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

The army said it was instructed by Israel's leaders to “advance readiness” for the implementation of the plan. An official who was not authorized to speak to the media on the record said that Israel has moved to a defensive-only position in Gaza and will not actively strike. The official said no forces have been removed from the strip.

This announcement came hours after Trump ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza once Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan. Trump welcomed the Hamas statement, saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE.”

Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday. His proposal unveiled earlier this week has widespread international support and was also endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday, Netanyahu's office said Israel was committed to ending the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, without addressing potential gaps with the militant group. Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from the international community and Trump to end the conflict. The official told the AP that Netanyahu put out the rare late-night statement on the sabbath saying that Israel has started to prepare for Trump's plan due to pressure from the U.S. administration.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets 4 years in prison for case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters, capping a sordid federal case that featured harrowing testimony and ended in a forceful reckoning for one of the most influential figures in hip-hop.

Since Combs has already served a year in jail, the sentence means that the 55-year-old could get out in about three years. While prosecutors sought a sentence of more than 11 years, his lawyers wanted him freed immediately and said the time behind bars has already forced his remorse and sobriety.

Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places and over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

“Why did it happen so long?" U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asked as he handed down the sentence. “Because you had the power and the resources to keep it going, and because you weren’t caught.”

Subramanian, who also fined Combs $500,000, the maximum allowed, praised the accusers who testified at trial. They effectively spoke for countless others who experienced abuse, the judge said: “You gave them a voice. You stood up to power."

Republicans are relishing a role reversal in the shutdown fight. Can Trump keep them united?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the unusually quiet halls of the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders faced the cameras for a second day and implored Democrats to reopen the government.

“We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning, before criticizing his counterparts. “Democrats are the ones who have decided to inflict the pain.”

It’s a striking role reversal. Budget standoffs for years have been the bane of Republican congressional leaders who had to wrestle with conservatives on their side ready to shut down the government to get their policy demands. Democrats often stood as willing partners to keeping the government open, lending crucial votes to protect programs they had championed.

“Both parties have completely flip-flopped to the opposite side of the same issue that hasn’t changed,” said GOP Sen. Rand Paul. “Congress has truly entered the upside down world.”

The change is happening in large part because President Donald Trump exercises top-down control over a mostly unified GOP — and faces little internal resistance to his budget priorities. The shift is unfolding as the shutdown threatens government services, forces the furlough of federal workers and gives the Trump administration another opportunity to remake the federal government.

Federal shutdown hurts services for Native Americans and they worry worse is coming

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Native Americans watched the shuttered government on Friday and braced for damage to health care, education, infrastructure and other services funded by Washington under treaties struck more than a century ago.

Tribal nations with casinos, oil and gas leases and other independent revenue sources said they expect to sustain operations for several months. Tribes more dependent on government money were already furloughing workers.

Many tribal leaders said they feared that the Trump administration would use the shutdown to lay off federal workers responsible for ensuring that trust and treaty responsibilities are honored. The U.S. agreed many decades ago to protect the security, health and education of tribal citizens in return for ceding their lands.

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe just outside Reno, Nevada furloughed at least 25 employees starting on Oct. 1 and closed its museum and cultural center, higher education department, and services for Native children in the public school system.

It said the closures would be temporary but that more closures could still come if the shutdown endures.

Police question 6 suspects over deadly Manchester synagogue attack

LONDON (AP) — Police on Saturday were questioning six people arrested on suspicion of terror offenses after an attack on a synagogue in northwest England that left two men dead and Britain’s Jewish community shocked and grieving.

Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police on Thursday outside the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester after he rammed a car into pedestrians, attacked them with a knife and tried to force his way into the building.

Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, died in the attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Police say Daulby was accidentally shot by an armed officer as he and other congregants barricaded the synagogue to block Al-Shamie from entering. Three other men are hospitalized with serious injuries.

Detectives say Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian origin who lived in Manchester, may have been influenced by “extreme Islamist ideology.” He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake.

Police said Al-Shamie was on bail over an alleged rape at the time of the attack but had not been charged.

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. She 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.

