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

“THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social.

The filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown when the new fiscal year began.

Trump's call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate and congressional dealmaking operate, with the president saying in his post that he gave a “great deal” of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday.

Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, finishing his tour by meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump sets 7,500 annual limit for refugees entering US. It'll be mostly white South Africans

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees admitted annually to the United States to 7,500 and they will mostly be white South Africans, a dramatic drop announced Thursday that effectively suspends America's traditional role as a haven for those fleeing war and persecution.

The move cements a major shift in policy toward refugees that aligns with the Republican administration’s broader goals of keeping out foreigners whom it deems a risk to the nation’s security or a threat to U.S. jobs. That shift has meant increased immigration enforcement, in cities and at borders and entry points, in what’s become a vastly changed landscape in a country long seen as a beacon for migrants.

No reason was given for the new numbers, which were published in a notice on the Federal Register and are a steep decrease from last year’s ceiling of 125,000 set under Democratic President Joe Biden. The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.

The notice said the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 budget year, which began Oct. 1, was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.” It made no mention of any other specific groups to be admitted besides the white South Africans, known also as Afrikaners.

"Other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands” will be considered as refugees, according to the notice, which gave no specifics on who that could entail.

APEC leaders open economic summit after Trump and Xi agreed on steps to ease trade tensions

GYEONGJU, South Korea (AP) — Leaders of 21 Asian and Pacific Rim nations opened their annual summit Friday to discuss how to promote economic cooperation and tackle shared challenges, a day after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to take steps to ease their escalating trade war.

This year’s two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju has been heavily overshadowed by Thursday’s Trump-Xi meeting. Trump described the meeting as a roaring success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans.

Their deals were a relief to the world economy, as experts previously warned that a failure to dial down trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies were certain to deepen global economic uncertainties.

Established in 1989 during a period of increased globalization, APEC represents more than half of global trade. The forum champions free and open trade and investment to accelerate regional economic integration and has also been credited with bringing together countries embroiled in competitions to work together on common initiatives without binding statements.

The APEC region now faces challenges like strategic competitions between the U.S. and China, supply chain vulnerabilities, aging populations and the impact of AI on jobs. The U.S. strategy has been shifted to economic competitions with China rather than cooperation, with Trump’s tariff hikes and “America first” agenda shaking markets and threatening decades of globalization and multinationalism.

Trump appears to suggest the US will resume testing nuclear weapons for first time in 30 years

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.

The Kremlin pointed out that a global ban on nuclear tests has remained in place, but warned that if any country resumes nuclear testing, Russia would follow suit.

There was no indication the U.S. would start detonating warheads, but Trump offered few details about what seemed to be a significant shift in U.S. policy.

He made the announcement on social media minutes before he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea to discuss trade. He offered little clarity when he spoke to reporters later aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington.

The U.S. military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. signed but did not ratify, has been observed since its adoption by all countries possessing nuclear weapons, North Korea being the only exception.

King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of titles and evicts him from royal residence

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III on Thursday stripped his disgraced brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Buckingham Palace said.

After the king’s rare move, which follows years of shameful scandals, he will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will have to vacate his Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor Castle.

Demand had been growing on the palace to oust the prince from Royal Lodge after he surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir hit bookstores last week.

But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgment by removing the title of prince that he has held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

Palestinian militants hand over remains of two more hostages to Red Cross in Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military said Thursday that Palestinian militants handed over the remains of two more hostages, in the latest indication that the fragile ceasefire agreement is moving forward despite Israeli strikes on Gaza this week.

The two sets of remains were given to the Red Cross in Gaza, then transported into Israel by troops and taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification, the Israeli military said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late Thursday that the remains had been confirmed as those of Sahar Baruch and Amiram Cooper, both taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that set off the war.

Hamas has now returned the remains of 17 hostages since the start of the ceasefire, with 11 others still in Gaza and set to be turned over under the terms of the agreement.

