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The Eaton Fire leaves devastation in a neighborhood Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 2025-01-19T06:04:17Z The house was burning with her brother-in-law and nephew inside when Jackie McDaniels flagged down a firetruck and begged for help. “Whoever is in there is no longer alive,” she recalled one of the firemen telling her before urging her to flee her Altadena neighborhood. “I pray to God that they were. But it was horrible to have to leave them there.” Now McDaniels, like so many, is facing the gripping realities of grief and questions about what more could have been done. Experts say these survivors are victims themselves; the fires that swept through the Los Angeles area this month were fast-moving and fierce. “It’s really just a different beast of a fire when it’s this propagating entity of just total mayhem,” said Benjamin Hatchett, a fire meteorologist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University. But that doesn’t ease the pain or the questions for the families of the more than two dozen killed, some unable to escape, others unaware of what was coming, having survived other blazes unscathed. Among the dead is Dalyce Curry, who rubbed shoulders with some of the elites of old Hollywood in her youth. To family, she went by a different name. “Momma Dee, that’s the fire,” her granddaughter and namesake, Dalyce Kelley, recalls saying as she drove the 95-year-old to her Altadena home on Jan. 7 after a day of medical tests. But the flames they saw seemed so far away and power was still on. Now Kelley wishes she would have asked more questions, wishes she would have returned earlier. “I will live with that regret for the rest of my life,” she said. That saddens Jennifer Marlon, a wildfire and climate research scientist at Yale’s School of the Environment. She said larger factors were at play, the summer the warmest on record in California, drying out the vegetation that fueled the flames. “These are, by and large, not situations that people could have really anticipated,” she said. “It’s incredibly tragic that people are blaming themselves and wracked with guilt.” Yet it is a common response, said Tory Fiedler, a Red Cross disaster mental health manager who is helping to coordinate the response to the wildfires. “Most of us get our sense of self and value from what we do in service to others,” she said. “When I’m not able to do that, I feel bad about that,” she added. “I feel guilty that I didn’t get to help. I didn’t do enough. I survived and other people didn’t, and I can’t help them. And it’s not just I survived and other people didn’t, but I don’t know what to do about that.” Compounding the pain is the fact that many families are still awaiting formal notification from the medical examiner, a process that could take weeks. During that painful wait, Carol Smith has been praying. Her son, Randy Miod, a 55-year-old surfer, known to friends as Craw Daddy, had lived in his Malibu home for three decades, first as a renter and then the owner. Known as the “Crab Shack,” it was a popular hang-out spot for surfers, with loaner boards always available. She said he never evacuated for wildfires, including during the Franklin Fire in December that knocked out power to his home for three days. “I’m scared,” she recalled him telling her the last time they spoke. She begged of him, “Please, go somewhere safe, so I don’t worry.” But he wasn’t budging, telling her: “I’ve got the hose. And he said, ’Pray for the Palisades and pray for Malibu. And I love you.’” After human remains were found in the home, a detective told her that the fire was moving five football fields a minute, beyond the scope of what her son anticipated. In Altadena, cinders were flying as McDaniels packed her car in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 8. Before she left, her late sister’s husband, Anthony Mitchell, a 68-year-old amputee who lived nearby, assured her that an ambulance was coming to evacuate him and his 35-year-old son Justin Mitchell, who had cerebral palsy and was bed-bound. But as she neared the freeway, he called back, telling her, “Stay with me until they get here.” She pulled over and could hear her nephew, who loved his collection of children’s books and watched an eclectic mix of TV shows that included “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “The Golden Girls,” fretting in the background. Her brother-in-law was reassuring him: “Daddy’s here. I’m coming. Daddy’s coming. Daddy’s here.” But then the fire was upon them. The last word she heard her brother-in-law mutter was “help” before she sped to his home, black smoke greeting her when she flung open the door. “You’re helpless,” she recalled, saying she nearly got into a wreck herself as she fled, sobbing in the thick smoke, her own home destroyed, too. She is not quite sure what they could have done. The family thought the ambulance Anthony Mitchell called hours earlier would have arrived in time. Perhaps, had they known it wouldn’t, several relatives could have carried her nephew out with sheets, she said. Her nephew’s younger brother, 33-year-old Jordan Mitchell, lived at home so he could help care for his brother but was hospitalized with sepsis at the time, unable to do anything. “I very much told myself, I said, ‘I am my brother’s keeper,’ and I’m proud of that,” he said, noting that his SUV, which he chose because it fit his father and brother’s wheelchairs, survived the flames. “And I was very protective of him. I didn’t think he’d be gone this soon. I figured I’d be taking care of him the rest of my life.” MARK THIESSEN Thiessen is an Associated Press all-formats reporter based in Anchorage, Alaska. He covers Alaska Native issues and other general assignments. twitter mailto 获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, attends a weekly cabinet meeting on Jan. 3, 2023, in Jerusalem. (Atef Safadi/Pool Photo via AP, File) 2025-01-19T12:10:17Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s