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

Trump leaves Alaska summit with Putin empty-handed after failing to reach a deal to end Ukraine war

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who started it.

“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the U.S. president said, after Putin claimed they had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to brief them on the talks.

Trump, who for years has balked at American support for Ukraine and expressed admiration for Putin, had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months later, after berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and stanching the flow of some U.S. military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring Putin even to pause the fighting, as his forces make gains on the battlefield.

The U.S. president had offered Putin both a carrot and a stick, issuing threats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending a warm welcome at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but he appeared to walk away without any concrete progress on ending the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

Instead, he handed Putin long-sought recognition on the international stage, after years of Western efforts to make him a pariah over the war and his crackdown on dissent, and forestalled the threat of additional U.S. sanctions.

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The Latest: Trump says no deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war was made with Putin after Alaska talks

U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not reach a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine after talks in Alaska on Friday, as the two leaders offered scant details on what was discussed but heaped praise on one another.

Putin said he and Trump had reached an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” But Trump said, “There’s no deal until there’s a deal” and said he plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders soon.

The high-profile summit ended without an agreement to end, or even pause, the brutal conflict — the largest land war in Europe since 1945 — which has raged for more than three years.

The Latest:

Trump is passing the buck to the Ukrainian president, saying he will need to agree to do anything discussed today with Putin.

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Photos of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held talks Friday in Alaska about the war in Ukraine.

The meeting at a military base in Anchorage could reshape that conflict as well as relations between Moscow and Washington. It was their first summit in four years.

This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.

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Trump administration agrees to keep DC police chief in place, but with immigration enforcement order

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday reversed course and agreed to leave the Washington, D.C., police chief in control of the department, while Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a new memo, directed the District’s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law.

The order from Bondi came after officials in the nation’s capital sued Friday to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington police. The night before, his administration had escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department, essentially placing the police force under the full control of the federal government.

The attorney general’s new order represents a partial retreat for the Trump administration in the face of intense skepticism from a judge over the legality of Bondi’s earlier directive. But Bondi also signaled the administration would continue to pressure D.C. leaders to help federal authorities aggressively pursue immigrants in the country illegally, despite city laws on the books that limit cooperation between police and immigration authorities.

In a social media post Friday evening, Bondi criticized D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, saying he “continues to oppose our efforts to improve public safety.” But she added, “We remain committed to working closely with Mayor Bowser.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said late Friday that it was still evaluating how it can comply with the new Bondi order on immigration enforcement operations. The police department already eased some restrictions on cooperating with federal officials facilitating Trump’s mass-deportation campaign but reaffirmed that it would follow the district’s sanctuary city laws.

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Heat and thirst drive families in Gaza to drink water that makes them sick

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it’s likely contaminated.

Thirst supersedes the fear of illness.

She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What’s left she adds to a jerrycan for later.

“We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,” Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water. “It causes diseases for us and our children.”

Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts.

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Democrats release plan to boost party’s California US House seats in fight for Congress

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a display of cutthroat yet calculated politics, Democrats unveiled a proposal Friday that could give California’s dominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight to control of Congress next year.

The plan calls for an unusually timed reshaping of House district lines to greatly strengthen the Democratic advantage in the state ahead of midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending a fragile majority.

It amounts to a counterpunch to Texas, where the GOP is trying to add five seats to its House delegation at the urging of President Donald Trump as he tries to avoid losing control of Congress and, with it, prospects for his conservative agenda in the later part of his term.

If approved by voters in November, the California blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation’s most populous state. The Democratic plan is intended to win the party 48 of its 52 U.S. House seats, up from 43.

The campaign arm of House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released the maps Friday, and the Democratic-led Legislature later posted them online. State lawmakers plan to hold hearings and vote on the new maps next week.

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Heavy rains expected in Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands as Hurricane Erin nears

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Erin strengthened into a hurricane on Friday as it approached the northeast Caribbean, prompting forecasters to warn of possible flooding and landslides.

The storm is expected to remain over open waters, although tropical storm watches were issued for Anguilla, Barbuda, St. Martin, St. Barts, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten.

Heavy rains were forecast to start late Friday in Antigua and Barbuda, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and southern and eastern Puerto Rico. Up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) are expected, with isolated totals of up to 6 inches (15 centimeters), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane center also warned of dangerous swells but said the threat of direct impacts in the Bahamas and along the east coast of the United States “appears to be gradually decreasing.”

The storm was located about 365 miles (585 kilometers) east of the Northern Leeward Islands. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).

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New Orleans mayor indicted over allegations of trying to hide relationship with bodyguard

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted Friday in what prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to hide a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, who is accused of being paid as if he was working even when they met alone in apartments and traveled to vineyards for wine tasting.

Cantrell faces charges of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction, less than five months before she leaves office due to term limits. The first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history was elected twice but now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office.

“Public corruption has crippled us for years and years,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said, referring to Louisiana’s notorious history. “And this is extremely significant.”

Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, was already facing charges of wire fraud and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury returned an 18-count indictment Friday that added Cantrell to the case.

They are accused of exchanging encrypted messages through WhatsApp to avoid detection and then deleting the conversations. The mayor and Vappie have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as “personal and intimate.”

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Flash floods kill more than 280 people in India and Pakistan as thousands flee

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed over 280 people in India and Pakistan and left scores of others missing, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries.

Flooding began a day earlier in Indian-controlled Kashmir and spread to the north and northwest in Pakistan, triggered by sudden, intense downpours over small areas. The floods and subsequent landslides injured dozens of people and forced the evacuation and rescue of thousands of others, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a contributing factor.

Leaders in both countries offered their condolences to the victims’ families and assured them of swift relief.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said.

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Stone Age humans were picky about which rocks they used for making tools, study finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Early human ancestors during the Old Stone Age were more picky about the rocks they used for making tools than previously known, according to research published Friday.

Not only did these early people make tools, they had a mental picture of where suitable raw materials were located and planned ahead to use them, traveling long distances.

By around 2.6 million years ago, early humans had developed a method of pounding rocks together to chip off sharp flakes that could be used as blades for butchering meat.

This allowed them to feast on large animals like hippos that gathered near a freshwater spring at the Nyayanga archaeological site in Kenya.

“But hippo skin is really tough” — and not all rocks were suitable for creating blades sharp enough to pierce hippo skin, said co-author Thomas Plummer, a paleoanthropologist at Queens College of the City University of New York.