In return, Israel has returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza without providing details on their identities. It is unclear if they were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack, died in Israeli custody as detainees or were recovered from Gaza by troops during the war. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify the bodies without access to DNA kits.

5 more arrests as Louvre jewel heist probe deepens and key details emerge

PARIS (AP) — The dragnet tightened around the Louvre thieves on Thursday. Five more people were seized in the crown-jewels heist — including a suspect tied by DNA — the Paris prosecutor said, widening the sweep across the capital and its suburbs.

Authorities said three of the four alleged members of the “commando” team, as French media have dubbed the robbers, are now in custody.

The late-night operations in Paris and nearby Seine-Saint-Denis lift the total arrested to seven. Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL that one detainee is suspected of belonging to the brazen quartet that burst into the Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19; others held “may be able to inform us about how the events unfolded.”

Beccuau called the response an “exceptional mobilization” — about 100 investigators, seven days a week, with roughly 150 forensic samples analyzed and 189 items sealed as evidence.

Even so, she said the latest arrests did not uncover the loot — a trove valued around $102 million that includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise as a wedding gift, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.

Citing AP investigation, senators demand answers on use of full-body restraints during deportations

WASHINGTON (AP) — A “near-total secrecy” surrounding deportation flights and the use of full-body restraints onboard is raising “serious human rights concerns,” a group of 11 Democratic U.S. senators wrote in a letter Thursday to top immigration officials.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called upon U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide a full accounting of its air operations and to stop using the black and yellow restraints known as the WRAP until the agency explains its policies for the device and resolves other questions about its use on immigration detainees.

“I think it’s very problematic,” Van Hollen told The Associated Press. “They want to keep the public in the dark.”

The senators' letter cites an AP investigation this month that revealed several examples of ICE using the device on people — sometimes for hours — on deportation flights dating to 2020. Van Hollen was joined by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and six others.

The WRAP is the subject of several federal lawsuits likening incorrect usage of the device to punishment and even torture. Advocates have expressed concern that ICE is not tracking the WRAP’s use as required by federal law when officers use force, making it difficult to discern exactly how many people are being subjected to the restraints.

Young T. rex or a new dinosaur? New bones add to the debate

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have long puzzled over the origins of a mysterious dinosaur excavated in the 1940s: Was it a young T. rex or another type of dinosaur?

At first, researchers had only a tyrannosaur skull to go by, making it hard to tell if it belonged to a child or adult. Another skull and skeleton nicknamed Jane added to the debate, but didn't settle the controversy.

Now a research team said there's new evidence that resolves the case. The latest clue comes from a complete skeleton — first uncovered in 2006 in Montana — that scientists say identifies the mystery reptile as its own species and not a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.

The discovery “rewrites decades of research on Earth's most famous predator,” said study co-author Lindsay Zanno with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University.

Growth rings within the bones found in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation told scientists the new dinosaur was an adult about half the size of a fully-fledged T. rex. From growth comparisons to other reptiles like crocodiles, they also found that the major differences between the creature's skull and an adult T. rex's — changes in bone structure, nerve patterns and sinuses — were unlikely to form from simply going through puberty.

Justice Department investigating fraud allegations in Black Lives Matter movement, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

In recent weeks, federal law enforcement officials have issued subpoenas and served at least one search warrant as part of an investigation into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. and other Black-led organizations that helped spark a national reckoning on systemic racism, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss an ongoing criminal probe by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

It was not clear if the investigation would result in criminal charges, but its mere existence invites fresh scrutiny to a movement that in recent years has faced criticism about its public accounting of donations it has received. The recent burst of investigative activity is also unfolding at a time when civil rights organizations have raised concerns about the potential for the Trump administration to target a variety of progressive and left-leaning groups that have been critical of him, including those affiliated with BLM, the transgender rights movement and anti-ICE protesters.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday.

One of the people said the investigation had been initiated during the Biden administration but is getting renewed attention during the Trump administration. A second person confirmed that allegations were examined in the Biden administration.