WASHINGTON (AP) ' A majority of Federal Reserve policymakers expressed support in late October for further interest rate cuts, though not all committed to making the reduction at their next meeting in December, according to minutes released Wednesday.

At the same time, many officials said 'it would likely be appropriate' to keep rates 'unchanged for the rest of the year,' a sign of strong divisions among policymakers about the central banks next steps.

Rate cuts by the Fed, over time, typically lower borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

Fed officials are deeply split over the biggest threat to the economy: weak hiring or stubbornly-elevated inflation. If a sluggish job market is the biggest threat, then the Fed would typically cut rates more. But it combats inflation by keeping rates elevated, or even raising them.

Chair Jerome Powell had telegraphed the deep divisions among the Feds 19-member interest-rate setting committee at a news conference following the Oct. 28-29 meeting. The minutes were released after the customary three-week delay.

'Participants expressed strongly differing views' about whether the Fed should cut at its December 9-10 meeting, the minutes said.

The central bank decided to cut its key rate to about 3.9% at the late October meeting, down from 4.1% and the second cut this year. In September, the Fed projected it would reduce rates three times this year, in September, October, and December.

WASHINGTON (AP) ' The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will not be releasing a full jobs report for October because the 43-day federal government shutdown meant it couldnt calculate the unemployment rate and some other key numbers.

Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data ' most importantly the number of jobs that employers created last month ' along with the full November jobs report, now due a couple of weeks late on Dec. 16.

The departments 'employment situation' report usually comes out the first Friday of the month. But the government shutdown disrupted data collection and delayed the release of the reports. For example, the September jobs report, now coming out Friday, was originally due Oct. 3.

The monthly jobs report consists of two parts: a survey of households that is used to determine the unemployment rate, among other things; and the 'establishment' survey of companies, nonprofits and government agencies that is used to track job creation, wages and other measurements of labor market health.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the household survey for October could not be conducted because of the shutdown and could not be done retroactively. But it was able to collect the hiring numbers from employers, and those will come out with the full November report.

Wednesdays announcement means the September jobs numbers will likely get extra scrutiny Friday. They are the last full measurement of hiring and unemployment that Federal Reserve policymakers will see before they meet Dec. 9-10 and decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate for the third time this year.

The jobs numbers have lately been contentious. After the July jobs report proved disappointing, President Donald Trump abruptly fired the official responsible for collecting the data, Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer.

McEntarfer herself was quick to say there was nothing suspicious about Wednesdays announcement. 'No conspiracy here, folks,' she posted on the social media site Bluesky. 'BLS was entirely shutdown for six weeks. Payroll data from firms can be retroactively collected for October. The household survey cannot be conducted retrospectively. This is just a straightforward consequence of having all field staff furloughed for over a month.'

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

National Domestic Violence Hotline: People who have experienced domestic abuse can get confidential help at thehotline.org or by calling 800-799-7233.

The immigrant from India believed her husband when he said that if she wasnt gone by the time he got to their Georgia home in 10 minutes, he would kill her.

She said her husband and his family, who are also immigrants, abused her throughout their marriage, beating her with a belt, pouring hot water on her, cutting her, and pushing her head through a wall.

'Several times I tried to escape, but they found me and brought me back home,' said the woman, who is in the country illegally and spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is afraid being identified would harm her chances of gaining legal status.

With no time to run after her husbands call in July 2020, she dialed 911, even though she knew she could be deported. The police arrived to find the husband threatening her with a knife in front of their young children, she recalled. He was arrested but not prosecuted, she said.

The woman and her children sought services from the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization that serves immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. She is still winding through the immigration process five years later.

Besides immigrants increased vulnerability to sexual violence, they face a host of mental health and physical challenges, researchers say. They have high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide, and anxiety, according to a 2024 study.

'Personally, I know anxiety related to the current political climate is precipitating expensive emergency room visits and negatively impacting peoples ability to get to work and make a living,' said Nicole E. Warren, a nurse midwife and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore.

Immigrants without legal status also face increased rates of chronic conditions and higher death rates from preventable diseases due to their limited access to health care and their fear of seeking it, advocates say.

