AP News in Brief at 6:09 p.m. EDT

Full details of the deal were not immediately available. The signing will be Friday in Switzerland.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a deal had been reached and said he had authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Congratulations to all!” he wrote on social media, without providing details. He added, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

The U.S. previously said it would ease its blockade of Iranian ports as the strait reopens, and would agree to relax sanctions to allow Iran to sell more of its oil and strengthen its battered economy.

Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 73,000 as Israel launches strikes despite ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 73,000, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday, as Israeli military operations continued despite a stalled and fragile ceasefire in place since October.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, according to the health ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce.

The number of deaths since the beginning of the war is now 73,001, according to the health ministry's tally. Over 173,200 people have been wounded since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, following the Hamas-led attack into Israel. That attack killed some 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

The health ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

12 dead in crash of plane on skydiving outing in Missouri, authorities say

BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — A plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed in a field and was engulfed in flames Sunday, killing all aboard, authorities said.

The crash happened shortly after the plane took off from a local airport around 11:30 a.m., and some of the occupants' family members witnessed the crash, said Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson.

A heap of blue and silver mangled metal lay in the grass near Butler Memorial Airport with a massive lineup of emergency vehicles gathered on a nearby street. Clergy and volunteers went to the site to assist relatives, Anderson said, and officials were working Sunday afternoon to identify all victims and notify their next of kin.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration were also on scene Sunday afternoon, Anderson said, and a team from the National Transportation Safety Board was en route.

The private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, said Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director. It was identified as a single engine turboprop plane.

Trump celebrates turning 80 with a UFC cage-fighting event while big issues loom over his presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump marks turning 80 on Sunday with a birthday celebration that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House.

This week, the hard realities of the office have threatened to overshadow the ostentatious UFC mixed martial arts extravaganza, where combatants sealed inside a wire-mesh octagon try to punch, kick, chop and pummel each other into submission.

Trump has found himself boxed into an unpopular and costly war he helped start in Iran. An agreement to end the conflict could be close, but the crucial details are still to be negotiated. Meanwhile, about a mile from Trump's birthday bash, crews pried the president's name off the Kennedy Center after a judge ruled naming it after Trump had gone too far.

Regardless, the president will walk out of the White House and be surrounded by Cabinet leaders, top administration officials, Republican lawmakers and 4,000-plus spectators screaming themselves hoarse in a temporary arena under “ The Claw,” a spaceship-like metal arch fitted with lighting, sound equipment and large screens. Thousands more will be watching on big screens from the nearby Ellipse.

“This event is a one of one event, incredible event. I love it,” said UFC chief Dana White, a close friend of the president, during a Friday night hype session at the Lincoln Memorial where pairs of fighters shoved and scuffled for the cameras under the stoic gaze of Honest Abe’s marble likeness.

Britain detains sanctioned oil tanker believed to be linked to Russia’s shadow fleet

LONDON (AP) — Armed British forces boarded and detained a sanctioned tanker Sunday that is suspected of being part of the Russian “shadow fleet,” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions over Moscow’s war on Ukraine, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday.

Royal Marine commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the vessel, the Smyrtos, in the English Channel, in what the country’s Defense Ministry called “the first U.K.-led operation of its kind.”

The vessel will be held and monitored off the south coast of England for investigation, according to the Defense Ministry. The operation was carried out “in close coordination” with French authorities, who have previously intercepted a number of vessels linked to the “shadow fleet.”

“This operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide,” Starmer said.

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade sanctions over its war against Ukraine.

Trump endorses Collins in Georgia Senate runoff. It's his latest 'MAGA' pick in Republican primaries

ATLANTA (AP) — Days before the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley, putting his stamp of approval on another loyalist who some conservatives believe could be a risky bet in November.

The Republican candidates are competing Tuesday for the chance to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in one of the most closely watched campaigns in the November midterm elections. Collins has positioned himself as a stalwart ally of Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement, and the president said in his announcement early Sunday on social media that the trucking company owner and second-term congressman “has been with me from the very beginning” and is a ”true friend, fighter, and WARRIOR."

