AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST

FBI seeks interviews with Democrats who urged US troops to defy illegal orders

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a social media video urging U.S. troops to defy “illegal orders” say the FBI has contacted them to begin scheduling interviews, signaling a possible inquiry into the matter.

It would mark the second investigation tied to the video, coming a day after the Pentagon said it was reviewing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over potential violations of military law. The FBI and Pentagon actions come after President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition and said it is “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post.

Together, the inquiries mark an extraordinary escalation for federal law enforcement and military institutions that traditionally steer clear of partisan clashes. They also underscore the administration’s willingness to push legal limits against its critics, even when they are sitting members of Congress. Lawmakers in the video urge troops to reject any illegal orders from their superiors, something they are already duty-bound to do.

“President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress,” a group of four Democratic House members said in a statement Tuesday. “Yesterday, the FBI contacted the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms requesting interviews.”

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, one of the six Democratic lawmakers in the video, told reporters Tuesday that “last night the counterterrorism division at the FBI sent a note to the members of Congress, saying they are opening what appears to be an inquiry against the six of us.” Slotkin called it a “scare tactic by” Trump.

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Trump says he’s sending his envoys to see Putin and Ukrainians after fine-tuning plan to end war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned” and he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials.

Trump suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described what had been a 28-point plan as a work in progress. “That was not a plan — it was a concept,” Trump said.

Trump’s plan for ending the nearly four-year war emerged last week. It heavily favored Russia, prompting Zelenskyy to quickly engage with American negotiators. European leaders, fearing for their own future facing Russian aggression but apparently sidelined by Trump in drawing up the proposal, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.

Trump said he believed Witkoff would be meeting with Putin next week in Moscow, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner potentially joining the meeting. “People are starting to realize it’s a good deal for both parties,” Trump said.

The president played down the element of his plan that would require Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, suggesting that Russian forces were already likely to seize the land they’re seeking.

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Health care plan circulated by the White House runs into familiar GOP divisions

WASHINGTON (AP) — A health care proposal circulated by the White House in recent days is running into the reality of Republican divisions on the issue — a familiar struggle for a party that has been trying to scrap or overhaul the Affordable Care Act for the past 15 years.

The tentative proposal from President Donald Trump would extend expiring ACA subsidies for two years while adjusting eligibility requirements for recipients. The plan has so far been met with a stony silence on Capitol Hill as Republicans debate among themselves whether to overhaul the law, tweak it or simply let the subsidies expire.

It’s unclear now when the White House plan might be released, or if it will be released at all.

The Republican indecision comes as the COVID-era tax credits are set to expire Jan. 1, creating sharp premium increases for millions of Americans. Democrats who shut down the government for six weeks over the issue are demanding a straight extension with no changes, though some indicated they could support a plan similar to the one circulated by the White House.

But support may be harder to find in the GOP conference, where many lawmakers say costs are still too high and have been eager to make another run at repealing the ACA. The last effort in 2017 failed when Republicans couldn’t decide on how to provide coverage to millions of Americans who depend on government-run marketplaces for their health care. It’s a dilemma that persists for the party after record numbers signed up for coverage this year.

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Dismissal of Comey, James cases won’t be the final word. Here’s what the path ahead may look like

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge’s dismissal of criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney Letitia James, two political foes of President Donald Trump, won’t be the final word on the matter.

The Justice Department says it plans to immediately appeal a pair of rulings that held that Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. It also has the ability to try to refile the cases, though whether it can successfully secure fresh indictments through a different prosecutor is unclear, as is whether any new indictments could survive the crush of legal challenges that would invariably follow.

A look at the possible next steps:

At issue is the slapdash way the Trump administration raced to put Halligan in charge of one of the Justice Department’s most elite offices. A White House aide with no prior experience as a federal prosecutor, Halligan was named interim U.S. attorney in September after the veteran prosecutor who held the job, Erik Siebert, was effectively forced out amid Trump administration pressure to charge Comey and James.

U.S. attorneys, top federal prosecutors who oversee regional Justice Department outposts across the country, are typically nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, though attorneys general do have the authority to directly appoint interim U.S. attorneys who can serve in the job for 120 days.

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Israel says it has received another set of human remains from militants in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Tuesday said it received human remains turned over by Palestinian militants and forensic experts were trying to determine if they belonged to one of the three remaining hostages held in Gaza.

The handover was the latest under a fragile ceasefire that began in October and has held despite accusations by both sides of violations.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza.

The ceasefire requires Hamas to release all hostages, and Palestinian militants have returned 25 hostage bodies so far. The remaining hostages are two Israelis and a man from Thailand. In return, Israel has released the bodies of 330 Palestinians to Gaza. Most remain unidentified.

Israel has accused Hamas of stalling and threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all remains are not returned. Hamas says it has not been able to reach all the remains of hostages because they are buried under rubble from Israel’s two-year offensive.

