Compiled by Jacob Clavijo | Editor-in-Chief

Indian police say gunmen kill at least 26 tourists at a resort in disputed Kashmir

By Aijaz Hussain

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.

Police said it was a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

Two senior police officers said at least four gunmen, whom they described as militants, fired at dozens of tourists from close range. The officers said at least three dozen people were wounded, many of them reported to be in serious condition.

Most of the killed tourists were Indian, the officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy. Officials collected at least 24 bodies in Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam. Two others died while being taken for medical treatment.

Supreme Court signals support for Maryland parents who object to LGBTQ books in public schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday signaled support for the religious rights of parents in Maryland who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.

The court seemed likely to find that the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, could not require elementary school children to sit through lessons involving the books if parents expressed religious objections to the material.

The case is one of three religious rights cases at the court this term. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years.

The school district introduced the storybooks in 2022, with such titles as “Prince and Knight” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” as part of an effort to better reflect the district’s diversity.

Parents initially were allowed to opt their children out of the lessons for religious and other reasons, but the school board reversed course a year later, prompting protests and eventually a lawsuit.

Texas passes 600 cases of measles. Here’s what to know about the US outbreaks

By Devi Shastri

Texas has more than 600 known cases of measles on Tuesday as the outbreak in the western part of the state approaches the three-month mark.

The U.S. was up to 800 cases of measles nationwide on Friday. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.

North America has two other outbreaks. One in Ontario, Canada, has sickened 925 from mid-October through April 16. And as of Tuesday, the Mexican state of Chihuahua state has 514 measles cases, according to data from the state health ministry. The World Health Organization has said cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.