far-right national security minister resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Sunday to express his disapproval of the Gaza ceasefire deal. The resignation of Itamar Ben-Gvir does not threaten the ceasefire, but it does weaken Netanyahu’s governing coalition. If other far-right lawmakers leave the government — as Ben-Gvir has encouraged them to do — the prime minister could lose his parliamentary majority, potentially forcing early elections. It was the latest act of defiance by the 48-year-old ultranationalist settler leader who transformed himself over the decades from an outlaw and provocateur into one of Israel’s most influential politicians. Here is a closer look at Ben-Gvir: Why did Ben-Gvir oppose the ceasefire deal? The ceasefire will pause the war and free dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza. Ben-Gvir opposed the deal because it requires Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and to withdraw troops from Gaza’s southern border with Egypt — and because it leaves open the possibility of Hamas staying in power in Gaza. Ahead of the resignation, he said the ceasefire was “reckless” and would “destroy all of Israel’s achievements.” In his Cabinet post, Ben-Gvir oversaw the country’s police force. He used his influence to encourage Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and recently boasted that he had blocked past efforts to reach a ceasefire. He also has paid multiple visits to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site — the contested hilltop compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque — including last month. In one such visit in July, he said he came to pray for the return of the hostages “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.” The move, while legal, was seen as a provocation, violated a longstanding ban on Jewish prayer there, and threatened to disrupt months of sensitive negotiations. The site is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. Run-ins with the law Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offenses that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization. As a teen, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service. Ben-Gvir gained notoriety in his youth as a follower of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane. He first became a national figure when he broke a hood ornament off then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car in 1995. “We got to his car, and we’ll get to him too,” he said, just weeks before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians. Two years later, Ben-Gvir took responsibility for orchestrating a campaign of protests, including death threats, that forced Irish singer Sinead O’Connor to cancel a concert for peace in Jerusalem. Moving to the mainstream The political rise of Ben-Gvir was the culmination of years of efforts by the media-savvy lawmaker to gain legitimacy. But it also reflected a rightward shift in the Israeli electorate that brought his religious, ultranationalist ideology into the mainstream and diminished hopes for Palestinian independence. Ben-Gvir is trained as a lawyer and gained recognition as a successful defense attorney for extremist Jews accused of violence against Palestinians. With a quick wit and cheerful demeanor, the outspoken Ben-Gvir also became a popular fixture in the media, paving his way to enter politics. He was first elected to parliament in 2021. Ben-Gvir has called for deporting his political opponents, and in the past has encouraged police to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood, while brandishing a pistol. As national security minister, he has encouraged police to take a tough line against anti-government protesters. Controversial minister Ben-Gvir secured his Cabinet post after 2022 elections that put Netanyahu and his far-right partners, including Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party, into power. “Over the last year I’ve been on a mission to save Israel,” Ben-Gvir told reporters before that election. “Millions of citizens are waiting for a real right-wing government. The time has come to give them one.” Ben-Gvir has been a magnet of controversy throughout his tenure — encouraging the mass distribution of handguns to Jewish citizens, backing Netanyahu’s contentious attempt to overhaul the country’s legal system and frequently lashing out at U.S. leaders for perceived slights against Israel. In May, Ben-Gvir criticized Joe Biden when the U.S. president threatened to withhold certain military aid if Israel invaded Rafah. Ben-Gvir, using a heart emoji in a post on the social media platform X, wrote that Hamas loves Biden. Political fallout Ben-Gvir’s departure does not endanger the ceasefire, and Netanyahu still has a narrow parliamentary majority needed to keep power. But if other hard-liners follow suit, Netanyahu’s government could collapse, which would trigger early elections. “It’s probable that he has less survival time,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and analyst for Israeli public television station Kan News. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has said he will provide a political safety net to Netanyahu to ensure the government will not fall over the deal. But such a partnership is unlikely to last beyond the ceasefire because the two men do not get along and would have a difficult time working together, said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel with the International Crisis Group. MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel. 