Author: CNN

US-made munitions were used in a deadly Israeli strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by explosive weapons experts found. 

CNN geolocated videos showing tents in flames in the aftermath of the strike on the camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) known as “Kuwait Peace Camp 1.”

In video shared on social media, which CNN geolocated to the same scene by matching details including the camp’s entrance sign and the tiles on the ground, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb (SDB) is visible, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed the video for CNN.

The GBU-39, manufactured by Boeing, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack strategically important point targets,” and result in low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN.

However, “using any munition, even of this size, will always incur risks in a densely populated area,” said Cobb-Smith, a former British Army artillery officer.   

Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member who also identified the fragment as being from a GBU-39, explained to CNN how he drew his conclusion.  

CNN’s identification of the munition is consistent with a claim made by Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in a briefing about the tragedy on Tuesday. Hagari said the strike – which he said targeted senior Hamas commanders – used two munitions with small warheads containing 17 kilos of explosives, adding these bombs were “the smallest munitions that our jets could use.”

The traditional GBU-39 warhead has an explosive payload of 17 kilos.  

Additionally, serial numbers on the remnants match those for a manufacturer of GBU-39 parts based in California – more evidence the bombs were made in the US.  

The Pentagon declined to comment and referred CNN to comments from Israel on its operation. CNN has also reached out to the US National Security Council.

Read the full story.

After conducting storm surveys from the tornadoes that struck northern Texas Saturday night, the National Weather Service said initial findings indicate a tornado of at least EF-2 strength struck the city of Valley View.

“Extensive damage was found in Cooke County, primarily south of Valley View near the Cooke/Denton County line, with a preliminary rating of EF-2 with estimated maximum winds of 135 mph,” the weather service said.

Additionally, the survey team said, “Damage found in south Montague County was consistent with an EF-2 tornado with estimated maximum winds of 125 mph.” This tornado was just south of Forestburg, Texas.

Additional details about damage and path length for both tornadoes will be released as the surveys are complete.

Surveys are still ongoing near Pilot Point in Denton County, Celina in Collin County and other areas in north Texas.

“Rating information for the damage in these areas will be released when teams complete their assessments. Complete details including track, length, width and final ratings are expected to be finalized over the next several days,” the weather service said.

The aviation tracking site FlightRadar24 says, based on its data, that the turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 occurred over Myanmar at approximately 7:49 a.m. UTC (3:49 a.m. ET). 

This lines up with a statement from the airline stating that the plane, “encountered sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin [a river in Myanmar] at 37,000 feet, about 10 hours after departure.”

FlightRadar24 said in a blog post that, according to its data, at that time, ”the flight encountered a rapid change in vertical rate, consistent with a sudden turbulence event.”

The data show the flight changing course about 14 minutes later. The airline says, “the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft to Bangkok.”

The FlightRadar24 data show the flight, which was cruising at 37,000 feet, suddenly dipping then rapidly climbing a few hundred feet before dipping and climbing again and then finally settling back at its cruising altitude. The entire disruption took about 90 seconds, according to the data, but resulted in dozens of injuries, including a fatality.

The crash of a helicopter carrying Iran’s president and foreign minister comes at an especially fraught moment in the Middle East – and for Iran domestically.

Israel’s war against Hamas and the subsequent humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded in Gaza over the last seven months has inflamed global opinion and sent tensions soaring across the Middle East. 

It has also brought a decades-long shadow war between Iran and Israel out into the open.

Last month Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel — its first ever direct attack on the country — in response to a deadly apparent Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus that killed a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). 

Israel struck back a week later, according to US officials, hitting targets outside the Iranian city of Isfahan with a much smaller, calibrated response. 

Since then the tit-for-tat direct strikes between the two have stopped. But the proxy war continues with Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah continuing to fight Israel’s forces.

Meanwhile, Iran’s hardline leadership has weathered an explosion of recent popular dissent on the streets at home where years of US-led sanctions have hit hard.

The country was convulsed by youth-led demonstrations against clerical rule and worsening economic conditions following the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police.

Iranian authorities have since launched a widening crackdown on dissent in response to the protests.

That crackdown has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity,” according to a United Nations report released in March.

And while the protests for now have largely stopped, opposition to clerical leadership remains deeply entrenched among many Iranians, especially the young, who yearn for reform, jobs and a move away from stifling religious rule.

A former hardline judiciary chief with his own brutal human rights record, Raisi was elected president in 2021 in a vote that was heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually uncontested.

While he is president, his powers are dwarfed by those of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic.  

