Mourners pay respects to late US Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state at New York City Hall

NEW YORK (AP) — Mourners paid their respects to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lay in state Thursday at New York City Hall, an honor bestowed to a short list of political figures, including U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

The outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat died May 26 at the age of 94 after spending nearly five decades on Capitol Hill. Rangel was among the longest serving House members, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairman of one the chamber's most powerful committees.

On Thursday morning, a small group of mourners quietly came to pay their respects in City Hall, a landmark neoclassical building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, as the surrounding streets of lower Manhattan bustled with tourists and workers.

Rangel’s closed casket sat in the building’s marbled rotunda draped with an American flag. Uniformed police stood at rigid attention on either side of him, backed by the state and nation’s flags.

Mike Keogh, a 63-year-old lobbyist and former city council staffer, was among those who knew Rangel personally.

“He had the greatest voice in New York politics at the time. It was so rich and so full,” recalled Keogh. “It just made you feel really warm to be around him and to really hang on every word.”

Tina Marie grew up in Harlem and recalled Rangel as a part of the neighborhood’s famed Gang of Four— Black Harlemites who rose to the very top of city and state politics in the 1970s through the 1990s.

The others were David Dinkins, New York City’s first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state.

“I didn't get to make the other three people’s funerals so I wanted to come and pay my respects,” said Marie, who now works for the state education department steps from City Hall. “I didn’t agree with all the things they did, but they stood up for people who couldn’t stand up for themselves.”

Louisa Ruiz, 75, recalled volunteering on Rangel’s first congressional campaign in 1970.

“We were out at 6 o’clock in the morning handing out flyers, then again at 6 o’clock in the afternoon you go back,” the native of the Dominican Republic said.

Besides Presidents Lincoln and Grant, the others accorded the City Hall honors after death include statesman Henry Clay, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and Civil War generals Abner Doubleday and Joseph Hooker.

The last person to lie in state in City Hall was City Councilman James Davis, who was assassinated by a political opponent in the council’s chambers, located the floor above the rotunda, in 2003.

Doors opened for the public to pay their respects to Rangel beginning Thursday morning. An honor guard ceremony was held in the evening with pallbearers representing the 369th Regiment, an all-Black unit from World War I known as the Harlem Hellfighters.

New York politicians who spoke at the ceremony remembered Rangel as a tireless public servant.

“I think of so many times when Charlie Rangel had the right thing to say, got you to do something you didn’t think you wanted to do and made it all seem like it was your idea,” Hilary Rodham Clinton said.

Clinton recalled with a smile how Rangel relentlessly lobbied her to run for the Senate seat she won in 2000.

Rangel's funeral takes place Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan and will be open to the public as well as livestreamed.

A wake was held Tuesday at a church in Harlem, the upper Manhattan neighborhood where the “Lion of Lenox Avenue" was born and raised. Rangel’s body arrived at City Hall on Wednesday, where there was a private evening viewing for his family.

The Korean War vet defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career.

Rangel went on to become the dean of the New York congressional delegation and the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2007.

He was censured in 2010 by his fellow House members -- the most serious punishment short of expulsion -- following an ethics scandal.

Rangel relinquished his post on the House’s main tax-writing committee, but continued to serve until his retirement in 2017.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also a New York Democrat, lauded Rangel as a “patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice” when his death was announced last month.

American flag and New York State flag are lowered at half staff while the casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

People stand on the stairs to see the casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

The casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

The casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed at least five people across Ukraine on Friday, including in a “massive” missile and drone attack near the capital, local authorities reported. Ukrainian officials claim the Kremlin is changing its tactics to increase civilian suffering, shifting to daytime barrages and preparing to target more key infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signaled Kyiv's openness to a potential Easter truce. The holiday is celebrated on April 12 in both Ukraine and Russia.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is preparing for a shift in Russian aerial tactics, with intelligence indicating that future attacks will move beyond energy infrastructure.

In Russia, 192 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russia and occupied Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Friday morning.

“The Kyiv region is once again under a massive Russian missile and drone attack,” said Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration, in a Telegram post on Friday morning.

According to Kalashnyk, one person died and at least eight more were wounded in strikes on three of Kyiv’s satellite towns — Bucha, Fastiv and Obukhiv.

Another person was killed in Ukraine's northern Sumy region after a Russian guided aerial bomb struck an apartment block, local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov reported. Authorities in the Kherson, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions also reported casualties from Friday's attacks.

Ukrainian officials highlighted what they said were increased daytime attacks by Russia, which they said could lead to more civilian deaths. For months, Moscow pummeled Ukraine with nighttime missile and drone strikes that could involve hundreds of drones at a time.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a post on X that “almost half a thousand drones and cruise missiles” attacked Ukraine overnight.

“This is how Moscow responds to Ukraine’s Easter ceasefire proposals — with brutal attacks,” Sybiha said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday signaled Kyiv's continued openness to a potential truce on Easter, which falls next week according to the Julian calendar followed by Orthodox churches in Ukraine and Russia.

Zelenskyy told reporters that the proposal had been communicated to Moscow through U.S. channels. He added that the Kremlin's response remains unclear.

Zelenskyy has previously offered a ceasefire for the Easter period — but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Moscow wants a lasting peace settlement, not a temporary truce.

President Vladimir Putin unilaterally declared a 30-hour ceasefire last Easter, but each side accused the other of breaking it.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russia was increasingly striking the country during the day, an apparent departure from months of nighttime barrages.

Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation within Ukraine's defense ministry, said that the daytime strikes aimed to “increase civilian casualties.”

“That is why the combined attack is carried out on a working day, using a large number of drones and missiles,” Kovalenko wrote on Friday in a Telegram post.

Zelenskyy told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine is preparing for Russian aerial attacks that could target water systems, logistics and other critical networks. After months of sustained strikes on power facilities, Kyiv now expects increased pressure elsewhere.

“According to intelligence documents we have received, the Russians will target logistics – railways and other infrastructure. They will also target the water supply,” Zelenskyy said at a press briefing.

Elsewhere in Ukraine on Friday, a Russian drone strike damaged a passenger bus in the southern city of Kherson, leaving the driver seriously wounded and at least eight passengers hurt.

Regional government officials said several people were hospitalized, adding that the 51-year-old driver was being treated for head wounds and multiple fractures.

Separately, authorities reported sustained attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, beginning on Thursday and continuing into early Friday. Drone strikes near the city center caused several injuries. One man died of his wounds after being taken to a hospital, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote in a Telegram update.

According to the head of Kharkiv's Department of Emergency Situations, Bohdan Hladykh, Russia struck the city at least 20 times during the day on Thursday, using explosive drones.

Two people were hospitalized on Friday following a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Leningrad region, over 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) from the border, regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko reported. According to Drozdenko, the drones also set fire to an “unoccupied” building within the Morozov industrial zone.

The settlement of Morozov houses a state-owned plant that makes explosives and components for ammunition, including solid fuel used in Topol-M missile systems. The plant was put under U.S., EU and other Western sanctions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Twelve people, including at least three Russian soldiers, were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike late Thursday on Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported. Separately, he said that seven people were wounded in the region after a drone struck a commercial facility.

Four drones were downed during the night on the approach to Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported Friday. He did not reference any casualties or damage.

In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, Russian soldiers fire a grenade launcher towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)