How the towns along the Israel-Lebanon border have changed drastically in the face ongoing attacks. Take a deep dive into AI romance scams from the perspectives of a victim — and a former scammer. Plus, retiring Sen. Thom Tillis shares his unfiltered opinions about some of Trump’s Cabinet.

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One border, two stories: How Israel’s attacks on Lebanon are affecting daily life

Along the border of Israel and Lebanon, once-thriving towns feel eerily abandoned and some places are reduced to rubble.

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Richard Engel on why he’s reporting at the Israel-Lebanon border

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The quiet in Kfar Giladi in northern Israel is occasionally punctuated by the noise of outgoing Israeli munitions headed for Lebanon.

But just 12 miles away, across the border in southern Lebanon, the conditions in Bint Jbeil have become dire, Amnesty International warned, as civilians are “increasingly isolated and unable to access basic necessities” such as medical care, food, water and fuel. Israeli ground troops have encircled the town, part of its invasion of southern Lebanon as they seek to carve out a sprawling “security zone.”

The conflict between Israel and Lebanon is separate from the Iran war — but the two are deeply entangled. More than 1 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Lebanon, mainly in the south, amid an aerial and ground assault by Israeli forces after Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched strikes in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says 2,124 people have been killed to date.

Read more about how the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel factor into peace deal negotiations between the U.S., Israel and Iran.

More Iran war news:

• In group chats and meetings, Republicans are privately petrified the Iran war could cost them the midterms.

• Senate Republicans voted down a resolution pushed by Democrats that would prohibit President Donald Trump from taking further military action in Iran.
• China’s economy accelerated in the first quarter of this year, expanding 5% from a year earlier as it largely shrugged off impacts from the Iran war so far.

Staff Pick: $1.6 million, a romance con and two men on opposite sides of the world

We do a lot of reporting on scams, but when a colleague sent me information about Ron Williams’ situation, it had all the elements of a story that needed to be told: scammers duping someone out of $1.6 million of their life savings, starting with a text similar to one that millions of us have received. When producer Maite Amorebieta and I started looking into it, we realized there was another element that we needed to warn people about: the potential of AI being used to supercharge scams like this.

The plot thickened. With help from Amnesty International, Maite was able to track down a former scammer in Uganda, who spoke about the way he was also victimized. “Arnold” said he initially paid $2,000 for a job opportunity, but instead he was trafficked to a Cambodian scam compound run by “Chinese bosses.” He said he and others were beaten and tortured, and they couldn’t leave because their passports and phones were confiscated. Arnold was eventually able to get away and get home but he’s still unemployed and in need of work.

The story illuminates all aspects of these texting/romance/crypto scams from multiple perspectives and really emphasizes how we all have to be on alert when someone we have never met tries to befriend us and asks for money. And it shows that there are multiple victims on both ends of these sophisticated schemes. — Vicky Nguyen, chief consumer investigative reporter

Unfiltered Thom Tillis opens up about Trump’s Cabinet

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina dropped his re-election bid after a public disagreement with Trump last summer. Now, he says, he’s unfiltered — including in his thoughts about some members of Trump’s Cabinet.

For example, Tillis, 65, said deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller gives Trump “bad advice,” as the architect behind the mass-deportation strategy that contributed to Kristi Noem’s ouster as Homeland Security Secretary. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “gets caught up on the war thing.” And on Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, Tillis said: “I mean honestly, I just haven’t seen her around.” Read more of Tillis’ opinions about Trump’s Cabinet.

In Tillis’ extensive interview with NBC News, he also weighed in on Trump’s fight with the pope, his concerns about the Iran war and his message to fellow Republicans ahead of the November elections. Here’s what he said.

More politics news:

• New Jersey voters are headed to the polls in a special election to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House seat. Progressive activist Analilia Mejia is favored to win against Republican Joe Hathaway.

• Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an unusual apology for critical remarks she made about Justice Brent Kavanaugh.

• A new report from Senate Democrats finds prescription drug prices have kept rising despite Trump saying his deals with drugmakers would bring them down.

Live Nation illegally monopolized ticketing market, jury finds

Live Nation plans to fight back after a federal jury found that the company and its subsidiary Ticketmaster illegally maintained monopoly power in the ticketing market. The verdict capped a high-stakes, five-week trial in which the Justice Department and dozens of states argued the company controlled ticketing, concert booking, venues and promotions.

In its findings, the jury concluded that Ticketmaster overcharged concertgoers by $1.72 per ticket at “major concert venues” as a result of its anticompetitive behavior. After the trial, the jury forewoman said Live Nation “demonstrated during the trial many things they were doing wrong,” such as “charging the fans for things that they were not supposed to charge.” Live Nation has vehemently denied acting as a monopoly.

Find out more about the case, including a recent surprise settlement between the federal government and Live Nation.

Read All About It

• Russia unleashed a barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight, killing at least 18 people in its most intense attack of the year.
• The father of an Oklahoma man who opened fire at his former high school said his son had “some kind of beef” with the principal who thwarted the attack.

• The CEO of a nonprofit hospital system said the organization spends more on prescription drug coverage for employees than it does on inpatient care. A lot of it has to do with weight loss drugs.

• Doctors are seeing a surge of rotavirus cases and fear that declining vaccination rates could lead to worse outbreaks in the coming years.

• AI-generated Val Kilmer got his close-up at CinemaCon, as the makers of the movie “As Deep as the Grave” presented a teaser trailer featuring the late actor’s likeness.

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

With spring in full swing and summer quickly approaching, it’s time to think about sun safety. From the best UPF clothing and swimwear, to a look at whether UPF hats are worth the investment, our editors talked to experts to help you protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays. Plus, we tested 110 of the most popular face SPFs — nearly $4,000 worth of product — to see which ones lived up to the hype.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.

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