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

The women were accused of participating in the nationwide protests that shook Iran a week earlier, a friend of the pair told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for her security as she described the Jan. 16 arrests.

Such arrests have been happening for weeks following the government crackdown last month that crushed the protests calling for the end of the country’s theocratic rule. Reports of raids on homes and workplaces have come from major cities and rural towns alike, revealing a dragnet that has touched large swaths of Iranian society. University students, doctors, lawyers, teachers, actors, business owners, athletes and filmmakers have been swept up, as well as reformist figures close to President Masoud Pezeshkian.

They are often held incommunicado for days or weeks and prevented from contacting family members or lawyers, according to activists monitoring the arrests. That has left desperate relatives searching for their loved ones.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has put the number of arrests at more than 50,000. The AP has been unable to verify the figure. Tracking the detainees has been difficult since Iranian authorities imposed an internet blackout, and reports leak out only with difficulty.

Rubio's speech to European allies takes a softer tone but sticks to Trump's firm stance

MUNICH (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a reassuring message to America’s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities after more than a year of President Donald Trump’s often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies.

Reminding his audience at the annual Munich Security Conference about America’s centuries-long roots in Europe, Rubio said the United States would remain forever tied to the continent even as it pushes for changes in the relationship and the institutions that have been the bulwark of the post-World War II world order.

Rubio addressed the conference a year after Vice President JD Vance stunned the same audience with a harsh critique of European values. A series of Trump administration statements and moves targeting allies followed, including Trump’s short-lived threat last month to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had opened this year's gathering by calling for the U.S. and Europe to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together,” saying that even the U.S. isn’t powerful enough to go it alone in an world whose old order no longer exists. But he and other European officials made clear that they will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.

While offering a calmer and more reassuring tone, Rubio made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on policy. He denounced “a climate cult” and “an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies.”

Zelenskyy says questions remain for allies over security guarantees for Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his international allies for their support but suggested there was still questions remaining over the future security guarantees for his country.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked American and European allies for helping Ukraine by providing air defense systems that protect infrastructure like power plants and “save lives.”

Previous U.S.-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Later with reporters, Zelenskyy questioned how the concept of a free trade zone — proposed by the U.S. — would work in the Donbas region which Russia insists Kyiv must give up in order to get peace.

He also said the Americans want peace as quickly as possible and that U.S. team wants to sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time whereas Ukraine wants guarantees over the country's future security signed first.

US, Iran to hold new round of nuclear talks in Geneva this week, Swiss government says

GENEVA (AP) — Iran and the United States will hold a second round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear program next week, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

Oman, which welcomed the first round of indirect talks on Feb. 6, will host the talks in Geneva, the Swiss ministry said, without specifying which days.

After the first discussions, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be “very traumatic.”

Similar talks last year broke down in June as Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran that included the U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump also has threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests there.

MSF suspends some work at Gaza's Nasser Hospital due to presence of armed men

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Doctors Without Borders has announced the suspension of some operations at one of Gaza 's largest functioning hospitals after patients and staff reported seeing armed, masked men roaming parts of the building.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is one of the territory's few functioning hospitals. Hundreds of patients and war-wounded have been treated there daily, and the facility was a hub for Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages as part of the current ceasefire deal.

It was a rare announcement by an international organization about the presence of armed men in a medical facility in Gaza since the war began over two years ago.

The aid group also known by its acronym MSF said in a statement all its noncritical medical operations at Nasser Hospital were suspended due to security breaches that posed “serious" threats to its teams and patients. MSF said there had been an increase in patients and staff seeing armed men in parts of the compound since the U.S.-brokered October ceasefire was reached.

“MSF teams have reported a pattern of unacceptable acts including the presence of armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients and a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons,” it said.

Russia poisoned Alexei Navalny with dart frog toxin, European nations say

LONDON (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said Saturday.

The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis in European labs of samples taken from Navalny's body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” The neurotoxin secreted by dart frogs in South America is not found naturally in Russia, they said.

A joint statement said: “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.”

The five countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There was no immediate comment from the organization.

Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.

Prime Minister Carney and Canada's main opposition leader hold hands during school shooting vigil

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s main opposition leader held hands Friday as they paid tribute to the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in the country’s history at a vigil in a devastated British Columbia town.

Carney and Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre joined hands as an Indigenous leader sang a prayer outside the town hall in Tumbler Ridge.

Carney and Poilievre also spoke. The prime minister named each of the six people killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and said the mother and brother of the shooter who were killed also “deserve to be mourned.”

Authorities said the 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs, in their home on Tuesday before heading to the nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire, killing five children and an educator before killing herself.

Carney said he sat with people who are “living through something no one should ever have to endure.”

US military strikes another alleged drug boat in Caribbean, killing 3

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea.

U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.

Friday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people in at least 38 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared last week that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

TSA agents are working without pay at US airports due to another shutdown

A shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that took effect early Saturday impacts the agency responsible for screening passengers and bags at airports across the country. Travelers with airline reservations may be nervously recalling a 43-day government shutdown that led to historic flight cancellations and long delays last year.

Transportation Security Administration officers are expected to work without pay while lawmakers remain without an agreement on DHS' annual funding. TSA officers also worked through the record shutdown that ended Nov. 12, but aviation experts say this one may play out differently.

Trade groups for the U.S. travel industry and major airlines nonetheless warned that the longer DHS appropriations are lapsed, the longer security lines at the nation's commercial airports could get.

Here’s what to know about the latest shutdown and how to plan ahead.

Funding for Homeland Security expired at midnight. But the rest of the federal government is funded through Sept. 30. That means air traffic controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration will receive paychecks as usual, reducing the risk of widespread flight cancellations.

Minneapolis left to decide future of streetside memorials to 2 people killed by federal officers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota winds down, Minneapolis will need to decide how to manage makeshift memorial sites for two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents last month.

Piles of flowers, signs and artwork swiftly formed to commemorate the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the locations where they were fatally shot. The memorials are the site of candlelight vigils and musical performances and draw a regular stream of visitors.

The public grieving spots echo the community-driven memorial to George Floyd, who was murdered in 2020 by a police officer less than one mile (1.61 kilometers) from Good's killing. It took the city more than five years to figure out how to officially memorialize the site of George Floyd Square, and construction is set to begin this year.

Now, the city has two more high-profile memorials to manage.

A memorial for Good sprung up within hours of her Jan. 7 killing on a Minneapolis street.