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

Investigators were still piecing together information about the suspect, Tyler Robinson, and not yet ready to discuss a potential motive. But Cox noted that Robinson, who is not cooperating with law enforcement, disliked Kirk and may have been “radicalized” online.

“There clearly was a leftist ideology,” Cox said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” citing interviews with Robinson’s relatives and acquaintances. “Friends have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep.”

He pointed to references found engraved on the ammunition used to kill Kirk, which included anti-fascist and meme-culture language. Court records show that one bullet casing had the message, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”

A Republican who has called on all partisans to tone down their rhetoric following the attack, the governor added: “I really don’t have a dog in this fight. If this was a radicalized MAGA person, I’d be saying that as well.”

After Kirk's killing a growing chorus of conservatives wants his critics ostracized or fired

BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey (AP) — After years of complaints from the right about “cancel culture” from the left, some conservatives are seeking to upend the lives and careers of those who disparaged Charlie Kirk after his death. They’re going after companies, educators, news outlets, political rivals and others they judge as promoting hate speech.

A campaign by public officials and others on the right has led just days after the conservative activist's death to the firing or punishment of teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit and the expectation of more dismissals coming.

This past weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk's assassination.

“This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” Duffy said on the social media site X.

As elected officials and conservative influencers lionize Kirk as a warrior for free expression who championed provocative opinions, they’re also weaponizing the tactics they saw being used to malign their movement — the calls for firings, the ostracism, the pressure to watch what you say.

Rubio is in Israel in wake of Qatar attack as Israeli strikes intensify in northern Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Israel on Sunday as its military intensified attacks on northern Gaza, flattening multiple high-rise building and killing at least 13 Palestinians.

Rubio said before the trip that he would seek answers from Israeli officials about their view of a path forward in Gaza, following Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar last week that upended efforts to broker an end to the conflict.

His two-day visit also represents a show of support for the increasingly isolated Israel as the United Nations holds what is expected to be a contentious debate next week on commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Rubio's visit proceeded despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger at Netanyahu over the Israeli strike in Doha, which he said the United States wasn't notified of beforehand.

On Sunday, Netanyahu, Rubio and their wives, along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, toured the Western Wall and the excavated tunnels near it.

Pope Leo XIV marvels at his 'huge learning curve' in an interview released on his 70th birthday

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV marveled at the “huge learning curve” he has taken on as pontiff and likened some aspects of the job to jumping “in on the deep end of the pool very quickly," in excerpts of an interview released Sunday on his 70th birthday.

The pope also lamented widening income gaps between the working class and CEOs, recalling the recent news that Elon Musk could be in line to become the world's first trillionaire.

“If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble," Leo said in the comments, the pope's first interview as history’s first American pope.

The comments came just a day after Musk's brother's company, Nova Sky Stories, staged a light show over the Vatican featuring 3,000 drones depicting images from the Sistine Chapel and even Pope Francis' face.

The interview was conducted this summer by Vatican correspondent Elise Ann Allen for her forthcoming biography of Leo. Excerpts were published Sunday on Allen’s Catholic news site Crux, and in the El Comercio daily of Peru.

Trump administration renews push to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook ahead of key vote

President Donald Trump’s administration renewed its request Sunday for a federal appeals court to let him fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, a move the president is seeking ahead of the central bank’s vote on interest rates.

The Trump administration filed a response just ahead of a 3 p.m. Eastern deadline Sunday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, arguing that Cook’s legal arguments for why she should stay on the job were meritless. Lawyers for Cook argued in a Saturday filing that the Trump administration has not shown sufficient cause to fire her, and stressed the risks to the economy and country if the president were allowed to fire a Fed governor without proper cause.

Sunday’s filing is the latest step in an unprecedented effort by the White House to shape the historically independent Fed. Cook’s firing marks the first time in the central bank’s 112-year history that a president has tried to fire a governor.

“The public and the executive share an interest in ensuring the integrity of the Federal Reserve,” Trump’s lawyers argued in Sunday’s filing. “And that requires respecting the president’s statutory authority to remove governors ‘for cause’ when such cause arises.”

Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accused Cook of signing separate documents in which she allegedly said that both the Atlanta property and a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also purchased in June 2021, were both “primary residences.” Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department, which has opened an investigation.

Sugar Coke? Department of War? Where some of Trump's most jaw-dropping promises stand

WASHINGTON (AP) — Given just how much President Donald Trump talks in public, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with all of his promises — even his most outlandish ones.

Once a pledge has been made, though, the president has a way of making notions that once seemed implausible inch toward appearing routine the more he repeats them.

Sometimes he even fully manages to make them happen. Other times, though, what he says goes nowhere at all.

A look at a few of Trump’s especially jaw-dropping recent musings and where they stand:

WHERE IT STANDS: Promise kept — but pending congressional approval.

Political leaders confront security concerns — and fear — after Kirk's assassination

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — Even before the killing of Charlie Kirk, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was struggling with the emotional toll of political violence.

In the middle of the night just five months ago, someone broke into his home and set it on fire. Shapiro, who is also a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, was asleep with his wife and children.

And in the weeks since his family fled the blaze, Shapiro has been forced to confront the vexing questions now consuming elected officials in both parties as they face the impact of Kirk's assassination on their own public lives.

“The emotional challenge for me that’s been the hardest to work through is that, as a father, the career I chose, that I find great purpose and meaning in, ended up putting my children’s lives at risk,” Shapiro, a father of four, told The Associated Press. “Make no mistake, the emotional burden of being a father through this has been something that continues to be a challenge for me to this day.”

Across the nation, it is much the same for Republican and Democratic officials after another stunning act of political violence. Politicians in both parties and at virtually every level of public service are suddenly being forced to deal with acute security concerns — and feelings of grief, anger and fear — as they move deeper into a fraught election season.

Brazil's Lula pushes back against tariff, tells Trump the country's democracy 'is not on the table'

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday pushed back against a 50% tariff on Brazilian imported goods to the United States, arguing that it was “political” and “illogical.”

Lula said in a New York Times op-ed that his government is open to negotiating anything that can bring mutual benefits. “But Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the tariff on Brazil in July, citing what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time stood accused of trying to illegally hang onto power.

The trial came to an end on Thursday after a panel of Supreme Court justices ruled that Bolsonaro had attempted a coup after his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula, sparking fears of further U.S. measures against Brazil.

Lula said he was proud of the Supreme Court for its “historic decision” which safeguards Brazil's institutions, the democratic rule of law and is not a “witch hunt.”

Fox News' Brian Kilmeade apologizes for saying mentally ill homeless people should be executed

Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade apologized on Sunday for advocating for the execution of mentally ill homeless people in a discussion on the network last week, saying his remark was “extremely callous.”

Kilmeade's initial comment came on a “Fox & Friends” episode Wednesday and began getting widespread circulation online over the weekend. Kilmeade, a host of the morning show, was talking with co-hosts Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt about the Aug. 22 stabbing murder of Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A homeless and mentally ill man, Decarlos Brown Jr., was arrested for murder, and the case received extensive attention on Fox following the release of a security video of the stabbing.

Jones was talking on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday about public money spent on trying to help homeless people and suggested that those who didn't accept services offered to them should be jailed.

“Or involuntary lethal injection, or something,” Kilmeade said. “Just kill 'em.”

Texas A&M jumps to No. 10 in the AP Top 25, Notre Dame is the first ranked 0-2 team since 1988

NEW YORK (AP) — Texas A&M made a big jump into the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll Sunday after its dramatic win at Notre Dame, and the Irish became the first team since 1988 to stay in the Top 25 with an 0-2 record.

Ohio State, Penn State and LSU remained the top three teams, with Miami moving up to No. 4 and Georgia to No. 5 even after a close call at No. 15 Tennessee.

Oregon slipped two spots to No. 6 despite a 20-point road win against Northwestern and was followed by Florida State, Texas, Illinois and the Aggies.

Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Southern California made their season debuts in the Top 25.

Ohio State tussled with Ohio into the middle of the third quarter of a 37-9 win and received 55 first-place votes, two fewer than last week. Penn State got five first-place votes, LSU got two, Miami got three and Oregon got one. The Hurricanes’ first-place votes are their first since getting three on Nov. 19, 2017.