'One of our clients was so afraid to leave her home that she avoided seeking medical care during her pregnancy, out of fear of interacting with ICE,' said Miriam Camero, director of client advocacy, social services, at Tahirih.

Food banks have reported that many immigrants in need of food assistance have stopped coming, for fear of deportation.

It has always been difficult for people without legal immigration status to get help when they need it. The Trump administrations crackdown on people in the country illegally has intensified the pressure. The situation has also hampered the advocates and attorneys who defend their rights.

'Were working extra hours to do all the work,' said Vanessa Wilkins, executive director of Tahirihs office in Atlanta. 'The safety planning and added protection that clients might need, including documents just to make sure they are safe, can definitely make you feel overwhelmed.'

U Visas

For domestic abuse survivors without legal status, like the woman from India, going to the authorities seems more fraught amid the immigration crackdown, said Maricarmen Garza, chief counsel of the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence.

'There are just no guarantees,' Garza said, 'especially with how law enforcement is intertwined in enforcing immigration law.'

In more than half of states, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can collaborate by formal written agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove people in the country illegally. Advocates say this can interfere with victims efforts to get a certificate to file for a 'U visa,' which would allow them to live and work in the U.S. with the possibility of lawful permanent residency.

The battered woman from India recalls police telling her that if she did not press charges, she could get a certificate for a U visa. She agreed to their suggestion but recalls the anxiety of filing about five abuse reports over two years to get the certificate. 'I got panic attacks just writing them down, because it meant I was reliving the situations again,' she said.

When asked for comment about the difficulties immigrant domestic violence victims face, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson touted President Donald Trumps efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. 'The presidents successful effort to deport criminal illegal aliens is making all victims safer and ensuring they will never again be harmed by dangerous criminal illegal aliens,' Jackson said in a statement. She said 'allegations without evidence' that immigrants have been told to drop charges 'should not be taken seriously.'

Immigrant women without legal status can be particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation because of language barriers, as well as cultural and social isolation, researchers have found.

According to a 2023 report, lifetime rates of abuse by intimate partners range up to 93% in some immigrant groups, compared with about 41% of U.S.-born women experiencing such abuse in their lifetime.

As the Trump administration reshapes the countrys immigration system, survivors of violence who entered the country illegally have a tough time proving their abuse and trauma to get relief, advocates say.

A refugee health and asylum program at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore provides immigrant victims of abuse with free forensic evaluations to support their claims for humanitarian relief, including applications for U visas.

Warren, the programs associate director for womens health, said that in the past, a written affidavit of the clinics findings was enough to corroborate an applicants legal accounts of past trauma.

'Now, we are getting requests for our in-person testimony,' Warren said.

Application Backlogs

The woman from India applied for a visa after she received a certificate from law enforcement allowing her to do so in 2023. Hers is one of nearly 11.6 million pending visa applications, according to data through June ' the highest volume of cases ever recorded by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The number of pending U visa applications is 415,000, according to the agency.

Only about 10,000 U visas are issued per year, and it can take more than seven years to process applications, Garza said.

Adding to the pressure, the Trump administration has reduced the availability of Section 8 housing, which helps low-income individuals and others pay their rent. As of September, people without legal authorization to be in the United States are not eligible to receive rental help over U.S. citizens.

'If Tahirih wasnt behind me, I could be homeless,' said the woman, who said she can afford only half her rent.

Victims advocates say they are working harder than ever to support their clients but are stretched thin as they face federal funding cuts and increased demand.

The Tahirih center reported a 200% increase in call volume in the four months after Trump took office, compared with the same period last year.

'At the end of the day there are a lot of emails and a lot of people we arent able to reach as quickly as in the past,' said Casey Carter Swegman, the centers director of public policy.

To reach immigrant survivors of abuse who are afraid to come forward, advocates are 'getting back to basics,' said Joanna Otero-Cruz, executive director and president of the Philadelphia group Women Against Abuse.

'Were doing grassroots outreach to hairdressers and other small-business owners,' she said. 'Theyre the eyes and ears for us.'

