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

The dozens of photos initially released by Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were a small part of more than 95,000 they received from the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The photos released Friday were separate from the case files that the Department of Justice is now under compulsion to release, but anticipation is growing as the Trump administration faces a deadline next week to produce the Epstein files that have been the source of conspiracy theories and speculation for years.

The photos were released without captions or context and included a black-and-white image of Trump alongside six women whose faces were blacked out.

The president said he hadn’t seen the photos from Epstein’s estate released Friday, but they were “no big deal.”

Trump said Epstein was “all over Palm Beach” and had “photos with everybody.”

Historic rains and flooding trigger dramatic rescues in Washington state

BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Eddie Wicks and his wife went to bed in their house next to the Snoqualmie River on a Washington state farm known for its sunflower mazes and Christmas trees, they weren’t too worried about the flooding heading their way.

After 30 years living in the city of Duvall northeast of Seattle, their family had plenty of experience with floods and always made it through largely unscathed. But as they moved their two donkeys to higher ground and their eight goats to their outdoor kitchen, the water began to rise much quicker than anything they'd experienced before.

“It was hours, not days," he said. “In four hours it had to come up 4 feet.”

As the water engulfed their home Thursday afternoon, deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Office marine rescue dive unit were able to rescue them and their dog, taking them on a boat the half mile (800 meters) across their field, which had been transformed into a lake.

They were among the thousands forced to evacuate as an unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 centimeters) or more of rain in parts of western and central Washington over several days this week and swelled rivers, inundating communities and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles.

2 killed in Russia while Ukraine's energy infrastructure is targeted as peace talks press on

At least two people were killed in a drone attack in Russia’s southwestern Saratov region and parts of Ukraine went without power following targeted assaults on energy infrastructure, local authorities said Saturday, as U.S.-led peace talks on ending the war press on.

The drone attack damaged a residential building and several windows were also blown out at a kindergarten and clinic, said Saratov regional Gov. Roman Busargin.

Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.

In Ukraine, Russia launched overnight drone and missile strikes on five Ukrainian regions, targeting energy and port infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had sent over 450 drones and 30 missiles into Ukraine overnight.

Trump sued by preservationists seeking reviews and congressional approval for ballroom project

President Donald Trump was sued on Friday by preservationists asking a federal court to halt his White House ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded group, is asking the U.S. District Court to block Trump’s White House ballroom addition, which already has involved razing the East Wing, until it goes through comprehensive design reviews, environmental assessments, public comments and congressional debate and ratification.

The project has prompted criticism in the historic preservation and architectural communities, and among his political adversaries, but the lawsuit is the most tangible effort thus far to alter or stop the president's plans for an addition that itself would be nearly twice the size of the White House before the East Wing’s demolition.

“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit states. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”

Additionally, the Trust wants the court to declare that Trump, by fast-tracking the project, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by not consulting lawmakers.

Speaker Johnson unveils health care plan as divided Republicans scramble for alternative

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate failed to get anywhere on the health care issue this week. Now it's the House's turn to show what it can do.

Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican alternative late Friday, a last-minute sprint as his party refuses to extend the enhanced tax subsidies for those who buy policies through the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, which are expiring at the end of the year. Those subsidies help lower the cost of coverage.

Johnson, R-La., huddled behind closed doors in the morning — as he did days earlier this week — working to assemble the package for consideration as the House focuses the final days of its 2025 work on health care.

“House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the package. He said it would be voted on next week.

Later Friday, though, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “House Republicans have introduced toxic legislation that is completely unserious, hurts hardworking America taxpayers and is not designed to secure bipartisan support. If the bill reaches the House floor, I will strongly oppose it.”

Trump says he's sealed Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire, but fighting continues

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that Thai and Cambodian leaders had agreed to renew a truce after days of deadly clashes, even as Thai and Cambodian officials suggested there is still work to do to get the ceasefire that the U.S. administration had helped broker earlier this year back on track.

