What’s New

The Press Room is a small restaurant with a big heart in Chicago’s West Loop, serving sophisticated but familiar food, friendly wines and classic cocktails. The Press Room runs on attentive service and friendly vibes. It’s on the lower level of a century-old building, originally the Free Methodist Publishing House. It continues to find ways to surprise and delight guests with special experiences amidst the pandemic’s restrictions, most recently with Dead Plants — a 1920s speakeasy brought to life. 

Dead Plants at The Press Room in Chicago brings the speakeasy experience from the 1920s into this century by launching a live music series on the second Saturday of each month. Priced at $45 per person, each ticket will include a 90-minute show and one cocktail. Doors to The Press Room open at 8:30pm and the show will start at 9pm. Only 26 tickets will be available per show, guaranteeing an intimate live-entertainment event.

Starting on the second Saturday of each month, you can experience the ultimate speakeasy feel and musical acts when you travel to Dead Plants at The Press Room in Chicago. The first musical guest will be Brandon Markell Holmes on March 13th, who will be performing a tribute show to Luther Vandross. You can expect to hear songs by Luther Vandross, Smokey Robinson Algreen and many more. 

On April 10th, you can enjoy Jazz and pop classics at The Press Room in Chicago from Sam Fazio. Sam has established a name for himself in the music scene over the past several years and has entertained audiences at some of the most prestigious venues in the country, including Green Mill, Jazz Showcase, Andy’s Jazz Club, City Winery, Untitled, and more.

You are more than welcome to enjoy a full evening of revelry at Dead Plants – when making a reservation for dinner, a request to purchase tickets to the event can be made, allowing you to experience dinner and a show at The Press Room.

Additionally, the team behind The Press Room is behind another new Chicago hot-spot, Dough Daddy’s. Dough Daddy’s, a new virtual restaurant based out of Chicago’s West Loop, opened on Thursday, January 21. Available exclusively for takeout and delivery through GrubHub, this pop-up offers Chicago a chance to experience Detroit-style pizzas created with a special sourdough starter, that has been with Chef Noah Zamler for five years.

To celebrate the relaunch of The Press Room as a speakeasy, the team is partnering with Argonaut Catering Company, a high end seafood company, on May 14th and 15th for a special dinner series. Tickets will cost $80.00 a person and can be purchased by texting 872-240-2317. Live music from Shawn Maxwell Duo will be performed on both nights from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. To play into the 1920s, guests are encouraged to dress their best. Those who dress the part will be entered into a raffle to win a bottle of champagne.

To keep the speakeasy vibe, The Press Room will continue to offer the previous menu. Instead of texting a phone number for admission, guests will be able to book their reservation experience on Tock. The cell phone number guests originally texted will still be used for music, drag shows, and cigar events. The Press Room will also be launching the patio service, weather permitting. Service will be offered on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm. On the weekends, service will be available on Friday and Saturday from 4:00 pm to 12:00 am.

Dead Plants The Press Room Featured Image Credit: The Press Room

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Since sundown Monday, 28 Palestinians — including 10 children and a woman— were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, health officials there said.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A confrontation between Israel and Hamas sparked by weeks of tensions in contested Jerusalem escalated Tuesday as Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while militants barraged Israel with hundreds of rockets. The exchange killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least two Israelis.

The barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and airstrikes into the territory continued almost nonstop throughout the day, in what appeared to be some of the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas since their 2014 war. The fire was so relentless that Israel’s Iron Dome rocket-defense system seemed to be overwhelmed. Columns of smoke rose from many places in Gaza.

By late Tuesday, the violence extended to Tel Aviv, which came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. The outgoing volleys set off air raid sirens across the city.

Hamas said it launched a total of 130 rockets, its most intense strike so far, in response to Israel’s destruction of a high-rise building in Gaza earlier in the evening. The sound of the outgoing rockets could be heard in Gaza. As the rockets rose into the skies, mosques across Gaza blared with chants of “God is great,” “victory to Islam” and “resistance.”

Since sundown Monday, 28 Palestinians — including 10 children and a woman— were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, health officials there said. The Israeli military said at least 16 of the dead were militants.

Two women were killed by rockets fired from Gaza that hit their homes in the southern city of Ashkelon — the first Israeli deaths in the current violence. At least 10 other Israelis have been wounded since Monday evening.

After those deaths, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said officials decided to “increase both the strength and rate of the strikes” against militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian officials said they were trying to broker a cease-fire, but the cycle of violence was gaining momentum. Even before the two Israeli deaths, the Israeli military said it was sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border, and the defense minister ordered the mobilization of 5,000 reserve soldiers.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, told reporters that Israel was beefing up defensive forces on the border to prevent possible infiltrations and increasing its offensive forces as well, primarily in the air.

He said the objective was to send a “clear message” to Hamas.

The barrage of rockets and airstrikes was preceded by hours of clashes Monday between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including dramatic confrontations at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sacred site to both Jews and Muslims. The current violence, like previous rounds, including the last intifada, or uprising, has been fueled by conflicting claims over Jerusalem, which is at the emotional core of the long conflict.

