By KAREEM CHEHAYEB, Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli jets struck several towns in southern Lebanon on Thursday after urging residents to leave, marking an escalation in their near-daily strikes on the country.

The airstrikes came hours after militant group Hezbollah urged the Lebanese government not to enter negotiations with Israel.

Israeli Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents in Tayba near the border, Teir Debba located just east of the coastal city of Tyre, and Aita al-Jabal in southern Lebanon, to flee 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) away from residential buildings they are targeting, which they say have been used by Hezbollah. It later issued more warnings for the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Kfar Dounin.

The Israeli military said it targeted military infrastructure for Hezbollah in those areas. It accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities almost a year after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect that ended a monthslong war. While most residents evacuated the threatened areas ahead of the strikes, Lebanon’s health ministry reported one person wounded.

“We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm themselves, to recover, build back up its strength to threaten the state of Israel,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said at a briefing Thursday.

The strikes came as Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his government met in Beirut to follow up on a plan drafted by the Lebanese military to disarm Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups in the country.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has been critical of Israel’s strikes and ongoing occupation of five hilltop points on Lebanese territory but has said he is open to negotiations with Israel to end the tensions.

Israel says its near-daily strikes have targeted Hezbollah officials and military infrastructure, while the Lebanese government that has backed disarming Hezbollah say the strikes have targeted civilians and infrastructure unrelated to the Iran-backed group.

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The powerful group’s military capabilities were severely damaged in Israel’s intense air campaign over the tiny country in 2024, but Hezbollah have yet to disarm and its leader Sheikh Naim Kassem has said that the group will be ready to fight no matter how limited their capabilities might be.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which nominally ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war last November. The conflict started after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, prompting Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in return. The low-level exchanges escalated into full-scale war in September 2024.

Lebanon’s health ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire took effect. As of Oct. 9, the U.N. human rights office had verified that 107 of those killed were civilians or noncombatants, said spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan.

No Israelis have been killed by fire from Lebanon since the ceasefire. Hezbollah has claimed one attack since the agreement took effect.

Also Thursday, the U.S. Treasury announced a new set of sanctions that it said target “financial operatives who oversee the movement of funds from Iran” to Hezbollah, including through licensed and unlicensed money exchanges shops that it said “fail to conduct adequate screening on their customers” and allow Hezbollah “to take advantage of Lebanon’s largely cash-based economy to launder illicit money.”

Associated Press journalists Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

Election wins for two state representatives Tuesday put Minnesota on track to beat its record of most special elections in one year.

Reps. Kaohly Her, who was elected St. Paul mayor, and Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, who was elected to the Senate, leave two open House seats in St. Paul and Woodbury, respectively, that will drive Minnesota to eight special elections in 2025 alone — topping the state’s record of six in 1994.

The six special elections held this year were triggered by the resignation of Sen. Nicole Mitchell, the death of Sen. Bruce Anderson, the assassination of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, the resignation of former Sen. Justin Eichorn, the residency dispute involving Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson and the death of former Sen. Kari Dziedzic.

While the two open seats could potentially swing the chamber’s tie, in 2024, Her won the House seat in District 64A with 83% of the vote, and Hemmingsen-Jaeger won the House seat in District 47A with 61%.

House DFL Leader Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said he expects to retain both of the seats, preserving the 67-67 House tie, after Gov. Tim Walz sets the special elections.

“The House DFL Caucus is full of talent, and I am pleased the voters of St. Paul, Maplewood and Woodbury recognized that,” Stephenson said. “The two vacant seats are in strong DFL areas where Kamala Harris defeated Donald Trump by 70 and 25 points, respectively. We take nothing for granted and will run vigorous campaigns, but at the end of the day we will retain both seats.”

With the House tied, legislation must have bipartisan support to pass. If Republicans can flip just one of the DFL seats in St. Paul and Woodbury, House Republicans would have a majority and would therefore be able to pass more of their priorities.

It would also mean more leverage in negotiations and the ability to deny a quorum, like House Democrats did at the beginning of the 2025 session. Still, any bills passed by House Republicans would need to make it past a DFL-controlled Senate and Walz’s desk to become law.

While lawmakers passed a state budget and a bonding bill in the 2025 session, several pieces of big legislation are already being pitched for the 2026 session, including gun control and efforts to bar transgender women and girls from female sports.

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By DAMIAN J. TROISE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping in morning trading Thursday as investors pore over another batch of earnings reports from U.S. companies.

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The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 185 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:25 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%.

Corporate earnings and forecasts have been the big focus all week. The latest round of results and statements from executives could help shed some light on the condition and path ahead for the economy amid a lack of broader information on inflation, employment and retail sales because of the ongoing government shutdown.

DoorDash sank 14% for one of the sharpest drops on Wall Street. The food delivery app warned investors that it will be spending significantly more on product development next year.

Software company Datadog jumped 22.4% after its latest earnings beat analysts’ forecasts. Rockwell Automation rose 5.7% after turning in results that easily beat analysts’ forecasts.

It has been a wobbly week for major indexes, which set record highs last week. The broader stock market has had a record-setting year, but that has raised worries that stocks could be overvalued. Those concerns are even more focused on big technology companies that have been leading the market higher amid the focus on artificial intelligence advancements.

The latest round of earnings is being closely monitored to gauge whether the stock market’s big values are justified. The results are also helping to fill in gaps in information because of the U.S. government shutdown, which is now the longest on record.