Many Syrians are unaware of the first parliamentary election since Assad's fall

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The streets of Damascus barely showed sign Saturday a parliamentary election was set to take place the next day.

There were no candidate posters on the main streets and squares, no rallies, or public debates. In the days leading up to the polling, some residents of the Syrian capital had no idea a vote was hours away, the first since Islamic insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive in December.

“I didn’t know — now by chance I found out that there are elections of the People’s Assembly,” said Elias al-Qudsi, a shopkeeper in Damascus' old city, after being asked for his views about the upcoming election. “But I don’t know if we are supposed to vote or who is voting.”

His neighborhood, known as the Jewish Quarter, although nearly all of its former Jewish residents have left, is one of the few that has a smattering of campaign fliers posted on walls in its narrow streets.

The posters announce the candidacy of Henry Hamra, a Jewish former resident of the neighborhood who emigrated to the United States with his family when he was a teenager and returned to visit Damascus for the first time after Assad's fall. Hamra's campaign announcement made a splash on social media but failed to make an impression on al-Qudsi.

In Tennessee, a US House primary special election draws a crowd

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee special election to replace a Republican congressman who stepped aside this summer has resulted in crowded primaries for both major parties, a new test for one of three districts that GOP lawmakers drew as safely red in 2022 by dividing left-leaning Nashville.

The race to fill the seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Mark Green could gauge the popularity of President Donald Trump's aggressive second-term agenda, especially with suburban Republican voters.

There had been 11 Republican candidates in the primary Tuesday, including state Reps. Jody Barrett, Gino Bulso and Lee Reeves, and a one-time appointee of Republican Gov. Bill Lee, Matt Van Epps, all of whom have pledged loyalty to Trump and disdain for anything perceived as liberal.

But Van Epps landed a late endorsement from Trump on Friday, prompting Reeves to announce he was suspending his campaign and backing Van Epps.

Four Democrats from Nashville, including state Reps. Vincent Dixie, Aftyn Behn and Bo Mitchell, and businessman Darden Copeland, have entered their party's primary and are hoping the massive spending and tax cut bill Trump signed earlier this year will prove unpopular enough to win the Dec. 2 general election.

North Carolina governor signs criminal justice bill into law after Ukrainian refugee’s death

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Democratic governor signed into law on Friday a criminal justice measure that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature approved in response to the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte commuter train, even while opposing provisions within or wishing for others left out.

Gov. Josh Stein said he signed the bill because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That’s a good thing.”

The new law bars cashless bail for certain violent crimes and for many repeat offenders. It also limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions, gives the state chief justice the ability to suspend magistrates and seeks to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.

But Stein criticized parts and said lawmakers had failed in the legislation to approve his public-safety proposals, which included increased pay for law enforcement. He said the measure failed to focus properly “on the threat that people pose instead of their ability to post bail.”

“I’m troubled by its lack of ambition or vision,” Stein said during a short video statement. “It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.”

Noem visits Chicago area ICE facility as agents arrest 13, raid city neighborhoods

BROADVIEW, Ill. (AP) — Federal officials reported the arrests of 13 people Friday protesting near an immigration facility outside Chicago that has been frequently targeted during President Donald Trump's administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.

As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with employees inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, a crowd grew over several hours, some riled by newly installed barricades to separate them from law enforcement officers stationed outside.

Noem also accompanied agents Friday on a raid near a local Walmart store and later engaged in a tit-for-tat over unannounced visits — and even bathroom use — with the Broadview mayor.

Immigrants’ rights advocates and residents separately reported that federal agents had used tear gas near grocery or hardware stores they had targeted for enforcement elsewhere in Chicago on Friday and detained a city council member as she questioned the attempted arrest of a man. The federal government has restricted airspace over Broadview, officials said Friday, and Gov. JB Pritzker called for an investigation into an immigration raid on the city's South Side early Tuesday morning.

At the ICE facility, some protesters have aimed to block vehicles from going in or out of the area in recent weeks, part of growing pushback to a surge of immigration enforcement that began in early September. Called “Midway Blitz,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that it has resulted in more than 1,000 immigration arrests.