We are in the sixth week of court proceedings in Donald Trump’s historic hush money criminal trial.

To refresh your memory, here are the key moments and witnesses from the trial so far:

April 15: Trial began with jury selection.

April 19: A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected.

April 22: The prosecution and defense made their opening statements. Former tabloid boss David Pecker was called to testify.

April 23: Judge Juan Merchan held a Sandoval hearing for Trump’s alleged gag order violations, but reserved his decision. Pecker continued his testimony.

April 25: While Trump sat in the Manhattan courtroom listening to Pecker’s testimony, the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments on the matter of his immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case against him.

April 26: Pecker’s direct questioning and cross-examination concluded. Trump’s former longtime assistant Rhona Graff was called to testify briefly. Michael Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro was then called to the stand.

April 30: Farro’s testimony concluded. Prosecutors then called Dr. Robert Browning, the executive director of C-SPAN archives, and Philip Thompson who works for a court reporting company. Then, Keith Davidson, the former attorney for Daniels and McDougal, took the stand. Also, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for violating a gag order.

May 2: Davidson’s testimony concluded. Digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus was called to testify.

May 3: After Daus finished testifying, Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the district attorney’s office, spoke about reviewing Trump’s social media posts for this case. She was followed by Hope Hicks, once a longtime Trump aide. Her highly-anticipated testimony was a little less than three hours.

May 6: Prosecutors called two witnesses who worked in accounting in the Trump Organization: Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Org. controller, and Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts payable supervisor.

May 7: Prosecutors called Sally Franklin, the senior vice president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House publishing group. After her testimony, Stormy Daniels was called to the stand.

May 9: Stormy Daniels finished her testimony, with the defense trying to undermine her credibility by pointing out inconsistencies in her story on cross-examination.

May 10: Former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout’s testimony concluded. Then prosecution called several custodial witnesses to the stand.

May 13: Former Trump attorney and the prosecution’s key witness, Michael Cohen, started testifying.

May 14: The prosecution completed direct questioning of Cohen and Trump’s defense began cross-examination.

May 16: Trump’s defense grilled Cohen, putting into question a key 2016 October call and asking him about the times he lied under oath.

Read a full timeline of key moments here.

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Once a week, ADHD coach Robin Nordmeyer joins a Zoom meeting with other coaches while she writes blogs, does administrative tasks or works on content for presentations she has been putting off.

Nordmeyer, who has ADHD, isn’t necessarily using the meeting to collaborate with others — she just needs their presence as a motivator to help her get things done.

“I run a business, and I have to balance lots of different areas of the business,” said Nordmeyer, cofounder and managing director of the Center for Living Well with ADHD-Minnesota, an ADHD coaching group near Minneapolis serving all ages.

“Some of those things come very easy — like, they’re in my wheelhouse, they energize me, I can’t wait to get to them,” Nordmeyer said. “And some of those things are a little more tedious, or I have some resistance around them.”

What Nordmeyer does to get through those tougher tasks is sometimes known as “body doubling,” a productivity and self-help strategy that involves working with another person around to help improve motivation and focus. It has been popular for some time among people with ADHD — attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder — especially during the pandemic.

“The idea is that the presence of another is essentially a gentle reminder to stay on task,” said Billy Roberts, clinical director of Focused Mind ADHD Counseling in Columbus, Ohio. “For folks (with) ADHD whose minds tend to wander and get off task, the body double somehow works as an external motivator to stay on task.”

Body doubling isn’t just for people with ADHD, but like many “coping strategies, something that can be helpful for anybody is more central and important for folks with ADHD,” said Dr. J. Russell Ramsay, founding codirector of the University of Pennsylvania’s ADHD Treatment and Research Program.

Why body doubling works

A neurodevelopmental disorder commonly diagnosed in childhood but lasting into adulthood, ADHD stems from underdeveloped or impaired executive function and self-regulation skills, according to Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child. Those skills help us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and multitask. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity — so people with this disorder might have trouble concentrating, staying organized, managing their time or controlling their impulses, which can affect both their work and personal lives, Roberts said.

If people with ADHD have no intrinsic interest in a task, Roberts said, they typically struggle with a lack of internal motivation to complete it or even to get started. Body doubling provides that motivation, experts said.

“It also draws on our social selves,” Ramsay said. “A lot of people with ADHD will say, ‘I have a hard time getting started on this if I’m doing it for myself, but if I know somebody else is relying on me, if somebody else is waiting outside for me to show up to go for our walk, I’m more likely to go and be there because I don’t want to let them down.’”

