Israel has finally acknowledged one its soldiers likely killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022.

A quick thread on Israel’s changing statements on the killing over the last 117 days: In the hours after Abu Akleh’s death, Israel's prime minister says it “appears likely that armed Palestinians — who were firing indiscriminately at the time — were responsible” for the killing.

https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1524294090095005696

Police in northern California say "it is more than likely" that the body found yesterday is missing teenager Kiely Rodni.

They haven't made a positive ID at this point. Police are asked why Adventures with Purpose, a volunteer diver team, found Kiely's car in a lake that the police had already searched extensively.

"We're going to have to go back and debrief," says deputy from Nevada County Sheriff.

NEW: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Kyiv to meet Zelenskyy.

Accompanied by Adam Schiff, chair of House intelligence, and Gregory Meeks, chair of House foreign affairs. Visit comes as Pelosi tries to steer Biden's massive $33 billion Ukraine aid package through Congress.

Pelosi: "We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom...Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done."

NEW: Russian state media reports 25 civilians - 19 adults and six children - have come out of the Mariupol steel plant.

No further details yet. Unclear if those civilians are now in Russian custody or will be allowed to move to Ukrainian-held territory.
ria.ru/20220430/azovs… This is a big moment if civilians are actually emerging from that plant for the first time in weeks.

But more questions than answers right now. The biggest Q: what are they coming out to? Russian captivity? The UN? Evacuation to Ukrainian-held territory?

Our latest on @MSNBC:

NEW: Zelenskyy's office says operation is planned today to evacuate civilians from Mariupol steel plant, per @Reuters + @AFP.

No confirmation from Russian side. We do know UN moved a team to Zaporizhia yesterday to be ready in case chance for evacuation came up. @Reuters @AFP Ukrainian marine inside steel plant tells us he isn't seeing any sign of prep for an evacuation today.

He says there's been talk everyday for last four days nothing has materialised.

Critical hours ahead for Mariupol. Latest with @WillieGeist on @Morning_Joe:

We've been digging into the situation in occupied Kherson. It's the only Ukrainian city under full Russian control and the one most in danger of being annexed.

Report with @JonLemire + thread with some details from interviews with people inside Kherson or who recently escaped: @JonLemire Russian occupation today announced they plan to start using rubles in Kherson + start issuing Russian passports.

Zelenskyy worried this is prelude to a re-run of the Crimea 2014 playbook: Russia staging a sham referendum and then using results as justification to annex Kherson.

Remember the Russian warship that Ukrainian troops told to go f*** itself?

It suffered an enormous fire last night. A Ukrainian official says it’s the result of Ukrainian missile fire.

Russia is acknowledging a fire and says crew was evacuated but isn’t giving the cause. The ship is the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet.

Russian MOD says a fire caused ammunition to explode and the entire crew was evacuated. Cause of fire is being investigated.

Ukraine waking up to claims Russia used chemical weapons last night in Mariupol.

The Azov battalion, the far-Right militia part of Ukraine's national guard, said several of its troops were poisoned by chemical weapons.

@NBCNews has not confirmed the claim. UK government says it is looking into the claims and any use of chemical weapons would be "a callous escalation" by Putin.

Pentagon also said it is aware of the reports but was unable to confirm them.

https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1513636563405713416

I've just come back from three weeks in Moscow. I spent a lot of that time in our bureau, where the TVs are tuned to Russian state television.

A couple observations on what ordinary Russians are being told - and aren't being told - about the war in Ukraine: The Kremlin is showcasing individual Russian soldiers it says fell heroically in battle. And it’s showing senior officials pinning medals on lightly-wounded troops in hospital.

But it isn’t saying how many Russian troops in total have been killed.

NEW: Hamas military wing confirms it is firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.

Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman says rockets are "in response to its crimes and aggression against the Holy City and its abuse of our people in Sheikh Jarrah and Al-Aqsa Mosque". This is the moment Israel's parliamentary chamber was evacuated after rockets were fired towards Jerusalem.

Israeli police releases video of violent incident in Jerusalem today.

We don't know what happened before video starts but looks like a group of Palestinians attacked an Israeli's car.

