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Hamas has announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel says the deal did not meet its 鈥渃ore demands鈥� and has pushed ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Still, Israel says it will continue negotiations. The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip. Hanging over the wrangling was the threat of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.

A lawsuit alleges that child sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers was pervasive and systemic for decades. A complaint filed Monday in the Illinois Court of Claims details disturbing accounts from 95 men and women housed at youth centers as children. The alleged incidents of abuse at nine youth centers took place from 1996 to 2017. The lawsuit claims they included gang rape, forced oral sex, beatings and groping of children by corrections officers, sergeants, nurses, therapists, chaplains and others. Many plaintiffs say they were threatened or rewarded to keep quiet. The Illinois lawsuit follows similar cases in Maryland, New Hampshire and New York City.

The judge presiding over Donald Trump鈥檚 hush money trial has fined him $1,000 and warned of jail time for future gag order violations. The reprimand Monday opened a revelatory day of testimony, as jurors for the first time heard the details of the financial reimbursements at the center of the case and saw payment checks bearing Trump鈥檚 signature. Jeffrey McConney, the former Trump Organization controller, explained how the company reimbursed payments meant to suppress embarrassing stories during the 2016 presidential campaign. The testimony concerns a $130,000 payment from Trump attorney and personal fixer Michael Cohen to porn actor Stormy Daniels to stifle her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.

Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology broke through fencing to retake the area, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of demonstrations. Other protesters at MIT Monday sat on Massachusetts Avenue, blocking evening rush-hour traffic in Boston. Officials at Columbia in New York City said in a statement Monday that instead of a large graduation event, it will focus on smaller school-level graduation ceremonies. Emory University says it's moving its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Campus protests have sprung up across the U.S. stemming from the conflict that started when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel in October.

Israel's military says it is launching 鈥渢argeted strikes鈥� against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after the country's War Cabinet approved a military operation there, officials said late Monday.

Donald Trump is accusing Joe Biden of offering a weak response to antisemitism, wielding the clashes on colleges campuses over the war in Gaza as a campaign issue. But Trump鈥檚 attacks ignore his own long history of rhetoric that invokes the language of Nazi Germany and plays on stereotypes of Jews and politics. Trump and other Republicans have seized on the disruptions on college campuses, which have at times been violent, as a sign of weakness from Biden and Democrats. It鈥檚 also the latest example of Trump鈥檚 timeworn tactic of repackaging a censure he鈥檚 received and stamping it on his opponents.

Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas are starting to recede, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall. The flooding had led to聽hundreds of rescues 鈥� including people who were stranded on rooftops. Officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, are reporting no deaths or major injuries from the flooding. But Gov. Greg Abbott says there were at least three deaths in the state, including a 4-year-old boy. Harris County officials said Monday they鈥檙e transitioning from a response phase into recovery mode and cleanup. Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for 91 counties impacted by the severe weather.

After massive downpours flooded California鈥檚 rivers and packed mountains with snow, the state has reported the first increase in groundwater supplies in four years. California鈥檚 Department of Water Resources said Monday the state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September. Much of the state鈥檚 population counts on groundwater for drinking water in their homes, and farmers that grow much of the country鈥檚 food rely on the precious resource for crops. California has been seeking to step up groundwater recharge with ever-drier years expected from climate change and enacted a law a decade ago to regulate groundwater pumping.

Columbia University has announced that it is canceling its main commencement ceremony scheduled for next week because of ongoing pro-Palestinian protests. The announcement Monday is the latest development in a movement that began nearly three weeks ago at Columbia and has swept college campuses nationwide. The university said the past few weeks have been 鈥渋ncredibly difficult鈥� for the community and it made the decision after discussions with students.

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Jurors in Donald Trump's hush money trial heard for the first time how and why Michael Cohen's reimbursement for payment the Stormy Daniels' payment was entered as a legal expense.

HOUSTON (AP) 鈥� Storms in Texas brought additional rain Sunday to the already saturated Houston area where hundreds of people have been rescued from flooded homes and roads, while to the north in the Fort Worth area, a child died after being swept away when the car he was traveling in got stu…

After AP's Pulitzer Prize-finalist investigation, a family of Atlanta kids struggling to enroll in school returned to class last month. Thousands of students had gone missing from American classrooms during the pandemic and online learning. Many struggled to return, for reasons ranging from onerous enrollment paperwork to the everyday obstacles of poverty. This family of four children essentially had been out of school since 2020. After AP published its story in December, the school contacted the state鈥檚 child welfare department at least once, a district spokesman said. The kids returned to school after their mother received a deadline from child services.

Russia is threatening to strike British military facilities and says it plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons. Monday's statements came after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine. Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory using U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes against British military facilities and equipment on the Ukrainian territory or elsewhere. It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to obliterate entire cities.

U.S. university presidents have joined Holocaust survivors and thousands of Israelis for a yearly memorial march at the site of Auschwitz. The March of the Living honors the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and celebrates the state of Israel. This year mood of the march was overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war after the Oct. 7 attack on Israelis, the deadliest violence against Jews since Adolf Hitler鈥檚 regime sought to destroy the entire Jewish population of Europe. A small group of pro-Palestinian protesters waving Palestinian flags stood along the side of the road as participants marched with Israeli flags.

