By SAM MEDNICK and RENATA BRITO

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Drones attacked a vessel carrying aid to Gaza on Friday in international waters off Malta, the group organizing the shipment said. A fire broke out but was brought under control, authorities said.

A nearby tugboat responded to a distress call from the Conscience, which was carrying 12 crew members and four civilians, Malta’s government said, adding that those aboard refused to leave the ship. The group was safe and no injuries were reported, it said.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition accused Israel of attacking its ship. The group did not provide evidence for that claim or to show that the fire was caused by drones, but in a video it shared an explosion could be heard. Another video showed a fire blazing.

The Israeli army did not respond to a request for comment.

Video from aboard the Conscience appeared to show at least two large holes in the deck, with thick smoke surrounding the ship. The person recording the footage said the vessel had just been hit twice and was on fire about 14 miles from port in Malta. The video was provided by Codepink, a grassroots peace and social justice movement.

Israel has cut off Gaza from all imports, including food and medicine, since the beginning of March, leading to what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of war with Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel says the blockade is an attempt to pressure the Palestinian group to release hostages it took during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the conflict. Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have destroyed vast areas of the territory and left most of its population homeless.

When an aid flotilla attempted to break a blockade of Gaza in 2010, Israeli forces stormed a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, killing nine people on board.

On Friday, the Conscience was hit about 16 miles (26 kilometers) from Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla.

Charlie Andreasson, who has been involved with the group for more than a decade, told The Associated Press that he had spoken to people on board who said there were two explosions and that a fire broke out.

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Photos provided by the Cypriot authorities showed the ship with damage to its side. No one aboard the vessel could immediately be reached for comment.

Earlier the group said the strike appeared to have targeted the ship’s generator, causing a “substantial breach in the hull” and leaving it without power. It said that put the vessel at risk of sinking.

According to the ship-monitoring website Marine Traffic, the Conscience left the Tunisian port of Bizerte on Tuesday and arrived Thursday morning in the area where it reported being attacked. The organizers said the ship was hit Friday, just after midnight.

Volunteers who had traveled to Malta were meant to board the ship to go to Gaza, the group said. Andreasson said climate activist Greta Thunberg was supposed to have participated. The organization said Thunberg did not board and was safe.

About two dozen volunteers, including Thunberg, were taking smaller boats to the Conscience to assess the damage after the attack, said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Codepink. Benjamin said the ship’s crew are from Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“They still want to head toward Gaza, but I don’t know what shape the ship is in,” she said.

The attack happened as aid groups have warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of collapse.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that it will not have access to food, medicine and life-saving supplies needed for many of its Gaza programs if aid deliveries don’t resume immediately.

Programs at risk include “common kitchens” that often give residents the only meal they receive each day and could be forced to halt operations in a few weeks, the ICRC said.

“Aid must be allowed to enter Gaza. Hostages must be released. Civilians must be protected,” the committee said. “Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.”

Brito contributed from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel; Giada Zampano in Rome; Kevin Schembri Orland in St. Julian’s, Malta; Colleen Barry in Soave, Italy; Elena Becatoros and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

In conducting his first full-length opera in concert with the Minnesota Orchestra, music director Thomas Søndergård has pulled off a stunner, with fireworks singing from not only a terrific host of soloists but also the wonderful Minnesota Chorale and Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs. The performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot,” set to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, ravishes with its musical delights, and the story comes through even without sets, costumes, and staging.

In a fully staged opera production, the musicians are often hidden away in the pit, and even the chorus sometimes ends up behind the wings, leaving the main playing area for the lead singers. With Minnesota Orchestra’s concert version of “Turandot,” the instrumentalists, choral singers and soloist singers all share their stage together. The format in effect puts the music center stage, which is probably for the best with this particular opera.

First premiered in 1926, “Turandot” is set in China, and centers on a beautiful princess who will only marry a suitor of noble birth who can solve three riddles. If they try and fail, they face execution. She meets her match with Prince Calaf, the son of deposed King Timur, who falls in love with her at first sight.

In creating the music, Puccini borrowed heavily from Chinese music that he had researched and appropriated into his own style. The opera employs caricature character names like Ping, Pang and Pong and uses flourishes in the music that if not actually Chinese sound like European ideas of what Chinese music sounds like. On top of that, the opera has historically employed racist makeup and costumes.

The concert version lessens the cringe factor of Puccini’s Orientalist tendencies. With no costumes or makeup, the chances of yellow face are thankfully eradicated. The music itself contains appropriative leanings throughout the score, yet without the trappings of garish costume choices, the Asian influence in Puccini’s music can be understood as a kind of appreciation.

The choral singers in the concert pull of a commendable performance. From their first moment they command the hall with a formidable sound, and throughout the evening they add a richness to the music. In one shocking moment at the climax of the story, they practically scream, creating an astoundingly dramatic moment.

Having Christine Goerke in the Twin Cities to play the title role is a treat. She played the role at the Metropolitan Opera, and knows the character well and even without blocking is able to act each moment with her facial expressions and gestures. Her Wagnerian voice, meanwhile, is unstoppable. It’s a full-throttle wonder, tapping every resonator available and piercing through the sound of the full orchestra and chorus with angelic power.

Mané Galoyan is a replacement performer, announced as stepping into the role of Liu, the servant of Timur who secretly loves Calaf, less than two weeks ago. You wouldn’t know she was added to the cast so recently, however. Her ethereal voice made a strong impression Thursday evening, when the audience erupted after her aria in the first act.