获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Anti-abortion supporters gather outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on June 4, 2019, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) 2025-01-19T05:11:55Z JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Voters in Missouri last election approved a constitutional amendment that promised to undo the state’s near-total abortion ban. The same day, they reelected a Republican supermajority to the state Legislature, including several of the same lawmakers who passed the abortion ban in 2019. Now, GOP lawmakers are working to roll back some, if not all, of the abortion rights protected under the new amendment. “Time and time again, the supermajority will spend taxpayer money on trying to undo the will of the voters,” said Missouri Democratic Rep. Emily Weber, who has been filing abortion-rights legislation for the past four years. Some Republicans have said enacting restrictions under the measure still adheres to voters’ wishes. “I haven’t heard anyone seriously discuss taking away the rape and incest exception,” Republican House Speaker Jonathan Patterson said. “To regulate it as the amendment asks us to do, I think it’s an appropriate thing to do.” Any changes to directly undo the amendment passed by voters would need to go back on the ballot, he said. Republicans likely won’t face any pushback at the polls for once again going after abortion and could benefit politically in conservative states like Missouri, experts said. Lawmakers from rural GOP strongholds have backing from their constituents to pursue such legislation and also face pressure to take a strong stand against abortion in order to survive primaries, said Mary Ziegler, a historian at the University of California, Davis, School of Law who studies abortion. “If you are a legislator from a conservative district in Missouri, you feel absolutely no threat from Democrats and you feel a considerable threat potentially from your right if you aren’t conservative enough on abortion,” Ziegler said. The seemingly contradictory dynamic between the abortion policies voters support and the candidates they elect is not unique to Missouri. Ohio voters added a right to abortion to their state’s constitution in November 2023, overriding a ban on abortions after cardiac activity is detected, about six weeks into pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant. Abortion rights advocates sued to have the ban invalidated, and the state’s Republican attorney general pushed back, seeking to keep elements of the 2019 law, including a parental notification provision and a requirement that people seeking an abortion make two in-person visits to their provider, wait 24 hours for the procedure and have their abortion recorded and reported. It took until October 2024 for a court to strike down the ban, though enforcement had previously been on hold. In Arizona, where voters also approved a right to abortion in 2024, health care providers have asked a court to strike down a previous ban on abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. There, Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has filed court papers saying she won’t enforce the old ban until after the lawsuit to invalidate it is resolved. Proposed laws in Missouri would outlaw abortion completely, only allow it in cases of medical emergencies, ban most abortions once cardiac activity is detected or ban it after fetal viability. Republicans say there is room to act without violating the abortion-rights amendment, which allows lawmakers to enact restrictions after viability except when necessary to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.” Patterson and others see a need for legislation that would define terms in the amendment, such as viability. Viability is a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. Though there’s no defined time frame, doctors say it is sometime after the 21st week of pregnancy. Republican state Rep. Brian Seitz said the “political reality” is that most Missouri voters likely would not vote for an amendment in line with his belief that life begins at conception. But Seitz also said he thinks many voters approved last year’s ballot measure because it was the only way to allow abortion access for cases of rape, incest and medical emergencies. And he said there is support among voters for some restrictions beyond that. “We can chip away at Amendment 3,” Seitz said. “I don’t think repeal is what’s going to happen in the short term.” A total repeal would need voter approval. University of Central Missouri political scientist Robynn Kuhlmann said a lack of competition between Democrats and Republicans insulates lawmakers from backlash at the polls. In Missouri, Kuhlmann estimated that roughly 95% of House seats were won by at least a 5% margin in 2024. And for more and more voters, she said “party seems to be taking precedence regardless of what actions have been occurring in the legislative arena.” “What may only matter at that point in time for the voter is whether or not there’s an R or a D behind the candidates’ names,” Kuhlmann said. Missouri’s abortion-rights amendment passed by a narrow margin — with close to 51% of the vote. Most support came from Kansas City, St. Louis, the college town of Columbia and surrounding areas. But counties throughout the rest of the state, particularly in rural areas, voted against the measure. Seitz, who is from the southwestern Missouri tourist destination of Branson, said people from his district, as well as his conscience, “declares that I should be doing something as an elected representative to promote life.” ___ Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Demonstrators light flares as they gather during a protest calling for the release of all hostages held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) 2025-01-19T06:54:42Z The Israeli military says it “continues to attack” inside the Gaza Strip as a dispute with Hamas delayed the start of a planned ceasefire. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, said the truce would not begin until Hamas hands over the names of three hostages to be released later on Sunday, echoing an earlier statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The truce had been set to go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time. Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons.” It said in a statement that it is committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week. Netanyahu said he had instructed the military that the ceasefire “will not begin until Israel has in its possession the list of hostages to be freed, which Hamas committed to provide.” He had issued a similar warning the night before. The ceasefire was set to pause the fighting after 15 months of war and see the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel’s Cabinet approved the deal early on Saturday. Brokered by mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt in months of indirect talks between the warring sides, the ceasefire is the second truce achieved in the devastating conflict. The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel killed some 1,200 people and left some 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half the dead. ___ Here’s the latest: Israel says it recovered the body of a soldier killed in 2014 hours before Gaza ceasefire DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli authorities said Sunday that forces had recovered and returned the body of a soldier killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, whose remains were held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said a complicated operation involving elite commando forces returned the body of Oron Shaul overnight Saturday. Shaul, 21 at the time of his death, was killed in battle in the war a decade ago. His body was snatched by Hamas and held since. Hamas still holds the body of another soldier killed during that war, Hadar Goldin. Both of the soldiers’ families had staged a public campaign to have the bodies returned. The bodies were expected to be returned as part of a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas in exchange for the hostages and bodies it holds. UN’s humanitarian affairs agency ramps up preparations to provide aid to Gaza UNITED NATIONS — The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs agency says it has ratcheted up its preparations for providing aid to Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas takes effect. Muhannad Hadi, the agency’s humanitarian coordinator for the territory, said Saturday the United Nations and its partners are ready to leverage the opportunity for large-scale relief. Hadi referenced in a statement the agreements reached on implementing humanitarian components in the first phase of the ceasefire, including the provision of supplies “including water, food, health and shelter to people across Gaza and the long-awaited release of hostages.” The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas it set to go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Sunday, mediator Qatar said. It will pause the fighting after 15 months of war and see the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Dozens of Israelis protest ceasefire deal in Jerusalem JERUSALEM — Dozens of Israelis protested the ceasefire deal in Jerusalem on Saturday night, briefly blocking a main road as they shouted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign and the war to continue. Many carried faux coffins draped in the Israeli flag as well as banners calling the ceasefire a “betrayal” of Israeli soldiers killed in the war. Yehoshua Shin, whose son was killed fighting Hamas militants on Oct. 7, criticized the deal for releasing Palestinians from prison and called on American president- elect Donald Trump to scrap the deal until there is “total victory” over the Hamas militant group. Netanyahu says Israel treating ceasefire with Hamas as temporary JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel is treating the ceasefire with Hamas as temporary and retains the right to continue fighting if necessary. Speaking to the nation just 12 hours before the ceasefire is to start, he claimed that he had the support of President-elect Donald Trump, who he said he spoke with on Wednesday. Netanyahu also touted Israel’s military successes in Lebanon and Syria as the reason Hamas agreed to a ceasefire. “We have changed the face of the Middle East,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu stressed that he was able to negotiate the best deal possible even as Israel’s far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Saturday he and most of his party would resign from the government in opposition. 获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Girls attend school on the first day of the new school year, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) 2025-01-19T07:18:07Z A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province. He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.” The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women. In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban. “We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. “We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.” Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve to have an education. He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before the introduction of a university ban. But the latest comments marked his first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia program, said Stanikzai had periodically made statements calling girls’ education a right of all Afghan women. “However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach,” Bahiss said. In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on women and girls’ education. She was speaking at a conference hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League. The U.N. has said that recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place and women can’t go out in public without a male guardian. No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, but countries like Russia have been building ties with them. India has also been developing relations with Afghan authorities. In Dubai earlier this month, a meeting between India’s top diplomat, Vikram Mistri, and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi showed their deepening cooperation.