Dooley, a political newcomer, is backed by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, who has clashed with Trump in the past. “I don’t know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person,” Trump wrote, while noting that Dooley did not vote in 2016 or 2020, when Trump was on the ballot. Dooley has acknowledged going nearly two decades without voting but says he did vote for Trump in 2024.

Trump also complained that Dooley — accurately — said Trump lost Georgia in 2020, refusing to back the president's lie that the election was stolen from him.

Collins led Dooley in the May 19 primary but neither surpassed 40%, leaving many Republican votes up for grabs. Trump’s endorsement has proved powerful as he shapes a party identity that is increasingly indistinguishable from his own.

Georgia's vote-counting method will soon be banned. Lawmakers will try to find a fix this week

ATLANTA (AP) — When Georgia lawmakers return to the Capitol this week for a special session, they are expected to try to clean up an election mess of their own making.

The election system used throughout the political battleground state relies on a QR code printed on ballots to tally the votes. Legislators passed a law two years ago barring the use of that barcode for the official vote count beyond July 1 of this year, but no replacement method of tabulating votes was ever implemented.

One of the instructions Republican Gov. Brian Kemp laid out for lawmakers when he called the special session is to “address issues created” by that law. Meanwhile, the secretary of state's office and the State Election Board have further muddied the waters by issuing conflicting guidance for county election officials about how votes should be cast and counted.

If the issues are not resolved soon, there is likely to be confusion and possibly litigation over the state's elections after July 1. A special election to fill a U.S. House seat is scheduled for that month.

Georgia's current election system was first used statewide during the 2020 primary. After the general election that year, when Republican President Donald Trump narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump and his supporters claimed without evidence that the machines had deleted or switched votes.

Swiss voters reject right-wing's bid to cap population at 10 million, early results show

GENEVA (AP) — Nearly 55% of voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the rich Alpine country’s population at 10 million, early results showed.

The populist Swiss People's Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighboring European Union.

Some have dubbed the proposal a “Swiss Brexit” because it could jeopardize Switzerland’s deep ties to the European Union anchored by deals that foster economic growth, cultural ties and cross-border travel, among other things. Switzerland is not one of the EU’s 27 member states, but it is all but surrounded by four of them

Recent polling from the gfs.bern agency suggested that it could be a close contest.

Preliminary results shared by the federal government showed that nearly 55% of voters rejected the proposal, with nationwide turnout almost 59%. Results were still pending from many of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.

Putin, Zelenskyy speak with Trump by phone as drone strikes kill 2 in Russia and UK detains tanker

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy each spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, as Trump marked his 80th birthday and the war in Ukraine remained a flashpoint ahead of this week’s G7 summit.

Putin’s call with Trump lasted just under an hour, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, who briefed reporters afterward.

On Ukraine, Ushakov said Trump emphasized the need to end hostilities and stated his readiness to influence European allies and Kyiv toward that goal, including at the upcoming G7 summit.

Trump also said that recent strikes on civilian targets in Russia complicate a settlement — though the White House has not confirmed that, nor commented on the call — and said that ending the war quickly could open the door to “a truly new quality of U.S.-Russian relations,” Ushakov quoted him as saying.

Putin, for his part, argued that attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure by Kyiv would not change Ukraine’s position on the battlefield, and said that if Zelenskyy wants a meeting with him, “let him come to Moscow,” according to Ushakov.

Trump tried to block state AI regulations, but some states are forging ahead

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Six months after President Donald Trump warned states not to regulate artificial intelligence, they are increasingly doing just that.

Congress has stalled on producing federal regulation of artificial intelligence as states forge ahead and scrutinize how chatbots interact with children, how AI systems are used by employers and what developers must do to try to prevent an AI-caused catastrophe.

State lawmakers have stepped back from earlier, wider-ranging attempts to regulate AI that were vetoed or otherwise derailed by governors who viewed the measures as too onerous toward the industry's development, including efforts to hold developers accountable for bias in AI systems.

But they are returning with legislation that is more targeted and, often, probes the corners of life where Americans interact with AI but may not know it.

Trump’s move to restrain states’ actions on AI drew criticism from members of both political parties and civil liberties and consumer rights groups who worried that banning state regulation would amount to a gift to AI giants, who enjoy little to no oversight.