New Zealand takes 2-0 lead over Britain in America’s Cup first-to-seven final

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Emirates Team New Zealand showed why it is the two-time defending America’s Cup champion after jumping out to a 2-0 lead over INEOS Britannia in their first-to-seven-wins final on Saturday.

As the defender, the Kiwis sat out the playoff rounds with a guaranteed spot in the final. But the yacht skippered by Peter Burling showed no rust despite a month of zero competitive sailing and New Zealand comfortably won both opening races.

New Zealand led the first race from the start and finished 41 seconds and more than 400 meters ahead. The second race featured a pair of lead changes until Taihoro found more wind midway through, crossing 300 meters and 27 seconds in front of Britannia.

New Zealand is trying to win the Auld Mug, the oldest trophy in international sport, for a third straight time. The Brits have never won it in its 173-year history.

“This is what we have been working three years for,” New Zealand helmsman Nathan Outteridge said after winning the first race. “We have been a long time in preparation watching everyone else racing, so it was great to get a fantastic start and control that race. Let’s just keep our eyes focused forward.”

New Zealand got a haka sendoff from supporters and shore crew and was accompanied out of Barcelona port by an ornamentally carved Maori waka (canoe). The team headed by Grant Dalton is aiming to become the first syndicate to ever win three consecutive times. As a nation, New Zealand has won four times (1995, 2000, 2017, 2021).

The Kiwis participated in the initial round-robin even though their results didn’t count, and then they practiced, plotted and analyzed the competition.

“We did a lot of work making sure we are ready to go,” Burling said after going up 2-0.

The British are participating in their first final in six decades.

Britannia is backed by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe and has a partnership with the Mercedes Formula 1 team, with which it shares design, engineering and performance teams. That contrasts with the in-house design team of New Zealand, which is credited with revolutionizing sailing with its design of the AC75 monohull foiling yacht.

Britannia impressed in the challengers regatta as it bested four other boats from Italy, the United States, Switzerland and France. It set an America’s Cup speed record of 55.6 knots (64 mph/102 kph) last week.

But they will have to get even more out of their boat if they want to beat the holders.

“It’s obviously not the start we were looking for. But credit to the Kiwis. They sailed two really good races,” skipper Ben Ainslie said. “It is interesting to see Team New Zealand making the jump since the round-robin, or it sure looks like that. But that again is the game we are in. we will just keep plugging away and looking for those gains.”

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Emirates Team New Zealand races during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia races during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand race during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand race during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emirates Team New Zealand crew prepares for the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling checks a screen before the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie talks on the phone before the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emirates Team New Zealand races during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand race during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ineos Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand race during the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emirates Team New Zealand crew prepares for the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emirates Team New Zealand crew sails before the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup race in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people slightly injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians.

A further 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before the projectile hit just before 4 a.m. Saturday, the military said.

The Houthi rebels issued a statement on the Telegram messaging app saying they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.

The attack comes less than two days after a series of Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi attack in which a long-range missile hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.

The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports “that will lead to the immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port at Hodeida has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region and undermine U.N. mediation efforts.

In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, mourners held the funerals of 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

One of the strikes hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.

In Gaza City, another strike on a house overnight killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City Saturday morning. Women comforted each other as they wept over the bodies before they were carried away. One man, stony-faced, cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body in his arms as he carried it along the funeral procession.

In Al-Aqsa Hospital of Deir al Balah, white body bags containing those killed in Nuseirat were taken from the morgue and loaded onto the back of an open truck to be taken for burial.

Overall, Gaza's Health Ministry said Saturday that 21 people had been killed and 61 were wounded over the past 24 hours.

Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them.

Israel says it only strikes militants, and blames the Hamas militant group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

More than 45,200 people have been killed and more than 107,500 wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the devastating 14-month war in Gaza. Local health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led a “tactical coordinated operation” delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The organization, known by its acronym COGAT, said trucks from the U.N. World Food Program transported 2,000 food packages, 1,680 sacks of flour and thousands of liters of water to distribution centers in the area on Friday.

Aid groups have said previously that military operations and armed gangs have hindered their ability to distribute aid to civilians in need.

Gaza's Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal Saturday for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, while the hospital director described dire conditions.

The ministry said in a statement that there was continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital. “Shells have struck the third floor and the hospital’s entrances, creating a state of panic,” the ministry said.

Hospital Director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility was “facing severe shortages."

“Despite promises, we have not received the necessary supplies to maintain electricity, water, and oxygen systems," Abu Safiyeh said. "Our requests for essential medical supplies and staff have largely gone unmet.”

He said the World Health Organization had delivered 70 units of blood, but that the hospital requires at least 200 units to meet urgent needs. He said 72 wounded people were being treated at the hospital.

The shortages extend beyond medical necessities. “Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide meals for the wounded. We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us,” he said. “The staff is working around the clock, yet we cannot even provide meals for them.”

Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp are prepared for the funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Men pray over the bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp during a funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital before their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)