A TikTok logo is shown on a phone in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) 2025-01-19T04:00:45Z NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok’s app was removed from prominent app stores on Saturday just before a federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect. By 10:50pm Eastern Standard Time, the app was not found on Apple and Google’s app stores, which are prohibited from offering the platform under a law that required TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a U.S. ban. When users opened the TikTok app on Saturday evening, they encountered a pop-up message from the company that prevented them from scrolling on videos. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message said. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” the message said. “Please stay tuned!” Before that announcement went out, the company had said in another message to users that its service would be “temporarily unavailable” and told them its working to restore its U.S. service “as soon as possible.” The federal law, that was signed by President Joe Biden last year, required ByteDance to divest its stake in the TikTok’s U.S. platform or face a ban. ByteDance had nine months to sell the U.S. operation to an approved buyer. The company, and TikTok, chose to take legal action against the law and ultimately lost their fight at the Supreme Court on Friday. Under the statute, mobile app stores are barred from offering TikTok and internet hosting services are prohibited from delivering the service to American users. Both White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco had said that the Biden administration would leave the law’s implementation to President-elect Donald Trump given that his inauguration falls the day after the ban takes effect. But TikTok said after the court ruling on Friday that it “will be forced to go dark” if the administration didn’t provide a “definitive statement” to the companies that deliver its service in the U.S. However, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s demand a “stunt” and said there was no reason for TikTok or other companies “to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office.” In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump said he was thinking about giving TikTok a 90-day extension that would allow them to continue operating. The federal law allows the sitting president to extend the deadline by 90 days if a sale is in progress. But no clear buyers have emerged, and ByteDance has previously said it won’t sell TikTok. If such an extension happens, Trump said it would “probably” be announced on Monday. On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter. If successful, the new structure would also include other investors and allow ByteDance’s existing shareholders to retain their stake in the company, the person said. Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon. Other investors have also been eyeing TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt put together offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok. HALELUYA HADERO Haleluya covers Amazon, retail and technology. twitter mailto

Stephen Miller attends the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) 2025-01-19T05:09:11Z The ominous letters went to hundreds of state and local officials across the U.S. two days before Christmas. It was a potential blueprint for how the Trump administration may attack “sanctuary” jurisdictions that resist mass deportations. They threatened criminal prosecutions and lawsuits going after officials’ personal finances. They invoked RICO, the federal statute often used to fight organized crime. “You and your subordinates could potentially face up to 20 years in prison,” America First Legal, a group led by current and former advisors to President-elect Donald Trump, said in the letter. Its president, Stephen Miller, will be deputy chief of policy in the new administration and is a longtime architect of Trump’s immigration policies. The letters’ targets: city, county and state officials in America’s sanctuary jurisdictions, a term rooted in medieval laws that today encompasses a range of protection for immigrants, particularly those living in the U.S. illegally. Sanctuary jurisdictions limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Some targets were chosen for statements they made after Trump’s election. Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, is taken to task for vowing to use “every tool in the toolbox” to resist mass deportations in her state. But most made the list for refusing to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement by holding people who are wanted for being in the country illegally. The warnings may signal part of a legal a roadmap for Trump’s crackdown on immigration and pledge of mass deportations. It accuses officials of violating several federal statutes, including one against immigrant smuggling and another against interfering with the work of federal officers. On Saturday, an official said a federal immigration operation concentrated in Chicago will begin after Trump takes office Monday, targeting more than 300 people with histories of violent crimes. Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades, and officials there have said they retreat on those commitments. Courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of most sanctuary laws. “Sanctuary laws don’t shield or harbor or conceal quote-unquote ‘illegal aliens,’” said Mark Fleming, a lawyer with the Chicago-based National Immigration Justice Center, a pro-immigration group. “What the laws do is they say ’Your role (as federal officials) is to do immigration enforcement. Our role is not, and we’re not going to participate.’” Immigration lawyers scoffed at the letters’ legal arguments. Police and officials in sanctuary jurisdictions are, they note, enforcing legally enacted laws. But officials, lawyers and immigration advocates are taking the letters seriously. The involvement of Miller, a senior advisor in Trump’s first term and a major figure in many policy decisions, particularly on immigration, means they have no choice. Plus, many say, the legal arguments may not even be relevant. “Letters like these are really more about sowing fear than they are about articulating anything that would hold up from a legal standpoint,” said Sirine Shebaya, an attorney and executive director of the National Immigration Project. It’s a fear that can be used against officials and against immigrants themselves. “We are hearing a lot of concern from our immigrant community members about whether the city will continue (as a sanctuary) or will they end it,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia. During the first Trump administration, the White House tried to use financial cudgels against sanctuary jurisdictions by denying them public safety grants that can be key for law enforcement budgets. Courts largely rejected those attempts, though some Trump loyalists say that could happen again in the incoming administration. The letters may signal that the cudgels will be legal. They went to well over 200 officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and county officials from Maine, Nebraska and California. They are largely identical, though occasionally personalized with details of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in a particular official’s jurisdiction. All are full of dire warnings. “You each could face criminal prosecution and civil liability for your illegal acts,” wrote James Rogers, senior counsel for America First Legal Foundation. “Employees in your jurisdiction involved in implementing sanctuary policies that prevent federal immigration officers from carrying out their duties would potentially face six years in prison,” he wrote. If most lawyers roll their eyes at such threats, they also know that weak legal arguments don’t necessarily stop prosecutions. “I think these threats are actually a critical cog in the strategy,” said Fleming. “Because the reality is that even if they lose, they can win by putting someone through this.” Fear of relentless court cases, particularly in smaller jurisdictions without teams of lawyers, could push officials to ease back on sanctuary laws, or even allow local law enforcement to work with federal immigration officers. ICE, which has just 21,000 employees, many of them administrators or support personnel, would need immense local law enforcement help to follow through on Trump’s promises of mass deportations The sanctuary designations have already caused deep divisions in some jurisdictions, with sheriffs in California, Washington and elsewhere vowing to ignore sanctuary policies. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he’s prepared to suspend elected officials if they are “neglecting their duties” under Trump’s promised immigration mandates. But Democratic leaders including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and New York’s Hochul vowed after Trump’s election that they would stand firm on their sanctuary policies. A few days after the election, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson insisted that the city’s police force would not help ICE agents with deportations. “We will not bend or break,” Johnson told reporters. The question is whether sanctuary officials will continue to stand firm in the face of personal legal threats and an incoming White House that has made clear immigration is a top focus. “Stephen Miller is going to be the deputy chief adviser to the president,” said R. Linus Chan, an attorney who works with immigrants detained by ICE, and a professor at the

Coco Gauff of the U.S. writes “RIP Tik Tok USA” after defeating Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in a fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake) 2025-01-19T05:04:32Z MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — American tennis star Coco Gauff mourned the loss of TikTok’s app back home, writing on a TV camera lens “RIP TikTok USA” and drawing a broken heart right after winning a match at the Australian Open to reach the quarterfinals. Gauff’s 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Belinda Bencic in the Grand Slam tournament’s main stadium finished on Sunday afternoon local time in Melbourne — about an hour after TikTok could no longer be found on prominent app stores on Saturday in the United States. Tennis players at many tournaments often are handed a pen after a win so they can deliver whatever thoughts they want via the lens of a courtside camera. In this case, Gauff paused a bit to think and said, “I think I’m going to go with this one,” before offering her TikTok message in blue ink. At the French Open in June 2022, after reaching her first Grand Slam final as a teenager, Gauff referred to a recent spate of mass shootings in the U.S. at the time and wrote in marker: “Peace. End gun violence.” Now 20, Gauff is one of the top players in her sport. She won the 2023 U.S. Open and is currently ranked No. 3. Gauff frequently has posted on TikTok, often mimicking popular trends. “I feel this is the third or fourth time this has happened. This time it’s just like, ‘Whatever.’ If I wake up and it doesn’t work, fine. I’m done wasting my time figuring it out,” Gauff said earlier during the Australian Open. “I see there’s a new app called RedNote that a lot of people are migrating over to. So I feel, regardless, people are going to be fine because people are always going to migrate to another app.” She added that she hoped TikTok would survive, calling it “a great thing for a lot of small businesses in our country, and a lot of creators make money on it and have the chance to spread stories. Personally, me, a lot of great stories I’ve heard are from TikTok and connecting with people has been (through) TikTok. I hope it will stay, (but) obviously I don’t know all the security issues and things like that.” A U.S. federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect. Apple and Google app stores are prohibited from offering TikTok under a law that required its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a ban in the U.S. When users opened the TikTok app, they encountered a pop-up message from the company that prevented them from scrolling on videos. ___ AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis HOWARD FENDRICH Fendrich is an Associated Press national writer based in Washington, D.C. He reports on tennis and other sports. twitter mailto

Police officers stand outside of the Seoul Western District Court after supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol broke into the court in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. The letters read “The Seoul Western District Court.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 2025-01-19T05:39:52Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hours after South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was formally arrested, triggering rioting by his supporters, his lawyers said Sunday that he remains defiant in his refusal to answer questions over the probe into his declaration of martial law last month. Yoon was formally arrested early on Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul. He faces possible imprisonment over his short-lived authoritarian push, which set off the country’s most serious political crisis since its democratization in the late 1980s. Yoon’s arrest could mark the beginning of an extended period in custody, lasting months or more. The decision to arrest Yoon ignited unrest at the Seoul Western District Court, where dozens of his supporters broke in and rioted, destroying the main door and windows. They used plastic chairs, metal beams and police shields that they managed to wrestle away from officers. Some were seen throwing objects and using fire extinguishers, destroying furniture and office machines, smashing glass doors and spraying water on computer servers. They shouted demands to see the judge who had issued the warrant, but she had already left. Hundreds of police officers were deployed and nearly 90 protesters were arrested. Some injured police officers were seen being treated at ambulance vans. The court said it was trying to confirm whether any staff members were injured and assess the damage to its facilities. Court describes Yoon as threat to destroy evidence In granting law enforcement’s request for an arrest warrant for Yoon, the court said he was a threat to destroy evidence. Yoon and his lawyers on Saturday appeared before the court and argued for his release. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, which is leading a joint investigation with police and the military, can now extend Yoon’s detention to 20 days, during which they will transfer the case to public prosecutors for indictment. Investigators are examining whether Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law decree amounted to an attempted rebellion. While South Korean presidents have wide-ranging immunity from prosecution while in office, the protection does not extend to allegations of rebellion or treason. Yoon’s lawyers could also file a petition to challenge the court’s arrest warrant. Yoon Kab-keun, one of the president’s lawyers, said he will not attend a questioning by the anti-corruption agency set for Sunday afternoon and will remain at the detention center. Yoon Suk Yeol’s appearance in court caused chaotic scenes in nearby streets, where thousands of his fervent supporters rallied for hours calling for his release. Even before the court issued the warrant for Yoon’s arrest, protesters repeatedly clashed with police. At least two vehicles carrying anti-corruption investigators were damaged as they left the court after arguing for Yoon’s arrest. Yoon’s defense minister, police chief and several top military commanders have already been arrested and indicted for their roles in the enforcement of martial law. Yoon’s lawyer decries his arrest The crisis began when Yoon, in an attempt to break through legislative gridlock, imposed military rule and sent troops to the National Assembly and election offices. The standoff lasted only hours after lawmakers who managed to get through a blockade voted to lift the measure. The opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on Dec. 14. His political fate now lies