AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Zelenskyy says Putin wants the rest of Ukraine’s Donetsk region as part of a ceasefire

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that it controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.

Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not withdraw from territories it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.

He said diplomatic discussions led by the U.S. focusing on ending the war have not touched on security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent future Russian aggression and that meeting formats currently being discussed do not include Europe’s participation, both key demands of Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Russian forces on the ground have been closing in on a key territorial grab around the city of Pokrovsk.

Zelenskyy said the necessity of territorial concessions was conveyed to him by U.S. officials ahead of a summit Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and in further meetings at the level of national security officials.

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Trump’s takeover of Washington law enforcement begins as National Guard troops arrive

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new picture of law enforcement in the nation’s capital began taking shape Tuesday as some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by the Trump administration began arriving. The city’s police and federal officials, projecting cooperation, took the first steps in an uneasy partnership to reduce crime in what President Donald Trump called — without substantiation — a lawless city.

The influx came the morning after the Republican president announced he would be activating the guard members and taking over the District’s police department, something the law allows him to do temporarily. He cited a crime emergency — but referred to the same crime that city officials stress is already falling noticeably.

By evening, the administration was saying that National Guard members were expected to be on the streets starting Tuesday night, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Army said there were no specifics on the locations they will be patrolling, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason.

Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to work alongside the federal officials Trump has tasked with overseeing the city’s law enforcement, while insisting the police chief remained in charge of the department and its officers.

“How we got here or what we think about the circumstances — right now we have more police, and we want to make sure we use them,” she told reporters.

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Netanyahu hints that Gaza ceasefire talks now focus on the release of all hostages at once

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hinted that ceasefire efforts in Gaza are now focused on a comprehensive deal that would release the remaining hostages all at once, rather than in phases.

Arab officials told The Associated Press last week that mediators Egypt and Qatar were preparing a new framework for a deal that would include the release of all remaining hostages in one go in return for a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The long-running indirect talks appeared to break down last month. But a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for ceasefire talks on Tuesday, Egypt’s state-run Qahera news channel reported, a sign that efforts have not been abandoned after 22 months of war.

Israel has threatened to widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, and where most of the territory’s 2 million residents have sought refuge.

Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive.

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Shooter attacked CDC headquarters to protest COVID-19 vaccines

ATLANTA (AP) — The man who fired more than 180 shots with a long gun at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broke into a locked safe to get his father’s weapons and wanted to send a message against COVID-19 vaccines, authorities said Tuesday.

Underscoring the level of firepower involved, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said more than 500 shell casings were recovered from the scene. Authorities haven’t said how many shots were fired by Patrick Joseph White and how many by police. The GBI said forensic testing was still pending.

Documents found in a search of the home where White had lived with his parents “expressed the shooter’s discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said.

White, 30, had written about wanting to make “the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine,” Hosey added.

White also had recently verbalized thoughts of suicide, which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, Hosey said. He died at the scene Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose.

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Trump’s nominee to oversee jobs, inflation data faces shower of criticism

WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the agency that produces the nation’s jobs and inflation data is typically a mild-mannered technocrat, often with extensive experience in statistical agencies, with little public profile.

But like so much in President Donald Trump’s second administration, this time is different.

Trump has selected E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to be the next commissioner at the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni’s nomination was quickly met with a cascade of criticism from other economists, from across the political spectrum.

His selection threatens to bring a new level of politicization to what for decades has been a nonpartisan agency widely accepted as a producer of reliable measures of the nation’s economic health. While many former Labor Department officials say it it unlikely Antoni will be able to distort or alter the data, particularly in the short run, he could change the currently dry-as-dust way it is presented.

Antoni was nominated by Trump after the BLS released a jobs report Aug. 1 that showed that hiring had weakened in July and was much lower in May and June than the agency had previously reported. Trump, without evidence, charged that the data had been “rigged” for political reasons and fired the then-BLS chair, Erika McEntarfer, much to the dismay of many within the agency.

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Trump ally Ken Paxton escalates Texas redistricting fight with call for Beto O’Rourke to be jailed

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ratcheted up President Donald Trump’s congressional redistricting fight by calling Tuesday for progressive activist Beto O’Rourke to be put “behind bars” for helping Democrats who have managed to block the GOP’s gerrymandering efforts with an extended walkout.

Hours earlier, Texas Republican leaders said they were prepared to end their stalemated special session that includes the proposed new maps and immediately begin another standoff with Democratic legislators. Dozens of Democrats have left the state to prevent their GOP colleagues from voting on the changes and meeting Trump’s demands ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The developments are the latest escalations in a battle that began in Austin and now reaches into multiple courtrooms and statehouses controlled by both major parties.