In a sign of widening unrest, hundreds of residents of Arab communities across Israel staged overnight demonstrations denouncing the recent actions of Israeli security forces against Palestinians. It was one of the largest protests by Palestinian citizens in Israel in recent years.

In the central Israeli town of Lod, police fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot to death by a Jewish resident the night before. Thousands took part in the funeral, and police said the crowd set fire to a patrol car, a bus and a motorcycle. Two police officers were injured.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Recent rounds of fighting have usually ended after a few days, often helped by mediation by Qatar, Egypt and others.

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes, including two that targeted high-rise apartment buildings where militants were believed to be hiding.

One strike demolished a 12-story building in Gaza City that housed the offices of top Hamas officials. Israeli drones fired a series of warning shots at the roof to give people time to leave the building before it was destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

At midday, an airstrike hit a building in central Gaza City, sending terrified residents running into the street, including women and barefoot children. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that the strike killed three of its commanders.

Another strike hit a high-rise as people were conducting dawn prayers, killing a woman, her 19-year-old disabled son and another man, residents said. Health officials confirmed the deaths.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 28 people, including 10 children and the woman, have been killed and 152 wounded. Ashraf al-Kidra, a spokesman for the ministry, said Israel’s “relentless assault” was overwhelming the health care system, which has been struggling with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The escalation comes at a time of political limbo in Israel.

Netanyahu has been caretaker prime minister since an inconclusive parliamentary election in March. He failed to form a coalition government with his hard-line and ultra-Orthodox allies, and the task was handed to his political rivals last week.

One of those rivals is Israel’s defense minister, who is overseeing the Gaza campaign. It was not clear whether the political atmosphere was spilling over into military decision-making, though the rival camps have unanimously expressed support for striking Hamas hard.

The support of an Arab-backed party with Islamist roots is key for the anti-Netanyahu bloc. But the current tensions might deter the party’s leader, Mansour Abbas, from joining a coalition for now. The sides have three more weeks to reach a deal.

The current violence in Jerusalem coincided with the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in mid-April.

Critics say heavy-handed police measures helped stoke nightly unrest, including a decision to temporarily seal off a popular gathering spot where Palestinian residents would meet after evening prayers. Another flashpoint was the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where dozens of Palestinians are under threat of eviction by Jewish settlers.

Over the weekend, confrontations erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest site in Judaism.

Over several days, Israel police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the compound who hurled stones and chairs. At times, police fired stun grenades into the carpeted mosque.

On Monday evening, Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza. From there on, the escalation was rapid.

Gaza militants fired more than 500 rockets at Israel, with about one-third falling short and landing in Gaza, Conricus said.

At midday, a barrage of some 10 rockets whizzed above the southern city of Ashdod, filling the skies with streaks of white smoke.

A rocket that hit an apartment building in Ashkelon injured six people, according to Israeli paramedic service Magen David Adom. A building in Ashdod was also hit, lightly wounding four, Israeli police said.

The military hit 130 targets in Gaza, including two tunnels militants were digging under the border with Israel, Conricus said. He did not address Gaza Health Ministry reports about the dead children.

In Gaza, most of the deaths were attributed to airstrikes. However, seven of the deaths were members of a single family, including three children, who died in an explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It was not clear if the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike or errant rocket.

Dozens of mourners took part in the funeral of Hussein Hamad, an 11-year-old boy who was among the dead.

Israel struck scores of Gaza homes in its 2014 war with Hamas, arguing it was aiming at militants, but also killing many civilians. The practice drew broad international condemnation at the time. Israel’s latest tactics in Jerusalem have drawn angry reactions from leaders from the Arab and Muslim world.

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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in the West Bank, Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

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He was referring to the boredom players had to deal with while on the road because of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols.

Blackhawks play-by-play announcer Pat Foley apologized Monday for making an on-air remark about putting “a bullet in my head” during the team’s season finale against the Dallas Stars.

Foley has been calling away games remotely this season for NBC Sports Chicago, and during the third period, he praised the players for playing through difficult COVID-19 protocols on the road without needing to have a game rescheduled.

He mentioned that players were limited to their hotel room and the rink and couldn’t go out to dinner or visit family and had to deal with a lot of boredom.

“Had I been traveling with the team this year, I might have put a bullet in my head,” he said during the Stars’ 5-4 overtime win. “I wouldn’t even have had access to the player lounge.”

Foley apologized on air during overtime for the imagery.

“I wish I didn’t say that,” he said. “I’m sorry if I offended some folks. Apparently I did, so I apologize.”

Foley has called Blackhawks games for nearly four decades, starting in 1981-2006 and returning for the 2008-09 season. He received the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Foster Hewitt Award in 2014 for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.

Read more at usatoday.com

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The first true fishing season since the pandemic devastated the industry has brought renewed hope for a fish-processing industry that employs hundreds of thousands.

BARGNY, Senegal — Since her birth on Senegal’s coast, the ocean has always given Ndeye Yacine Dieng life.

