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

The records arrived with public anticipation that they could offer the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls. But it remained unclear how much substantive new information was included in the photos, call logs, grand jury testimony and interview transcripts, or how much if any additional insight might be gleaned about Epstein’s relationships with rich and powerful contacts.

The files were being released in accordance with a congressionally set deadline of Friday, but the Justice Department signaled that it would not fully meet that mark, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche telling Fox News Channel that he expected the department to release “several hundred thousand” records Friday and then several hundred thousand more in the coming weeks.

Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein’s rich and powerful associates knew about — or participated in — the abuse. Epstein’s accusers have also long sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.

Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on Nov. 19 signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in a federal jail. The law’s passage was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.

The Latest: Justice Department begins releasing case files on Jeffrey Epstein

The Department of Justice has begun releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein. The convicted sex offender and wealthy financier was known for his connections to some of the world’s most powerful people, including President Donald Trump, who had long tried to keep the files sealed.

The department faced a Friday deadline to release the files.

Ahead of Trump’s Friday evening visit to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, some residents say they can't escape an economic squeeze. Trump is visiting presidential battleground states to champion his economic policies ahead of next year's consequential midterm elections.

And Trump’s “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast is raising new questions about the legality of his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. could be edging closer to war.

The Latest:

Brown attack suspect died the two days before his body was found, autopsy finds

An autopsy determined that the man suspected in last weekend's attack at Brown University and the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor days later had been dead for two days when his body was found, New Hampshire's attorney general's office said Friday

Authorities found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility on Thursday night, said Providence’s police chief, Col. Oscar Perez.

The autopsy determined that Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who had been living in the U.S., died on Tuesday, the same day that his countryman, MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro died at a hospital, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella's office said in a statement. It didn't note an exact time of death.

Authorities believe that after killing two students and wounding nine others last Saturday at Brown, where he was a graduate student studying physics during the 2000-01 school year, Neves Valente shot Loureiro at his Boston-area home on Monday night.

Investigators on Friday were still trying to sort out why Neves Valente allegedly opened fire on the campus decades after he dropped out and later killed Loureiro, whom he attended school with in Portugal in the 1990s.

Suspect in Brown University shooting and MIT professor’s killing was once a physics student

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Thirty years ago, Claudio Neves Valente and Nuno F.G. Loureiro were classmates with bright futures. Both excelled in physics and made their way from their home country of Portugal to the U.S., settling on the campuses of prestigious East Coast universities.

But Neves Valente’s path took a darker turn than his former peer. Investigators say the 48-year-old fatally shot two students last week at Brown University in Providence, where he was a graduate student in the early 2000s, and later killed Loureiro, who led one of the largest laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Authorities have offered no motive for the shootings or elaborated on what, if any, history was between the two men.

Neves Valente’s was found dead Thursday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility, ending a search that started with last Saturday's shooting in a Brown lecture hall, where nine other people were also wounded. Authorities believe that on Monday, two days after the Brown shooting, Neves Valente shot Loureiro at the professor's home in the Boston suburbs, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Providence. An autopsy found Neves Valente died Tuesday.

In high school, Neves Valente had been a promising physics student, but he was let go from Portugal’s premier engineering school, Instituto Superior Técnico, in 2000 and withdrew from a Brown University graduate program three years later without a degree.

States faces a choice on whether to embrace Trump's tax cuts on tips, overtime and more

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — To tax tips or not? That is a question that will confront lawmakers in states across the U.S. as they convene for work next year.

President Donald Trump’s administration is urging states to follow its lead by enacting a slew of new tax breaks for individuals and businesses, including deductions for tips and overtime wages, automobile loans and business equipment.

In some states, the new federal tax breaks will automatically apply to state income taxes unless legislatures opt out. But in many other states, where tax laws are written differently, the new tax breaks won't appear on state tax forms unless legislatures opt in.

In states that don't conform to the federal tax changes, workers who receive tips or overtime — for example — will pay no federal tax on those earnings but could still owe state taxes on them.

States that embrace all of Trump's tax cuts could provide hundreds of millions of dollars of annual savings to certain residents and businesses. But that could financially strain states, which are being hit with higher costs because of new Medicaid and SNAP food aid requirements that also are included in the big bill Trump signed.

Supreme Court sides with immigration judges in speech case for now, rebuffing Trump administration

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with immigration judges on Friday, rebuffing the Trump administration for now in a case with possible implications for federal workers as the justices weigh expanding presidential firing power.