Paxton, a Trump acolyte who is running for the U.S. Senate, asked a Texas judge on Tuesday to hold O’Rourke in contempt of court, arguing that the former congressman and onetime presidential candidate has continued to fundraise for absent Democrats despite an order last week that Paxton said should have stopped some of his activities.

“It’s time to lock him up,” Paxton said of O’Rourke in a fiery written statement.

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Massive rescue effort led to pulling workers from debris of Pennsylvania steel plant explosion

CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — Moments after an explosion erupted at a U.S. Steel plant outside Pittsburgh, company firefighters, local responders and employees raced in to rescue people from the smoldering wreckage.

They were able to free one injured worker who was whisked to a hospital. But one more was still missing, and the area was too unstable to continue working, according to Matthew Brown, chief of Allegheny County Emergency Services.

A Pittsburgh-based crew from Pennsylvania Urban Search & Rescue was called in to help, some of whose members were already responding through their affiliations with local fire departments, Brown said. The team stabilized a wall at the plant and used an advanced camera to detect the missing employee. They pulled away the rubble and were able to extract the body of the worker, who died.

Monday’s explosion, which was powerful enough to shake nearby homes, killed two workers and injured more than 10 others. Five people ranging in age from 27 to 74 remained hospitalized Tuesday including the rescued worker, who was in critical but stable condition, according to the Allegheny County Police Department. Three were at UPMC Mercy, the region’s only level-one trauma and burn center.

The massive plant along the Monongahela River in Clairton converts coal to coke, a key component in the steelmaking process. The facility is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in Pennsylvania.

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Texas shooter who killed 3 outside Target, including a child, randomly chose his victims, police say

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A random shooting outside a Target store in Texas began when a gunman killed an employee collecting shopping carts then a man and his 4-year-old granddaughter, sparking a chaotic hour of stolen cars and crashes that ended with him arrested naked holding a Bible, police said Tuesday.

Ethan Nieneker, 32, is charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of murder over Monday’s shooting in Austin. Court records show a series of past arrests for domestic violence and assault.

“What happened yesterday was an unprovoked and deliberate attack, a deliberate act of violence,” Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a news conference. “Innocent lives were taken in broad daylight, in a place where people should feel safe to run their everyday errands and to live their everyday lives.”

The police chief said that although Nieneker had a history of mental health issues, she was unaware of any specific diagnosis. Sgt. Nathan Sexton said the firearm Nieneker used in the attacks was acquired through family.

After shooting the Target employee, Nieneker shot the grandfather as he sat in the driver’s seat of his sport utility vehicle, then fatally shot the little girl in the back seat before stealing the vehicle and driving away fast, police said.

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Some Juneau residents urged to evacuate as Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier releases floodwater

Residents in some parts of Juneau prepared to evacuate ahead of what could be a record surge of flooding as rainwater and snowmelt in a huge basin dammed by Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier started to flow downstream toward the capital city.

Officials in recent days have been warning people in the flood zone to be ready to evacuate. On Tuesday morning they confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into late Wednesday. They advised people in the city’s flood zone to leave.

One couple said they’re encouraging their neighbors to evacuate, but plan to stay put after sending their kids outside the flood zone. Their three daughters, aged 11, 10, and 8, were sent to a friend’s house at higher ground Tuesday to make absolutely sure they’re safe.

“The girls are having sleepovers outside the flood zone,” said Sam Hatch, a civilian Coast Guard vessel safety regulator. “A friend from work has three daughters as well so we shoved them all in one house and they’re having a six-girl epic four-day right-before-school-starts sleepover. I really owe my friend for taking them.”

The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Juneau, population 30,000, and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska’s capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city’s outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth belongs to an archconservative church network. Here’s what to know

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he’s proud to be part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, an archconservative network of Christian congregations.

Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about CREC, showing its pastors arguing women should not have the right to vote.

Pastor Doug Wilson, a CREC co-founder, leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, the network’s flagship location. Jovial and media-friendly, Wilson is no stranger to stirring controversy with his church’s hard-line theology and its embrace of patriarchy and Christian nationalism.

Wilson told The Associated Press on Monday he was grateful Hegseth shared the video. He noted Hegseth’s post was labeled with Christ Church’s motto: “All of Christ for All of Life.”

“He was, in effect, reposting it and saying, ‘Amen,’ at some level,” Wilson said.