Israel identifies the remains of one more hostage

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel says the remains of another hostage that Hamas handed over the day before have been identified as Eliyahu Margalit, as the Palestinian militant group looks for more bodies under the rubble in the Gaza Strip and urges more aid to be allowed into the embattled enclave.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said Saturday Margalit's body was identified after testing by the National Center for Forensic Medicine and his family has been notified. The 76-year-old was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, from the horse stables where he worked in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Margalit is the 10th returned hostage body since the ceasefire went into effect over a week ago. Hamas handed over an 11th body this week, but it wasn’t that of a hostage. The effort to find the remains followed a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would green-light Israel to resume the war if Hamas doesn’t live up to its end of the deal and return all hostages’ bodies, totaling 28.

In a statement Saturday, the hostage forum, which supports the families of those abducted, said Margalit's return brings a measure of solace to his family, but that they won’t rest until the remaining 18 hostages come home. The forum says it will continue holding weekly rallies until all remains are returned.

The handover of hostages' remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, has been among the key sticking points — along with aid deliveries, the opening of border crossings into Gaza and hopes for reconstruction — in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of devastating war in Gaza.

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After Zelenskyy meeting, Trump calls on Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop where they are’ and end the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump's frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments he edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia.

“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelenskyy and his team for more than two hours of talks. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!”

Later, soon after arriving in Florida, where he's spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to “stop the war immediately” and implied that Moscow keep territory it’s taken from Kyiv.

“You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it's too complicated,” Trump told reporters. "You stop at the battle line and both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.”

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US has seized survivors after strike on suspected drug-carrying vessel in Caribbean, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States took survivors into custody after the military struck a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, a defense official and another person familiar with the matter said Friday.

It is the first known attack that anyone has escaped alive since President Donald Trump began launching deadly strikes in the waters off Venezuela last month and raises questions about how the U.S. will treat the survivors.

Trump later confirmed the attack during an event at the White House. “We attacked a submarine, and that was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs” he said.

Secretary of State Rubio did not dispute that there were survivors, but he repeatedly said details would be forthcoming.

The strike Thursday, at least the sixth since early September, brought the death toll from the Trump administration’s military action against vessels in the region to at least 28.

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Alaska storm damage so bad many evacuees won’t go home for at least 18 months, governor says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won’t be able to return to their homes for at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.

In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 homes — or 90% of the total — have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, slightly more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.

The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck the area with the ferocity of a Category 2 hurricane, Dunleavy said, sending a surge of high surf into the low-lying region. One person was killed, two remain missing, and rescue crews plucked dozens of people from their homes as they floated away.

Officials have been scrambling to airlift people from the inundated Alaska Native villages. More than 2,000 people across the region have taken shelter — in schools in their villages, in larger communities in southwest Alaska or have been evacuated by military planes to Anchorage, the state's largest city.

Anchorage leaders said Friday they expect as many as 1,600 evacuees to arrive. So far about 575 have been airlifted to the city by the Alaska National Guard, and have been staying at a sports arena or a convention center. Additional flights were expected Friday and Saturday.

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Bolton pleads not guilty in Justice Department case accusing him of sharing government secrets

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — John Bolton pleaded not guilty Friday to charges accusing the former Trump national security adviser turned critic of emailing classified information to family members and keeping top secret documents at his Maryland home.

Bolton was ordered released from custody after making his appearance before a judge in the third Justice Department case brought in recent weeks against an adversary of President Donald Trump.

The case accusing Bolton of putting the country’s national security at risk is unfolding against the backdrop of growing concerns that the Trump administration is using the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to pursue his political foes. Bolton has signaled he will argue he is being targeted because of his criticism of the president, describing the charges as part of a Trump "effort to intimidate his opponents.”

The investigation into Bolton, however, was already well underway by the time Trump took office a second time this past January and appears to have followed a more conventional path toward indictment than other recent cases against perceived Trump foes, who were charged by the president's hand-picked U.S. attorney in Virginia over the concerns of career prosecutors.

Bolton is accused of sharing with his wife and daughter more than 1,000 pages of notes that included sensitive information he had gleaned from meetings with other U.S. government officials and foreign leaders or from intelligence briefings. Authorities say some of the information was exposed when operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email account he used to send diary-like notes about his activities to his relatives.

