Israeli strike on Gaza shelter kills 17 as Blinken says cease-fire talks will resume

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip has killed at least 17 people. The strike came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas and that cease-fire negotiations would resume in the coming days. Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the hospital that received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, according to the hospital’s records. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.

Pope Francis denounces a world ‘losing its heart’ in 4th encyclical of his papacy

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has issued the fourth encyclical of his papacy, denouncing a world that “is losing its heart” during times of global turmoil marked by “wars, socio-economic disparities and the uses of technology that threaten our humanity.” Thursday’s social encyclical titled “Dilexit Nos,” Latin for “He Loves Us,” appeals to the faithful to “meditate” on Jesus’ love in a world in which consumerism and algorithms obscure humanity. In the document, the pontiff said the failure to “feel that something is intolerable” in the suffering on both sides of conflict “is a sign of a world that has grown heartless.”

Train carrying 55 people derails on Norway’s north coast, killing at least 1

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Police say at least one person was killed and four people injured when a train running along Norway’s northern coast derailed Thursday with 55 people on board. The Arctic Circle Express was on its way from Trondheim to the remote northern town of Bodoe, above the Arctic Circle, when it left the mountainside track. The four people injured were taken to a nearby hospital. Their condition was unclear. Those who were unhurt were taken by bus to a town 140 miles south of Bodoe. Police told Norwegian news agency NTB that a rock slide likely caused the derailment of the train, which was made up of a locomotive and five carriages.

A car bomb explodes outside a police station in western Mexico, wounding 3 officers

ACAMBARO, Mexico (AP) — A car bomb left outside a police station in western Mexico has wounded three people. Prosecutors in the violence-wracked state of Guanajuato said Thursday that the three were wounded in the town of Acambaro. They said another explosion occurred in the nearby town of Jerecuaro, but nobody was wounded. The near-simultaneous attacks in two different towns about a half-hour apart suggested the involvement of drug cartels that have been fighting bloody turf battles for years in Guanajuato. Despite the violence, President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to continue the “hugs, not bullets” approach of her predecessor.