The car then slams into one man (unclear if driver lost control or intentional) and crashes. The incident happened here: at the end of a ramp leading down from Lion's Gate to the main road encircling the Old City.
google.com/maps/@31.78118…

At 12.14am, David "Yaya" McAtee was tending to the grill at his BBQ joint in Louisville.

At 12.16am, he was dead - killed in a hail of 18 bullets fired by city police and KY National Guard.

Our team @NBC_VC investigated those two dark + violent minutes. The police say McAtee fired the first shot and they were shooting back.

But that seems strange given what we know about the man. He was 53 and his BBQ shop was a fixture in town. Everyone - from the mayor on down - knew him. He gave free meals to cops and to homeless people.

Exclusive: Turkey is allowing Hamas to plot attacks on Israel from Istanbul while Erdoğan meets openly with the group's leaders. telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/1… A couple of lines from our story:

1. Israeli police transcripts show how Hamas brings recruits to Istanbul to give them funds and instructions for attacks.

Here’s details of one plot from Feb 2019 to kill the then mayor of Jerusalem, a Likud MK, or Israel’s police chief.

It's going to be an ugly day in Gaza and southern Israel.

Israel assassinated a senior Islamic Jihad commander inside Gaza early this morning. Palestinian factions are now firing an intense barrage of rockets into Israel in retaliation. Gaza is run by Hamas but Islamic Jihad is a smaller faction that operates from the Strip.

Israel said it killed Baha Abu al-Ata because he was responsible for several recent rocket strikes from Gaza and was planning "immediate" further attacks on Israel.

Trump keeps talking about "securing the oil" in Syria. Behind that phrase is two ideas:

1. A not very strategic but understandable US plan to deny the oil to both Assad and ISIS.

2. Trump's insane fantasy that the US can take the oil for itself. telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/2… The oil would be a big prize for either ISIS or Assad.

ISIS once made $40m/month from oil and the money could help fund the jihadists' resurgence. Assad could use the money to rebuild his shattered state and ease his own dependence on smuggled Iranianian oil.

BREAKING: The Syrian Democratic Forces officially confirm they are letting Assad's troops into their territory in a bid to stop the Turkish onslaught. SDF: "To protect the country's borders and preserve Syrian sovereignty the Syrian army will enter and deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to support the SDF to repel this aggression and liberate the areas entered by the Turkish army and its hired mercenaries."

It's very early and the situation is very fluid.

But it may be that we see a fullscale Kurdish surrender to the Assad regime tonight. Abandoned by the US, it looks like SDF will try to spare their cities from Turkish onslaught by allowing Syrian forces to take them over. There are widespread reports that the Kurds are allowing Assad regime troops to take control of Kobani, Qamishli, Manbij, and other key cities.

The deal was apparently brokered in a meeting with Russian commanders earlier.

Blue & White got 23k more votes in Sept than in April. Likud got 30k fewer even though it absorbed Kulanu. Bibi was right: a lot of Likud voters didn't show up this time (or went to Lieberman).

B&W:
April - 1,125,881
Sept - 1,148,700

Likud:
April - 1,140,370
Sept - 1,111,535 Lieberman almost doubled his vote from last time.

April - 173,004
Sept - 309,688

BREAKING: The family wounded when their home was destroyed by a rocket from Gaza are British-Israelis.

Robert and Susan Wolf, originally from London, were with their children and grandchildren when the rocket struck. telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/2… Mr and Mrs Wolf, their son + daughter-in-law, daughter, and two grandchildren were at home when the rocket struck.

"If we hadn’t got to the bomb shelter in time I would be burying all my family," Mr Wolf said, standing outside the wreckage of the family home.

Hamas security forces reportedly used batons and fired in the air to break up demonstrations in #Gaza today.

People were protesting high prices and bad conditions in Gaza. Hamas police spokesman: “A group of people with no permits went into a protest today. Some of them closed roads and burned tires, we had to maintain discipline. Some were arrested”. Via @abubakrbashir4

A quick thread on a human moment I saw on the side of a dusty road in eastern Syria today. This is Karam, a 19-year-old from Mosul, who is among the thousands of women and children who emerged from ISIS’s final territory in #Baghuz in recent days.