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

Noem made the announcement on the social media platform X. She said the body-worn camera program is being expanded nationwide as funding becomes available.

“We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” Noem said in the social media post.

The news of the body cameras comes as Minneapolis has been the site of intense scrutiny over the conduct of immigration enforcement officers after two U.S. citizens protesting immigration enforcement activities in the city were shot and killed.

There have been increased calls by critics of Homeland Security to require all of the department’s officers who are responsible for immigration enforcement to wear body cameras.

Father of 5-year-old detained in Minnesota disputes government assertion he abandoned the boy

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The father of a 5-year-old boy who was detained by immigration officers and held at a federal facility in Texas denied government accounts Monday that he abandoned his son last month while being pursued by authorities.

As the pair returned to Minnesota, Adrian Conejo Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, told ABC News that he loves his son, Liam, and would never abandon him, disputing statements from the Department of Homeland Security, which alleged that Arias had left his child in a vehicle. He also said his son got sick while in federal custody but was denied medicine.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Arias fled on foot before he was arrested, “abandoning his child.” She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stayed with the boy.

“The facts in this case have NOT changed: The father who was illegally in the country chose to take his child with him to a detention center," she said.

McLaughlin did not address Arias' statement that his son was denied medication while in custody.

Speaker Johnson faces tough choices on partial government shutdown and debate over ICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson faces tough days ahead trying to muscle a federal funding package to passage and prevent a prolonged partial government shutdown as debate intensifies over the Trump administration's sweeping immigration enforcement operations.

Johnson signaled he is relying on help from President Donald Trump to ensure passage. Trump struck a deal with senators to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package after public outrage over two shooting deaths during protests in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the plan approved by the Senate, DHS would be funded temporarily to Feb. 13, setting up a deadline for Congress to try to find consensus on new restrictions on ICE operations.

“The president is leading this,” Johnson, R-La., told “Fox News Sunday.”

“It’s his play call to do it this way," the speaker said, adding that the Republican president has “already conceded that he wants to turn down the volume” on federal immigration sweeps and raids.

A first test will come Monday afternoon during a committee meeting when Johnson will need his own GOP majority to advance the package after Democrats refused to provide the votes for speedy consideration. Johnson said he is hopeful work can wrap up for a full House vote, at least by Tuesday.

Trump plans to lower tariffs on Indian goods to 18% after India agreed to stop buying Russian oil

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to lower tariffs on goods from India to 18%, from 25%, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.

The move comes after months of Trump pressing India to cut its reliance on cheap Russian crude. India has taken advantage of reduced Russian oil prices as much of the world has sought to isolate Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Trump said that India would also start to reduce its import taxes on U.S. goods to zero and buy $500 billion worth of American products.

“This will help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of people dying each and every week!” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the tariff reduction on India.

Modi posted on X that he was “delighted” by the announced tariff reduction and that Trump's “leadership is vital for global peace, stability, and prosperity.”

'Today' show host Savannah Guthrie's mother is missing in Arizona and authorities suspect crime

The disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie over the weekend is being investigated as a crime based on what authorities saw at her home, an Arizona sheriff said Monday.

Asked to explain why investigators believe the Tucson-area home is a crime scene, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said Nancy Guthrie has limited mobility and said there were other things indicating she did not leave on her own, but he declined to further elaborate.

“I need this community to step up and start giving us some calls,” Nanos said during a news conference.

The sheriff said Guthrie, who lived alone, was of sound mind.

“This is not dementia related. She’s as sharp as a tack. The family wants everyone to know that this isn’t someone who just wandered off,” Nanos said, adding that she needs her daily medication.

Hundreds pack an Ohio church to back extending protected status for Haitians in the US

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — In a church crowded to overcapacity, two-dozen faith leaders and their audience of hundreds sang and prayed together in unity Monday as a sign of support for Haitian migrants, some of whom fear their protected status in the United States may be ended this week.

Religious leaders representing congregations from across the United States attended the event at Springfield’s St. John Missionary Baptist Church, demanding an extension of the Temporary Protection Status that has allowed thousands of Haitian migrants to legally arrive in Springfield in recent years fleeing unrest and gang violence in their homeland. The TPS designation for Haiti is set to expire Tuesday, and those gathered were hoping a federal judge might intervene and issue a pause.

