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

Surrounded by hundreds of mourners, Matan Angrest, who had returned to Israel just two days earlier, stood before the freshly dug grave cradling his 22-year-old commander, Capt. Daniel Peretz, and paid his respects. He prayed for more to make it home, including Sgt. Itay Chen — another member of their unit whose body is still held in Gaza.

“It's the least I can do for Daniel and the team that fought with me,” said Angrest, 22, his voice strong despite his pallor and evident weakness. “I’m sure that they are still guarding me from heaven.”

Angrest, Peretz and Chen were serving on a tank crew when they were taken during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023; militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 captives that day.

“I wish he could come back. I’m ready to go to Gaza to bring him back,” Angrest said of Chen.

With fragile Gaza ceasefire taking hold, Trump says he's now looking to 'get Russia done'

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal holding, President Donald Trump says he's now turning his attention to bringing Russia's war on Ukraine to an end and is weighing providing Kyiv long-range weaponry as he looks to prod Moscow to the negotiating table.

Ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza was central to Trump's 2024 reelection pitch, in which he persistently pilloried President Joe Biden for his handling of the conflicts. Yet, like his predecessor, Trump also has been stymied by President Vladimir Putin as he's unsuccessfully pressed the Russian leader to hold direct talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end the war that is nearing its fourth year.

But fresh off the Gaza ceasefire, Trump is showing new confidence that he can finally make headway on ending the Russian invasion. He's also signaling that he's ready to step up pressure on Putin if he doesn't come to the table soon.

“Interestingly we made progress today, because of what's happened in the Middle East," Trump said of the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday evening as he welcomed supporters of his White House ballroom project to a glitzy dinner.

Earlier this week in Jerusalem, in a speech to the Knesset, Trump predicted the truce in Gaza would lay the groundwork for the U.S. to help Israel and many of its Middle East neighbors normalize relations. But Trump also made clear his top foreign policy priority now is ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

Alaska airlifting hundreds from storm-devastated coastal villages

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — One of the most significant airlifts in Alaska history was underway Wednesday to move hundreds of people from coastal villages ravaged by high surf and strong winds from the remnants of Typhoon Halong last weekend, officials said.

The storm brought record water levels to two low-lying communities and washed away homes — some with people inside. At least one person was killed and two are missing. Makeshift shelters were quickly established and swelled to about 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable by air or water.

The remoteness and the scale of the destruction created challenges for getting resources in place. Damage assessments have been trickling in as responders have shifted from initial search-and-rescue operations to trying to stabilize or restore basic services.

The communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok near the Bering Sea saw water levels more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the highest normal tide line. Leaders asked the state to evacuate the more than 1,000 residents in those villages, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state emergency management office.

Some homes cannot be reoccupied, even with emergency repairs, and others may not be livable by winter, said emergency management officials. Forecasters say rain and snow is possible in the region this weekend, with average temperatures soon below freezing.

Trump confirms the CIA is conducting covert operations inside Venezuela

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and said he was weighing carrying out land operations on the country.

The acknowledgement of covert action in Venezuela by the U.S. spy agency comes after the U.S. military in recent weeks has carried out a series of deadly strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. U.S. forces have destroyed at least five boats since early September, killing 27 people, and four of those vessels originated from Venezuela.

Asked during an event in the Oval Office on Wednesday why he had authorized the CIA to take action in Venezuela, Trump affirmed he had made the move.

“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump replied. “No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America," he said. "And the other thing, the drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.”

Trump added the administration “is looking at land” as it considers further strikes in the region. He declined to say whether the CIA has authority to take action against President Nicolás Maduro.

Supreme Court case could lead to loss of Black representation in Congress, but the scope is unknown

WASHINGTON (AP) — A neutering by the Supreme Court of the Voting Rights Act's last remaining major provision would potentially trigger a political avalanche — an event that starts narrow but gathers momentum as it spreads across the national map.

In this case, the benefit would be to Republicans seeking to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives, perhaps for many years to come.

Such a change seemed more plausible Wednesday after the court's conservative majority indicated a willingness to limit race-based districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The landmark civil rights law requires the drawing of legislative districts that allow minorities to select representatives of their choosing. That has created majority-Black and Latino districts that vote reliably Democratic in some of the nation's most conservative states.

Plaintiffs in one of those states, Louisiana, brought the case before the high court after the state was ordered by a federal judge to redraw its congressional map to include a second majority-Black district, one that was won by a Democrat last year. If the plaintiffs win their case, it could turn that district back into one likely to be represented by a Republican and possibly even eliminate its other Democratic seat, which also was mandated under the Voting Rights Act.

