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

Zaluzhnyi, 52, refuses to discuss his political ambitions, saying he doesn't want to risk harming national unity during a war with Russia that is approaching its fourth anniversary. Yet in a sign of his possible desire to run for the presidency – after the war is over – Zaluzhnyi spoke publicly for the first time about a deep rift between himself and Zelenskyy in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Tensions emerged soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and tempers often flared between the two men over how best to defend the country, Zaluzhnyi said. The strained relationship reached a boiling point later that year, when dozens of agents from Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service raided Zaluzhnyi’s office, he told the AP.

Zaluzhnyi alleges that the previously unreported incident was an act of intimidation. It risked exposing their rivalry at a time when national unity was paramount.

Zelenskyy’s office and Ukraine’s security service, known as the SBU, declined to comment for this story. The AP could not independently confirm Zaluzhnyi's account of the raid.

Rescuers push through winter storm to 6 survivors of a California avalanche. 9 others are missing

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Crews pushed through mountainous wilderness near Lake Tahoe during a snowstorm to rescue six backcountry skiers who survived an avalanche but were trapped by its snow and ice. Nine others from their tour group remained missing.

Two of the six were taken to a hospital for treatment, said Ashley Quadros, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff’s office said Tuesday night that there were 15 skiers on the trip — not 16 as initially believed.

Search and rescue crews were dispatched to Frog Lake in the Castle Peak area, northwest of Lake Tahoe, after a 911 call reporting an avalanche and people buried. A powerful winter storm was moving through California at the time.

Extreme conditions in the Northern California mountains slowed the rescue effort. It took crews several hours to reach the skiers and take them to safety, where they were evaluated by the Truckee Fire Department.

Billionaire Les Wexner to be deposed in congressional probe of Epstein files

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Les Wexner’s long-time friendship with Jeffrey Epstein will be the subject of a closed-door congressional deposition in Ohio on Wednesday, where the billionaire retail magnate is expected to face questions about new revelations contained in the latest release of Justice Department documents related to the late sexual predator.

Wexner, 88, the retired founder of L Brands, has said he plans to cooperate with a subpoena from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

As one of Epstein’s most prominent former friends, Wexner has already spent years answering for their decades-long association. In court documents, prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that Wexner was one of the men Epstein trafficked her to.

Wexner has consistently denied any knowledge of or involvement in the millionaire financier’s crimes and says he never met Giuffre. He told L Brands investors in 2019 that he was embarrassed that he ever got close to someone “so sick, so cunning, so depraved.”

He has never been accused of wrongdoing and the overall picture provided by the DOJ documents is that Epstein did not run a sex trafficking ring.

Takaichi reelected as Japan's prime minister with a goal of pushing to the right

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was reappointed Wednesday by Parliament to form her second Cabinet, following last week's landslide election win that she hopes will allow a hard-right move to the country's policies. All previous ministers are expected to be retained.

Takaichi will look to use the symbolism of the day, seen as a formality, to further boost her ruling Liberal Democratic Party as it looks to capitalize on a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two parliamentary chambers.

Her goals include an increase in military power, more government spending and strengthened conservative social policies.

Having two-thirds control of the 465-seat lower house allows Takaichi’s party to dominate top posts in house committees and push through bills rejected by the upper house, the chamber where the LDP-led ruling coalition lacks a majority.

Takaichi wants to bolster Japan’s military capability and arms sales, tighten immigration policies, push male-only imperial succession rules and preserve a criticized tradition that pressures women into abandoning their surnames.

There was 'a bridge called Jesse Jackson' across decades of civil rights advocacy

CHICAGO (AP) — From the moment the Rev. Jesse Jackson stepped forward as torchbearer to what was then a largely Southern civil rights struggle — a movement with much unfinished business — he created a bridge.

From the South’s fight with Jim Crow to the North’s battle with systemic racial inequality, from the buttoned-up, conservative generation of King’s circle to the dashiki-wearing Black Power leaders and the activists of the hip-hop generation, Jackson forged a link between improbable dreams and political power.

“From Martin Luther King to Barack Obama, there’s a bridge called Jesse Jackson,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader's assassination, died on Tuesday, his family said. He was 84.

