Senate takes first step toward ending the government shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate took the first step to end the government shutdown on Sunday after a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who say Americans want them to continue the fight.
In a test vote that is the first in a series of required procedural maneuvers, the Senate voted 60-40 to move toward passing compromise legislation to fund the government and hold a later vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. Final passage could be several days away if Democrats object and delay the process.
The agreement does not guarantee the health care subsidies will be extended, as Democrats have demanded for almost six weeks. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted against moving ahead with the package, along with all but eight of his Democratic colleagues.
A group of three former governors — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine — broke the six-week stalemate on Sunday when they agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January in exchange for a mid-December vote on extending the health care tax credits.
The agreement also includes a reversal of the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown began on Oct. 1 and would ensure that federal workers receive back pay.
Flight cancellations and delays worsen as government shutdown drags on
NEW YORK (AP) — The pain Americans are facing at airports across the country is expected to get worse this week if Congress is unable to reach a deal to reopen the federal government.
U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights Saturday and more than 2,900 Sunday to comply with an FAA order to reduce traffic as some air traffic controllers, who have gone unpaid for nearly a month, have stopped showing up for work.
As of early Monday, airlines had already canceled nearly 1,600 flights for Monday and nearly 1,000 for Tuesday.
The Senate took a first step toward ending the shutdown Sunday, but final passage could still be several days away and experts have said it will take time for flights to go back to normal even after the government reopens.
Many airports are facing significant delays for flights that haven’t been canceled as well, with airports in Newark, Orlando, Chicago and Detroit all facing departure delays of more than an hour and increasing, according to FlightAware.
Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo
PARIS (AP) — When 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux realized an Associated Press photo of him at the Louvre on the day of the crown jewels heist had drawn millions of views, his first instinct was not to rush online and unmask himself.
Quite the opposite.
A fan of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot who lives with his parents and grandfather in Rambouillet, west of Paris, Pedro decided to play along with the world’s suspense.
As theories swirled about the sharply dressed stranger in the “Fedora Man” shot — detective, insider, AI fake — he decided to stay silent and watch.
“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” he said. “With this photo there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”
Top BBC bosses resign after criticism of the broadcaster’s editing of a Trump speech
LONDON (AP) — The head of the BBC and the British broadcaster's top news executive both resigned Sunday after criticism of the way the organization edited a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The BBC said Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness had both decided to leave the corporation.
Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster has been criticized for editing a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington.
Critics said the way the speech was edited for a BBC documentary last year was misleading and cut out a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
A clip of the BBC “Panorama” episode shared by The Daily Telegraph appears to show different parts of Trump’s speech edited into one quote. In the episode, Trump is shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
MLB pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz charged with taking bribes to rig pitches for bettors
NEW YORK (AP) — Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls in the dirt instead of strikes, to ensure successful bets.
According to the indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, the highly paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches.
Clase, the Guardians’ former closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB started investigating what it said was unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched. Some of the games in question were in April, May and June.
Ortiz, 26, was arrested Sunday by the FBI at Boston Logan International Airport. He is expected to appear in federal court in Boston on Monday. Clase, 27, was not in custody, officials said.
Ortiz and Clase “betrayed America’s pastime,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said. “Integrity, honesty and fair play are part of the DNA of professional sports. When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us.”
Recommended for you
States face uncertainty as Trump administration tries to reverse SNAP food payments
States administering a federal food aid program serving about 42 million Americans faced uncertainty Monday over whether they can — and should — provide full monthly benefits during an ongoing legal battle involving the U.S. government shutdown.
President Donald Trump’s administration over weekend demanded that states “undo” full benefits that were paid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a one-day window between when a federal judge ordered full funding and a Supreme Court justice put a temporary pause on that order.
A federal appeals court now is considering whether to impose a longer halt to the full benefits. And Congress is considering whether to fund SNAP as part of a proposal to end the government shutdown.
Some states are warning of “catastrophic operational disruptions” if the Trump administration does not reimburse them for those SNAP benefits they already authorized. Meanwhile, other states are providing partial monthly SNAP benefits with federal money or using their own funds to load electronic benefit cards for SNAP recipients.
Trump's administration initially said SNAP benefits would not be available in November because of the government shutdown. After some states and nonprofit groups sued, two judges each ruled the administration could not skip November’s benefits entirely.
Super Typhoon Fung-wong slams into Philippines, killing 2 and displacing 1 million
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Super Typhoon Fung-wong slammed ashore on Sunday in the northeastern coast of the Philippines, where the massive storm had already left at least two people dead and forced more than a million people to evacuate from flood- and landslide-prone areas, officials said.
The typhoon blew into Dinalungan town in Aurora province Sunday night after setting off fierce rain and wind in northeastern Philippine provinces all day from offshore, with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph).
The biggest typhoon to threaten the Philippines in years, Fung-wong could cover two-thirds of the archipelago with its 1,800-kilometer (1,118-mile) -wide rain and wind band, forecasters said. It approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.
A villager drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when she was hit by debris, officials said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a state of emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong, which is also called Uwan in the Philippines.
Israel confirms receiving the remains of a soldier killed in Gaza in 2014
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel on Sunday confirmed it had received the remains of Hadar Goldin, a soldier killed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, closing a painful chapter for the country.
The 23-year-old was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year’s war between Israel and Hamas. Goldin’s family waged a public campaign for 11 years to bring home his remains. Earlier this year, they marked 4,000 days since his body was taken.
Israel’s military had long determined that he had been killed, based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes. His remains had been the only ones left in Gaza predating the current war between Israel and Hamas.
The remains of four hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the current war, are still in Gaza.
The return of Goldin's remains were a significant development in the U.S.-brokered truce, which has faltered during the slow return of bodies of hostages and skirmishes between Israeli troops and militants in Gaza.
Preliminary tests find germ that causes botulism in ByHeart baby formula
Preliminary tests showed that ByHeart baby formula contained the type of bacteria that produces the toxin linked to a botulism outbreak, California health officials said.
The outbreak has sickened at least 13 infants in 10 states. No deaths have been reported.
“Consumers in possession of this product should stop using it immediately,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement late Saturday.
More tests of ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula are pending as state and federal health officials investigate the outbreak that started in mid-August. The New York-based company this weekend recalled two lots of the powdered product.
Here’s what to know about the outbreak and infant botulism.
Salman Rushdie is being honored with a Dayton peace prize lifetime achievement award
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Salman Rushdie was among the honorees Sunday at the Dayton Literary Peace Prize event in Ohio, receiving a lifetime achievement award after publishing his first work of fiction since being stabbed on a New York lecture stage three years ago.
The prizes honor both literary merit and the writers' promotion of peace through their work, with separate awards annually for fiction, nonfiction and lifetime achievement. The Ohio city was the site of negotiations that led to the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, ending a war in the Balkans marked by ethnic cleansing that killed more than 300,000 people, as well as the displacement of 1 million residents.
The 78-year-old Rushdie is best known for his 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which includes a dream sequence about the Prophet Muhammad that prompted allegations of blasphemy and a 1989 call from Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for the Indian-born writer's death, driving him into hiding. He was blinded in one eye from the 2022 attack before a stunned audience, and his assailant — who wasn't born when “The Satanic Verses” was published — was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In accepting his award, Rushdie said it can be difficult to write about peace while living in a time of “inexcusable violence,” including the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
“A book cannot stop a bullet. A poem cannot intercept a bomb," he said.

(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.