In Riverhead, New York, a 38-year-old woman who emigrated from El Salvador said she has twice been the victim of domestic abuse but was too scared to report it to police.

She said the second assault was by a man for whom she cooked and cleaned in his home. The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of her sense of shame and her fears of deportation, said he raped her, took pictures of her naked, and threatened to put them on social media if she tried to go to the police. He then stalked her, she said.

Noemi Sanchez, Long Island regional coordinator for the Rural & Migrant Ministry, a nonprofit that supports farm workers, is working closely with the woman to elevate her self-esteem and help her understand that 'no woman deserves to have a man mistreat them.'

Meanwhile, the survivor from India received a temporary work permit in 2024 and is employed as a certified nursing assistant, which 'helps me survive,' she said.

'I have really come a long way,' she added. 'It wasnt easy. I had great support behind me. They didnt let me down.'

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ' Computer chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly earnings report Wednesday that is expected to either deepen a recent downturn in the stock market or prompt an sigh of relief among investors increasingly worried that the worlds most valuable company is perched atop an artificial intelligence bubble thats about to burst.

Nvidias report, due after the market closes, has turned into a pulse check on an AI boom that began three years ago when OpenAI released ChatGPT. That breakthrough transformed Nvidia from a mostly under-the-radar chipmaker ' best known for making graphics chips for video games ' into an AI bellwether because its unique chipsets have become indispensable for powering the technology underlying the craze.

As OpenAI and longtime Big Tech powerhouses ' such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta Platforms ' buy more and more of Nvidias chips, its annual revenue has soared from $27 billion in 2022 to a projected $208 billion this year. That rapid run-up has fueled a 10-fold increase in Nvidias market value, which now stands at $4.5 trillion, surpassing Apple, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet, currently valued in the $3 trillion to $4 trillion range.

'Saying this is the most important stock in the world is an understatement,' Jay Woods, chief market strategist of investment bank Freedom Capital Markets.

As the meteoric rise in its market value suggests, Nvidia has made a habit of reassuring investors with quarterly reports peppered with numbers surpassing analyst projections and salted with bullish comments from CEO Jensen Huang indicating the company remains in the early stages of a growth trajectory likely to last another decade despite challenges such as President Donald Trumps trade war.

But in the past few weeks, more investors are starting to wonder if the AI craze has been overblown, even as Big Tech companies like Alphabet increase their budgets for building more AI factories. Thats why Nvidias market value has fallen by more than 10% ' a reversal known as a correction in investors parlance ' just three weeks after it became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion.

'Skepticism is the highest now than anytime over the last few years,' said Nancy Tengler, CEO of money management Laffer Tengler Investments.

Despite the recent worries, its widely assumed that Nvidias quarterly numbers will at least mirror the analyst forecasts that steer investor reactions. The Santa Clara, California, company is expected to earn $1.26 per share on revenue of $54.9 billion, which would be a 59% increase from the same time last year.

But the bar has been raised so high for Nvidia and AI that the company will likely have to deliver even more robust growth to ease the bubble worries. Investors also are likely to be parsing Huangs remarks about the past quarter and the current market conditions ' an assessment that has become akin to the State of the Union for the AI boom.

Four more teams will qualify from Europe, along with two from the rest of the world.

The UEFA playoffs will consist of 16 nations, while FIFAs intercontinental playoffs feature six.

The successful teams will join the 42 other nations to have qualified for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which runs through June and July.

Heres what to know about the playoffs.

European playoffs

Twelve runners up from the European qualifying groups advanced to the playoffs. Four more teams advanced as the highest-ranked group winners from the UEFA Nations League which did not place in the top two of their European qualifying group.

Group runners-up: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales.

Nations League group winners: Romania, Sweden, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia.

Teams will be placed in a seeded draw from four pots, based on the FIFA ranking position of the 12 runners-up. The top eight teams will be seeded. The bottom four, along with the Nations League qualifiers will be unseeded.

The four top-seeded teams in Pot 1 will be guaranteed semifinals against the Nations League qualifiers. There will be eight semifinals in total, with seeded teams drawn at home.

Seeded teams: (Pot 1) Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine; (Pot 2) Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia.