That could ripple across the South, where the Democratic group Fair Fight found that there are 19 VRA-mandated, Democratic-held seats that Republicans could conceivably redraw to their benefit.

Judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing workers during the government shutdown, saying the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco repeatedly pressed the assistant U.S. attorney to explain the administration's rationale for the more than 4,100 layoff notices that started going out Friday even though furloughed workers can not access their work emails and there are no human resources specialists to assist with next steps.

“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said. "It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”

She granted a temporary restraining order blocking the job cuts, saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show the cuts were illegal and in excess of authority.

Asked for comment, the White House referred The Associated Press to the Office of Management and Budget. The budget office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senate Democrats, holding out for health care, ready to reject government funding bill for 10th time

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are poised for the 10th time Thursday to reject a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won’t back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits.

The repetition of votes on the funding bill has become a daily drumbeat in Congress, underscoring how intractable the situation has become as it has been at times the only item on the agenda for the Senate floor. House Republicans have left Washington altogether. The standoff has lasted over two weeks, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, even more without a guaranteed payday and Congress essentially paralyzed.

“Every day that goes by, there are more and more Americans who are getting smaller and smaller paychecks,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, adding that there have been thousands of flight delays across the country as well.

Thune, a South Dakota Republican, again and again has tried to pressure Democrats to break from their strategy of voting against the stopgap funding bill. It hasn't worked. And while some bipartisan talks have been ongoing about potential compromises on health care, they haven't produced any meaningful progress toward reopening the government.

Democrats say they won't budge until they get a guarantee on extending subsidies for health plans offered under Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They warned that millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance — such as small business owners, farmers and contractors — will see large increases when premium prices go out in the coming weeks. Looking ahead to a Nov. 1 deadline in most states, they think voters will demand that Republicans enter into serious negotiations.

Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The nation's leadership called the new rules “common sense” to help regulate a “very disruptive” press.

News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information — classified or otherwise — that had not been approved by Hegseth for release.

Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.

“It’s sad, but I’m also really proud of the press corps that we stuck together,” said Nancy Youssef, a reporter for The Atlantic who has had a desk at the Pentagon since 2007. She took a map of the Middle East out to her car.

It is unclear what practical impact the new rules will have, though news organizations vowed they’d continue robust coverage of the military no matter the vantage point.

JD Vance dismisses bipartisan outrage over racist and offensive Young Republican group chat

The public release of a Young Republican group chat that included racist language, jokes about rape and flippant commentary on gas chambers prompted bipartisan calls for those involved to be removed from or resign their positions.

The Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40, called for those involved to step down from the organization. The group described the exchanges, first reported by Politico, as “unbecoming of any Republican.”

Republican Vice President JD Vance, however, has weighed in several times to speak out against what he characterized as “pearl clutching” over the leaked messages.

Politico obtained months of exchanges from a Telegram conversation between leaders and members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont.

Here's a rundown of reaction to the inflammatory group chat, in which the operatives and officials involved openly worried that their comments might be leaked, even as they continued their conversation:

The tiny African nation of Lesotho had victories in its HIV fight. Then, the US aid cuts came

HA LEJONE, Lesotho (AP) — In the snow-topped mountains of Lesotho, mothers carrying babies on their backs walk for hours to the nearest health clinic, only to find HIV testing isn’t available. Centers catering to the most vulnerable are shutting their doors. Health workers have been laid off in droves. Desperate patients ration or share pills.

This Lesotho was unimaginable months ago, residents, health workers and experts say. The small landlocked nation in southern Africa long had the world’s second-highest rate of HIV infections. But over years, with nearly $1 billion in aid from the United States, Lesotho patched together a health network efficient enough to slow the spread of the epidemic, one of the deadliest in modern history.

Then, on Jan. 20, the first day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, he signed an executive order freezing foreign aid. Within weeks, Trump had slashed overseas assistance and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development. Confusion followed in nearly all the 130 countries with USAID-supported programs. Nine months later in Lesotho, there’s still little clarity.

With the single stroke of a distant president’s pen, much of a system credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives was dismantled.

Weeks ago, the U.S. announced it would reinstate some of its flagship initiatives to combat HIV worldwide. Officials here applauded the move. But the measures are temporary solutions that stress countries must move toward autonomy in public health.