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

FBI says it’s unaware of Savannah Guthrie talking with her mom’s suspected kidnappers

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The FBI is not aware of ongoing communication between Savannah Guthrie’s family and any suspected kidnappers more than a week after the “Today” show host’s mom went missing, the agency said Monday.

The FBI has also not identified any suspects or persons of interest in the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said in a statement. The agency is operating a 24-hour command post equipped with investigative teams and crisis management experts while asking for help from the public.

“Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home,” he said.

In a video released Monday, Savannah Guthrie said the family was “at an hour of desperation” but that they continue to believe her mother is out there and hearing everyone’s prayers.

“She was taken and we don’t know where, and we need your help,” Guthrie said in the video posted on Instagram, urging people nationwide to be on the lookout “no matter where you are, even if you’re far from Tucson, if you see anything, if you hear anything.”

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Democrats say White House offer on ICE is ‘insufficient’ as Homeland Security funding set to expire

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders say a proposal from the White House is “incomplete and insufficient” as they are demanding new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and threatening a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Monday that a White House counterproposal to the list of demands they transmitted over the weekend “included neither details nor legislative text” and does not address “the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct.” The White House proposal was not released publicly.

The Democrats’ statement comes as time is running short, with another partial government shutdown threatening to begin Saturday. Among the Democrats’ demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and a stop to racial profiling. They say such changes are necessary after two protesters were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.

Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had expressed optimism about the rare negotiations between Democrats and the White House, saying there was “forward progress.”

Thune said it was a good sign that the two sides were trading papers, and “hopefully they can find some common ground here.”

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Israeli strikes kill 3 people in Gaza, hospital says

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli military strikes on Monday killed three people west of Gaza City, according to the hospital where the casualties arrived.

Shifa Hospital reported the deaths amid the months-old ceasefire that has seen continued fighting. The Israeli army said Monday it is striking targets in response to Israeli troops coming under fire in the southern city of Rafah, which it says was a violation of the ceasefire. The army said it is striking targets “in a precise manner.”

The four-month-old U.S-backed ceasefire followed stalled negotiations and included Israel and Hamas accepting a 20-point plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war unleashed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel. At the time, Trump said it would lead to a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”

Hamas freed all the living hostages it still held at the outset of the deal in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the remains of others.

But the larger issues the agreement sought to address, including the future governance of the strip, were met with reservations, and the U.S. offered no firm timeline.

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Top Iran security official to travel to Oman, site of talks with US, likely with nuclear message

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A top Iranian security official traveled Tuesday to Oman, the Mideast sultanate now mediating talks between Tehran and the United States over the Islamic Republic’ nuclear program aimed at halting a possible American strike.

Ali Larijani, a former Iranian parliament speaker who now serves as the secretary to the country’s Supreme National Security Council, likely will carry Iran’s response to the initial round of indirect talks held last week in Muscat with the Americans.

Larijani is due to meet with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the chief intermediary in the talks, and Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. IRNA described the talks as “important,” without elaborating on what message Larijani will carry. It said he flew out of Tehran for Muscat on Tuesday morning.

Iran and the U.S. held new nuclear talks last week in Oman. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking Sunday to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, signaled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium — a major point of contention with U.S. President Donald Trump, who bombed Iranian atomic sites in June during the 12-day Iran-Israel war. That war disrupted earlier rounds of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to travel to Washington this week, with Iran expected to be the major subject of discussion, his office said.

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Social media ‘addicting the brains of children,’ plaintiff’s lawyer argues in landmark trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comparing social media platforms to casinos and addictive drugs, lawyer Mark Lanier delivered opening statements Monday in a landmark trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Instagram owner Meta and Google’s YouTube responsible for harms to children who use their products.

Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube face claims that their platforms addict children through deliberate design choices that keep kids glued to their screens. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums.

Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants.

Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt spoke of the disagreement within the scientific community over social media addiction, with some researchers believing it doesn’t exist, or that addiction is not the most appropriate way to describe heavy social media use.

Lawyers representing YouTube will begin their opening statement on Tuesday.

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New Zealand mosque shooter always planned to admit his crimes, his former lawyers tell appeals court

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The self-professed white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslims in New Zealand’s deadliest mass shooting was pleased to be charged with terrorism and wanted to be described as a terrorist, his former lawyer told a court deciding if the man was in a fit state to admit to his crimes.