with the Constitutional Court, which is deliberating whether to formally remove him from office or reinstate him. Seok Dong-hyeon, another lawyer representing Yoon, called the court order for his arrest “the epitome of anti-constitutionalism and anti-rule of law.” He pointed to the riot and said Yoon’s arrest would inspire more anger from his supporters. Yoon’s People Power Party regretted his arrest but also pleaded for his supporters to refrain from further violence. The liberal opposition Democratic Party, which drove the legislative effort to impeach Yoon, said his arrest would be a “cornerstone for restoring the collapsed constitutional order.” It also called for stern punishment of the rioters. The country’s acting leader, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, expressed “strong regret” about the riot, saying it “directly undermines democracy and the rule of law.” He asked for heightened security at the sites related to Yoon’s case, also including the Constitutional Court, and measures to ensure order during protests. After its investigators were attacked by protesters later on Saturday, the anti-corruption agency asked media companies to obscure the faces of its members attending the hearing. Yoon insists his martial law decree was legitimate Yoon and his lawyers have claimed that the martial law declaration was intended as a temporary and “peaceful” warning to the liberal opposition, which he accuses of obstructing his agenda with its legislative majority. Yoon says the troops sent to the National Election Commission offices were to investigate election fraud allegations, which remain unsubstantiated in South Korea. Yoon has stressed he had no intention of stopping the functioning of the legislature. He stated that the troops were sent there to maintain order, not prevent lawmakers from entering and voting to lift martial law. He denied allegations that he ordered the arrests of key politicians and election officials. Military commanders, however, have described a deliberate attempt to seize the legislature that was thwarted by hundreds of civilians and legislative staff who helped lawmakers enter the assembly, and by the troops’ reluctance or refusal to follow Yoon’s orders. If prosecutors indict Yoon on rebellion and abuse of power charges, which are the allegations now being examined by investigators, they could keep him in custody for up to six months before trial. If the first court convicts him and issues a prison term, Yoon would serve that sentence as the case possibly moves up to the Seoul High Court and Supreme Court. Under South Korean law, orchestrating a rebellion is punishable by life

Demonstrators hold portraits of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip during a protest calling for their immediate release in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) 2025-01-19T05:44:46Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Sunday that the ceasefire in Gaza will not begin until Israel has received a list of the hostages set to be released from Hamas. He reiterated the warning in a statement barely an hour before the ceasefire was set to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time. Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons.” It said in a statement that it is committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week. The exchange raised doubts about whether the ceasefire would begin as planned. Hamas is expected to release three hostages later on Sunday in exchange for scores of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, the first step in a long process aimed at winding down the 15-month war. The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire should see a total of 33 hostages returned from Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees released. Israeli forces should pull back into a buffer zone inside Gaza, and many displaced Palestinians should be able to return home. The devastated territory should also see a surge in humanitarian aid. This is just the second ceasefire in the war, longer and more consequential than the weeklong pause over a year ago, with the potential to end the fighting for good. Negotiations on the far more difficult second phase of this ceasefire should begin in just over two weeks. Major questions remain, including whether the war will resume after the six-week first phase and how the rest of the nearly 100 hostages in Gaza will be freed. Israel’s Cabinet approved the ceasefire early Saturday in a rare session during the Jewish Sabbath, more than two days after mediators announced the deal. The warring sides were under pressure from both the outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump to achieve a deal before the U.S. presidential inauguration on Monday. The toll of the war has been immense, and new details on its scope will now emerge. Over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war killed over 1,200. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have died. Some 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The United Nations says the health system, road network and other vital infrastructure have been badly damaged. Rebuilding – if the ceasefire reaches its final phase – will take several years at least. Major questions about Gaza’s future, political and otherwise, remain unresolved. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem. ___ Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel.