Headline News from The Associated Press
AP Headline News - May 17 2024 07:00 (EDT)
[MUSIC PLAYING] This is AP News. I'm Rita Falle. We'll begin with those deadly storms in southeastern Texas. Storms blew out windows and high-rise buildings, downed trees, flooded streets, and knocked out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area. At least four people were killed. At a news conference carried by KTRK, Houston Mayor John Whitmire says it's not a time for people to be on the roads. We had a storm with 100 miles per hour winds, the equivalent of Hurricane Ike, considerable damage downtown. National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Orvek says it was a quick-moving storm. Thunderstorms have moved pretty quickly across the Gulf Coast overnight and into the early morning hours. They're not as strong as they were earlier. I'm Donna Water. It's good, but not the best. That's the warning about that newly-built US peer that's now carrying aid into Gaza. The US and aid groups say it is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water, and fuel the Gaza needs. Donald Trump's hush money trial is not in session today. Why? AP correspondent Michelle Price is covering the trial in New York. Court is off, scheduled off on Friday. Donald Trump is expected to attend his son's graduation. They're expected to be back in court on Monday, and Michael Cohen is expected to be back on the stand. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's one-time lawyer, has put him right at the heart of the hush money scheme. Donald Trump says he did nothing wrong. The Coast Guard says up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into the water when that barge-carrying fuel slammed into a bridge near Galvest in Texas on Wednesday. California says it will cost more than $20 billion to build a proposed giant tunnel aimed at catching more water when it rains and storing it to better prepare for longer droughts caused by climate change. This is AP News. Now to a case involving the stolen identities of Americans and several arrests. The Justice Department says that the complex stolen identity scheme generates enormous proceeds for the North Korean government, including for its weapons program. The scheme involves thousands of North Korean information technology workers who prosecutors say are dispatched by the North Korean government to live abroad with those workers relying on the stolen identities of Americans to obtain remote employment at US-based Fortune 500 companies. Those IT jobs then give them access to sensitive corporate data and lucrative paychecks. Officials say the fraud is way for heavily sanctioned North Korea, which is cut off from the US financial system to take advantage of a high-tech labor shortage and the proliferation of remote telework. I'm Lisa Dwyer. And I'm Rita Foley, AP News.