AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT

The arraignment lasted less than half an hour, but it was nonetheless loaded with historical significance given that the case has amplified concerns the Justice Department is being weaponized in pursuit of the Republican president's political enemies and is operating at the behest of an administration determined to seek retribution.

Comey's not guilty plea to allegations that he lied to Congress five years ago kick-starts a process of legal wrangling that could culminate in a trial months from now at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington. Defense lawyers said they intend to ask that the case be thrown out before trial on grounds that it constitutes a vindictive prosecution and also plan to challenge the legitimacy of the appointment of the prosecutor who filed the charges just days after Trump hastily appointed her to her position.

“It’s the honor of my life to represent Mr. Comey in this matter,” one of Comey's lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald, a longtime friend who served with him in President George W. Bush's Justice Department, said in court on Wednesday.

The indictment two weeks ago followed an extraordinary chain of events that saw the Trump administration effectively force out the prosecutor who had been overseeing the Comey investigation and replace him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who previously served as one of the president's former lawyers but had never served as a federal prosecutor. The president also publicly implored Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and other perceived adversaries.

Top officials from US and Qatar join talks aimed at brokering peace in Gaza

CAIRO (AP) — The United States' top Middle East adviser, the prime minister of Qatar and other senior officials joined the third day of peace talks between Israel and Hamas in an Egyptian resort on Wednesday, a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza.

Hamas says it's seeking firm guarantees from mediators that Israel won't resume its military campaign in the Palestinian territory after the militant group releases all the remaining hostages.

All sides have expressed optimism for a deal to end the two-year war that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and most of the Gaza Strip destroyed. But key parts of the peace plan still haven't been agreed to, including a requirement that Hamas disarm, the timing and extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and the creation of an international body to run the territory after Hamas steps down.

In a sign the talks were going well, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s considering a trip to the Middle East within a matter of days.

“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week,” Trump said from the White House on Wednesday as he opened a roundtable event on a different matter. The trip could occur on Sunday, Trump said, adding that “negotiations are going along very well.”

Federal government shutdown grinds into a week two as tempers flare at the Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate repeated its loop Wednesday of failed votes to reopen the government. President Donald Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest.

As the government shutdown entered a second week, there's no discernible endgame in sight.

“Congress, do your damn job,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, with other top union leaders near the Capitol.

No negotiations, at least publicly, are underway, but behind the scenes quiet talks are emerging. Clusters of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are meeting privately, searching for ways out of the impasse, which hinges on striking a deal for preserving health care subsidies.

Signs of discomfort are apparent: Military personnel and federal employees are set to miss paychecks, flights are being delayed at airports nationwide and federal programs are disrupted. Confrontations erupted at the Capitol.

IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce as the government shutdown enters a second week

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce on Wednesday as part of the ongoing government shutdown, according to an updated contingency plan posted to its website. Most IRS operations are closed, the agency said in a separate letter to its workers.

The news comes after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to fund federal operations, and the government shutdown has entered its second week, with no discernible endgame in sight.

The agency's initial Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan, which provided for the first five business days of operations, stated that the department would remain open using Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act funds.

Now, only 39,870 employees, or 53.6%, will remain working as the shutdown continues. It is unclear which workers will remain on the job.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement that taxpayers should expect increased wait times, backlogs and delays implementing tax law changes as the shutdown continues.

Trump says Illinois governor and Chicago mayor should be jailed as they oppose Guard deployment

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the Illinois governor and Chicago mayor should be jailed as they oppose his deployment of National Guard troops for his immigration and crime crackdown in the nation's third-largest city. The officials said they would not be deterred.

The Republican president made the comment in a social media post, the latest example of his brazen calls for his Democratic opponents to be prosecuted or locked up — a break from longtime norms as the Justice Department traditionally has strived to maintain its independence from the White House.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker “should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” It was a reference to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It was not immediately clear what Trump was objecting to.

Johnson, in a post on X, said, “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere.” Pritzker, also on X, said, “I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”

Authorities charge man with sparking deadly January wildfire that leveled LA neighborhoods

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 29-year-old man has been charged with sparking California’s deadly Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in its history, authorities said Wednesday.

Federal officials said Jonathan Rinderknecht, who lived in the area, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through Pacific Palisades, home to many of Los Angeles’ rich and famous.

The fire that left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.

Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday in Florida and made his first court appearance Wednesday in Orlando on charges including malicious destruction by means of a fire, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt while shackled at the ankles, he told a federal magistrate in a soft-spoken voice that he was not under the influence and did not have mental issues.

The judge set a hearing for Oct. 17 to consider bond and extradition proceedings. Messages seeking comment were left for Aziza Hawthorne, the federal assistant public defender assigned to represent Rinderknecht.

Trump has yet to provide Congress hard evidence that targeted boats carried drugs, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has yet to provide underlying evidence to lawmakers proving that alleged drug-smuggling boats targeted by the U.S. military in a series of fatal strikes were in fact carrying narcotics, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

As bipartisan frustration with the strikes mounts, the Senate was voting Wednesday on a war powers resolution that would require the president to seek authorization from Congress before further military strikes on the cartels.

The military has carried out at least four strikes on boats that the White House said were carrying drugs, including three it said originated from Venezuela. It said 21 people were killed in the strikes.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly about the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration has only pointed to unclassified video clips of the strikes posted on social media by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and has yet to produce “hard evidence" that the vessels were carrying drugs.

The administration has not explained why it has blown up vessels in some cases, while carrying out the typical practice of stopping boats and seizing drugs at other times, one of the officials said.

Last of 10 New Orleans jail escapees from May is captured under a house in Atlanta

ATLANTA (AP) — A monthslong search for the only Louisiana inmate still on the run after an audacious May jailbreak ended Wednesday when authorities say they found him hiding in a crawl space beneath an Atlanta home, bringing the last of the 10 escapees into custody.

Derrick Groves, 28, was convicted of murder and facing a possible life sentence before the inmates escaped through a hole behind a toilet in a New Orleans jail. He had the most violent criminal record of the group and authorities offered a $50,000 reward for tips leading to his capture.

A SWAT team spent hours searching the house for Groves after obtaining a warrant, Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fair said.

“They couldn’t find him, they had to deploy gas multiple times into the house and basement,” Fair said. “Based on how long it took a seasoned, well-trained SWAT team to get him out, he had planned to hide for a while.”

A police dog eventually located him, Atlanta police Deputy Chief Kelley Collier said. In video provided by the department, Groves — shirtless, shoeless and shackled at his wrists and ankles — blew a kiss and grinned at the camera as he was led into a police car.

Retired Justice Kennedy laments coarse discourse of Trump era and its effects on the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said Wednesday he was troubled that partisanship seemed to be “creeping its way into the court,” and that the state of political discourse in the country has gotten so vulgar and vile that he worries for the country.

The tone of recent opinions bothers him more than outcomes of cases, Kennedy said in an interview with The Associated Press in his court office in advance of next week's publication of his memoir, “ Life, Law & Liberty.”

“The justices have to resist thinking of themselves as being partisan,” he said. “In our current discourse, it seems to me, partisanship is creeping its way into the court.”

He declined to identify any justices or opinions, but at another point he returned to the personal nature of some court opinions.

“Of course, when you disagree, you criticize the other, but you criticize the opinion and the reasoning. You don’t criticize the author,” he said during the nearly hourlong interview. “And that point seems to be eclipsed. Some of the recent opinions are attacks on your colleagues, on the judges. I was astounded, very worried about it.” From members of Congress who use “ the four-letter F-word ” in public to President Donald Trump, Kennedy said he is routinely put off by what he is hearing.

Joan Kennedy, first wife of Sen. Edward Kennedy, has died

BOSTON (AP) — Joan B. Kennedy, the former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who endured a troubled marriage marked by family tragedies, her husband’s infidelities and her own decades-long struggles with alcoholism and mental health, died on Wednesday. She was 89.

The former Joan Bennett, one of the last remaining members of a family generation that included President John F. Kennedy, was a model and classically-trained pianist when she married Ted Kennedy in 1958.

Their lives would change unimaginably over the next decade and a half. Brother-in-law John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960 and assassinated three years later. Brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy served as attorney general under JFK, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and assassinated while seeking the presidency.

Her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate and became among the country’s most respected legislators despite initial misgivings that he was capitalizing on his family connections. But Ted Kennedy also lived through scandals of his own making. In 1969, the car he was driving plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his young female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

Kennedy, who swam to safety and waited hours before alerting police, later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. Chappaquiddick shadowed him for the rest of his life, weighing against his own chances for the presidency.