Comment on Hera mission headed to asteroid as part of planetary defense test to launch Monday - Florida Today

By DAN MERICA and BRIAN SLODYSKO WASHINGTON (AP) — Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app. Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans. Soaring to prominence after Trump’s unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums of money while enriching the group’s leaders.

In the days since Hurricane Helene made landfall, volunteers from churches and local service groups like Better Together have been helping families pick up the pieces. We are knocking on doors (if homes still have one), delivering meals and supplies, and triaging the most urgent needs of children and families. It’s hard to fully express the depths of the devastation and despair we’re seeing on the ground. Megan Rose is the CEO of Better Together.

By JOSEPH KRAUSS and SARAH EL DEEB The Gaza Strip is in ruins. There are hills of rubble where apartment blocks stood, and pools of sewage-tainted water spreading disease. City streets have been churned into dirt canyons and, in many places, the air is filled with the stench of unrecovered corpses. Israel’s yearlong offensive against Hamas, one of the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, has killed more than 41,000 people, a little over half of them women and children, according to local health officials.

By JULIA FRANKEL KFAR AZA, Israel (AP) — On a sun-dappled day in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Liora Eilon stood at the spot where her son was killed. She stooped to pick a figurine from the pile of belongings scattered around an abandoned home nearby. “Every time we come here, Tal leaves us a little message,” the 71-year-old said, turning over the plastic soldier in her hands. It has been a year since Hamas terrorists stormed into this community within sight of the border fence surrounding Gaza.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It wasn’t a win that will alleviate early-season concerns, but Sunday’s victory against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium gets the Miami Dolphins by for another week. Speaking of bye, that’s what the Dolphins have coming up this week, which allows time to fix some of the team’s issues before they return for a road game against the Indianapolis Colts on Oct.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN JERUSALEM (AP) — A year after Hamas’ fateful attack on southern Israel, the Middle East is embroiled in a war that shows no signs of ending and seems to be getting worse. Israel’s retaliatory offensive was initially centered on the Gaza Strip. But the focus has shifted in recent weeks to Lebanon, where airstrikes have given way to a fast-expanding ground incursion against Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war began. Next in Israel’s crosshairs is archenemy Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other anti-Israel militants in the region.