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

America has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Mideast, which can be used to launch attacks from the sea. Iran has kept up its own threats as well, saying it could launch a preemptive strike or broadly target the Mideast, including American military bases and Israel.

It remains unclear what Trump will decide about using force, though he has threatened to use it in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and over possible mass executions. At least 6,373 people have been killed in the protests, activists said.

But the move by Europe, long considered, will put new pressure on Iran as its economy already struggles under the weight of international sanctions. Its rial currency fell to a record low of 1.6 million to $1 on Thursday. Economic woes had sparked the protests that broadened into challenging the theocracy before the crackdown.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told journalists it was “likely” the sanctions would be put in place.

FBI raid in Georgia highlights Trump's 2020 election obsession and hints at possible future actions

DENVER (AP) — Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years, he’s been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud.

Now that he’s president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claims.

On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows Trump's comments earlier this month when he suggested during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that charges related to the election were imminent.

“The man has obsessions, as do a fair number of people, but he's the only one who has the full power of the United States behind him,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.

Hasen and many others noted that Trump's use of the FBI to pursue his obsession with the 2020 election is part of a pattern of the president transforming the federal government into his personal tool of vengeance.

New videos show Alex Pretti scuffle with federal officers in Minneapolis 11 days before his death

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Pretti was forcefully taken to the ground by federal immigration agents after kicking out the tail light of their vehicle during a Minneapolis protest 11 days before he was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers, videos that emerged Wednesday show.

The Jan. 13 scuffle was captured in a pair of videos that show Pretti shouting an expletive at the federal officers and struggling with them. His winter coat comes off when he's on the ground and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.

When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun and it is unclear whether the federal agents saw it.

A person with knowledge of the incident confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the videos is Pretti and that he had told his family of the confrontation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters sensitive to the family.

The new videos immediately rekindled the national debate about the death of Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, posted one of the videos on X and commented, “Just a peaceful legal observer.”

A shadow network in Minneapolis defies ICE and protects immigrants

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — If there’s been a soundtrack to life in Minneapolis in recent weeks, it’s the shrieking whistles and honking horns of thousands of people following immigration agents across the city.

They are the ever-moving shadow of the Trump administration's Operation Metro Surge.

They are teachers, scientists and stay-at-home parents. They own small businesses and wait tables. Their network is sprawling, often anonymous and with few overall objectives beyond helping immigrants, warning of approaching agents or filming videos to show the world what is happening.

And it's clear they will continue despite the White House striking a more conciliatory tone after the weekend killing of Alex Pretti, including the transfer of Gregory Bovino, the senior Border Patrol official who was the public face of the immigration crackdown.

“I think that everyone slept a little better knowing that Bovino had been kicked out of Minneapolis,” said Andrew Fahlstrom, who helps run Defend the 612, a hub for volunteer networks. "But I don’t think the threat that we’re under will change because they change out the local puppets.”

Starmer and Xi call for deeper UK-China ties as Trump shakes up global relations

BEIJING (AP) — The leaders of Britain and China called Thursday for a "strategic partnership” to deepen ties between their nations at a time of growing global turbulence as they sought to thaw relations after years of chill.

Neither Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor President Xi Jinping publicly mentioned Donald Trump, but the U.S. president's challenge to the post-Cold War order was clearly on their minds.

“I think that working together on issues like climate change, global stability during challenging times for the world is precisely what we should be doing as we build this relationship in the way that I’ve described,” Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting in Beijing.

The two met for 80 minutes — double the scheduled time — in the Great Hall of the People as their nations try to improve relations after several years of acrimony. Relations have deteriorated over allegations of Chinese spying in Britain, China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, the former British colony that was returned to China in 1997. Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit in eight years.

Xi said that “China-U.K. relations experienced twists and turns in previous years, which was not in the interests of either country.”

Situation in US South grows more dire after days of ice, frigid temperatures and widespread outages

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi dispatchers are fielding desperate calls for medication or oxygen from people stuck in their homes. Troopers in Tennessee are fanning out for welfare checks on those who haven’t been heard from in days. And in at least one rural area, officials have resorted to using trucks typically used for battling wildfires to transport patients to hospitals.

It could be days before power is restored across the South, where more subfreezing temperatures are expected by Friday in areas unaccustomed to and ill-equipped for such cold. The situation is reaching a breaking point for the elderly and those with medical conditions who lack electricity, some of whom are trapped by roads made impassable by ice and fallen trees.

Nancy Dillon, 87, spent three days without power on her family farm in the rural outskirts of Nashville, relying on her fireplace for warmth. When her phone battery started dying and her back-up battery pack stopped working, she said she became “alarmed.”

"If I were to fall, if I were to need somebody, there would be no way to get help,” she said, adding that electricity was restored on Tuesday night.

The growing misery and anxiety comes amid what Mississippi officials say is the state’s worst winter storm in more than 30 years. About 60 warming centers were opened across a state known as one of the nation’s poorest. But for some communities, they are not enough.

Democrats poised to trigger government shutdown if White House won't meet demands for ICE reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement.

As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won't provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”

“The American people support law enforcement, they support border security, they do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.

There were some signs of possible progress as the White House has appeared open to trying to strike a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown. The two sides were talking as of Wednesday evening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to speak about the private talks. One possible option discussed would be to strip the funding for the Homeland Security Department from the larger bill, as Schumer has requested, and extend it for a short period to allow time for negotiations, the person said. The rest of the bill would fund government agencies until September.

US appeals court says Noem's decision to end protections for Venezuelans in US was illegal

A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.

The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem's decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.

An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.

The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court's finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.

Car rams into Chabad headquarters in New York City, damaging doors

A man was arrested after repeatedly crashing his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City on Wednesday night while people were gathered for prayer at the deeply revered Hasidic Jewish site.

No one was injured when the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while it was too early in the investigation to speculate on the driver's motives, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the crash “intentional."

Video of the crash that was posted online shows a car with New Jersey license plates moving forward and backward on an icy driveway leading to a building in the complex and ramming its basement-level doors.

The driver, who is wearing shorts, emerges, shouts to bystanders that “It slipped” and says something to police about trying to park.

German leader hails Europe as an 'alternative to imperialism and autocracy'

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed the European Union on Thursday as an “alternative to imperialism and autocracy” that can forge deals with like-minded partners in a world of increasing great power rivalry.

Merz underlined the continuing value of a NATO in which Europe will intensify its defense efforts, and said it will always seek cooperation with the United States — but not as a “subordinate.” He also joined other European leaders in pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during the war in Afghanistan.

Merz spoke to the German parliament about foreign policy a week after Trump withdrew a threat of new tariffs against Germany and seven other European countries to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally and EU member Denmark.

“We are seeing increasingly clearly in the last few weeks that a world of great powers is beginning to form,” Merz said. “A harsh wind is blowing in this world, and we will be feeling it for the foreseeable future.”

But that also opens opportunities for Europe, he said, as democracies with open and growing markets “seek what we have to offer them, namely partnerships on the basis of mutual respect, trust and reliability.”