Netanyahu hopes to announce the release of all hostages from Gaza 'in the coming days'
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes to announce the release of all hostages from Gaza “in the coming days,” as Israel and Hamas prepare for indirect talks in Egypt on Monday on a new U.S. plan to end the war.
In a brief statement late Saturday, Netanyahu said he has sent a delegation to Egypt “to finalize technical details,” adding that “our goal is to contain these negotiations to a time frame of a few days.”
But Netanyahu signaled there would not be a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, something Hamas has long demanded. He said Israel's military will continue to hold territories it controls in Gaza, and that Hamas will be disarmed in the plan's second phase, diplomatically “or through a military path by us.”
The prime minister spoke after Hamas said it has accepted some elements of the U.S. plan. President Donald Trump welcomed the militant group's statement but on Saturday warned that “Hamas must move quickly, or else all bets will be off.”
Trump later said the ceasefire would begin immediately once Hamas confirms the “initial withdrawal line” in Gaza. A map with his social media post appeared to show much of Gaza still open to Israeli forces.
What to know after Hamas welcomes US peace plan for Gaza
CAIRO (AP) — Both Israel and now Hamas have signaled support for the new U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza and release all remaining hostages there. President Donald Trump says he thinks Hamas is ready for a “lasting peace” and has told Israel to stop bombing the territory, but he warns that “all bets will be off” if Hamas doesn't move quickly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he hopes to announce the release of all hostages “in the coming days.”
Many uncertainties remain around the plan ahead of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt on Monday. Already, Netanyahu says there will not be a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Tuesday marks two years since the war began.
Here’s what we know.
All hostilities would immediately end. Within 72 hours, Hamas would release all hostages it holds, living or dead. The militants still have 48 hostages. Israel believes 20 of them are alive.
Israel would free 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in its prisons and 1,700 people detained from Gaza since the war began, including all women and children. Israel also would hand over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for each body of a hostage handed over.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from deploying troops in Portland, Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, ruling Saturday in a lawsuit brought by the state and city.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued the order pending further arguments in the suit. She said the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon's state sovereignty.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs," Immergut wrote. She later continued, “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”
State and city officials sued to stop the deployment last week, one day after the Trump administration announced that 200 Oregon National Guard troops would be federalized to protect federal buildings. The president called the city “war-ravaged.”
Oregon officials said that characterization was ludicrous. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city has been the site of nightly protests that typically drew a couple dozen people in recent weeks before the deployment was announced.
Trump says he'll send National Guard to Chicago, but details remain unclear
President Donald Trump moved to deploy the National Guard in another city Saturday by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said Border Patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president authorized using the Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Jackson said.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said the guard received notice from the Pentagon early in the day. He called the move unnecessary and “a manufactured performance — not a serious effort to protect public safety.”
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
Trump plans to federalize 300 troops in Illinois, as judge blocks a similar mobilization in Oregon
President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago on Saturday, marking the latest escalation of the his use of federal intervention in cities.
But the same day, a similar mobilization of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon was temporarily blocked after a federal judge found President Donald Trump was likely overstepping his legal authority in responding to relatively small protests near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president authorized using the Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
Trump has characterized both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest, calling the former a “war zone” and suggesting apocalyptic force was needed to quell problems in the latter. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
But the governors of Illinois and Oregon see the deployments differently.
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International journalists visit Gaza City under the supervision of Israel's army
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli army vehicle rumbles through the empty streets of a shattered neighborhood in Gaza City, and with help from a video camera, a soldier spots people standing inside a blasted out nearby building. The armored personal carrier revs its engine and moves on.
A little further along, the vehicle stops near an empty hospital formerly overseen by the Jordanian government. A senior official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military rules says soldiers recently found a tunnel used by Hamas adjacent to the hospital.
On Friday, the Israeli military escorted international journalists through Gaza City, the focus of a new offensive to root out Hamas, offering a rare – and limited -- glimpse into the territory devastated by nearly two years of war and where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
In August, international experts said the city was in a famine and warned that Israel's offensive and mass displacement of people would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
The soldiers escorting the journalists through Gaza City portrayed their military operations as deliberate, to minimize harm to civilians – yet justified, to eliminate a militant group that has been severely weakened but remains dug in, capable of carrying out attacks and still in possession of 48 hostages.
Japan’s ruling party elects Sanae Takaichi as new leader, likely to become first female PM
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s governing party on Saturday elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hard-line ultra-conservative and China hawk, as its new leader, making her likely to become the country’s first female prime minister.
In a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, the 64-year-old Takaichi makes history as the first female leader of Japan's long-governing conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Takaichi is one of the most conservative members of the male-dominated party.
An admirer of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi is a protege of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's ultra-conservative vision and a regular at the Yasukuni Shrine, seen as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism, which could complicate Tokyo's relations with its Asian neighbors.
Takaichi beat Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a runoff in a vote by the LDP on Saturday.
Takaichi replaces Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as the party hopes to regain public support and stay in power after major election losses.
Japan's first female governing-party leader is an ultra-conservative star in a male-dominated group
TOKYO (AP) — In a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, the new president of Japan's long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultra-conservative star of a male-dominated party that critics call an obstacle to women's advancement.
Sanae Takaichi, 64. admires former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative vision for Japan.
Takaichi is the first female president of Japan's predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan's postwar politics almost without interruption.
She hardly touched on gender issues during the campaign, but on Saturday, as she tried out the party president's chair and posed for a photo as is customary for the newly elected leader, Takaichi said: ”Now that the LDP has its first female president, its scenery will change a little."
First elected to parliament from her hometown of Nara in 1993, she has served in key party and government posts, including minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality.
NFL analyst Mark Sanchez arrested while he was hospitalized with stab wounds
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Former NFL quarterback and current Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez was arrested Saturday after he was apparently stabbed in an overnight altercation in downtown Indianapolis.
Sanchez, who was in Indianapolis to call Sunday’s Raiders-Colts game, was charged with battery with injury, unlawful entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication — all misdemeanors.
Indianapolis police said Sanchez was in a hospital and had not been booked into a detention center. He was in stable condition, according to Fox Sports.
Police said the Marion County prosecutor’s office would make the final charging decision. That office didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press.
Indianapolis police said earlier in the day that they were investigating a confrontation that occurred around 12:30 a.m. Saturday between two men, one of whom was hospitalized with stab wounds. The other man received treatment for lacerations, police said.
The Oval Office meeting didn't stop a shutdown, but the Trump 2028 hats and a sombrero set a tone
WASHINGTON (AP) — Halfway through Donald Trump’s inaugural White House meeting with congressional leadership days before a government shutdown, the red hats appeared on the president’s desk.
“Trump 2028," they said, situated across from the seated lawmakers, Vice President JD Vance and several untouched Diet Cokes.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries leaned over to Vance, himself a potential 2028 contender, and quipped, “Hey, bro, you got a problem with this?”
The room chuckled in response.
“It was the random-most thing in the world, because we’re sitting there, we’re having a serious conversation, and all of a sudden these two red hats appear,” Jeffries recalled later at the Capitol.
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