Trump announced the agreement to restart the ceasefire in a social media posting following calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday disputed Trump’s assertion that a ceasefire was agreed to without providing any details, and Thai defense ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said clashes were still ongoing. Cambodia’s defense ministry reported that Thailand continued to carry out strikes early Saturday. Those strikes could not be independently verified.

After speaking with Trump on Friday but before the U.S. president's social media posting, Anutin said he reiterated to Trump that Thailand’s position was to keep fighting until Cambodia no longer posed a threat to its sovereignty.

Iran raises gasoline prices for the first time since deadly 2019 protests

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran introduced a new pricing tier Saturday for its nationally subsidized gasoline, attempting to rein in spiraling costs for the first time since a price hike in 2019 that sparked nationwide protests and a crackdown that reportedly killed over 300 people.

Cheap gasoline has been viewed for generations as a birthright in Iran, sparking mass demonstrations as far back as 1964 when a price increase forced the shah to put military vehicles on the streets to replace those of striking taxi drivers.

But Iran’s theocracy faces a growing squeeze from the country’s rapidly depreciating rial currency and economic sanctions imposed due to Tehran’s nuclear program.

That has made the cost of having some of the world’s cheapest gasoline at a few pennies per gallon that much more expensive. However, the government’s hesitant move toward increasing prices likely signals it wants to avoid any confrontation with the nation’s exhausted public after Israel launched a 12-day war on the country in June.

“Our discontent has no result,” fumed Saeed Mohammadi, a teacher who works as a taxi driver in his spare time to make ends meet. “The government does whatever it likes. They don’t ask people if they agree or not.”

Sherrone Moore charged with stalking, home invasion after being fired as Michigan football coach

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Fired University of Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore “barged his way” into the apartment of a woman with whom he had been having an affair and threatened to kill himself after she reported the relationship to the school and he lost his job, prosecutors said Friday.

Moore was charged with three crimes, including felony home invasion and stalking.

As he watched by video from jail, authorities laid out extraordinary allegations against Moore and provided details that answered a key question: What led Michigan to suddenly oust the 39-year-old coach Wednesday after his second season at the helm of the storied football program?

Moore and the woman had been having an affair “for a number of years” before she ended the relationship Monday, said Kati Rezmierski, Washtenaw County first assistant prosecutor.

Moore repeatedly called the woman and texted her, but she refused to respond, Rezmierski said.

Federal judge issues order to prohibit immigration officials from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia

BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge blocked U.S. immigration authorities on Friday from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying she feared they might take him into custody again just hours after she had ordered his release from a detention center.

The order came as Abrego Garcia appeared at a scheduled appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office roughly 14 hours after he walked out of immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania.

His lawyers had sent an urgent request to the judge, warning that ICE officials could immediately place him back into custody. Instead, Abrego Garcia exited the building after a short appointment, emerging to cheers from supporters who had gathered outside.

Speaking briefly to the crowd, he urged others to “stand tall” against what he described as injustices carried out by the government.

Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown earlier this year when he was wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. He was last taken into custody in August during a similar check-in.

Fighting rages on Thai-Cambodian border despite Trump's ceasefire claim

SURIN, Thailand (AP) — Fighting raged Saturday morning along the border of Thailand and Cambodia, even after U.S. President Donald Trump, acting as a mediator, declared that he had won agreement from both countries for a ceasefire.

Thai officials have said they did not agree to a ceasefire, and Cambodia has not commented on Trump’s claim. Its defense ministry instead said Thai jets carried out airstrikes Saturday morning. Cambodian media reported Trump’s claim without elaborating.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said Saturday that some of Trump's remarks didn't “reflect an accurate understanding of the situation.”

“We regret and we're disappointed that some of the points made by President Trump have bearing upon the feeling of the Thai people, Thailand, because we consider ourselves — we are proud, in fact — to be the oldest treaty ally of the United States in the region," he said.

The latest large-scale fighting was set off by a skirmish on Dec. 7 that wounded two Thai soldiers and derailed a ceasefire promoted by Trump that ended five days of earlier combat in July over longstanding territorial disputes.