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

Anutin, leader of the Bhumjaithai party, won a total of 311 votes, far exceeding the 247 required majority from the House of Representative’s 492 active members. He and his government are expected to take office in a few days after obtaining a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Anutin succeeds Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed by court order as prime minister last week after being found guilty of ethics violations over a politically compromising phone call with neighboring Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen.

The dispute erupted into a deadly five-day armed conflict in July.

Anutin, who's an elected member of the House, got up from his seat and walked around the chamber to take pictures with other lawmakers when he was a few votes short from the winning total. He and wellwishers exchanged the traditional Thai greeting of wai, with both hands clasped together.

Putin says foreign troops deployed to Ukraine before any peace deal would be 'legitimate targets'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine before a peace agreement has been signed would be considered “legitimate targets” by Moscow's forces.

Putin's comments came hours after European leaders repledged their commitment to a potential peacekeeping force.

“If any troops appear there, especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets,” he said during a panel at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.

Putin also dismissed the idea of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine after a final peace deal, saying “no one should doubt” that Moscow would comply with a treaty to halt its 3½-year full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

He said that security guarantees would be needed for both Russia and Ukraine.

Portuguese investigators search for cause of Lisbon streetcar crash that killed 16

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Investigators sifted through the wreckage of a streetcar in downtown Lisbon on Thursday, trying to determine why the popular tourist attraction derailed during the busy summer season, killing 16 people and injuring 21, five of them seriously.

Portugal’s attorney-general’s office said eight victims have been identified so far: five Portuguese, two South Koreans and a Swiss person.

There is “a high possibility,” based on recovered documents and other evidence, that the victims also include two Canadians, one American, one German and one Ukrainian, according to the head of the national investigative police, Luís Neves. Three remain to be identified.

Among the injured are Spaniards, Israelis, Portuguese, Brazilians, Italians and French people, the executive director of Portugal’s National Health Service, Álvaro Santos Almeida, said.

The nationalities appeared to confirm suspicions that the Elevador da Gloria was packed with tourists as well as locals when it came off its rails during the evening rush hour Wednesday. Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the streetcar's short and picturesque trip a few hundred meters up and down a city street.

China’s Xi and North Korea’s Kim pledge deeper ties during meeting in Beijing

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged mutual support and enhanced cooperation during talks in Beijing after a commemoration of the end of World War II, the countries' state media said.

Xi and Kim, along with top officials from their countries, met at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People a day after Kim attended a Chinese military parade alongside other foreign leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim is making a rare trip outside North Korea.

Xi highlighted the “traditional friendship” between China and North Korea and pledged to consolidate and boost relations, according to a readout of their statements published by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday.

“This position will not change regardless of how the international situation evolves,” Xi told Kim, according to CCTV.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday that the leaders discussed increasing high-level visits and contacts as well as strengthening strategic cooperation and protecting shared interests in international and regional affairs. It said Kim left Beijing by his private train Thursday evening after his meeting with Xi.

Kennedy tries to defend COVID-19 vaccine stance in raucous Senate hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., facing pointed bipartisan questioning at a rancorous three-hour Senate committee hearing on Thursday, tried to defend his efforts to pull back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and explain the turmoil he has created at federal health agencies.

Kennedy said the fired CDC director was untrustworthy, stood by his past anti-vaccine rhetoric, and disputed reports of people saying they have had difficulty getting COVID-19 shots.

A longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement, Kennedy has made sweeping changes to agencies tasked with public health policy and scientific research by laying off thousands of workers, firing science advisers and remaking vaccine guidelines. The moves — some of which contradict assurances he made during his confirmation hearings — have rattled medical groups and officials in several Democratic-led states, which have responded with their own vaccine advice.

Medical groups and several Democrats in Congress have called for Kennedy to be fired, and his exchanges with Democratic senators on the panel repeatedly devolved into shouting, from both sides.