The winners of the semifinals advance to four finals to determine the teams that qualify for the World Cup.

The semifinals will be played Mar. 26 and the finals will be Mar. 31.

Intercontinental playoffs

The intercontinental playoff tournament will bring together six teams from around the world, vying for two qualifying places.

Two teams from CONCACAF and one each from Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania will compete.

Playoff teams:

AFC ' Iraq

CAF ' Congo

CONCACAF ' Jamaica, Suriname

CONMEBOL ' Bolivia

OFC ' New Caledonia

The two highest-ranked teams, Iraq and Congo, are seeded and automatically advance to one of two playoff finals.

The four lowest-ranked teams are unseeded and will be drawn to play in two semifinals, with the winners advancing to one of the two playoff finals.

The two winning teams from the finals qualify for the World Cup.

The international playoffs will be held between Mar. 23-31.

World Cup draw

The draw for the World Cup will be held in Washington DC on  Dec. 5 before the teams advancing via the playoffs have been confirmed.

The World Cup kicks off June 11 and the final is scheduled for July 19.

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

PARIS (AP) ' The head of the Louvre Museum said Wednesday that new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems will soon be installed at the Paris landmark after last months stunning crown jewels heist.

The cameras ' some 100 of them ' will be up and running by the end of next year while anti-intrusion systems will start to be put in place within two weeks, Louvre director Laurence des Cars said.

She described the systems as equipment that will prevent intruders from getting close to the museum buildings but did not offer specifics. The new surveillance cameras will try to ensure 'complete protection of the museums surroundings,' she said.

'After the shock, after the emotion, after the assessment, its time for action' at the worlds most visited museum, des Cars told the Committee of Cultural Affairs of the National Assembly.

She said it was all part of more than 20 emergency measures that will be implemented. The new measures also include the creation of a 'security coordinator' position at the museum, and the job has been posted this month, she added.

On the day of the heist, it took thieves less than 8 minutes to force their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery with the help of a freight lift and steal the 88 million euros ($102 million) trove.

Des Cars unveiled some new details about the security breach that allowed the Oct. 19 robbery, saying the power tools used by robbers to cut through the display cases were disc cutters meant for concrete.

'Its a method that had not been imagined at all' when the display cases in the Apollo Gallery were replaced in 2019, she said. At the time, they had been designed primarily to counter an attack from inside the museum with weapons, she added.

Footage from museum cameras show that during the robbery, the display cases 'held up remarkably well and did not break apart,' she said. 'Videos show how difficult it was for the thieves.'

Des Cars stressed security improvement is a priority of the decade-long 'Louvre New Renaissance' plan launched earlier this year, with an estimated cost of up to 800 million euros ($933 million), to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.

With the Louvre crumbling under the weight of mass tourism, des Cars has restricted the daily number of visitors to 30,000 in recent years.

The famed glass pyramid inaugurated in 1989 was meant to welcome about 4 millions visitors a year, she recalled. This year, already more than 8 million people visited the Louvre.

'The extensive modernization that the Louvre underwent in the 1980s is now technically obsolete, with equipment that has been overperforming for 40 years,' des Cars said.

On Monday, the Louvre announced it was temporarily closing some employee offices and one public gallery because they were structurally fragile.

The new film directed by Shih-Ching and co-written, produced and edited by Baker, “Left-Handed Girl,” chronicles the life of a single mother and her two daughters after they relocate to Taipei and open a night market stall, according to the Art.

A single mother and her two daughters relocate to Taipei to open a night market stall, each navigating the challenges of adapting to their new environment while striving to maintain family unity.

The film is Taiwan’s official submission for the International Feature Film category for next year’s Oscars, where it’s predicted to be a top-five finalist, according to the Art.

Shih-Ching and Baker have been longtime collaborators. The two co-directed the 2004 film “Take Out,” and later, Shih-Ching produced several of Baker’s films including “Starlet,” “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket.”

Shih-Ching is making her directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl,” which will have a limited theatrical run before its move to Netflix on Nov. 28.

The Art, meanwhile, will host a screening of the new film on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 1:55 p.m. ' and after, Baker will make an appearance for a Q&A about the movie.