“We believe in the legal system of this country of ours, we still believe. We believe that through the legal ways, the judge hopefully will rule in favor of current TPS holders today that will allow them to stay while we continue to fight,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told the packed church.

“We have been called for such a time as this to protect those who have nowhere else to go. They cannot go back to Haiti,” she said.

So many people turned up for the church event that a fire marshal had to ask 150 to leave because the building had exceeded its 700-person capacity. Hundreds joined a choir clapping and singing: “You got to put one foot in front of the other and lead with love.”

Musk joins his rocket and AI businesses into a single company before an expected IPO this year

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is joining his space exploration and artificial intelligence ventures into a single company before a massive planned initial public offering for the business later this year.

His rocket venture, SpaceX, announced on Monday that it had bought xAI in an effort to help the world’s richest man dominate the rocket and artificial intelligence businesses. The deal will combine several of his offerings, including his AI chatbot Grok, his satellite communications company Starlink, and his social media company X.

Musk has talked repeatedly about the need to speed development of technology that will allow data centers to operate in space, a goal that may become easier in the combined company.

Palestinians allowed in to Gaza and patients are evacuated to Egypt as the Rafah crossing reopens

CAIRO (AP) — A dozen Palestinian returnees were allowed into Gaza from Egypt late Monday after the long-awaited reopening of the Rafah border crossing was marred by delays. Their arrival came hours after a small group of medical evacuees was ferried from the territory into Egypt.

The reopening of the crossing marked a key step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but mostly a symbolic one, with few people allowed to travel and no goods allowed to pass through. The limitations were apparent Monday as crossings fell well short of the 50 people officials had said would be allowed to move in each direction.

About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care hope to leave the devastated territory via the crossing, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to enter and return home.

The crossing had been closed since Israeli troops seized it in May 2024. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful. Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry.

Ambulances queued for hours at the border before ferrying patients into Egypt, the state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television channel showed. Just before midnight, a bus arrived in Gaza carrying Palestinian returnees who had fled the fighting early in the war. As the vehicle entered the compound of a hospital in Khan Younis, a girl wearing barrettes and an older woman stood just inside the front door, waving to relatives anxious for their return.

2-month-olds see the world in a more complex way than scientists thought, study suggests

A new study suggests that babies are able to distinguish between the different objects they see around them at 2 months old, which is earlier than scientists previously thought.

The findings, published Monday in Nature Neuroscience, may help doctors and researchers better understand cognitive development in infancy.

“It really tells us that infants are interacting with the world in a lot more complex of a way than we might imagine,” said lead author Cliona O’Doherty. “Looking at a 2-month-old, we maybe wouldn’t think that they’re understanding the world to that level.”

The study looked at data from 130 2-month-olds who underwent brain scans while awake. The babies viewed images from a dozen categories commonly seen in the first year of life, such as trees and animals. When babies looked at an image like a cat, their brains might “fire” a certain way that researchers could record, O'Doherty said. If they looked at an inanimate object, their brains would fire differently.

The technique — known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI — allowed scientists to examine visual function more precisely than in the past. Many previous studies relied on how long an infant looked at an object, which can be difficult to assess at younger ages. Some of those past studies suggested that infants as young as 3 to 4 months could distinguish between categories such as animals and furniture.

Couples at the Westminster show bond over dogs, and each other

NEW YORK (AP) — Must love dogs. Really, really love dogs.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show spotlights the bond between people and dogs. But reaching the United States' premier canine event also can be about another kind of love.

“For me, it would be very hard to do this without somebody who was as vested in it as I am,” said two-time Westminster-winning handler Bill McFadden, who's half of a dogdom power couple. His wife, Taffe McFadden, handled the second-place winner in 2019, and she and Bono the Havanese are among past finalists set to appear Monday evening in a special tribute to Westminster's 150th annual show.

Yes, the McFaddens — who met at a dog show in the late 1970s and married in 1985 — have faced and sometimes beaten each other at various shows. And no, there are no hard feelings.

“I think some of my best memories are watching Taffe win best in show,” Bill said Saturday while the couple readied for Westminster. “If one of us takes the big ribbon home, it’s awesome. Doesn’t matter which one.”