Another week of unemployment data was missing Thursday because of the shutdown. It has already resulted in a lack of monthly employment data for September and will likely result in missing employment data for October, along with a lack of data on consumer prices for October.

The absence of updates on the job market and inflation has left the Federal Reserve in the dark at the same time that employment was weakening and inflation heating up. That leaves the central bank in a tough spot. It has to decide whether cutting its benchmark interest rate to counter the economic impact from a weaker job market is worth the risk of worsening inflation.

Lower interest rates can help stimulate the economy by making loans less expensive, but they can also fuel inflation.

The Fed has already cut its benchmark interest rate twice this year. It has signaled more caution as it tries to navigate the risks to the economy. Wall Street is forecasting a 69% chance that the central bank cuts interest rates in December, according to CME FedWatch. That’s down from more than 90% just prior to the most recent interest rate cut.

European markets edged lower after a divided Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged. Asian markets closed higher.

Treasury yields moved lower in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.09% from 4.16% late Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 3.57% from 3.63% late Wednesday.

When the final horn sounded last weekend and the Mahtomedi High girls soccer team’s second consecutive Class 2A state championship was secured, Zephyrs’ goalkeeper Harlow Berger dropped to her knees and touched her forehead to the U.S. Bank Stadium turf.

There was gratitude and celebration in the action, but it was mostly to seek relief. The 6-foot-3 backstop’s right shoulder had popped out of the joint and then back in when she crashed to the ground to block a Blake cross with seven minutes remaining.

Mahtomedi midfielder Charlotte Monette, center top, jumps into the arms of goalkeeper Harlow Berger as they celebrate with their teammates after defeating Mankato East 2-1 during the Class 2A Semifinal of the Girls State Soccer Tournament at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

“I was super happy, but mostly I was in a lot of pain and I needed to go to the floor,” said Berger, whose sparkling, 12-save performance powered Mahtomedi to its 12th state crown. “It was constant pain, but I knew it was worth it.”

Berger, who is committed to play at the University of St. Thomas next season, has been undergoing tests, including an X-ray and an MRI to determine the extent of the injury and how best to treat it. It’s safe to say, however, that the 17-year old has the fortitude to overcome whatever the diagnosis might be.

Berger’s father, Steve, was one of 60 people killed during a 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival. Her mother, Joanna, a recreational marathon runner, died in 2019, five years after suffering a massive stroke that severely curtailed her movement.

“It’s a sad story, but also a story of triumph,” said Mahtomedi coach Dave Wald, a longtime math teacher at the school who taught Joanna Berger during the 1990s. “It’s amazing how much certain kids have to go through and you don’t always realize the heavy baggage they carry with them.”

Joanna Krusell married Steve Berger, a former basketball standout at Wauwatosa West High in suburban Milwaukee, who also played at St. Olaf College. The couple divorced in 2017 and Steve, a 6-foot-6 financial advisor known for his booming voice and enveloping hugs, was celebrating his 44th birthday in Las Vegas when he was killed on Oct. 1 of that year.

“He was very handsome and he had a presence about him,” said Bob Krusell, Joanna’s father. “Harlow was a daddy’s girl and if he’d go to her game, you knew who he was.”

Father and daughter loved to fish together and of his children, Bob Krusell and his wife, Pat, believe the tragedy was hardest on Harlow, who was 9 at the time. She and her siblings lived with their maternal grandparents after their father’s passing, but the oldest, Hannah, is now 23 and out on her own, and Harrison, 20, is a University of Minnesota student.

Harlow Berger now spends considerable time at the house of a friend and club soccer teammate, Nina Meyer, who attends Hill-Murray and whose parents have treated her as one of their own. She’s dealt with academic and mental-health issues but is outgoing, mature and articulate. Patricia Krusell said her granddaughter has gained a stronger sense of self and her emotions through counseling at her school and her religious faith.

Pat Krusell and Harlow worked on a college application essay in which the senior wrote about how “trauma creates change you don’t choose, but healing is about creating change you do choose.” It went on to discuss the idea of gaining relief through intentional living and not merely drifting through life.

Harlow Berger said her mother tended to put “everybody before herself, and I’ve taken that from her.” Combined with a tendency to internalize her emotions, the teenager hasn’t always been on solid emotional ground. October is always a difficult month, and her coaches have learned to gently check in on a more frequent basis and realize why her focus may wander at that time of year.

“Sometimes it hits home pretty hard,” said Berger, noting she went through multiple therapists before finding one with whom she deeply connected. “It can be simple things, like hearing someone say ‘my mom and dad’ and realizing I don’t have that.

“My therapist makes me really think about things and pushes me to dig into my thoughts. I don’t say ‘I don’t know’, anymore, I dig into why I feel the way I feel.”

Berger acknowledges she suffers from anxiety and depression and plans to major in psychology at St. Thomas in the hopes of becoming a therapist herself. She also is poised to join a Tommies women’s soccer team that won’t bring back a starting goalkeeper after failing to win a conference game this fall.

“I’ve gotten confidence from sharing my story and hope it can impact people positively,” said Berger, who wears jersey No. 43 as a way to connect herself with her father, whose sports number was 42. “A lot of people at my school see me as an athlete who gets everything she wants, but nobody knows the true story. I hope this makes other people want to tell theirs.”

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