Brenton Tarrant, 35, was sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole after pleading guilty to terrorism, murder and attempted murder for his hate-fueled massacre of worshippers including children at two Christchurch mosques during Friday prayers in 2019. The Australian man is now seeking to recant the admissions he made in 2020, saying solitary confinement and other prison conditions made him irrational and mentally unwell.

New Zealand’s Court of Appeal in Wellington is considering Tarrant’s bid in a five-day hearing. If the three-judge panel discards his guilty pleas, the case would return to court for trial.

Tarrant first pleaded not guilty to the charges he faced, then reversed his position before his trial was due to begin. He told the appeals court Monday that he felt forced into his admissions by “nervous exhaustion” brought on by constant solitary confinement, surveillance by prison staff, lack of access to reading materials and almost no contact with the outside world.

Lawyers who represented him during the period when he entered both sets of pleas told the court Tuesday that they had laid a complaint about his prison conditions early in his confinement. Prison officials were dismissive of his grievances, the lawyers said.

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Global shares mostly rise, led by a post-election rally in Japan

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly higher Tuesday as Japan’s benchmark set another record after a historic election win for the nation’s first female prime minister.

France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.2% in early trading to 8,342.16, while Germany’s DAX lost nearly 0.2% to 24,977.44. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.5% to 10,339.55. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up less than 0.1%.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.3% to finish at 57,650.54, a record close. It jumped 3.9% to a record Monday after the landslide victory for Sanae Takaichi’s political party in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Takaichi is expected to push through reforms intended to boost the economy and stock market.

“Japan’s fiscal stance could loosen further because the LDP’s supermajority will enable the new government to implement policies with few obstacles,” Fitch Ratings said in a report following the election, referring to Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party.

“Policy choices under the new government are likely to focus on tax relief and growth-oriented investment spending, reflecting voter concerns over higher inflation and low income growth,” it said.

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Misery deepens in the West Bank as Israel provides few Palestinian work permits

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — Hanadi Abu Zant hasn’t been able to pay rent on her apartment in the occupied West Bank for nearly a year after losing her permit to work inside Israel. When her landlord calls the police on her, she hides in a mosque.

“My biggest fear is being kicked out of my home. Where will we sleep, on the street?” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

She is among some 100,000 Palestinians whose work permits were revoked after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Confined to the occupied territory, where jobs are scarce and wages far lower, they face dwindling and dangerous options as the economic crisis deepens.

Some have sold their belongings or gone into debt as they try to pay for food, electricity and school expenses for their children. Others have paid steep fees for black-market permits or tried to sneak into Israel, risking arrest or worse if they are mistaken for militants.

Israel, which has controlled the West Bank for nearly six decades, says it is under no obligation to allow Palestinians to enter for work and makes such decisions based on security considerations. Thousands of Palestinians are still allowed to work in scores of Jewish settlements across the West Bank, built on land they want for a future state.

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Officials deny seeking quick end to asylum claims for the Minneapolis family of 5-year-old

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities have denied attempting to expedite an end to asylum claims by the family of a 5-year-old boy who was detained with his father during the immigration crackdown that has shaken the Minneapolis area.

Images of Liam Conejo Ramos wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack surrounded by immigration officers stirred outrage over the crackdown.

Danielle Molliver, a lawyer for the boy and his father, told The New York Times that the government was attempting to speed up the deportation proceedings, calling the actions “extraordinary” and possibly “retaliatory.”

The government denied that.

“These are regular removal proceedings. They are not in expedited removal,” Department of Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, adding “there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.”

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Hong Kong fire victims long for home as Lunar New Year stirs painful memories

HONG KONG (AP) — When Hong Kong was hit by its deadliest fire in decades last November, it left thousands of residents without some of their friends, family or the place they called home.

Months later, the former occupants of the Wang Fuk Court — now a largely burnt-out apartment complex in the suburban district of Tai Po — are waiting not just for answers about what happened, but also a new place to live.

They are in temporary housing and authorities have yet to unveil plans for long-term resettlement after carrying out a survey of their preferences. Also, the government has offered rental grants to help homeowners pay for the short-term homes.

The upcoming Lunar New Year on Feb. 17, is stirring memories of celebrating the festival in happier times.

The massive blaze engulfed seven apartment buildings and killed 168 people on Nov. 26, 2025, shattering a close-knit community. Authorities blamed substandard scaffold netting and foam boards used in a maintenance project for rapidly spreading the fire. Although some arrests were made, an independent committee is still investigating the cause.