for more on the conflict, i spoke with npr correspondent daniel estrin who joined us from jerusalem earlierdaniel, let's start with the latest. what have you been experiencing in the past few hours? >> well, the latest news is that the associated press bureau in gaza city was flattened in an israeli attack. the ap bureau was located in a high rise building along with al jazeera and other offices, and the owner of the building received a call from the israeli military notifying him that the building would be attacked and evacuate now. it attacked the building with airstrikes and demolished it. and then later israel announced that it had done so because hamas militant intelligence was using the building. now, no one s reported injured in the attack. israel has also not provided any evidence to support the claim of hamas using the building. i asked mark regev, who is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's senior adviser, about this, and he said that giving the building one hour's notice was ample warning to get people out. it also gave hamas a tip, but that it was balancing the need to pr

earlier today i spoke with npr correspondent daniel estrin who is in jerusalem.ell us about the latest set of attacks? >> well, today we saw the deadliest single attack since the start of the fighting in gaza. it took place overnight, and my colleague in gaza described in the middle of the night hearing in central gaza city these booms, these sounds that he's never heard before, a kind of boom-boom and several multistory homes collapsed on the same street. this was just a couple blos away from al-shifa hospital, the main hospital in gaza. and large extended families were trapped under the rubble. ateast 37 people died. that number could rise, including eight children and 13 women. rescue teams are still digging under the rubble, searching for survivors. we spoke to neighbors in the area who said that the israeli military did not call and warn them of this attack as the israeli military has done with other attacks. the israeli military says that in this case, they were targeting underground hamas infrastructure and that that infrastructure collapsed and when it co

. >> sreenivasan: npr's daniel estrin joining us from gaza city, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: new cases of the coronavirus have dropped to their lowest levels in nearly a year in the united states, a sign the country is turning a corner in the pandemic. the "new york times" reports the average number of new cases over the past week plunged to fewer than 28,000. it's a 90% decrease compared to the peak in early january. almost 50% of americans ages 18 and older are now fully vaccinated. but despite the promising trends, vaccination rates across the country have slowed by 45% since early last month. 15 states and puerto rico have vaccinated only a third or less of their eligible populations. the national hurricane center named the first storm in the atlantic today, and hurricane season is not officially here yet. it starts june 1. subtropical storm ana formed about 200 miles northeast of bermuda, which currently has a tropical storm watch in effect, ana has maximum winds of 45 miles per hour as of this afternoon, and is not expected to become a hurricane. forecasters expect the