AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Israeli military says it mistakenly killed 3 Israeli hostages in battle-torn part of Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops mistakenly shot three hostages to death Friday in a battle-torn neighborhood of Gaza City, and an Israeli strike killed a Palestinian journalist in the south of the besieged territory, underscoring the ferocity of Israel’s ongoing onslaught.

The deaths were announced as a U.S. envoy tried to persuade the Israelis to scale back their campaign sooner rather than later.

The hostages were killed in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops have been engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas militants in recent days. The soldiers mistakenly identified the three Israelis as a threat and opened fire on them, said the army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

He said it was believed that the three had either fled their captors or been abandoned.

“Perhaps in the last few days, or over the past day, we still don’t know all the details, they reached this area,” Hagari said. He said the army expressed “deep sorrow” and was investigating.

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Jury awards $148 million in damages to Georgia election workers over Rudy Giuliani’s 2020 vote lies

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the jury foreperson read aloud the $75 million award in punitive damages for the women. Moss and Freeman were each awarded another roughly $36 million in other damages.

“Money will never solve all my problems,” Freeman told reporters outside Washington’s federal courthouse after the verdict. “I can never move back into the house that I call home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.”

Giuliani didn’t appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read after about 10 hours of deliberations. Moss and Freeman hugged their attorneys after the jury left the courtroom and didn’t look at Giuliani as he left with his lawyer.

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After 40 witnesses and 43 days of testimony, here’s what we learned at Trump’s civil fraud trial

NEW YORK (AP) — After hearing from 40 witnesses over 2 1/2 months, Judge Arthur Engoron sounded almost wistful as he presided over the last day of testimony in former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial.

“In a strange way, I’m gonna miss this trial,” he said Wednesday.

Things aren’t over yet in the case, in which New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.

Closing arguments are scheduled for early January. The judge has already ruled that Trump is liable for making fraudulent statements, but other claims and a potential final penalty still need to be decided. Trump denies any wrongdoing. He says the financial documents actually understated his net worth and came with caveats that should shield him from liability.

The trial has offered fresh insight into Trump’s finances, his dealings with lenders, his aspiration to be an NFL owner, and some of the fuzzy math — mistaken or intentional — at issue in the case.

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Mother of 6-year-old who shot teacher in Virginia gets 2 years in prison for child neglect

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for felony child neglect by a judge who chastised her for abdicating her responsibilities as a parent.

Deja Taylor’s sentence was much harsher than the maximum six months prosecutors had agreed to recommend as part of a plea deal and also surpassed the high end of advisory state sentencing guidelines. Taylor, 26, pleaded guilty to a single count of felony neglect in August. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor count of recklessly storing a firearm.

Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile said the sentencing guidelines did not take into account the shooting’s physical and psychological toll on first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner or the emotional trauma it has wrought on other students and staff at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.

Zwerner was critically injured when the boy fired a single shot at her, striking her hand and chest, breaking bones and puncturing a lung. She spent weeks in the hospital, had five surgeries, and says she is so mentally scarred by the shooting that she does not plan to return to teaching.

Papile noted that “we are lucky” someone wasn’t killed at the elementary school. In admonishing Taylor, the judge said a parent’s ultimately responsibility is to “protect the child, to keep them from bad influences, to keep them from dangerous situations, to keep them healthy and nurtured. Ms. Taylor has abdicated most, if not all, of those responsibilities.”

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A review defends police action before the Maine mass shooting. Legal experts say questions persist

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An independent report conducted for a police agency clears the agency’s response to growing concerns about the mental health of a man who later went on to commit the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history, but it does reveal missed opportunities to intervene to prevent the tragedy, legal experts said Friday.

Despite receiving warnings about the man’s deteriorating mental health, drunken threats and possession of guns, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office avoided confronting Robert Card, the 40-year-old Army reservist who later killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, the experts said of the report released late Thursday by Sheriff Joel Merry.

Card’s body was found — with a self-inflicted gunshot wound — two days after the shootings. Reports soon began to emerge that he had spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital months before the attacks and had amassed weapons.

The legal experts told The Associated Press that the report — prepared for the sheriff’s office by a lawyer who’s a retired federal drug agent— leaves unresolved questions about police’s potential ability to have removed guns from Card before the shootings happened.

The report delved into mental health concerns raised about Card. It states that the response to those concerns by the department’s officers “was reasonable under the totality of the circumstances” at the time. In a statement, Merry said the review “found that responding deputies followed the law and their training with the information available at the time.”