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Afghan and Pakistani delegations in Doha for crisis talks

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan and Pakistani delegations arrived in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Saturday, hoping to defuse the deadliest crisis between them in several years after more than a week of fighting killed dozens of people and injured hundreds on both sides.

Both governments have sent their defense ministers to lead the talks, which, Pakistan said, would focus on “immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and restore peace and stability along the border.”

Each country says it is responding to aggression from the other. Afghanistan denies harboring militants who carry out attacks in border areas.

Regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have called for calm, as the violence threatened to further destabilize a region where groups including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida are trying to resurface.

A 48-hour ceasefire intended to pause hostilities expired Friday evening. Hours later, Pakistan struck across the border.

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With no takers yet, White House meets with colleges still weighing an agreement with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The five universities that were still weighing President Donald Trump’s higher-education compact were asked to join a White House call Friday to discuss the proposed deal. By late Friday afternoon, one of the schools — the University of Virginia — had already declined to sign the agreement.

The meeting with university presidents, first reported by The Associated Press, was an “important step toward defining a shared vision,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a post on X. She called for “renewed commitment to the time-honored principles that helped make American universities great" and said she looked forward to more dialogue.

The White House has faced a flurry of rejections after inviting nine universities to become “initial signatories” of the so-called compact, which asked colleges to make commitments aligned with Trump’s political priorities in exchange for favorable access to research funding. It was the latest effort by Trump's administration to bring to heel prestigious universities that conservatives describe as hotbeds of liberalism.

The White House asked university leaders to provide initial feedback on the compact by Oct. 20, yet as the deadline approaches, none has signed on to the document. Those that have not yet announced a decision are Dartmouth College, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas and Vanderbilt University. They did not immediately respond to questions about Friday’s call. Leaders of the University of Texas system previously said they were honored to be included, but other universities still weighing the deal have not indicated how they’re leaning.

After the meeting, McMahon took a collaborative tone, speaking of ongoing discussions with universities and referencing continued federal funding.

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Trump commutes sentence of former US Rep. George Santos in federal fraud case

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who was slated to serve more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.

Joseph Murray, one of Santos’ lawyers, told The Associated Press late Friday that the former lawmaker was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey, around 11 p.m., and was greeted outside the facility by his family.

The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.

He reported to FCI Fairton on July 25 and was housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.

“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison," Trump posted on his social media platform. He said he had “just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY.”

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Democrats say Trump needs to be involved in shutdown talks. He's shown little interest in doing so

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is showing little urgency to broker a compromise that would end the government shutdown, even as Democrats insist no breakthrough is possible without his direct involvement.

Three weeks in, Congress is at a standstill. The House hasn’t been in session for a month, and senators left Washington on Thursday frustrated by the lack of progress. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed, while Democrats say they won’t agree without guarantees on extending health insurance subsidies.

For now, Trump appears content to stay on the sidelines.

He spent the week celebrating an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal he led, hosted a remembrance event for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and refocused attention on the Russia-Ukraine war. Meanwhile, his administration has been managing the shutdown in unconventional ways, continuing to pay the troops while laying off other federal employees.

Asked Thursday whether he was willing to deploy his dealmaking background on the shutdown, Trump seemed uninterested.

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US blocks a global fee on shipping emissions as international meeting ends without new regulations

With trade threats from President Donald Trump, the U.S. derailed the world’s first global carbon fee on shipping as an international maritime meeting adjourned Friday without adopting regulations.

Earlier this year, amid much fanfare, the world’s largest maritime nations agreed on the regulations, which would impose a fee on carbon pollution to clean up shipping. The next step of the process — adopting the regulations — during the International Maritime Organization meeting in London this week was widely expected to be a formality.

Instead, after much pressure from Trump, along with Saudi Arabia and a handful of other countries, delegates decided to postpone the decision by a year and adjourn. In the interim, nations will continue to negotiate and work toward consensus.

The development underscored how the influence of Trump, who recently called climate change a “con job,” extends globally to policies aimed at combating climate change.

“Faced with pressure, too many governments chose political compromise over climate justice, and in doing so, abandoned the countries bearing the brunt of the climate crisis,” said Emma Fenton, senior director for climate diplomacy at a U.K.-based climate change nonprofit, Opportunity Green.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025