LONDON (AP) 鈥� Ceremonial gun salutes rang out across London under soggy skies Monday to mark the anniversary of the coronation of King Charles III.

In a historic and tumultuous election in Panama, Jos茅 Ra煤l Mulino has landed in the role of president-elect despite not even expecting to be the candidate a few months ago. Now, he will lead the normally sleepy Central American nation through a moment of political tension, historic migration and a struggling economy. Who is Mulino and what can voters expect from his upcoming presidency? Panamanian political analyst Rodrigo Noriega says, 鈥淭here are a lot of unknowns about him." Preliminary results put Mulino nine points ahead of his nearest rival.

Two kids named Antonio grew up together in the streets of east Baltimore surrounded by poverty and gun violence. But only one would make it out alive. Antonio Moore is a successful real estate investor and marketing consultant. His friend Antonio Lee was shot and killed last summer, four months before his 20th birthday. How was Moore able to break the negative cycles of his youth while Lee fell victim to them? There are no simple answers, but their disparate fates highlight the sometimes insurmountable challenges facing young Black men from Baltimore鈥檚 poorest neighborhoods, where rampant violence often draws an arbitrary line between life and death.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the new head of Liberia's forest management authority, Rudolph Merab, said he would work to increase timber exports and cut regulations. Those plans are sure to spark worry among environmentalists and international observers who hoped the new administration in Liberia, West Africa's most forested nation, would confront chronic problems with illegal logging. Merab, recently appointed as head of the Forestry Development Authority, defended his record, which includes two of his companies accused of illegal logging. He also denied that one of his companies worked with Charles Taylor, a former Liberia president who was convicted of war crimes for involvement during the civil war in neighboring country Sierra Leone.

D-Day veteran Charles Shay is about to take part next month in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. Then a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic, the Penobscot tribe citizen from Maine says he was ready to give his life. He also sought to save as many as he could. Now 99, he鈥檚 spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication. Nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and other nations who landed on June 6, 1944 on the Normandy shores. Shay said he did his job and 鈥渄id not have time to worry鈥� about his situation of being there and perhaps losing his own life.

Russia's Defense Ministry has declared that the military will hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons. It was the first time that such an exercise was publicly announced by Moscow. Tactical nuclear weapons for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful than nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked on Monday about the reason for the exercise. He pointed at last week鈥檚 comments by Emmanuel Macron and recent statements from other Western officials. The French president again held the door open for the possible use of NATO troops in Ukraine.

A top Florida public school attributes its students鈥� high test scores to the creativity its teachers are allowed in the classroom. Nationally, most teachers report feeling stressed and overwhelmed at work, according to a Pew Research Center survey of teachers last fall. Waning job satisfaction has accompanied a decline in teachers鈥� sense of autonomy, according to another recent study. But at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, teachers there are expected to be creative, and it works. They鈥檝e created classes that teach medicine, aeronautics and robotics. Art is used to reinforce science lessons, and a teacher plans to add an equine medicine course next fall.

Mexican authorities say relatives have positively identified three bodies found in a well as those of two Australian surfers and one American who went missing last weekend. Baja California state prosecutors said relatives from the two countries had viewed the corpses recovered from a remote well and recognized them as their loved ones. Thieves apparently killed the three, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico鈥檚 Baja peninsula, to steal their truck because they wanted the tires. They then allegedly got rid of the bodies by dumping them in a well near the coast. Three suspects are being held in connection with the case.

Jos茅 Ra煤l Mulino, the stand-in for former President Ricardo Martinelli in Panama's presidential election, is on his way to becoming the new leader of the Central American nation. With nearly 90% of the votes counted Sunday night, the 64-year-old former security minister鈥檚 top three competitors conceded as he led the race with nearly 35% of the vote. He had a nine-point lead over other candidates. Mulino replaced Martinelli as candidate when the firebrand former leader was banned from running after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering. The new president will face pressing challenges. Those include deep political discontent, historic migration and a lagging economy exacerbated by mass protests last year and a drought that has slashed transit in the Panama Canal.

Students protesting the war in Gaza left their camp at the University of Southern California without major incident after they were surrounded by police and threatened with arrest. In Boston, Northeastern University's commencement ended peacefully at Fenway Park on Sunday. Many were watching developments closely at both campuses. Police last month arrested more than 90 people when they first broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at USC, while police in Boston arrested about 100 protesters at a similar camp at Northeastern. The Associated Press has tallied about 2,500 arrests at about 50 campuses since April 18, based on its reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement.

A weekend spring storm that drenched the San Francisco Bay area and closed Northern California mountain highways also set a single-day snowfall record in the Sierra Nevada. The wet weather system had mostly moved out of the state by Sunday morning, but officials warn that roads would remain slick after around two feet of snow fell in some areas. The University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab says the storm dropped 26.4 inches of snow, making for the snowiest day of the season. Treacherous driving conditions on Saturday forced the closure of several highways near Lake Tahoe. Drier and warmer conditions are expected throughout the week.

KIBBUTZ MEFALSIM, Israel (AP) 鈥� When Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip perpetrated the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country鈥檚 annual Holocaust memorial day. Netanyahu told a ceremony Sunday that 鈥渋f Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.鈥� The message, delivered in a setting that typically avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the heavy toll caused by Israel鈥檚 military offensive against Hamas militants and urged the sides to agree to a cease-fire. Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country鈥檚 calendar.