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

Trump strikes deal with Putin to get diesel in sharp reversal of US policy weeks before midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he has struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

Trump said on social media on Friday that he struck the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in which he was expected to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia. Instead, Trump announced that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.” Russia will deliver an additional 3 million tons “within a short period of time” after that, he wrote.

Trump’s shocking announcement comes after he signed a sweeping Russia sanctions law last month that aimed at clamping down on Russia’s oil and gas revenues that fuel its war against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners,” according to a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.

Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting with Ukrainian officials in Miami to discuss a proposal to try to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Hurricane Isaias lashes the US Gulf Coast with wind and rain hours before it comes ashore

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (AP) — Homeowners gassed up generators, filled bathtubs with water and bought last-minute supplies along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday while Hurricane Isaias gained strength as it charged toward the beaches of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

The Category 3 storm has grown into a major hurricane — the first of an unusually quiet Atlantic season — and is expected to make landfall Friday night.

Forecasters warned of a significant storm surge, damaging winds, flooding and possibly even tornadoes before the storm loses steam as it moves inland and delivers strong winds and rain well north into Atlanta.

Tropical storm-force winds began to lash the Gulf shoreline around midday, hours before Isaias was expected to make landfall between Mobile Bay on the Alabama coast and the city of Destin in the Florida Panhandle. The low-lying coastal area is known for its powdery white sand beaches dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars and seafood shacks.

Residents in Panama City, Florida, braved the rain while filling sandbags Friday to protect their houses.

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Two powerful earthquakes and multiple aftershocks rock Panama

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Two powerful 7.7 and 6.6 magnitude earthquakes and a series of aftershocks roiled southern Panama Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings near the epicenter and prompting evacuations across the country.

The earlier quake, felt as far away as neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, the USGS said. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

The USGS initially reported the first quake as magnitude 8, then revised it to 7.6 and later to 7.7.

Visibly shaken residents of Panama City, the capital, gathered outside as they waited for news of the quake’s impact on Friday.

“We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we’re okay, though we’re very scared,” Rosendo Domínguez, 60, who is from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated Press by phone. “Everyone is outside, scared.”

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Hurricane Simon strengthens to a Category 2 storm, the National Hurricane Center says

MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Simon has strengthened to a Category 2 storm and was forecast to approach Mexico’s coast as a major hurricane this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said Friday.

The center said maximum sustained winds have increased to nearly 100 mph (155 kph), and that Simon is expected to continue strengthening rapidly during the next day or so. Simon is forecast to become a major hurricane by late Friday and strengthen further on Saturday.

U.S. forecasters earlier issued a hurricane warning for parts of the central and southwest coast, where hurricane-force winds were expected within 36 hours.

Simon is expected to bring heavy rainfall over parts of southwestern Mexico, with rain possibly concentrated across the coast of Jalisco and parts of Michoacan, Colima and Nayarit. Forecasters warned of life-threatening flooding and mudslides.

Simon was centered about 335 kilometers (210 miles) south of Manzanillo and 500 kilometers (310 miles) south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes.

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Vance expresses doubts about Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood shooter’s execution

HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance cast doubt Friday on whether the Pentagon will livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan in December but told reporters that if it is livestreamed, “I’m not going to be watching it.”

The Republican vice president said, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” when asked about the plans that the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. But Vance then tried to set aside the controversy over the plans for a public execution and said Hasan’s crimes should not be forgotten.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting spree at the military base in 2009.

“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said.

“Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he added.

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Trump names commentator Katie Zacharia of his media company as next White House press secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that Katie Zacharia, a communications adviser for his media company, will succeed Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary.

Trump revealed his selection of Zacharia on his Truth Social platform, where he often makes political and official announcements. Zacharia is a conservative commentator for Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the social media site.

In naming Zacharia, Trump described her as “a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning.”

In a social media post, Zacharia thanked Trump and called it the “honor of a lifetime.” She added that Trump’s leadership is “a blessing to this country.”

“The work ahead is to continue delivering strong results for our Country and communicating to the American people the major wins that this Administration is making every single day,” she wrote on X.

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Trump establishes committee to investigate Federal Reserve’s Lisa Cook in latest effort to fire her

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump opened another chapter in his effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Friday by establishing a “committee of inquiry” to investigate allegations that she made false statements in mortgage applications.

The inquiry will include a hearing at the White House Nov. 5, Trump said in a written memo, that Cook “shall” attend to answer questions from the committee. The hearing wouldn’t be public but a transcript would be published, the memo said.

Trump’s extraordinary demand that Cook testify before the committee will likely renew concerns about threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence. The president has repeatedly called for the central bank to cut its key interest rate, but just last month, the Fed raised it instead, led by Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom Trump appointed earlier this year.

Trump’s attempts to fire Cook from the Fed’s seven-member board of governors represent the first time in the central bank’s 113-year history that a president has sought to remove a Fed governor. Cook was appointed by former President Joe Biden and is the first Black woman on the Fed’s board. Trump’s attacks on her followed other efforts to oust or indict Black officials, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law,” Trump wrote in the memorandum.

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FlyDubai co-pilot intended to crash plane into Tel Aviv airport, UAE prosecutor says

JERUSALEM (AP) — The axe-wielding co-pilot who attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv last month intended to seize control of the airplane and fly it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said Friday.

The suspect, an Omani national, did so “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties,” the UAE’s top prosecutor said in a statement carried by the state news agency WAM. Most of the 174 passengers on the flight were from Israel.

The statement said the co-pilot “drew inspiration” from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and used two previous flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to “familiarize himself with the flight route and the airport.”

It said none of FlyDubai’s security or professional checks had indicated that the pilot, who was identitifed by The Associated Press as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, harbored extremist views or plans to carry out an attack.

Hammami “admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others,” the statement said, adding that he “provided a detailed confession outlining his motives and the stages of planning and execution” in the presence of his lawyer. It also suggested he was radicalized at a mosque in Australia while attending the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017.

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South African-born jurist Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize for her work in international justice

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Navi Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for efforts that the award committee said promoted international law as it comes under attack.

Her win is sure to be seen as a high-profile rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have both rejected the findings of the U.N. commission she led on Gaza. The leaders also have been highly critical of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Pillay has worked at both.

Hours after the award was announced in Norway, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel.

On the 125th anniversary of the prize’s inception, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought “to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts nonviolently. Peace requires justice,” committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said.

Judges “guard the thin red line between order and chaos,” and the world needs jurists “of courage, vision and determination, qualities that Navi Pillay demonstrates in her work on the bench.”

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Mike Ditka, the quintessential Chicago Bear and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, dies at 86

CHICAGO (AP) — Mike Ditka, who personified the toughness and grit of Chicago in a Hall of Fame career as a player and coach of the Bears and the leader of arguably the most dominant team in NFL history, has died. He was 86.

Ditka’s family announced his death on Friday in a statement.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” the family said. “While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”

Nicknamed “Iron Mike” as a player, Ditka helped revolutionize the tight end position and in 1988 was the first to play at the spot to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He then moved to the sidelines and later took over as Chicago’s coach. His 1985 team featured one of the game’s most dominant defenses ever. It also had enough outsized personalities to record a rap video, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” and back up their boasting in the championship game three months later.

He was arguably the NFL’s most recognizable — and imitated — personality during his time as Chicago’s coach with his thick but neatly groomed mustache and sweater vest with “BEARS” emblazoned across the chest. The iconic look is still mimicked by fans at Bears games decades later. That along with his fiery, red-faced sideline tantrums inspired the popular “Da Bears” skit on “Saturday Night Live” during the 1980s.