WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Tuesday that Russia is “attempting to prolong negotiations to extract additional concessions from the United States and while making additional battlefield advances.”Associated Press writers Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine atKHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food at a new distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their, had the same idea.

By the time Hijazi walked the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to the southern tip of the territory, a militarized zone that has been evacuated of its residents, it was chaos. People pushed and shoved for hours as they restlessly waited outside the site, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, earth berms and checkpoints. When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets.Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by

, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza’s more than 2 million people.

in an attempt to control the crowd, he and other witnesses said. His 23-year-old cousin was shot in the foot. They quickly abandoned hope of getting any food and ran for their lives.Julia recalled that eight years ago her first husband, also Guatemalan, was deported, leaving her behind with their two American children, now 18 and 11 years old.

“We are afraid. I feel very sad with life because of what I am going through,” said Julia, her voice breaking and her eyes getting watery.The notary asked Julia to show her daughter’s birth certificate and explained the son is an adult and doesn’t need a guardian.

Albertina, right, talks to Nora Sandigo about giving Sandigo legal guardianship for her six U.S-.born children aged 17 years to two months, Feb. 2, 2025, in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)Albertina, right, talks to Nora Sandigo about giving Sandigo legal guardianship for her six U.S-.born children aged 17 years to two months, Feb. 2, 2025, in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)