monday and joined two countrymen in claiming spots in next month's U.S. Open.

Oiwa finished the 36-hole qualifying event in Hino, Japan, at 12-under 128, one stroke ahead of Kaito Onishi and two ahead of Taihei Sato.

Fourth- and fifth-place finishers Riki Kawamoto and Taichi Nabetani, also of Japan, are the first and second alternates for the June 18-21 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.

Oiwa, 28, is ranked No. 378 in the world and competes on the Japan Tour. This is the first time he has qualified for a Grand Slam tournament.

Oiwa opened with a 3-under 67 at the Hino Golf Club's King Course that included five birdies and a double-bogey at the par-4 14th hole. He delivered nine birdies in a bogey-free second round, including three in a row at Nos. 15-1.

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Onishi, 27, is ranked No. 811 in the world and has competed in 32 events on the PGA Tour. He currently competes on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won the UNC Health Championship tournament in 2024.

Onishi got to 11-under with rounds of 64 and 65 on Monday, overcoming a double-bogey at the par-4 13th hole in his second round with birdies at Nos. 14, 16 and 17.

Sato, 32, is No. 424 in the world rankings. He captured his first title on the Japan Tour at the Fortinet Players Cup in 2025.

Sato finished at 10-under after shooting 66 and 64. His wild opening round included two bogeys, three birdies and an eagle on the front nine.

--Field Level Media