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

Nick Reiner, 32, was charged Tuesday with killing the 78-year-old actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced at a news conference with LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell.

“Their loss is beyond tragic and we will commit ourselves to bringing their murderer to justice," Hochman said.

Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors added special circumstances of multiple murders and a special allegation that the defendant used a dangerous weapon, a knife. The additions could mean a greater sentence.

Hochman said his office has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty in the case.

Jack Smith set for private interview with lawmakers about Trump investigations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump.

The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department's criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.

"We are disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics,” one of his lawyers, Peter Koski, said in a statement this month. “Jack looks forward to meeting with the committee later this month to discuss his work and clarify the various misconceptions about his investigation.”

Trump told reporters at the White House that he supported the idea of an open hearing, saying: “I'd rather see him testify publicly. There's no way he can answer the questions.”

Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team's use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.

Trump expands travel ban and restrictions to include an additional 20 countries

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Tuesday it was expanding travel restrictions to an additional 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority, doubling the number of nations affected by sweeping limits announced earlier this year on who can travel and emigrate to the U.S.

The Trump administration included five more countries as well as people traveling on documents issued by the Palestinian Authority to the list of countries facing a full ban on travel to the U.S. and imposed new limits on 15 other countries.

The move is part of ongoing efforts by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, in what critics say unfairly prevents travel for people from a broad range of countries. The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

People who already have visas, are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. or have certain visa categories such as diplomats or athletes, or whose entry into the country is believed to serve the U.S. interest, are all exempt from the restrictions. The proclamation said the changes go into effect on Jan. 1.

In June, President Donald Trump announced that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from coming to the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions. The decision resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term.

Investigators release additional video of possible Brown gunman as search continues

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Authorities have asked the public for any footage they might have of the gunman who fatally shot two students and wounded nine others at Brown University, even as they released a new video timeline and a slightly clearer image of a possible suspect.

Investigators provided no indication Tuesday that they were any closer to zeroing in on his identity. In all the videos made public, the suspect’s face was masked or turned away, and authorities have only been able to give a vague description of him as being stocky and about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall.

Officers have been canvassing around Providence in search of clues that might help them figure out who was behind Saturday’s campus shooting.

Surveillance video the FBI posted online before it was removed showed a person in dark clothing walking along multiple sidewalks for about an hour starting shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday. The streets were all within a few blocks of the Brown University engineering building where the shooting occurred.

Some clips show the person walking in front of some properties several times. In one, the person abruptly turns around and runs in the other direction when someone approaches.

Trump orders blockade of 'sanctioned oil tankers' into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on Maduro

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.

Trump's escalation comes after U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, an unusual move that followed a buildup of military forces in the region. In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue the military buildup until the country gave the U.S. oil, land and assets, though it was not clear why he felt the U.S. had a claim.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

Pentagon officials referred all questions about the post to the White House.

Venezuela’s government released a statement Tuesday accusing Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with “a reckless and grave threat” against the South American country.

Louvre workers vote to extend a strike at the world's most visited museum

PARIS (AP) — Employees at the Louvre Museum voted Wednesday to extend a strike that has disrupted operations at the world’s most visited museum.

Union workers were protesting chronic understaffing, building deterioration and recent management decisions — pressures intensified by a brazen crown jewels heist in October.

The decision came during a morning general assembly, after workers had adopted the walkout unanimously earlier this week. The museum was already closed Tuesday for its regular weekly shutdown.

It remained unclear whether the strike would force a full closure on Wednesday. Visitors holding tickets queued outside the museum in the morning as management assessed staffing levels and whether enough employees were available to safely open galleries.

Tensions have been further sharpened by fallout from the theft of crown jewels during a daylight robbery that exposed serious security lapses at the museum.

Accused gunman in Bondi Beach shooting charged with 15 counts of murder

SYDNEY (AP) — An accused gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre was charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder on Wednesday, as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the victims.

Two shooters slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in an antisemitic mass shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and more than 20 other people are still being treated in hospitals. All of those killed by the gunmen who have been identified so far were Jewish.

As investigations unfold, Australia faces a social and political reckoning about antisemitism, gun control and whether police protections for Jews at events such as Sunday’s were sufficient for the threats they faced.

Naveed Akram, the 24-year-old alleged shooter, was charged on Wednesday after waking from a coma in a Sydney hospital, where he has been since police shot him and his father at Bondi. His father Sajid Akram, 50, died at the scene.

The charges include one count of murder for each fatality and one count of committing a terrorist act, police said.

House Speaker Johnson rebuffs efforts to extend health care subsidies, pushing ahead with GOP plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders are determined to push ahead with a GOP health care bill that excludes efforts to address the soaring monthly premiums millions of Americans will soon endure as pandemic-era tax credits for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year's end.

Speaker Mike Johnson had discussed the prospect of allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on their amendment that would temporarily extend pandemic-era subsidies for ACA coverage. But after days of private talks, leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed ACA marketplace.

“We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve,” Johnson said Tuesday at the Capitol. “In the end, it was not — an agreement wasn’t made.”

The maneuvering surrounding the health care vote all but guarantees that many Americans will see substantially higher insurance costs in 2026. In the Senate, a bipartisan group was still trying to come up with a compromise to extend the subsidies, which fueled this year's government shutdown. But senators made clear that any potential legislation would likely wait until January, after the holiday break.

Instead, House Republicans will pursue their 100-plus-page health care package that focuses on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed. A test vote is expected Wednesday.

Billy Crystal, Albert Brooks and other close friends of Rob and Michele Reiner pay tribute

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some of Rob and Michele Reiner's closest friends, including actors Billy Crystal, Albert Brooks, Martin Short and Larry David, have released a statement mourning the couple and praising their love of film and country.

“Absorbing all he had learned from his father Carl and his mentor Norman Lear, Rob Reiner not only was a great comic actor, he became a master story teller. There is no other director who has his range. From comedy to drama to ‘mockumentary’ to documentary he was always at the top of his game. He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films," the group said in a statement released first to The Associated Press.

“His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant,” it said of Rob Reiner, whose films included “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally..." and “The Princess Bride."

The statement was released two days after Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead in their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Their son, Nick Reiner, was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder and is suspected of stabbing his parents to death.

The joint statement came from some of Reiner's longtime collaborators and contemporaries, including Crystal, Brooks, Short, David and their spouses. The signatories included writer Alan Zweibel, composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman, director Barry Levinson and former U.S. Ambassador to Spain James Costos.

Trafficked, exploited, married off: Rohingya children’s lives crushed by foreign aid cuts

UKHIYA, Bangladesh (AP) — In moments when she is alone, when there is a break in the beatings from her husband, the girl cries for the school that was once her place of peace in a world that has otherwise offered her none.

Ever since the military in her homeland of Myanmar killed her father in 2017, forcing her to flee to neighboring Bangladesh with her mother and little sisters, the school had protected Hasina from the predators who prowl her refugee camp, home to 1.2 million members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority.

It had also protected her from being forced into marriage. And then one day in June, when Hasina was 16 years old, her teacher announced that the school’s funding had been taken away. The school was closing. In a blink, Hasina’s education was over, and so, too, was her childhood.

With her learning opportunities gone, and her family worried that foreign aid cuts would make their fight for survival in the camps even more perilous, Hasina — along with hundreds of other girls under the age of 18 — was quickly married off. And, just like Hasina, many of the girls are now trapped in marriages with men who abuse them.

“I dreamed of being something, of working for the community,” Hasina, now 17, says softly. The Associated Press is withholding her full name to protect her from retaliation by her husband. “My life is destroyed.”