There doesn’t appear to be extensive research on body doubling for productivity, according to Roberts and other experts. “But I do know that the idea of externalizing motivation is a long-standing, evidence-based mechanism for managing ADHD,” Roberts said.

In theory, the method is pretty straightforward, but there a few factors to keep in mind to make the most of it.

How to use body doubling effectively

Body doubling can help with pretty much any task you’re having a hard time getting done — whether that’s work, chores, exercise, schoolwork or paperwork. The other person doesn’t have to be doing the same thing as you, unless the activity you need body doubling for — such as exercising — requires that assistance.

Be choosy about whom you ask to be your body double. The person should be as committed to you completing your work as you are, Roberts said — not distracting you with conversation or anything else. Choose someone who usually makes you feel comfortable and safe, and who can encourage you when necessary.

“It’s important to keep a body double session focused on its purpose,” Nordmeyer said. If conversations do come up, table them for later, perhaps during a break or dinner.

Asking someone to be your body double might feel awkward, but Roberts said the best approach is often a straightforward one. You could say, “It’s something I heard can help with productivity. Would you mind just being around me while I work on this? Maybe you have something you could work on, too.”

You could also barter with them, in a sense, by making an offer such as, “You help me organize my garage on Saturday; I’ll help you organize your home office on Sunday,” Ramsay said.

Those small first steps of seeking a partner and setting up the session get you started and keep you going, he added.

Scheduling regular body doubling sessions is one option, Nordmeyer said, or just ask whenever the need arises. How transparent you are about why you need a body double is up to you, as is whether you have more than one body double.

“It depends on the individual,” Roberts said. “If it turns into a distraction more than mindfulness, accountability or behavioral support, then you just want to rework things. You can kind of tinker with things until you find what works.”

Virtual body doubling

If you don’t have a friend or colleague to be your body double, you aren’t out of luck.

Some TikTok users, such as Allie K. Campbell, regularly go live while they’re working so others can use them as a virtual body double. There are also body doubling or coworking platforms or apps such as Flown, Focusmate or Flow Club.

In virtual sessions, “most body doubles ask you to share your camera, and a lot of people are real nervous about being visible,” Nordmeyer said. “The purpose of that is to make sure you’re still in your chair working. … But there might be other ways you can create that accountability through a chat feature.”

The benefits of body doubling are likely why some people like working on things in coffee shops, libraries or coworking spaces — which can be sources of passive body doubling if you don’t have someone to ask, Roberts said.

“Some people work better with community support and just the awareness of other people around them,” he added. “You saw that a lot with the pandemic, like people learning more about the kinds of structure they needed.

“We all think and work differently, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Roberts said.

Residents of the Tal al-Sultan displacement camp in western Rafah have recounted to CNN the horrifying scenes that followed an Israeli strike Tuesday, which according to Palestinian and UN officials killed eight people.

Video of the aftermath from a CNN stringer shows torn up tents, burnt sheets of metal and a clutter of furniture and clothing thrown on the ground. Walls are pierced with holes and the wooden structures holding up the tents completely damaged.

CNN has reached out to the IDF regarding the strike, but has not received a response.

One resident, Hind Al-Ashqar, told CNN she was asleep with her family when she awoke to the sound of her neighbors screaming.

“Our children were terrified; I have a 5-year-old that was so horrified. We were all scared, children and adults,” she said.

Al-Ashqar’s daughter Ayat said she ran out of their tent to check on their neighbors, some of whom were her relatives, only to find them dead on the ground.

“I was so terrified to see the remains of people. We have been displaced and living in nylon tents. We see remains and body parts of martyrs, we see the strikes and shrapnel hitting us. If we were in our homes, we wouldn’t be afraid of shrapnel. But inside tents, any shrapnel can hit us and even burn us,” Ayat continued.

Another resident, Imad, pulled out the remains of a person while rummaging through the torn-up tents, saying “this is the safe place they talk about.”

Another resident, Mohammed, told CNN people were asleep when they were killed, including his cousin. He said he has been picking up dead bodies of children and body parts since the morning, pointing to his blood-stained shirt.

“Instead of waking up and saying thank God, we woke up and picked up body parts…. every day there is a war. Enough is enough…the whole world is living freely and happily except us. Why? How is the whole world unable to stop Israel and Netanyahu?” he said.

A displaced woman Suhad told a CNN stringer she had been sheltering in a nearby camp when she heard there had been a strike on her brother’s camp.