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DC Mayor Bowser announces she won’t seek fourth term, as Trump’s federal intervention continues

WASHINGTON (AP) — Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., announced on Tuesday that she will not be seeking re-election next year, a decision that came as she has had to confront a federal law enforcement intervention into her city launched by President Donald Trump.

Bowser announced her decision in a video posted to social media, where she did not mention Trump or directly address his steps against the city. She applauded the cooperation with residents to make the city a better place to live and called on them to “summon our collective strength to stand tall against bullies who threaten our very autonomy while preserving Home Rule. That is our North Star.”

Bowser has served three terms since being first elected in 2014, none more tumultuous than the last year, when she found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents who said she should have pushed back more on actions taken by the president.

She was at the helm of a city that has long been reliant on the federal government. The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.

The federal government’s involvement in local affairs hit another level in August when, after Trump issued an emergency order targeting the city. This federalized D.C.’s police force and sent hundreds of National Guard troops there for what the administration called a crime-fighting mission. Although the emergency period has lapsed, the federal law enforcement presence is still in the city, along with National Guard members from the district and several states, despite legal action against the military deployment.

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Death of Florida teenager on Carnival cruise ship ruled a homicide

The death of a Florida teenager on a Carnival cruise ship earlier this month has been ruled a homicide, the latest development in a case that has drawn international attention and sparked intense speculation on social media.

Anna Kepner’s cause of death was “mechanical asphyxia,” according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which said the 18-year-old “was mechanically asphyxiated by other person(s).”

Mechanical asphyxia is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing, according to Stephen Nelson, a chief medical examiner in Central Florida who is not involved in the case.

“In some way, shape or form, your airway has been cut off,” said Nelson, a former chair of Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission.

A high school cheerleader from Florida’s Space Coast who was set to graduate next year, Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship with her father, stepmother, her stepmother’s two children and her grandparents.

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Slender Man attacker won’t fight extradition to Wisconsin after fleeing group home

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin woman who won release from a mental institution after almost killing her sixth grade classmate in the name of horror villain Slender Man only to flee the state weeks later won’t fight extradition from Illinois.

Morgan Geyser agreed not to contest her transfer from jail in Cook County, Illinois, to Wisconsin during a hearing Tuesday, a court spokesperson said. Wisconsin authorities now have 30 days to pick her up.

Wisconsin health officials could revoke Geyser’s conditional release and send her back to the facility where she spent most of the past eight years. She also could face new charges in connection with her escape.

According to police, Geyser cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet on Saturday evening and fled her Madison group home with a 43-year-old companion. Police found them Sunday evening sleeping on a sidewalk outside a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, a village of 5,300 people about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Chicago, and arrested them.

Police have identified Geyser’s friend as male, but Geyser can be heard on officers’ body camera footage during their arrests saying that the individual is transgender and refers to the person as “she.”

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China’s pressure on Japan is a familiar tactic that could last for some time

BEIJING (AP) — Just days after China issued an advisory against traveling to Japan, the cancellations started.

About 3,000 Chinese visit Rie Takeda’s tearoom in an alley in Tokyo’s historic Asakusa district every year. Some 200 have already canceled bookings for her tea ceremony class, as far ahead as January.

“I just hope the Chinese tourists return by Chinese New Year,” she said, referring to the major holiday period in February. Past experience suggests it may take longer than that.

China’s government is turning to a well-used playbook to express its displeasure with Japan for refusing to retract a statement by its new prime minister on the hot-button issue of Taiwan.

As with its tariffs on Australian wines in 2020, and restrictions on Philippine banana imports in 2012, Beijing is using its economic clout to pressure Tokyo while also hurling a torrent of invective at its government. The only question is how far China will go and how long the measures will last.

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Americans eye Thanksgiving travel weather after Texas tornadoes, snow and rain elsewhere

CYPRESS, Texas (AP) — Kenny Beck surveyed the damage Tuesday to his family’s two-story home after at least two tornadoes tore through the Houston area, damaging over 100 homes at the start of a busy Thanksgiving travel week that has Americans closely eyeing the weather.

“Half my roof on the back is gone,” Beck, 46, said as workers cleared large tree branches and other debris from around nearby houses in the suburb of Cypress. “We’ve lost a lot of ceiling because of the rain. Our garage door got sucked in.”

No injuries were reported from Monday’s storm but it uprooted trees, downed power lines and scattered debris throughout some neighborhoods northwest of Houston. The National Weather Service on Tuesday had confirmed at least two tornadoes, one in Cypress with winds up to 105 mph (168 kph) and another around the community of Klein with winds up to 115 mph (185 kph).

Beck said that while repairs are being made, his family will have to move out of the home where they’ve lived and shared many moments and memories with family and friends over the past 20 years.

“I’m just hoping that here in a couple of months, we can get back in and we can start making more of those memories,” Beck said.