“The Art Theatre Long Beach is thrilled to welcome Sean Baker,” said Kirk Jordan, a member of the Art’s Board of Directors and treasurer, in a Wednesday, Nov. 19 email. “It’s a beautiful film.”

Tickets for the film screening and Q&A are available at arttheatrelongbeach.org.

NEW YORK (AP) ' President Trump nominated Stuart Levenbach as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using a legal maneuver to keep his budget director Russell Vought as acting director of the bureau while the Trump administration continues on its plan to shut down the consumer financial protection agency.

Levenbach is currently an associate director inside the Office of Management and Budget, handling issues related to natural resources, energy, science and water issues. Levenbachs resume shows significant experience dealing with science and natural resources issues, acting as chief of staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Trumps first term.

Levenbachs nomination is not meant to go through to confirmation, an administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Under the Vacancies Act, Vought can only act as acting director for 210 days, but now that Trump has nominated someone to the position, that clock has been suspended until the Senate approves or denies Levenbachs confirmation as director. Vought is Levenbachs boss.

The CFPB has been nonfunctional much of the year. Many of its employees have been ordered not to work, and the only major work the bureau is doing is unwinding the regulations and rules it put into place during Trumps first term and during the Biden administration.

While in the acting director role, Vought has signaled that he wishes to dismantle, or vastly diminish, the bureau.

The latest blow to the bureau came earlier this month, when the White House said it does not plan to withdraw any funds from the Federal Reserve, which is where the bureau gets its funding, to fund the bureau past Dec. 31. The White House and the Justice Department used a legal interpretation of the law that created the bureau, the Dodd-Frank Act, that the Fed must be profitable in order to fund the CFPBs operations. Several judges have rejected this argument when it was brought up by companies, but its never been the position of the government until this year that the CFPB requires the Fed to be profitable to have operating funds.

'Donald Trumps sending the Senate a new nominee to lead the CFPB looks like nothing more than a front for Russ Vought to stay on as Acting Director indefinitely as he tries to illegally close down the agency,' said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, in a statement.

The bureau was created after the 2008 financial crisis as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a law passed to overhaul the financial system and require banks to hold more capital to avoid another financial crisis. The CFPB was created to be a independent advocate for consumers to help them avoid bad actors in the financial system.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) ' A large Russian drone and missile barrage on Ukraines western city of Ternopil killed at least 25 people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Turkey in search of diplomatic support for his fight against Russias invasion.

The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, located around 120 miles from the Polish border, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. At least 73 people, including 15 children, were injured, emergency services said.

At least 19 among those killed were burned alive, including three children aged 5, 7 and 16, Klymenko said. Two dozen people are still unaccounted for, he said on national television, and rescuers expect to work at least two more days to complete the search of rubble.

Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, Ukraines air force said. The bombardment included 47 cruise missiles, with air defenses intercepting all but six of them, the air force said. Western-supplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets intercepted at least 10 cruise missiles, it said.

'Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia (to stop the war) is insufficient,' Zelenskyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

Zelenskyy meets with Turkish president

Zelenskyy met with Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara later Wednesday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring more international pressure to bear on him. Putin has so far resisted making compromises, despite U.S. pressure.

In brief statements to the press, Zelenskyy and Erdogan expressed their commitment to finding a peaceful settlement. Turkey is a key broker in the Black Sea region, preserving relations with both Ukraine and Russia.

'We count on the strength of Turkish diplomacy, on (how) its understood in Moscow,' Zelensky said.

Zelenskyy said before the talks that he had seen 'some positions and signals from the United States' about the war. He didnt elaborate but tough new American sanctions on Russias oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect on Friday.

A senior Turkish official initially said that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would join Zelenskyy in Turkey, but backtracked later in the day and said Witkoff wouldnt be coming. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because he wasnt allowed to speak publicly about the arrangements.

An Army official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Ukraine for negotiations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive travel plans, said that Driscoll is accompanied by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.

Romania and Poland scramble fighter jets

Ternopil sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine, where many people from the east and south moved to as they fled danger along the front line.

Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.

Russias Defense Ministry said it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities and military-industrial targets, including long-range drone depots, in retaliation against strikes by Kyiv on Russian territory.

Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO members airspace during the Russian attacks, Romanias Ministry of National Defense said.

The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure. Polands Rzeszów and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.

In northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, Russian drones injured 46 people, including two girls, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, wrote on Telegram. Drones hit several city districts, at least 16 residential buildings, an ambulance station, school and other civilian infrastructure, he said.

Russias Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine fired four American-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian city of Voronezh on Tuesday. All four were shot down, the ministry said, but the debris damaged a private house, an orphanage and a gerontology center. There were no casualties, the ministry said.

Ukraines General Staff on Tuesday reported firing ATACMS missiles at Russia without offering details.

Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) ' The Israeli military carried out multiple barrages of airstrikes in southern Lebanon Wednesday on what it said were Hezbollah weapons storage facilities after a drone strike earlier in the day killed one person and wounded several others, including students on a bus.

The new wave of strikes came as tensions between Israel and fighters are escalating. An airstrike Tuesday night killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, the deadliest of Israeli attacks since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians.

Israel claims Hezbollah is regrouping

The Israeli military warned Wednesday afternoon it would strike targets in several villages in southern Lebanon, describing them as Hezbollah infrastructure, and called on people to move away from the locations. More than an hour later, the strikes began in the villages of Shehour and Deir Kifa. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Israels military said Hezbollah was working to reestablish itself and rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence. It said the weapons facilities targeted were embedded among civilians and violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon. Israel agreed to a ceasefire and withdraw from southern Lebanon last year and Lebanon agreed to quell Hezbollah activity in the area.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car in the southern Lebanese village of Tiri killed one person and wounded 11, including students aboard a nearby bus, the Lebanese Health Ministry and state media said.

State-run National News Agency said the school bus happened to be passing near the car that was hit. The bus driver and several students were wounded, the report said.

The Israeli military later said it killed a Hezbollah operative in the drone strike.

In Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, just outside the port city of Sidon, life appeared normal Wednesday, but Lebanese authorities prevented journalists from entering. At the scene of the strike, paramedics searched for human remains around a wall that was stained with blood. Several cars were burnt and broken glass and debris littered the ground.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever it operates.

Hamas condemned the attack and denied in a statement that the sports playground that was hit was its training compound.

Palestinian factions in Lebanons 12 refugee camps earlier this year began handing over their weapons to the Lebanese state. The government has said that it will also work on disarming Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has rejected it as long as Israel continues to occupy several hills along the border and carries out almost daily strikes.

The U.S. has recently increased pressure on Lebanon to work harder on disarming Hezbollah and canceled a planned trip to Washington this week by Lebanese army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal.

A senior Lebanese army officer told The Associated Press that U.S. officials were angered by an army statement on Sunday that blamed Israel for destabilizing Lebanon and blocking the Lebanese military deployment in south Lebanon. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to speak publicly.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon two months ago that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.

That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

Israeli strikes kill 21 in Gaza

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 21 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday on both sides of the yellow line established in last months ceasefire. The boundary splits the enclave in two, leaving the border zone under Israeli military control while the area beyond it is meant to serve as a safe zone.

Officials at al-Ahli, Shifa, Nasser and Kuwaiti hospitals reported they received the bodies of those killed from Gaza City, Khan Younis and the Muwasi area, the southern Gaza displacement camp. An Israeli strike also killed one person in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood outside the safe zone where Israeli forces remain deployed.

The Israeli military said its strikes responded to fighters who had opened fire on Israeli forces in Khan Younis earlier in the day. It said no soldiers were killed.

Israeli strikes have decreased since the ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct. 10, according to Gazas Health Ministry, though they have not stopped entirely. The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has reported 280 deaths since the truce began, an average of more than seven per day. Each side has accused the other of violating its terms, which include increasing the flow of aid into Gaza and returning hostages ' dead or alive ' to Israel.

The deaths are among the more than 69,000 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its sweeping offensive more than two years ago in response to Hamas-led fighters abducting 251 people and killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Gazas Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.