AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

What’s next in Congress on the push to release the Epstein files

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is speeding toward a vote next week on releasing files related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a step that comes after months of resistance from Republican leaders.

They have no choice but to allow consideration of the bill after a petition on the measure reached the necessary 218 signatures. It comes at a time when new documents are raising fresh questions about Epstein and his associates, including a 2019 email that Epstein wrote to a journalist that said President Donald Trump “knew about the girls.” The White House has accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the Republican president.

Public speculation has been rampant for years about Epstein’s operation, death and connection to powerful and wealthy individuals, including Trump, former President Bill Clinton, tech billionaires and celebrity academics, among others.

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a petition in July to force a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The effort was backed by all House Democrats and four Republicans, including Massie and Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

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Trump’s next immigration crackdown will target Charlotte, North Carolina, a sheriff says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The latest city bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is Charlotte, North Carolina, which could see an influx of federal agents as early as this weekend, a county sheriff said Thursday.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said in a statement that two federal officials confirmed a plan for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to start an enforcement operation Saturday or early next week in North Carolina’s largest city. His office declined to identify those officials. McFadden said details about the operation haven’t been disclosed and his office hasn’t been asked to assist.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin declined to comment, saying, “Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country. We do not discuss future or potential operations.”

President Donald Trump has defended sending the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and even the nation’s capital, saying the unprecedented operations are needed to fight crime and carry out his mass deportation agenda.

Charlotte is another such Democratic stronghold. A statement of solidarity from several local and state officials estimated the city is home to more than 150,000 foreign-born people. The city’s population is about 40% white, 33% Black, 16% Hispanic and 7% Asian.

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Bodies of 15 Palestinians returned by Israel, health officials in Gaza say

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (AP) — Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Friday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said, in the latest step to fulfilling the terms of the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.

The bodies were returned after militants late Thursday handed over the body of one of the last four remaining Israeli hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that launched the war in Gaza.

Israel identified the returned body as that of Meny Godard, who was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. His wife, Ayelet, was killed during the attack.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said Godard’s body was recovered in southern Gaza.

The remains of 25 hostages have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 10. There are still three more in Gaza that need to be recovered and handed over. Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on Oct. 13.

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BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit, but says there’s no basis for a defamation claim

LONDON (AP) — The BBC apologized Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 but said it had not defamed him, rejecting the basis for his $1 billion lawsuit threat.

The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The publicly funded broadcaster said there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, which had spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” the BBC wrote in a retraction.

Trump’s lawyer had sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit for the harm the documentary caused him. It had set a Friday deadline for the BBC to respond.

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Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv kills 4 people, injures at least 34

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Kyiv early Friday, killing four people, starting fires and scattering debris as the sound of explosions boomed across the city, Ukrainian authorities said. A pregnant woman was among at least 34 people injured.

Emergency crews responded to multiple strikes during the night, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration. Russia used at least 430 drones and 18 missiles in the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russia has waged an aerial campaign against Ukraine since its all-out invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing.

Friday’s aerial assault, which also targeted Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, was mostly aimed at Kyiv, where drones and missiles smashed into high-rise apartment blocks, according to Zelenskyy.

It was “a specially calculated attack to cause as much harm as possible to people and civilians,” he said in a post on Telegram.

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Bad Bunny wins album of the year at the 2025 Latin Grammys, capping an electric night

It should come as a shock to no one: The 2026 Latin Grammy Awards were all about Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican superstar won album of the year for his landmark release “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” After thanking his family and all those who worked on the album, he ended his speech with “Puerto Rico, I love you, thank you.”

Those are powerful words honoring a record that doubles as a love letter for his island.

The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio was destined to dominate from the jump. He also won the first award of the night, for música urbana album. Halfway through the show, the singer found himself back on stage accepting the música urbana song trophy for “DTmF.” “I never practice my speeches,” he said in Spanish. And then he showed up for a third time: to perform “Weltita” with Chuwi.

He wasn’t the only one with reason to celebrate: Song of the year went to Karol G, Andrés Jael Correa Ríos and Édgar Barrera for “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido.” And Alejandro Sanz took home record of the year for “¿Y Ahora Qué?”

Live from Sin City, the 26th annual Latin Grammys were both energetic and eclectic. Take Raphael, the 2025 Person of the Year, who launched into an emotive rendition of “Qué Sabe Nadie” and “Mi Gran Noche,” inviting the crowd to sing along.