The decision is a technical step in a long-running case, but it touches on the effects of a series of high-profile firings under President Donald Trump. The justices let stand a ruling that raised questions about the Trump administration's handling of the federal workforce, though they also signaled that lower courts should move cautiously.

Immigration judges are federal employees, and the question at the center of the appeal is about whether they can sue to challenge a policy restricting their public speeches or if they are required to use a separate complaint system for the federal workforce.

Trump's Republican administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene after an appeals court found that Trump’s firings of top complaint system officials had raised questions about whether it's still working as intended.

The Justice Department said the firings are within the president’s power and the lower court had no grounds to raise questions. The solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to quickly freeze the ruling as he pushes to have the immigration judges’ case removed from federal court.

Young conservative women find a home in Turning Point with Charlie Kirk's widow at the helm

PHOENIX (AP) — Camdyn Glover used to be a quiet conservative. She worried what her teachers would think or if she would lose friends over her convictions. But she said something changed when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September, and she started crying in her classroom at Indiana University while other students cheered and clapped.

“We can’t be silenced,” Glover decided.

Now she's visiting Phoenix with her parents and brothers for this year’s Turning Point USA conference, the first to take place since Kirk’s death. Although the organization became a political phenomenon with its masculine appeals to college men, it’s also been expanding outreach to young women like Glover. The shift is poised to accelerate now that Turning Point is led by Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, who has embraced her new role at the helm of a conservative juggernaut with chapters across the country.

If successful, the organization that helped return President Donald Trump to the White House could narrow a gender divide that has been a persistent challenge for Republicans. Turning Point offers a blend of traditional values, such as encouraging women to prioritize marriage over careers, and health trends pushed by online influencers.

Glover, 18, said discovering Turning Point in high school gave her an appreciation for dialogue when she felt like an outcast for her beliefs, such as being anti-abortion. At her first conference, she feels like she's found a political and cultural home for herself.

Trump administration will appeal judge's order reversing federal funding cuts at Harvard

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge's order reversing billions of dollars in funding cuts to Harvard University, extending a standoff over the White House's demands for reforms at the Ivy League school.

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal late on Thursday in a pair of consolidated lawsuits brought by Harvard and the American Association of University Professors. The case has tested the government's power to sway the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, which has resisted a pressure campaign targeting elite colleges around the country.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled in September that the Trump administration's sweeping funding cuts violated Harvard's First Amendment rights. The judge said the government put unconstitutional conditions on Harvard's federal funding and failed to follow federal procedures allowing the government to sanction universities for civil rights violations.

The Trump administration cut more than $2.6 billion from Harvard over allegations that it had been slow to deal with anti-Jewish bias on campus. Burroughs rejected that notion, saying the government was using antisemitism “as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

The notice of appeal is a first step in the government's effort to have the ruling overturned. It does not provide legal arguments behind the appeal.

Nodding off is dangerous. Some animals have evolved extreme ways to sleep in precarious environments

Every animal with a brain needs sleep — and even a few without a brain do, too. Humans sleep, birds sleep, whales sleep and even jellyfish sleep.

Sleep is universal “even though it’s actually very risky,” said Paul-Antoine Libourel, a researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France.

When animals nod off, they're most vulnerable to sneaky predators. But despite the risks, the need for sleep is so strong that no creature can skip it altogether, even when it's highly inconvenient.

Animals that navigate extreme conditions and environments have evolved to sleep in extreme ways — for example, stealing seconds at a time during around-the-clock parenting, getting winks on the wing during long migrations and even dozing while swimming.

For a long time, scientists could only make educated guesses about when wild animals were sleeping, observing when they lay still and closed their eyes. But in recent years, tiny trackers and helmets that measure brain waves — miniaturized versions of equipment in human sleep labs — have allowed researchers to glimpse for the first time the varied and sometimes spectacular ways that wild animals snooze.

Stocks rise on Wall Street as AI stocks turn higher again

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks gained ground on Wall Street Friday for a second straight day, wiping away losses from earlier in the week.

Technology stocks were once again the main force behind the market's broader moves, especially companies with a focus on artificial intelligence. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed out the week with gains, despite several stumbles early this week.

The S&P 500 rose 59.74 points, or 0.9%, to 6,834.50. It notched a 0.1% gain for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183.04 points, or 0.4%, to 48,134.89.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq made the biggest move. It rose 301.26 points, or 1.3%, to 23,307.62 and notched a 0.5% gain for the week.

Nvidia was the biggest force driving the market higher, with a 3.9% gain. Broadcom jumped 3.2%.