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Arizona’s governor is sending the state’s National Guard to the border to help with a migrant influx

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s governor on Friday ordered the state’s National Guard to the border with Mexico to help federal officials manage an influx of migrants.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said she issued the executive order because “the federal government is refusing to do its job to secure our border and keep our communities safe.”

“I am taking action where the federal government won’t,” Hobbs said.

It was unclear when the troops would arrive at the border and exactly how many would be mobilized.

Hobbs asked President Joe Biden’s administration a week ago to mobilize 243 Arizona National Guard troops already in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector that includes Lukeville, Arizona, to help federal officers reopen the border crossing that was indefinitely closed Dec. 4.

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Federal judge rejects request from Oregon senators who boycotted Legislature seeking to run in 2024

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request from Oregon Republican state senators who boycotted the Legislature to be allowed on the ballot after their terms end.

U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken issued the decision Wednesday.

State Sens. Dennis Linthicum, Brian Boquist and Cedric Hayden were among the plaintiffs who filed the federal lawsuit to challenge their disqualification from running for reelection under Measure 113. The voter-approved constitutional amendment, which passed by a wide margin last year, bars legislators from seeking reelection after 10 or more unexcused absences.

Each of the three senators racked up more than 10 absences during a record six-week walkout that paralyzed the 2023 legislative session. The boycott stemmed from bills on abortion, transgender health care and guns.

The lawmakers sought, among other things, a preliminary injunction to prevent the secretary of state’s office from enforcing their disqualification from the ballot. The office in September disqualified Linthicum and Boquist from the 2024 ballot, court filings show. Hayden’s term ends in January 2027.

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With Iowa’s caucuses a month away, Trump urges voters to hand him not just a victory, but a blowout

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump was uncharacteristically serious when he implored an audience in eastern Iowa to carry him to a blowout in next month’s Republican caucuses.

“The margin of victory is very important, it’s just very important,” Trump told about 1,000 people attending a Wednesday rally aimed at organizing campaign volunteers. “It’s time for the Republican Party to unite, to come together and focus our energy and resources on beating Crooked Joe Biden and taking back our country. Very simple.”

For the blustery former president, it was both caution against complacency and a sign that he and his team believe the first contest on Jan. 15 can be not just the start of the nominating campaign, but the beginning of the end.

Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win Iowa, one month away from the caucuses. A myriad of well-qualified GOP challengers and anti-Trump groups haven’t changed that dynamic after crisscrossing the state over the last year and spending more than $70 million in Iowa on advertising, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. And unlike his first time in the caucuses, which he narrowly lost in 2016, Trump’s campaign is now run by Iowa veterans who are not just locking in caucus commitments but building a formidable organization to try to lock in his lead.

Among rival campaigns, most question not whether Trump will win, but by how much — and whether a second-place finisher can claim momentum for the rest of the race.

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‘General Hospital’ wins 5 trophies, Susan Lucci honored at 50th annual Daytime Emmys

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “General Hospital” won five trophies, including four for acting, at the Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday night.

The late Sonya Eddy won for her 16-year role as no-nonsense head nurse Epiphany Johnson on the venerable ABC show. She died last December at age 55 from an infection after surgery.

Robert Gossett, who plays Marshall Ashford, claimed the supporting actor trophy. He also won last year in the guest performer category for the same role.

Eden McCoy won for outstanding younger performer as Josslyn Jacks. The 20-year-old actor debuted on “General Hospital” in 2015. Her mother, Natasha McCoy, died of cancer in November.

“This is for and because of my mother,” McCoy said. “It’s not lost on me what an absolute privilege it is to be able to do something, not only I like to do but love to do for a living, and I love what I do. It’s really easy to be grateful on nights like this, but I am grateful every day.”

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Tiger Woods and son get another crack at PNC Championship. Woods jokingly calls it the 5th major

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — No wonder Tiger Woods jokingly refers to the PNC Championship as the fifth major.

Woods was together with 14-year-old son Charlie on Friday, their swings eerily similar and the encouraging words coming as only Woods can deliver them. They were warming up ahead of the pro-am, hitting flop shots, when Charlie hit one that was … well, let Woods explain.

“We’re ending on that one right there. That was nasty,” Woods said, repeating the second part with an extra word for emphasis.

Woods felt good enough to turn down a golf cart and walk 18 holes in a strong wind during the pro-am, which is not to suggest he is completely on the mend.

“I felt like I was physically fit to do it,” Woods said. “Also, walking is better for my back. I just wanted to keep it loose and keep it going, and we’re having so much it doesn’t really matter.”

The Associated Press