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James Comey and Letitia James press for dismissal of their cases, challenge prosecutor’s appointment

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said she expects to decide by Thanksgiving on challenges to Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. That decision could help determine the fate of the politically charged cases, which were both shepherded by the hastily installed Halligan and together have amplified concerns that the Justice Department is being used as a weapon to target President Donald Trump’s perceived adversaries.

Halligan was installed in the job at Trump’s urging by Attorney General Pam Bondi in September, just days before Comey was indicted, in what defense lawyers say was an end-run around the constitutional and statutory rules governing the appointment of U.S. attorneys. They say the maneuver was designed to ensure indictments against the president’s political opponents after the prosecutor who had been overseeing the two investigations, but had not brought charges, was effectively forced out.

“Ms. Halligan was the sole prosecutor in the grand jury room, and when the sole prosecutor lacks the authority,” said Ephraim McDowell, one of Comey’s defense lawyers, “that’s not going to be a harmless error.”

U.S. attorneys, top federal prosecutors who oversee regional Justice Department outposts across the country, are typically nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate. Attorneys general do have the authority to name an interim U.S. attorney who can serve for 120 days, but lawyers for Comey and James argued that once that period expires, the law gives federal judges the exclusive say of who gets to fill the vacancy.

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10 years after the Bataclan massacre, Paris is still scarred by that night of terror

PARIS (AP) — Anne-Laure, Djamila, Justine, Guillaume, Nick and so many others — sons, daughters, mothers and fathers slain by Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris were fondly remembered Thursday as France commemorated the night of terror a decade ago that scarred and reshaped the country.

With minutes of silence and somber readings of the 132 victims’ names, the French capital mourned the dead and innocence it lost on Nov. 13, 2015, but also proudly recalled how Parisians came together, looked after each other and slowly but surely rebounded in the wake of the three-hour series of coordinated assaults targeting the packed Bataclan concert hall, joyful cafés and the national stadium where France’s soccer team was playing.

The bloodshed was France’s deadliest in peacetime — a national trauma likened to 9/11. The night hardened France’s security reflexes while deepening a sense of solidarity that has endured a decade later. Many Parisians think in terms of “before” and “after,” and some still check for exits when they’re in crowded places.

“Ten years. The pain remains,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted as he led the day of memorials, laying wreaths at attack sites and recalling “the lives cut short, the wounded, the families and the loved ones.”

At the city’s Place de la République, Parisians gathered with candles, flowers and handwritten notes as they did in 2015, taking comfort in being together.

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Chinese astronauts return from space station after delay blamed on space debris damage

BEIJING (AP) — Three Chinese astronauts returned from their nation’s space station Friday after more than a week’s delay because the return capsule they had planned to use was damaged, likely from being hit by space debris.

The team left their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft in orbit and came back using the recently arrived Shenzhou-21, which had ferried a three-person replacement crew to the station, China’s Manned Space Agency said.

The original return plan was scrapped because a window in the Shenzhou-20 capsule had tiny cracks, most likely caused by impact from space debris, the space agency said Friday.

They had been on a six-month rotation and were originally scheduled to return Nov. 5, four days after the new crew arrived. Their return was delayed for nine days, making their 204-day stay in space the longest for any astronaut at China’s space station.

It wasn’t clear if the change in spacecraft would affect the timing of future missions to the Tiangong space station, where new crews typically swap in every six months. The space agency said that Shenzhou-22 would be launched but did not specify when.

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Ohtani is unanimous MVP for 4th time in winning NL honor as Judge edges Raleigh for 3rd AL accolade

Shohei Ohtani likes winning Most Valuable Player awards. He loves winning the World Series even more.

The two-way Japenese star did both for a second season in a row for the Los Angeles Dodgers, earning his fourth career MVP on Thursday night while unanimously earning the National League honor. He’s just the second to win four MVPs after Barry Bonds with seven and the only player to win unanimously more than once.

Considering Ohtani is 31, overtaking Bonds doesn’t seem out of the question. Especially if it leads to more Fall Classic opportunities.

“If I’m playing well as an individual that means I’m helping the team win, so in that sense, hopefully I can end up with a couple more MVPs,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about winning games.”

In the American League, Aaron Judge became the New York Yankees’ fourth three-time winner, edging Seattle’s Cal Raleigh with 17 first-place votes to 13 for the switch-hitting catcher. The vote was the closest for an MVP since the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout topped Houston’s Alex Bregman by 17-13 in 2019.