Her grandfather was a fisherman, and her grandmother and mother processed fish. Like generations of women, she now helps support her family in the small community of Bargny by drying, smoking, salting and fermenting the catch brought home by male villagers.

They were baptized by fish, these women say.

But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, boats that once took as many as 50 men out to sea carried only a few. Many people here were too terrified to leave their houses, let alone fish, for fear of catching the virus.

When the local women did manage to get their hands on fish to process, they lacked the usual buyers, as markets shut down and landlocked neighboring countries closed their borders. Without savings, many families went from three meals a day to one or two.

Dieng is among more than 1,000 women in Bargny and many more in the other villages dotting Senegal’s sandy coast who process fish — a crucial link in a chain that constitutes one of the country’s largest exports and employs hundreds of thousands of people.

“It was catastrophic — all of our lives changed,” Dieng says. But, she says, “Our community is a community of solidarity.”

That spirit sounds throughout Senegal with the motto “Teranga,” a word in the Wolof language for hospitality, community and solidarity. Across the country, people tell each other: “On est ensemble,” French meaning, “We are in this together.”

Last month, the first true fishing season since the pandemic devastated the industry kicked off, bringing renewed hope to the processors, their families and the village. The brightly painted vast wooden fishing boats called pirogues once again are each carrying dozens of men to sea, and people swarm the beach to help the fishermen carry in their loads.

But the challenges from the coronavirus — and much more — remain. Rising seas and climate change threaten the livelihoods and homes of those along the coast. Many can’t afford to build new homes or move inland.

A steel-processing plant rising near Bargny’s beach raises fears about pollution. It will join a cement factory that’s also nearby, though advocates argue they’re needed to replace resources depleted by overfishing.

“Since there is COVID, we live in fear,” says Dieng, 64, who has seven adult children. “Most of the people here and women processors have lived a difficult life.

“We are exhausted. But now, little by little, it’s getting better.”

Dieng and her fellow processors weathered the pandemic by relying on each other. They’re accustomed to being breadwinners — one expert estimated that each working woman in Senegal feeds seven or eight family members. Before the pandemic, a good season could bring Dieng the equivalent of $1,000. Last year, though, she says she made little to nothing.

Dieng’s husband teaches the Quran at the mosque next door to their home. The couple pooled their money with their children, with one son finding work repairing TVs. Other women got help from family members abroad or rented out parts of their refrigerators for storage.

They survived.

But they missed their work. For them, it isn’t just a job. It is their heritage.

“Processing is a pride,” Dieng says.

Most fishing in Senegal is small-scale, carried out in traditional, generations-old methods as old as the ways Dieng and other villagers process the fish.

Once processed, the fish is sold to local and international buyers. Preserving it means it lasts longer than fresh and is cheaper to buy.

In Senegal alone, the fish accounts for more than half of all protein eaten by the 16 million residents of the West African nation.

Industrial fishing is carried out in Senegal’s waters as well, though via motorized vessels and trawlers instead of the traditional pirogues. More than two dozen companies also specialize in industrial processing in the country alongside fishmeal factories and canning plants. The fishmeal factories price women like Dieng out by paying more for the fish and depleting resources — to produce five kilograms of fishmeal, a lower-grade powder-like product that’s used to feed farm animals and pets, they need five times as much fish.

Senegal’s government also has agreements to allow other countries to fish off its coast, imposing limits on what they can haul in. But monitoring what these large boats from Europe, China and Russia harvest has proven difficult. Villagers say the outsiders are devastating the supply.

Dieng has become a leader and mentor whose neighbors increasingly come to her for advice on everything from money to their marriages. She’s part of a rising collective voice of women in Senegal working for change along the coast and beyond.

Senegal has designated land near Bargny as an economic zone in its efforts to invest in redevelopment. Dieng’s neighbor Fatou Samba is a town councilor and president of the Association of Women Processors of Fish Products. She has testified about the challenges of such artisanal fishing and hopes to stop much of the expansion of big industry as fishmeal companies scoop up fish and send the product to Europe and Asia.

“If we let ourselves be outdone, within two or three years, women will not have work anymore,” Samba says. “We are not against the creation of a project that will develop Senegal. But we are against projects that must make women lose the right to work.”

Samba also warns of the effects of climate change, with rising tides eroding Senegal’s coast and forcing fisherman to seek their catch further out to sea. Samba and Dieng have each lost at least half of their seaside homes as water gutted rooms during the rainy seasons of the past decade.

Besides their laborious work processing fish, Samba and other women handle the bulk of the work at home.

“Especially in Africa, women are fighters. Women are workers. Women are family leaders,” Samba says. “Therefore, women must be empowered.”

Dieng, Samba and other women want to be heard — by the government and by the companies building projects near them. They want better financing, protection of their fish and processing sites and improved health regulations.

Late last month, when word spread that fishermen were finally coming back to Bargny with catches, Dieng and others hurried to meet the pirogues, tethered by ropes to the beach.

