AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT
Trump orders Israel to stop bombing Gaza after Hamas partially accepts his peace plan
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan to end the nearly two-year war and return all the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages and hand over power to other Palestinians, but that other aspects of the plan require further consultations among Palestinians. Senior Hamas officials suggested there were still major disagreements that required further negotiations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for the implementation of the “first stage” of Trump’s plan, apparently referring to the release of hostages. But his office said in a statement that Israel was committed to ending the war based on principles it has set out before, without addressing potential gaps with Hamas.
Trump welcomed the Hamas statement, saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE.”
“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out,” he wrote on social media.
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets 4 years in prison for case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters, capping a sordid federal case that featured harrowing testimony and ended in a forceful reckoning for one of the most influential figures in hip-hop.
Since Combs has already served a year in jail, the sentence means that the 55-year-old could get out in about three years. While prosecutors sought a sentence of more than 11 years, his lawyers wanted him freed immediately and said the time behind bars has already forced his remorse and sobriety.
Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places and over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.
“Why did it happen so long?” U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asked as he handed down the sentence. “Because you had the power and the resources to keep it going, and because you weren’t caught.”
Subramanian, who also fined Combs $500,000, the maximum allowed, praised the accusers who testified at trial. They effectively spoke for countless others who experienced abuse, the judge said: “You gave them a voice. You stood up to power.”
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Government funding vote fails again in Senate as hopes fade for quick end to shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown faded Friday as Democrats refused to budge in a Senate vote and President Donald Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.
On the third day of the shutdown, another Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would reopen the government failed on a 54-44 tally — well short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the chamber would close for legislative business next week, a move meant to force the Senate to work with the government funding bill that has been passed by House Republicans.
Following the failed vote, senators quickly headed for the exits of the Capitol, expecting no more votes over the weekend and showing few signs of any real progress towards ending the congressional standoff. Instead, both sides dug in for a prolonged shutdown fight that thrusts federal workers into more uncertainty, threatens to ripple into the broader economy and gives the Trump administration an opportunity to reshape the federal government.
“I don’t know how many times you’re going to give them a chance to vote no,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at a news conference Friday. After the vote, he said he was flying home to South Dakota for the weekend, adding, “I’ll be available.”
The vote showed hardening lines in the Senate. The same three members of the Democratic Caucus — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman and Angus King — who voted for the funding bill previously did so again, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was once again the only Republican opposed.
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Republicans are relishing a role reversal in the shutdown fight. Can Trump keep them united?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the unusually quiet halls of the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders faced the cameras for a second day and implored Democrats to reopen the government.
“We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning, before criticizing his counterparts. “Democrats are the ones who have decided to inflict the pain.”
It’s a striking role reversal. Budget standoffs for years have been the bane of Republican congressional leaders who had to wrestle with conservatives on their side ready to shut down the government to get their policy demands. Democrats often stood as willing partners to keeping the government open, lending crucial votes to protect programs they had championed.
“Both parties have completely flip-flopped to the opposite side of the same issue that hasn’t changed,” said GOP Sen. Rand Paul. “Congress has truly entered the upside down world.”
The change is happening in large part because President Donald Trump exercises top-down control over a mostly unified GOP — and faces little internal resistance to his budget priorities. The shift is unfolding as the shutdown threatens government services, forces the furlough of federal workers and gives the Trump administration another opportunity to remake the federal government.
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Federal shutdown hurts services for Native Americans and they worry worse is coming
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Native Americans watched the shuttered government on Friday and braced for damage to health care, education, infrastructure and other services funded by Washington under treaties struck more than a century ago.
Tribal nations with casinos, oil and gas leases and other independent revenue sources said they expect to sustain operations for several months. Tribes more dependent on government money were already furloughing workers.
Many tribal leaders said they feared that the Trump administration would use the shutdown to lay off federal workers responsible for ensuring that trust and treaty responsibilities are honored. The U.S. agreed many decades ago to protect the security, health and education of tribal citizens in return for ceding their lands.
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe just outside Reno, Nevada furloughed at least 25 employees starting on Oct. 1 and closed its museum and cultural center, higher education department, and services for Native children in the public school system.
It said the closures would be temporary but that more closures could still come if the shutdown endures.
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One of 2 victims in Manchester synagogue attack apparently shot accidentally by police
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — One of the two Jewish men killed in a car and knife attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester appears to have been accidentally shot by a police officer, according to detectives who said Friday that the attacker may have been motivated by Islamic extremism.