As Calaf, Limmie Pulliam employed a music stand — which is a common practice for a vocal soloist in a concert setting. However, because Goerke performed off-book and put a lot of acting into her performance, sometimes their interactions weren’t as theatrical than if they had both been singing without sheet music. Musically, they did find a lovely sound together, and Pulliam’s performance of the famous “Nessun Dorma” aria in the third act soared with emotion.

As for the orchestra itself, they triumphed performing not as accompaniment to the singing, but as a full partner in bringing the opera score to its full musical life.

Søndergård Conducts Puccini’s Turandot

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 3

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $59-$140

Accessibility: minnesotaorchestra.org/plan-your-visit/accessibility

Capsule: Opera star Christine Goerke mesmerizes as “Turandot” in a production with The Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Chorale, Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs, and other guest singers, conducted by Thomas Søndergård.

Info/tickets: Minnesotaorchestra.org

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By RYAN J. FOLEY

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Trump administration could gut research on the effectiveness of child welfare programs, with plans to terminate dozens of university grants studying improvements to Head Start and child care policy, according to a spreadsheet mistakenly made public this week.

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The document listed more than 150 research projects under consideration for termination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It covered grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which says it “builds evidence to improve lives” by helping policymakers evaluate programs that help low-income children and families.

“These grants are aimed at learning how to make programs more effective at pursuing goals like healthy child development, reducing abuse and neglect and promoting economic self-sufficiency,” said Naomi Goldstein, who led the office for nearly two decades before she retired in 2022. “It’s hard to see why they would want to cancel these efforts.”

The grant cancellations would add to deep cuts already enacted at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, which plans to close five regional offices and abruptly fired hundreds of workers one month ago. Its staffing has dropped from approximately 2,400 in January to 1,500, former employees say, and the administration has said it will fold ACF into other parts of HHS.

Other HHS divisions, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, have already cut billions of dollars in grants, including those related to public health, gender, race and other subjects opposed by President Donald Trump’s administration. The document released Wednesday marked the first news of plans for the possible mass terminations of ACF grants, although a department spokesperson later said it was only an outdated draft.

The proposed terminations would further undercut Head Start, the 60-year-old program overseen by ACF that supports preschool and services for hundreds of thousands of low-income children. Head Start has faced mass layoffs and a plan to eliminate its funding altogether in recent months. The grants facing termination included studies intended to answer key questions and improve its operations, such as how to retain more educators at local Head Start programs.

The spreadsheet also listed for termination grants worth millions of dollars for first-of-their-kind centers dedicated to better serving low-income Black and Hispanic children and families, located, respectively, at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at a nonprofit in Maryland.

Dozens of grants related to child care policy, child development, foster care, preventing child abuse, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and more were also listed as set for cancellation, reflecting ACF’s widespread portfolio.

Those studies help policymakers understand what works, a former administration official said.

“Ending these projects without explanation not only wastes taxpayer dollars, it also threatens the evidence base behind key safety net programs,” said Katie Hamm, who was ACF’s deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development until January. “It’s alarming that grantees and contractors had to find out this way, through an accidental email, rather than a transparent process.”

The information was mistakenly included in an email sent Wednesday to grant recipients at universities and nonprofits by an HHS employee, who asked them to review and update their contact information.

HHS recalled the message only after the spreadsheet, which had a column on whether funding would “terminate” or “continue” for each grant, had been downloaded by recipients. A department spokesperson said the document contained “outdated and predecisional information” but did not rule out that research inside the ACF could be cut.

“ACF is committed to ensuring that government funds are used in alignment with Administration priorities and are in the best interest of the American people,” spokesperson Andrew Nixon said.

Goldstein, the former research office director, said the situation “does appear to reflect a level of haste and chaos” at the agency.

Only 21 out of 177 listed grants were marked with a note to “continue” funding in the document. A small number had already ended, and some were marked for termination “at the end of budget period.”

The document didn’t list how much funding in all would be cut, but the office was responsible for $154 million in grants and contracts in fiscal year 2024.

More than 50 universities were listed as having grants terminated. Several other state agencies and nonprofits would also be affected.

A follow-up email told recipients to disregard the spreadsheet, but again asked for updated contact information. One researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation said they were expecting to receive formal notification soon that their grants would be ending. Several other grant recipients declined to comment.

Attorneys defending accused killer Luigi Mangione in his New York case are seeking to dismiss charges related to terrorism, and suppress evidence seized during police officers’ search of the Towson native.

In a New York Supreme Court filing Thursday, Mangione’s lawyers argued that state prosecutors’ terrorism charges fail to accurately describe the nature of his actions, and that the evidence obtained by law enforcement during the search of his backpack is inadmissible, given the fact that they conducted the search without a warrant.

The filing in the state’s case comes after Mangione pleaded not guilty to federal murder charges carrying the death penalty last week.

Mangione, the 2016 valedictorian of his high school, is charged in connection to the death of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, who was fatally shot outside of hotel in Midtown Manhattan in December.

During the search, officers found a two-and-a-half page handwritten note, as well as a handgun magazine loaded with bullets.

In bringing terrorism charges against Mangione, state prosecutors assert that Mangione’s writings indicate that his actions were an attempt to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.

But Mangione’s lawyers state in their filing that his intention was not to terrorize any civilians, and suggested that the writings that are publicly referred to as his manifesto shouldn’t be described as such because he never meant for them to be released.

“Law enforcement is responsible for causing the very public intimidation or coercion they are now trying to attribute to Mr. Mangione,” wrote Mangione’s lawyers, “which is the basis for charging him with enhanced terror-related charges.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to comment.

Have a news tip? Contact Mathew Schumer at mschumer@baltsun.com, 443-890-7423 and on X as @mmmschumer.