It was the longest Dieng had been away from the catch. She bought enough to have her haul carried by horse-drawn cart to the plot of land that she and friends claimed along acres of black sand. Then, she started the work she’s done for decades.

Once the fish were piled onto the ground, the women smoothed them out with a small, flat piece of wood. They covered them in light brown peanut shells, bought by the sack, then lit embers in a bowl and placed those on the shells, which started to burn. Smoke billowed everywhere, a sign of progress. But it also made trying to breathe as brutal as toiling under the hot sun.

The women stoked the fire, and, once confident it would smoke for hours, stepped away. After a day or so, they returned to turn the fish and let it dry in the sun.

Another day passed, and the women returned to clean it.

Finally, the fish was packaged in vast nets, sold and taken away in trucks.

The pandemic has taught the people of Bargny a crucial lesson: Money from fish might not always be there. So it’s important to try to save some of what they make.

The pandemic also is not over. So Dieng and other women go door to door to raise awareness and urge people to get vaccinated.

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal imposed strict measures at the start of the pandemic. The government was widely commended for its overall handling of the pandemic. Curfews have been lifted and restrictions largely eased. But the country has had more than 40,000 cases, and volunteer and government campaigns aim to keep another wave at bay.

After a long day of work and before going home to break fast of Ramadan with her family, Dieng stands in front of her smoking fish and records a video she hopes will to motivate the women working in the industry.

“It’s our gold,” Dieng says of the coast and its vital importance to Bargny. “This site is everything for us. All the women must rise up.

“We must work to always work and work again for our tomorrows, for our future.“

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“She takes things too personal,” Green told the Sun-Times. “Her vindictiveness, her personal vendettas. … That’s the game ball that she plays. If you’re not her friend, she is not willing to help you.”

Community activist Ja’Mal Green is accusing Mayor Lori Lightfoot of putting the kibosh on a $15 million youth center he wants to build on the site of a shuttered elementary school in Auburn-Gresham in retaliation for Green’s outspoken criticism of the mayor.

“She takes things too personal and has an allegiance to her friends only,” Green told the Sun-Times on Tuesday.

“Her vindictiveness, her personal vendettas. ….That’s the game ball that she plays. If you’re not her friend, she is not willing to help you.”

Green was a former mayoral challenger himself, before dropping out and endorsing Lightfoot over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the April 2019 runoff.

But it wasn’t long before Green was publicly criticizing Lightfoot.

The first public break came when Lightfoot proclaimed as a “done deal” a $95 million police and fire training academy that Green and others called a symbol of Rahm Emanuel’s misplaced spending priorities. In fact, Lightfoot said the project needed to be made bigger, better and, undoubtedly, more expensive.

That was followed by Green’s outspoken criticism of Lightfoot’s selection of David Brown as Chicago Police Department superintendent, and also what Green viewed as the heavy-handed treatment of protesters by CPD officers during civil unrest last summer.

Green also slammed Lightfoot’s decision to seal off downtown by raising the bridges after protests triggered by the death of George Floyd devolved into two devastating rounds of looting.

But the very personal and apparently final straw for Lightfoot came last month when the mayor took to Twitter to shoot down what she called “homophobic, racist and misogynistic rumors” about her own personal life.

In a now-deleted tweet for which he has apologized, Green declared, “Lori Lightfoot is resigning tomorrow in a stunning end to her mayorship.”

Now Green has unleashed yet another Twitter tirade against the mayor.

This week, he accused Lightfoot of holding up his plan to demolish Garrett Morgan Elementary School, 8407 S. Kerfoot Ave., and build an 80,000 square foot job training and recreational center tailor-made to help young people avoid becoming perpetrators or victims of gang violence.

In addition to recreational programs and a wellness center for mental health, the mecca Green calls “Morgan All-Stars” would include everything from flight simulators to train young people for careers in aviation, to coding development courses, to training rooms for entrepreneurship and the building trades.

Before the project can move forward and seek federal, state or city capital development funds, the Chicago Board of Education must convey the shuttered school to the city. The city then could sell or donate it to the development team Green has assembled.

“It’s probably the most revolutionary center to tackle the root causes of why young people are acting the way they are in our communities,” Green said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Green said the project was moving along until a few weeks ago, when Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Samir Mayekar “told our developer, ‘We’re not moving on this project because Ja’Mal is involved and the mayor doesn’t like it.”

“I texted the mayor about it. She told me to stop contacting her. The mayor is blocking a project that will save lives. WOW! … Because I’m a part, no movement any more. Insane,” Green tweeted.

“Whatever we have between us has nothing to do with the community and our young people laying in pools of blood. … It’s not fair to our youth that hating me is more important than their survival.”

To underscore the point, Green included a screen shot of Lightfoot’s text to him. It read, “I have already told you several weeks ago to stop contacting me.”

The mayor’s office had no immediate comment on Green’s claims.

David Doig, the former city planning commissioner and Chicago Park District superintendent now serving as president of Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative, refused to discuss his negotiations with the city.

Doig is volunteering his time on the Gresham youth center project after spearheading construction of a massive youth recreational center in Pullman.

When Green endorsed her in March 2019, Lightfoot’s campaign posted a statement on its website quoting Green: “We’re going to disagree. But, we’re going to give her a chance to make this city the great city it could be for our kids, for our teachers, for students, for re-entry citizens, for those suffering in poverty, for the homeless.”

Tuesday, Green argued Lightfoot’s decision to put the kibosh on the youth center is no different than her threat to Black aldermen a few months ago.

She warned those who dared to vote against her 2021 budget, “Don’t ask me for s–t for the next three years” when it comes to choosing projects for her $3.7 billion capital plan.

“This is the biggest character flaw of the mayor. … This is how she governs,” Green said.

“She’s probably not gonna get another term because she runs this city in a very vindictive way and she can be spiteful with those who go against her. That’s no way to be mayor.”

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Four boys and three girls, all eighth-graders, died, as well as a teacher and another school employee, said Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic, where Kazan is the capital.

MOSCOW — A gunman launched an attack on a school in the Russian city of Kazan that left at least nine people dead Tuesday — including seven youngsters — and sent students hiding under their desks or running out of the building.

At least 21 others were hospitalized, six in extremely grave condition, authorities said.

The attacker, identified only as a 19-year-old, was arrested, officials said. They gave no immediate details on a motive.

But Russian media said the gunman was a former student at the school who called himself “a god” on his account on the messaging app Telegram and promised to “kill a large amount of biomass” on the morning of the shooting.

“I was in the classroom when a man with a firearm broke into our classroom and just started shooting,” said student Akhmat Khairulin. He said students hid under their desks at their teacher’s direction, though one jumped out of a window.

Attacks on schools are rare in Russia, and President Vladimir Putin reacted by ordering the head of the country’s National Guard to revise regulations on the types of weapons allowed for civilian use.

Four boys and three girls, all eighth-graders, died, as well as a teacher and another school employee, said Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic, where Kazan is the capital.

The teacher who died, Elvira Ignatyeva, had been an English instructor at the school for four years, the state news agency Tass reported.

Footage released by Russian media showed students dressed in black and white running out of the building. Another video depicted shattered windows, a stream of smoke coming out of one, and the sound of gunfire. Dozens of ambulances lined up at the entrance.

Russian media said while some students were able to escape, others were trapped inside during the ordeal.

“The terrorist has been arrested, 19 years old. A firearm is registered in his name. Other accomplices haven’t been established. An investigation is underway,” Minnikhanov said.

Authorities said the 21 hospitalized included 18 children.

Authorities announced a day of mourning on Wednesday and canceled all classes in Kazan schools. Authorities tightened security at all schools in the city of about 1.2 million people, 430 miles east of Moscow.

The deadliest school attack in Russia took place in 2004 in the city of Beslan, when Islamic militants took more 1,000 people hostage for several days. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 dead, more than half of them children.

In 2018, a teenager killed 20 people at his vocational school before killing himself in Kerch, a city in the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea. In the wake of that attack, Putin ordered authorities to tighten control over gun ownership. But most of the proposed legislative changes were turned down by the parliament or the government, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram that the suspect in the Kazan attack received a permit for a shotgun less than two weeks ago and that the school had no security aside from a panic button. Authorities did not specify what kind of gun the attacker used.

Authorities in Tatarstan ordered checks on all gun owners in the region.

Putin extended condolences to the families of the victims and ordered the government to give them all necessary assistance. Russian officials promised to pay families roughly $13,500 each and give $2,700-$5,400 to the wounded.

The Kremlin sent a plane with doctors and medical equipment to Kazan, and the country’s health and education ministers headed to the region.

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The prosecutor also filed notice that she’ll also seek hate crime charges against 22-year-old Robert Aaron Long.

ATLANTA — A man accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was indicted Tuesday on murder charges, and a prosecutor filed notice that she’ll also seek hate crime charges and the death penalty.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Robert Aaron Long, 22, in the March 16 slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. The indictment only covers those four killings that happened at two spas in Atlanta, and not the attack in Cherokee County in which Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice that she intends to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Long, who is white. The hate crime charges are based on actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender, according to online records. Georgia’s new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it’s a hate crime, which carries an additional penalty.

The indictment charges Long with four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of domestic terrorism, according to online records.

It will be up to a separate grand jury in Cherokee County to decide on charges in the shooting at a spa near suburban Woodstock in which four were killed and one person was wounded.

Willis’ decision to seek the death penalty is a departure from her stance during her campaign to be district attorney last year.

During a candidate forum last year, Willis answered yes when asked: “Will you commit to refuse to seek the death penalty?”

Police have said Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock just before 5 p.m. on March 16. He also shot and wounded a fifth person, investigators said.

He then drove about 30 miles south to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police have said. All of the Atlanta victims were women of Asian descent.

After the shootings at the two Atlanta spas, Long got back into his car and headed south on the interstate, police said.

Long’s parents called authorities to help after recognizing their son in still images from security video that the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media. They provided cellphone information that allowed authorities to track their son to rural Crisp County, about 140 miles south of Atlanta.

State troopers and sheriff’s deputies spotted his SUV on Interstate 75, and one of them forced Long to spin to a stop by bumping his vehicle. Long then surrendered to authorities.

In an initial interview with investigators, Long claimed to have a “sex addiction,” and authorities said he apparently lashed out at businesses he viewed as a temptation. But those statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism given the locations and that six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

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WASHINGTON — Republicans launched an all-out assault Tuesday on sweeping voting rights legislation, forcing Democrats to take politically awkward votes spotlighting the increasingly charged national debate over access to ballots.

The measure would bring about the largest overhaul of U.S. elections in a generation, touching on almost every aspect of the electoral process. Democrats say the changes are even more important now as Republican-controlled states impose new voting restrictions after the divisive 2020 election.

Yet it’s a motivating issue for Republicans, too. GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell is so determined to stop Democrats that he’s personally arguing against the measure in Tuesday’s Rules Committee session, a rare role for a party leader that shows the extent to which Republicans are prepared to fight.

Republicans will offer scores of amendments to highlight aspects of the bill they believe are unpopular, including the creation of a public financing system for political campaigns, an overhaul of the federal agency that polices elections and dozens of provisions that would dictate how states conduct their elections.

“We’ll hear a lot of flowery language today,” said McConnell. “But we all learned early in life if you can write the rules, you can win the game.”

The congressional effort comes as states including Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Texas are pushing new voting rules, spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims about election fraud after his 2020 loss.

Democrats are on defense, having been unable to halt the onslaught of new state rules that will take months or years to litigate in court. That leaves passage of legislation through Congress as one of the few remaining options to counteract the GOP efforts.

“These bills moving in state capitals across America are not empty threats, they are real efforts to stop people from voting,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee.

Republicans argue the new state rules are needed to clamp down on mail ballots and other methods that became popular during the pandemic, but critics warn the states are seeking to reduce voter access, particularly for Black voters, ushering in a new Jim Crow era for the 21st century.

There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump’s claims were rejected by Republican and Democratic election officials in state after state, by U.S. cybersecurity officials and by courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court. And his attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of fraud that could change the election outcome.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also spoke during the Rules panel meeting to add his weight to the debate, excoriating Republicans for embracing Trump’s false claims about the election.

“President Trump told a big lie, one of the biggest ever told. We all know that. every single person in this room knows that,” Schumer said. “And it’s taking root, this big lie is taking root in our country, not just in the minds of his voters but in the laws of the land.”

President Joe Biden has said the federal bill would “restore the soul of America” by giving everyone equal access to the vote.

Known as the For the People Act, the legislation was given top billing on the Democratic agenda, but the path ahead is unclear. Moderate members of the Democratic caucus — not just Republicans — pose a sizable obstacle to the bill becoming law.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both said they oppose making changes to the Senate’s filibuster rules, which would be needed to maneuver the bill past Republican opposition and pass it with a simple majority in a 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris delivering the tiebreaking 51st vote.

Manchin has called for any elections overhaul to be done on a bipartisan basis. Other Democrats want to pare back the bill to core voting protections to try to put Republicans on the spot.

Both Manchin and Sinema were getting face time with President Joe Biden this week, as their votes are also vital to passing the president’s infrastructure plan. Manchin came to the White House on Monday, while Sinema was to do so on Tuesday, according to the White House.

House resolution H.R. 1, and its companion, S. 1, in the Senate have been in the works for several years. As passed by the House in March, the legislation would create automatic voter registration nationwide, require states to offer 15 days of early voting, require more disclosure from political donors and restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, among other changes. It would also compel states to offer no-excuse absentee voting.

It would force the disclosure of donors to “dark money” political groups, which are a magnet for wealthy interests looking to influence the political process while remaining anonymous.

Democrats have been making their own changes to the bill to draw support.

In the latest version of the legislation, states would have more time and flexibility to put new federal rules in place. Some election officials had complained of unrealistic timelines, increased costs and onerous requirements.

States would have more time to launch same-day voter registration at polling places and to comply with new voting system requirements. They would also be able to apply for an extension if they were unable to meet the deadline for automatic voter registration. Officials have said these are complex processes that require equipment changes or upgrades that will take time.

Democrats are also dropping a requirement that local election offices provide self-sealing envelopes with mail ballots and cover the costs of return postage. They plan to require the U.S. Postal Service to carry mail ballots and ballot request forms free of charge, with the federal government picking up the tab.

But Republicans fired back that the changes would do little to limit what they view as unwarranted federal intrusions into local elections.

“Giving states more time to implement bad policy doesn’t make the policy less bad,” said Sen Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the ranking minority member on the committee. “I think the federal government taking over elections is the wrong thing to do.”

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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire contributed reporting.

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A confrontation between Israel and Hamas sparked by weeks of tensions in contested Jerusalem escalated Tuesday as Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while militants barraged southern Israel with hundreds of rockets. The exchange killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least two Israelis.

The barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and airstrikes into the territory continued almost nonstop throughout the day, in what appeared to be some of the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas since their 2014 war. The fire was so relentless that Israel’s Iron Dome rocket-defense system seemed to be overwhelmed. Columns of smoke rose from many places in Gaza.

Since sundown Monday, 28 Palestinians — including 10 children and a woman– were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, health officials there said. The Israeli military said at least 16 of the dead were militants.

Two women were killed by rockets fired from Gaza that hit their homes in the southern city of Ashkelon — the first Israeli deaths in the current violence. At least 10 other Israelis have been wounded since Monday evening.

After those deaths, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said officials decided to “increase both the strength and rate of the strikes” against militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian officials said they were trying to broker a cease-fire, but the cycle of violence was gaining momentum. Even before the two Israeli deaths, the Israeli military said it was sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border, and the defense minister ordered the mobilization of 5,000 reserve soldiers.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, told reporters that Israel was beefing up defensive forces on the border to prevent possible infiltrations and increasing its offensive forces as well, primarily in the air.

He said the objective was to send a “clear message” to Hamas.

The barrage of rockets and airstrikes was preceded by hours of clashes Monday between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including dramatic confrontations at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sacred site to both Jews and Muslims. The current violence, like previous rounds, including the last intifada, or uprising, has been fueled by conflicting claims over Jerusalem, which is at the emotional core of the long conflict.

In a sign of widening unrest, hundreds of residents of Arab communities across Israel staged overnight demonstrations denouncing the recent actions of Israeli security forces against Palestinians. It was one of the largest protests by Palestinian citizens in Israel in recent years.

In the central Israeli town of Lod, police fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot to death by a Jewish resident the night before. Thousands took part in the funeral, and police said the crowd set fire to a patrol car, a bus and a motorcycle. Two police officers were injured.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Recent rounds of fighting have usually ended after a few days, often helped by mediation by Qatar, Egypt and others.

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes, including two that targeted high-rise apartment buildings where militants were believed to be hiding.

At midday, an airstrike hit a building in central Gaza City, sending terrified residents running into the street, including women and barefoot children. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that the strike killed three of its commanders.

Another strike hit a high-rise as people were conducting dawn prayers, killing a woman, her 19-year-old disabled son and another man, residents said. Health officials confirmed the deaths.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 28 people, including 10 children and the woman, have been killed and 152 wounded. Ashraf al-Kidra, a spokesman for the ministry, said Israel’s “relentless assault” was overwhelming the health care system, which has been struggling with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The escalation comes at a time of political limbo in Israel.

Netanyahu has been caretaker prime minister since an inconclusive parliamentary election in March. He failed to form a coalition government with his hard-line and ultra-Orthodox allies, and the task was handed to his political rivals last week.

One of those rivals is Israel’s defense minister, who is overseeing the Gaza campaign. It was not clear whether the political atmosphere was spilling over into military decision-making, though the rival camps have unanimously expressed support for striking Hamas hard.

The support of an Arab-backed party with Islamist roots is key for the anti-Netanyahu bloc. But the current tensions might deter the party’s leader, Mansour Abbas, from joining a coalition for now. The sides have three more weeks to reach a deal.

The current violence in Jerusalem coincided with the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in mid-April.

Critics say heavy-handed police measures helped stoke nightly unrest, including a decision to temporarily seal off a popular gathering spot where Palestinian residents would meet after evening prayers. Another flashpoint was the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where dozens of Palestinians are under threat of eviction by Jewish settlers.

Over the weekend, confrontations erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest site in Judaism.

Over several days, Israel police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the compound who hurled stones and chairs. At times, police fired stun grenades into the carpeted mosque.

On Monday evening, Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza. From there on, the escalation was rapid.

Gaza militants fired more than 500 rockets at Israel, with about one-third falling short and landing in Gaza, Conricus said.

At midday, a barrage of some 10 rockets whizzed above the southern city of Ashdod, filling the skies with streaks of white smoke.

A rocket that hit an apartment building in Ashkelon injured six people, according to Israeli paramedic service Magen David Adom. A building in Ashdod was also hit, lightly wounding four, Israeli police said.

The military hit 130 targets in Gaza, including two tunnels militants were digging under the border with Israel, Conricus said. He did not address Gaza Health Ministry reports about the dead children.

In Gaza, most of the deaths were attributed to airstrikes. However, seven of the deaths were members of a single family, including three children, who died in an explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It was not clear if the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike or errant rocket.

Dozens of mourners took part in the funeral of Hussein Hamad, an 11-year-old boy who was among the dead.

Israel struck scores of Gaza homes in its 2014 war with Hamas, arguing it was aiming at militants, but also killing many civilians. The practice drew broad international condemnation at the time. Israel’s latest tactics in Jerusalem have drawn angry reactions from leaders from the Arab and Muslim world.

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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in the West Bank, Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

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BANGKOK — After Myanmar’s military seized power by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, it couldn’t even make the trains run on time. State railway workers were among the earliest organized opponents of the February takeover, and they went on strike.

Health workers who founded the civil disobedience movement against military rule stopped staffing government medical facilities. Many civil servants were no-shows at work, along with employees of government and private banks. Universities became hotbeds of resistance, and in recent weeks, primary and secondary education has begun to collapse as teachers, students and parents boycott state schools.

One hundred days after their takeover, Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control. The illusion is sustained mainly by its partially successful efforts to shut down independent media and to keep the streets clear of large demonstrations by employing lethal force. More than 750 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces, according to detailed independent tallies.

“The junta might like people to think that things are going back to normal because they are not killing as many people as they were before and there weren’t as many people on the streets as before, but … the feeling we are getting from talking to people on the ground is that definitely the resistance has not yet subsided,” said Thin Lei Win, a journalist now based in Rome who helped found the Myanmar Now online news service in 2015.

She says the main change is that dissent is no longer as visible as in the early days of the protests — before security forces began using live ammunition — when marches and rallies in major cities and towns could easily draw tens of thousands of people.

At the same time, said David Mathieson, an independent analyst who has been working on Myanmar issues for over 20 years, “Because of the very violent pacification of those protests, a lot of people are willing to become more violent.”

“We are already starting to see signs of that. And with the right training, the right leadership and the right resources, what Myanmar could experience is an incredibly nasty destructive, internal armed conflict in multiple locations in urban areas.”

The junta also faces a growing military challenge in the always restive border regions where ethnic minority groups exercise political power and maintain guerrilla armies. Two of the more battle-hardened groups, the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east, have declared their support for the protest movement and stepped up their fighting, despite the government military, known as the Tatmadaw, hitting back with greater firepower, including airstrikes.

Even a month ago, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was describing the situation as grim, saying Myanmar’s “economy, education and health infrastructure have been brought to the brink of collapse, leaving millions of Myanmar people without livelihood, basic services and, increasingly, food security.”

It was not surprising that The Economist magazine, in an April cover story, labeled Myanmar “Asia’s next failed state” and opined it was heading in the direction of Afghanistan.

The U.N.’s Bachelet made a different comparison.

“There are clear echoes of Syria in 2011,” she said. “There too, we saw peaceful protests met with unnecessary and clearly disproportionate force. The State’s brutal, persistent repression of its own people led to some individuals taking up arms, followed by a downward and rapidly expanding spiral of violence all across the country.”

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with long experience working with Myanmar, said, “The most immediate step is for the government and the opposition to start a dialogue to end the violence and bloodshed. There has to be a negotiation on humanitarian access to keep the economy and … health care system from collapsing.”

Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has so far shunned all suggestions of talks from the United Nations as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member. He attended a specially called ASEAN summit meeting in Indonesia in April.

The 10-member group issued a statement calling for an immediate cessation of violence and a dialogue mediated by an ASEAN special envoy.

Within days of Min Aung Hlaing’s return, his junta brushed aside the initiative, saying Myanmar would “give careful consideration to constructive suggestions made by ASEAN Leaders when the situation returns to stability in the country since priorities at the moment were to maintain law and order and to restore community peace and tranquility.”

Myanmar’s resistance movement, meanwhile, has organized widely and swiftly underground.

Within days of the junta takeover, elected parliamentarians who were denied their seats convened their own self-styled Parliament. Its members have formed a shadow National Unity Government with guidelines for an interim constitution, and last week, a People’s Defense Force as a precursor to a Federal Union Army. Many cities, towns and even neighborhoods had already formed local defense groups which in theory will now become part of the People’s Defense Force.

Aside from being morale boosters, these actions serve a strategic purpose by endorsing a federal style of government, which has been sought for decades by the country’s ethnic minorities to give them autonomous powers in the border areas where they predominate.

Promoting federalism, in which the center shares power with the regions, aligns the interests of the anti-military pro-democracy movement with the goals of the ethnic minorities. In theory, this could add a real military component to a movement whose armaments are generally no deadlier than Molotov cocktails and air rifles — though homemade bombs have been added to its arsenals in recent weeks.

In practice, at least for the time being, the guerrilla armies of the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east will fight as they always have, to protect their own territory. They can give military training to the thousands of activists that are claimed to have fled the cities to their zones, but are still overmatched by the government’s forces. But on their home ground they hold an advantage against what their populations consider an occupying army. That may be enough.

“The only thing that the military is really threatened by is when all of these disparate voices and communities around the country actually start working against it, not as a unified monolith, but all working against the military’s interests,” said the analyst, Mathieson. “And I think that’s the best that we can hope for moving forward, that the people recognize that all efforts have to go against the military. And if that means fighting up in the hills and doing peaceful protests and other forms of striking back against the military in the towns and the cities, then so be it.”

It’s hard to gauge if the army has a breaking point.

Mathieson said he’s seen no signs the junta was willing to negotiate or concede anything. The Tatmadaw is “remarkably resilient. And they recognize that this is an almost existential threat to their survival.”

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Associated Press journalist Jerry Harmer contributed to this report.

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