Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza. The United Nations says more than half a million of people have been displaced in recent days by fighting there. Israel is pressing its military operations in Rafah, along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for the past week. Israel has meanwhile brushed off warnings from the United States and other allies that a major Rafah operation would be catastrophic for civilians.

U.S. officials say the number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year. A confidential survey also found a 19% drop in the number of service members who said they had experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact. Both are dramatic reversals of what has been a growing problem in recent years. Officials told The Associated Press that more than 29,000 active-duty service members said in the survey that they had unwanted sexual contact during the previous year, compared with nearly 36,000 in 2021. It's the first decrease in eight years. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the report hasn't been publicly released.

West Virginia voters ousted the Republican state Senate president during the state's primary elections. They also ditched an incumbent doctor who drew fire for breaking with his party over school vaccination policy. In the state’s eastern panhandle, U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret veteran Tom Willis defeated Republican Senate President Craig Blair. Blair has helmed the chamber since 2017 and served in the Legislature on and off since 2003. State Health and Human Resources Chair Sen. Mike Maroney was defeated by Chris Rose, a former coal miner and power utility company electrician. Maroney’s loss comes after he opposed a bill that would have allowed some students who don’t attend traditional public institutions to be exempt from vaccinations.

The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it plans to move ahead on more than $1 billion in arms sales to Israel. That's according to three congressional aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public. One aide says it would be an entirely new sale. That means any weapons from the deal could take years to be delivered. It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be pushed forward since the administration put another arms transfer — consisting of 3,500 bombs — on hold this month. The administration says it paused that earlier transfer to keep Israel from using the bombs in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.