“I didn’t sleep all night. I was told he was martyred, then he wasn’t. He was martyred, then he wasn’t.

She said her brother’s four daughters, the youngest three months old, survived but were injured.

CNN stringer video from the scene shows dozens of people dismantling the remains of their makeshift tents, gathering what’s left of their belongings and loading them onto trucks and donkey carts. They told a CNN stringer on the ground that they are forced to flee again, some for the sixth time, out of fear of being killed.

“They forced us to move to the south because they said it was safe. Where is the safety? We are leaving, but we don’t know where to go,” one man said.

On the third Thursday of every May, Ukrainians across the globe celebrate the vyshyvanka, a traditional embroidered shirt.

Yet the stitched panelling of a vyshyvanka extends beyond the garment itself. For many Ukrainians, each star or flower design is a symbolic expression of their right to self-determination.

“I think that vyshyvanka is a very vivid symbol that speaks for itself. Wearing vyshyvanka is very easy to show your identity, your position, your belonging to a certain group,” said Natalia Kamenska, co-founder of the Ukrainian brand Gunja Project. “It is a way of saying ‘We are Ukrainians.'”

Ukrainians mark Vyshyvanka Day by wearing the traditional dress. Kamenska, a designer, told CNN the shirt helps Ukrainian people form a sense of belonging in the face of colossal grief and uncertainty.

Kamenska described the war in Ukraine as “a tumultuous time” for her compatriots.

“With families being separated, people fleeing their homeland, people have a sense of constant anxiety from not knowing what will happen tomorrow,” she added. “For many people, vyshyvanka is a thing that reminds them of the importance of everything that is happening now.”

At least 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes on a camp for displaced people in the southernmost city of Rafah on Sunday, the Gaza government media office said.

Videos shared on social media show a large fire at the site, with paramedics and firefighters struggling to manage the aftermath. The area targeted included a large container used as a shelter for dozens of families, surrounded by hundreds of tents.

That echoed criticism from the Palestinian Emergency Committee in Rafah, which said the Israel Defense Forces had claimed the area struck was a “safe zone.”

What the IDF has said: The Israeli military claimed in a statement that it struck “a compound in Rafah in which significant Hamas terrorists were operating,” and said it is aware of reports of civilian harm following the strike and fire.

It said one of its aircraft used “precise munitions” to strike the target based on “intelligence that indicated Hamas’ use of the area.”

It said the strikes, including the harm to civilians, are now under review.

Earlier Sunday, Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv for the first time in months. The Israeli military said the rockets were fired from Rafah.

Hamas response: Hamas issued a statement holding the US administration and President Joe Biden personally accountable for the attack.

It said Israel would not have carried out the strikes “without American support and the green light for it to invade Rafah, despite its overcrowding with displaced citizens.”

Hamas called for immediate international intervention, urging the swift implementation of decisions by the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.

Remember: Over a million Palestinians — many already displaced by Israel’s offensive in other parts of the enclave — had been sheltering in Rafah before Israel began its operations there. Many have now fled, but say they have nowhere safe to go.

Israel’s actions in Rafah have served as a flashpoint for the unprecedented level of diplomatic pressure it is now facing over the war in Gaza.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was confirmed dead by state media on Monday morning, after a helicopter he was traveling in alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven others crashed in foggy conditions in the country’s remote northwest on Sunday.

Here’s what to know now:

Acting president: In the wake of Raisi’s death, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has been appointed as acting president.

Acting foreign minister: Ali Bagheri Kani, who has led Iranian delegations through indirect negotiations with the United States over nuclear issues and prisoner exchanges, has been appointed acting foreign minister after the death of Amir-Abdollahian, state news agency IRNA reported.

New elections: The Iranian constitution mandates that the three heads of the branches of government, including the vice president, speaker of the parliament, and head of the judiciary, must arrange for an election and elect a new leader within 50 days of assuming the role of acting President. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a message to state news agencies that Mokhber was responsible for organizing elections for a new president within that time.

Public mourning: Ayatollah Khamenei has announced five days of public mourning after the crash, and expressed his condolences. All cultural and arts activities have been canceled in Iran for the next seven days.

Global reaction: The loss of Raisi — a conservative hardliner and protege of Ayatollah Khamenei — is expected to sow further uncertainty in a country already buckling under significant economic and political strain, with tensions with nearby Israel at a dangerous high. His death has already triggered international reaction with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and the UAE leader expressing their condolences for his death. Lebanon has declared three days of mourning.

Militias respond: Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah have sent condolences to Tehran over the death of Raisi.