Jackson kept up his public advocacy for racial justice, economic and political inclusion, and civil and human rights for more than a half-century, even after a neurological disorder in his later years affected his ability to move and speak.

Shooter killed ex-wife and a son in Rhode Island ice rink attack, police say

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — The person who opened fire Monday during a youth hockey game at a Rhode Island ice rink was specifically targeting family members, killing an ex-wife and son as many fans dived for cover while a handful rushed the shooter to stop the attack, authorities said.

Pawtucket Chief of Police Tina Goncalves said the shooter's ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed and three others were injured: Rhonda Dorgan's parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, and a family friend Thomas Geruso, all of whom remained in critical condition Tuesday afternoon, Goncalves said

Police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dorgan also went by the names Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano, authorities said.

Goncalves said there was “no indication” there would be violence at the ice rink in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, adding that Dorgan had been to many hockey games to watch family members play before without incident.

Gender identity apparently was a contributing factor to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage.

Ukrainian and Russian envoys hold a second day of US-brokered talks in Geneva

GENEVA (AP) — Envoys from Moscow and Kyiv met Wednesday in Geneva for a second consecutive day of U.S.-brokered talks, with officials trying to bridge political and military differences stemming from Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago.

“Consultations are taking place in working groups by areas within the political and military tracks,” the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, wrote in English on X. “We are working on clarifying the parameters and mechanisms of the decisions discussed yesterday.”

The negotiations in Switzerland are the third round of direct talks organized by the U.S., after meetings earlier this year in Abu Dhabi that officials described as constructive but yielded no breakthrough.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on social media that Washington’s push for peace in Ukraine over the past year has “brought about meaningful progress.” He didn’t elaborate, and the fighting has continued.

The two armies are locked in battle on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line, while Russia bombards civilian areas of Ukraine. Overnight, Russia launched one ballistic missile and 126 long-range drones at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said.

Police in Nancy Guthrie investigation say glove DNA didn't match anything in national database

DNA from gloves found a few miles from the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie did not match any entries in a national database, authorities said Tuesday, the 17th day of her disappearance.

“There were no DNA hits in CODIS," the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said, referring to the national Combined DNA Index System.

"At this point, there have been no confirmed CODIS matches in this investigation,” the department said, suggesting that other DNA samples had been put through the system.

CODIS is a storehouse of DNA taken from crime suspects or people with convictions. Any hits could identify possible suspects in Guthrie's disappearance.

The sheriff's department said it's looking to feed DNA evidence into other “genetic genealogy" databases. It did not elaborate.

FBI, St. Paul police probing ICE arrest that resulted in skull fractures

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers last month, seeking to identify what caused the eight skull fractures that landed the man in the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital.

Investigators from the St. Paul Police Department and FBI last week canvassed the shopping center parking lot where Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wrested him from a vehicle, threw him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the head with a steel baton.

ICE has blamed Castañeda Mondragón for his own injuries, saying he attempted to flee while handcuffed and “fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.”

But hospital staff who treated the man told The Associated Press such a fall could not plausibly account for the man's brain hemorrhaging and fragmented memory. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told the AP were inconsistent with a fall.

Earlier this month, the AP published an interview with Castañeda Mondragón in which he said the arresting officers had been “racist” and “ started beating me right away when they arrested me.” His lawyers have contended ICE racially profiled him.

Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir launches in 22 languages, turning horror into hope for survivors

PARIS (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir was released on Tuesday in 22 languages worldwide, sharing details of the horror she went through and sending a powerful message of hope and support to victims of sexual abuse.

“I wanted my story to help others,” Pelicot told French national channel France 5 last week ahead of the release of her book, “A Hymn to Life, Shame has to Change Sides.”

Pelicot recounted her story of survival in the book and in her first series of interviews since the landmark 2024 trial that turned her into a global icon against sexual violence and imprisoned her husband, who drugged her so other men could assault her.

“Today I’m doing better, and this book allowed me to engage in self-reflection, to take stock of my life,” she said. “I had to try to rebuild myself on this field of ruins. Today I am a woman standing strong.”

Pelicot said her book is meant to deliver “a message of hope to all the women who are going through a very complicated period in their lives.”