Police said congregant Adrian Daulby, 53, and security guard Melvin Cravitz, 66, died trying to prevent Thursday’s attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Three other people are hospitalized in serious condition.
Police shot and killed a suspect seven minutes after he rammed a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue and then attacked them with a knife in what the police force called an act of terrorism. He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake.
Police identified the attacker as a British citizen of Syrian descent who was on bail over an alleged rape. They said it’s not clear whether he acted alone, though they’ve said they believe there is no further danger to the public. Officers have arrested six other people on suspicion of being linked to the attack, though they haven’t identified them or elaborated on what role they’re suspected of playing.
A pathologist provisionally determined Daulby had a gunshot wound. Since the attacker did not have a gun, the injury may have been “a tragic and unforeseen consequence” of police actions, Greater Manchester Police Chief Stephen Watson said.
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North Carolina governor signs criminal justice bill into law after Ukrainian refugee’s death
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Democratic governor signed into law on Friday a criminal justice measure that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature approved in response to the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte commuter train, even while opposing provisions within or wishing for others left out.
Gov. Josh Stein said he signed the bill because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That’s a good thing.”
The new law bars cashless bail for certain violent crimes and for many repeat offenders. It also limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions, gives the state chief justice the ability to suspend magistrates and seeks to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.
But Stein criticized parts and said lawmakers had failed in the legislation to approve his public-safety proposals, which included increased pay for law enforcement. He said the measure failed to focus properly “on the threat that people pose instead of their ability to post bail.”
“I’m troubled by its lack of ambition or vision,” Stein said during a short video statement. “It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.”
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Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that he ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, expanding what the Trump administration has declared is an “armed conflict” with cartels.
In a post on social media, Hegseth asserted that the “vessel was trafficking narcotics” and those aboard were “narco-terrorists.” He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to, following the U.S. designation of several Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
President Donald Trump said in his own social media post that the boat was “loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE” and implied it was “entering American Territory” while off the coast of Venezuela.
It is the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean and the latest since revelations that Trump told lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them. That assertion of presidential war powers sets the stage for expanded action and raises questions about how far the administration will go without sign-off from Congress.
“Blowing them up without knowing who’s on the boat is a terrible policy, and it should end,” said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a consistent and harsh critic of the U.S. strikes.
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Noem visits Chicago area ICE facility as agents arrest 13, raid city neighborhoods
BROADVIEW, Ill. (AP) — Federal officials reported the arrests of 13 people Friday protesting near an immigration facility outside Chicago that has been frequently targeted during President Donald Trump’s administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.
As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with employees inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, a crowd grew over several hours, some riled by newly installed barricades to separate them from law enforcement officers stationed outside.
Noem also accompanied agents Friday on a raid near a local Walmart store and later engaged in a tit-for-tat over unannounced visits — and even bathroom use — with the Broadview mayor.
Immigrants’ rights advocates and residents separately reported that federal agents had used tear gas near grocery or hardware stores they had targeted for enforcement elsewhere in Chicago on Friday and detained a city council member as she questioned the attempted arrest of a man. The federal government has restricted airspace over Broadview, officials said Friday, and Gov. JB Pritzker called for an investigation into an immigration raid on the city’s South Side early Tuesday morning.
At the ICE facility, some protesters have aimed to block vehicles from going in or out of the area in recent weeks, part of growing pushback to a surge of immigration enforcement that began in early September. Called “Midway Blitz,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that it has resulted in more than 1,000 immigration arrests.
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First female Archbishop of Canterbury still an outlier among world’s top religious leaders
For the first time, a woman will serve as the Archbishop of Canterbury, following the 105 men who have held the role since St. Augustine took the position in the year 597.
This means Bishop of London Sarah Mullally has broken through the Church of England’s highest stained-glass ceiling. But for many of the world’s religions, that barrier to women in top leadership remains firmly intact.
Here is a look at how high women in ministry have been able to climb in some of the major faith traditions.
As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mullaly will also lead the Anglican Communion in her new role, which the communion describes as the first among equals. It has more than 85 million members spread across 165 countries and many still believe the Bible requires male-only leadership.
One exception is the Episcopal Church in the United States. Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected to serve as the presiding bishop of that Anglican province in 2006.
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