AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT

The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November. That also brings uncertainty about how things will unfold and will delay payments for many beneficiaries whose cards would normally be recharged early in the month.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs about $8 billion per month nationally.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture committee that oversees the food aid program, said Friday's rulings from judges nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama confirm what Democrats have been saying: "The administration is choosing not to feed Americans in need, despite knowing that it is legally required to do so.”

Trump posted on social media Friday blasting congressional Democrats for the shutdown and suggesting the government would comply with the rulings but also that it needed more clarity first: “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding."

Trump says Senate should scrap the filibuster to end the government shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats and reopen the federal government.

“THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social.

The filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown when the new fiscal year began.

Trump's call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate and congressional dealmaking operate, with the president saying in his post that he gave a “great deal” of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday.

Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, finishing his tour by meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Unidentified remains of 3 people transferred to Israel, Red Cross says

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Red Cross said it transferred the unidentified remains of three people to Israel late Friday but they were still being examined and may not be those of missing hostages, an Israeli military official said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media, said the remains had earlier been turned over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza.

The handover follows Israel's return Friday of the bodies of 30 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza. That completed an exchange after militants turned over remains of two hostages, in a sign that the tense Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement is edging forward.

The incremental progress came despite Israeli strikes on Gaza this week that killed more than 100 people following the killing of an Israeli soldier.

The bodies were also transferred with the Red Cross serving as intermediary. The return of the Palestinian remains was confirmed by a doctor at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where medical workers were striving to identify them.

Multiple people have been arrested in Michigan in a Halloween weekend attack plot, FBI director says

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Multiple people who had been allegedly plotting a violent attack over the Halloween weekend were arrested Friday in Michigan, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.

The law enforcement effort was focused on suburban Detroit. Patel said more information would be released later.

Investigators believe the plot was inspired by Islamic State extremism and are investigating whether those in custody were potentially radicalized online, according to two people briefed on the investigation who could not publicly discuss details. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

FBI and state police vehicles were in a neighborhood near Fordson High School in Dearborn. People wearing shirts marked FBI walked in and out of a house, including one person who collected paper bags and other items from an evidence truck.

Police in Inkster, another suburb, said FBI personnel were at a storage facility there.

Trump declines to clarify if the US will conduct tests of its nuclear weapons

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump declined to say Friday whether he plans to resume underground nuclear detonation tests, as he had seemed to suggest in a social media post this week that raised concerns the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades.

The president told reporters "You’ll find out very soon,” without elaborating when asked if he means to resume underground nuclear detonation tests.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered few details on Friday when asked about what nuclear testing the Pentagon would oversee. But he seemed to indicate to reporters that the intent was to test warheads when he said “resuming testing” would be “pretty responsible."

Trump, who spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for a weekend stay, said, “We’re going to do some testing” and “Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going to” but then refused to offer more details.

His comments on nuclear testing have drawn confusion inside and outside the government when the president seemed to suggest in a brief post that the U.S. would resume nuclear warhead tests on an “equal basis” with Russia and China, whose last known tests were in the 1990s. Some of Trump's comments seemed to refer to testing missiles that would deliver a warhead, rather than the warhead itself. There has been no indication that the U.S. would start detonating warheads.

Royal prerogative: King Charles III banishes Andrew to buttress the House of Windsor's foundations

No one is bigger than the monarchy. Not even the king’s brother.

In the end, that reality spelled the end of Andrew’s life as a prince of the realm.

As details of Andrew’s links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued to dribble out and Parliament raised questions about his rent-free residence at a sprawling country house near Windsor Castle, King Charles III moved Thursday to shield the monarchy from any further revelations.

In a statement issued by Buckingham Palace, the king said he had taken steps to strip his brother of all his titles and honors, including the one he has held since birth — prince. From now on, the scandal-plagued British royal will be known simply as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

Andrew is also being forced to move out of Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he has lived for more than 20 years.

Militia attack on hospital in Darfur came in waves, WHO says

CAIRO (AP) — Groups of gunmen who reportedly killed at least 460 people at a hospital in Sudan attacked in several waves, abducting doctors and nurses, then gunning down staff, patients and people sheltering there, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The attack Tuesday in the country’s Darfur region was part of a reported rampage by the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, as it captured the key city of el-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months. Witnesses have reported fighters going house-to-house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults.

Many details of the hospital attack and other violence in the city have been slow to emerge, and the total death toll remains unknown.

The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal, two-year war between the RSF and the military in Africa’s third-largest country.

The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher. The war has displaced more than 14 million people and fueled outbreaks of diseases believed to have killed thousands. Famine has been declared in parts of Darfur, a region the size of Spain, and other parts of the country.

Ohio panel and Virginia lawmakers move forward with congressional redistricting plans

An Ohio panel adopted new U.S. House districts on Friday that could boost the GOP’s chances of winning two additional seats in next year’s elections and aid President Donald Trump’s efforts to hold on to a slim congressional majority.

The action by the Ohio Redistricting Commission came as Virginia's Democratic-led General Assembly advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that could pave the way for redistricting in the state ahead of the 2026 congressional elections. That measure needs another round of legislative approval early next year before it can go to voters.

Trump has been urging Republican-led states to reshape their U.S. House districts in an attempt to win more seats. But unlike in other states, Ohio’s redistricting was required by the state constitution because the current districts were adopted after the 2020 census without bipartisan support.

Ohio joins Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers already have revised congressional districts.

Democrats have been pushing back. California voters are deciding Tuesday on a redistricting plan passed by the Democratic-led Legislature.

Monkey escape in Mississippi gives a glimpse into the secretive world of animal research

The recent escape of several research monkeys after the truck carrying them overturned on a Mississippi interstate is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and the processes that allow key details of what happened to be kept from the public.

Three monkeys have remained on the loose since the crash on Tuesday in a rural area along Interstate 59, spilling wooden crates labeled “live monkeys” into the tall grass near the highway. Since then, searchers in masks, face shields and other protective equipment have scoured nearby fields and woods for the missing primates. Five of the 21 Rhesus macaques on board were killed during the search, according to the local sheriff, but it was unclear how that happened.

Mississippi authorities have not disclosed the company involved in transporting the monkeys, where the monkeys were headed or who owns them. While Tulane University in New Orleans has acknowledged that the monkeys had been housed at its National Biomedical Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, it said it doesn't own them and won't identify who does.

An initial report from the sheriff described the monkeys as “aggressive” and carrying diseases such as herpes, adding to the confusion. Tulane later said the monkeys were free of pathogens, but it is still unclear what kind of research the monkeys were used for.

The questions surrounding the Mississippi crash and the mystery of why the animals were traveling through the South are remarkable, animal advocates say.

Amazon carries Wall Street to the finish of another winning week and month

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon led the U.S. stock market on Friday to the finish of another winning week and month.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and pulled closer to its all-time high set on Tuesday. It closed out a third straight winning week and a sixth straight winning month, its longest monthly winning streak since 2021.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 40 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%.

Amazon led the way and jumped 9.6%. The retail giant was by far the strongest force lifting the market after reporting profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations. CEO Andy Jassy said growth for its booming cloud-computing business has accelerated to a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022.

Amazon’s massive size of roughly $2.4 trillion means its stock movements carry more weight on the S&P 500 than almost any other company’s. Without it, the S&P 500 would have been down for the day.