But some Republican senators also expressed unease with his changes to COVID-19 policies.

Trump hosts tech titans — but not Musk — at White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States.

“This is taking our country to a new level,” he said at the center of a long table surrounded by what he described as “high IQ people.”

It was the latest example of a delicate two-way courtship between Trump and tech leaders, several of whom attended his inauguration. Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world's most successful businesspeople, while the companies are eager to remain on the good side of the mercurial president.

While the executives praised Trump and talked about their hopes for technological advancement, the Republican president was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, who sat to Trump's right, said $600 billion. Apple's Tim Cook said the same. Google's Sundar Pichai said $250 billion.

Macron says 26 countries pledge troops as a reassurance force for Ukraine after war ends

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.

Macron spoke after a meeting in Paris of the so-called “coalition of the willing," a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine. He said that 26 of the countries had committed to deploying troops in Ukraine — or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea, or in the air — to help guarantee the country’s security the day after a ceasefire or peace is achieved.

Earlier Thursday, Macron and other European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the U.S. envoy for peace talks, Steve Witkoff, to discuss ways of ensuring long-term military support and continued American backing for Ukraine once the conflict ends. Zelenskyy also held a closed-door meeting with Witkoff.

Macron said at a news conference alongside Zelenskyy that the reassurance force “does not have the will or the objective of waging war against Russia," but will aim "to prevent any new major aggression and to involve the 26 states very clearly in the lasting security of Ukraine.”

Though details of any U.S. participation in the security guarantees remain unclear, both Macron and Zelenskyy said Washington had expressed willingness to be part of the plan, and the Ukrainian president said he was grateful about that. “As for in what format, I am not yet ready to tell you in detail,” Zelenskyy added.

Appeals court panel stops order to wind down operations at 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Everglades

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Thursday put on hold a lower court judge’s order to end operations indefinitely at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The three-judge panel in Atlanta decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge’s order pending the outcome of an appeal, saying it was in the public interest. The ruling will allow the facility to continue holding detainees for the time being.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami issued a preliminary injunction last month ordering operations at the facility to be wound down by the end of October, with detainees transferred to other facilities and equipment and fencing removed.

Williams’ decision was issued in response to a lawsuit brought by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe, who accused the state and federal defendants of not following federal law requiring an environmental review for the detention center in the middle of sensitive wetlands.

“This is a heartbreaking blow to America’s Everglades and every living creature there, but the case isn’t even close to over,” Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Thursday.

Trump will seek 'Department of War' rebrand for Pentagon

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, his latest effort to project an image of toughness for America's military.

The Republican president can't formally change the name without legislation, which his administration would request from Congress. In the meantime, Trump will authorize the Pentagon to use “secondary titles" so the department can go by its original name.

The plans were disclosed by a White House official, who requested anonymity ahead of the public announcement, and detailed in a White House fact sheet.

The Department of War was created in 1789, the same year that the U.S. Constitution took effect. It was renamed by law in 1947, two years after the end of World War II.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on social media after the executive order was initially reported by Fox News.

Giorgio Armani, who dressed the powerful and famous from boardroom to Hollywood, dies at 91

MILAN (AP) — Giorgio Armani, the iconic Italian designer who turned the concept of understated elegance into a multibillion-dollar fashion empire, died Thursday, his fashion house confirmed. He was 91.

Armani died at home, "peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones," the fashion house said. “Indefatigable to the end, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections and the many ongoing and future projects."

Armani, one of the most recognizable names and faces in the global fashion industry, missed Milan Fashion Week in June 2025 for the first time during the previews of Spring-Summer 2026 menswear to recover from an undisclosed condition.

He was planning a major event to celebrate 50 years of his signature Giorgio Armani fashion house during Milan Fashion Week this month.

A public viewing will be held in the Armani Theater where he unveiled his ready-to-wear collections on Saturday and Sunday. The funeral will be held privately, and no details were released.