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

Trump touts his power at Kentucky rally to energize voters ahead of midterm elections

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (AP) — President Donald Trump touted his power in his second go around in the White House Saturday while rallying in Kentucky to bolster Republican turnout as his party struggles in the midterms, saying, “I can do stuff that is unbelievable.”

Trump, who spoke in the city of Highland Heights to boost Republican candidates including Ed Gallrein for the U.S. House, was riffing on his decision to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

“I don’t think I could have done this in my first term. This is a much more powerful term,” Trump said. “Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first. Now, they kiss my ass.”

“Well, I also changed the name of a lake in Canada to the Lake America,” he continued, referring to Lake Ontario.

Trump’s self-proclaimed power is set against voter frustration with how he’s wielded it, with tariffs and the Iran war driving up prices and more Americans seeing the president looking out for his own interests and not those of the country.

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Zelenskyy urges support for new US sanctions on Russia put on hold by Trump

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged supporters Saturday to speak out in favor of new U.S. sanctions against Russia, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order putting the sweeping restrictions on hold.

The White House decision has heightened fears that Ukraine could be left exposed to Moscow’s escalating attacks as winter approaches.

Overnight Russian attacks killed at least four people, including an ambulance driver, and wounded dozens, officials said. Ukrainian drones killed a woman in a Russian border region and disrupted flights at Moscow’s airports, according to Russian authorities.

In a social media statement, Zelenskyy called Trump’s decision unfortunate but avoided directly criticizing the U.S. leader despite deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington in recent days.

“A decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote. “This Act could have helped enormously – and still can! But it needs to actually work, and every voice in support of it matters.”

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Pope returns to Vatican days after surgery; surgeon says he should be fit for Latin America tour

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned to the Vatican on Saturday days after lung cancer surgery, as his surgeon said there are “no clinical reasons” to prevent his planned trip to Latin America next month.

“The Holy Father has put his heart and soul into his recovery,” Dr. Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News, adding that he expected the pope to recover fully from surgery “in another 10 days or so.”

Leo, 71, is scheduled to make an ambitious Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Peru and Argentina, including a dozen flights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes.

“As for a long trip involving air travel in about three weeks, I would say there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place,” Margaritora said.

Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. He left the hospital on Saturday, well ahead of the week-long hospital stay the Vatican had initially anticipated.

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Trump’s decision to waive Russian sanctions outrages Congress, but no quick counter seen

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to waive sanctions on Russia days before they were to take effect drew outrage Saturday from members of Congress, which had overwhelmingly passed the legislation in a bipartisan display of American support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Lawmakers from both parties blasted the executive order late Friday, the latest in a series of steps that the Republican president has taken drawing the United States closer to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Trump recently announced a diesel deal with Putin to import Russian energy in a long-shot effort to curb high gas prices in the U.S. that are roiling the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

“I think it’s clear Russia is the aggressor, and we’ve got to do everything we can to put economic pressure on Russia,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So it’s not the first thing I would be doing.”

“Beyond irresponsible,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on social media, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope that the sanctions that were supposed to take effect Sunday targeting Russia’s economy could be revived.

“What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?” Tillis said. “It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine.”

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Masked settlers attack European diplomats in the occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM (AP) — Masked settlers wielding metal bars attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, one of those assaulted said, on a second straight day of violence against Palestinians and foreigners during the sensitive olive harvest.

At least four people have been killed and over 100 injured since the harvest began earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Activists say Israeli authorities do little to stop attacks that involve weapons ranging from slingshots to guns. An attack on Friday seriously injured a Washington Post photographer and others.

In the attack in the Christian village of Taybeh on Saturday, settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. He linked the attack to Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledged to push for further European Union sanctions. “Impunity for violent settlers must end,” he added.

Bernard Baudoux, a French mayor among those attacked, described it in a Facebook post. “Three vehicles arrived. Several masked individuals, armed with metal bars, got out and came toward us with extreme aggressiveness,” he wrote.

Baudoux said he put on his French tricolor sash. “That didn’t stop them. I was struck with metal bars and kicked before being thrown to the ground. We were finally able to get back to our vehicles.”

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Oregon father is the latest armed civilian to confront a gunman in a US mass shooting

Few mass shootings in the U.S. end like the deadly attack on an Oregon elementary school: with an armed civilian opening fire on the gunman.

President Donald Trump joined others Friday in praising a father of two girls who confronted a teenage gunman during the attack at Silver Rail Elementary School, which killed three students and a teacher. Kenda Freeman said her son, Kaylub Giamanco, intervened by firing his own weapon after the shooting began at his daughters’ school in the town of Bend.

“It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter who had a .40-caliber pistol legally stored in his vehicle, entered the school, heard shots and fired his gun after seeing a teacher fighting with the shooter, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said.

Cases like the Oregon intervention remain rare, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University.

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Search continues after boat capsizes off Baja California coast. 16 rescued, but others missing

Authorities are continuing the search for 11 people believed to be missing after a boat departing from Mexico capsized off the coast of Baja California. 16 Mexican nationals were already rescued on Friday, including one who was treated for shark bites.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy are searching the waters using multiple aircraft and boats, along with assistance from the Mexican Navy. An additional helicopter will be deployed later today, according to the Coast Guard.

The boat capsized in an area frequented by smugglers and did not happen in U.S. waters, according to the Coast Guard. Survivors told officials there were 27 people on board.

“We were able to help, and that’s why we launched our assets,” said Petty Officer Charlie Valor on Saturday.

The region is popular with fishing and leisure boats, but fatal attempts to transport migrants from Mexico to the U.S. have occurred in the past.

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Hurricane Trudy strengthens to Category 2 as it approaches Mexico coast

MIAMI (AP) — Trudy strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane as it moved toward Mexico ’s southwestern and west-central Pacific coast on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane warning was in effect from Manzanillo in Colima state to Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco. The latest NHC data showed the Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) and was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco state and 115 miles (180 kilometers) south-southwest of Manzanillo, moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph).

Meanwhile, Typhoon Champi strengthened into a Category 4 weather system as it moved toward Guam.

Trudy’s center was expected to approach the Mexican coast on Saturday and pass near it into Sunday. After the latest warning, Mexico’s government issued a tropical storm warning for Las Islas Marias and discontinued a similar warning for its coast south of Lazaro Cardenas.

The Mexican navy urged mariners and coastal residents to exercise extreme caution because of high waves, heavy rain and the risk of rising rivers, flooding and landslides in vulnerable areas.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson draws on faith as he fights to hold the Republican majority

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Ever the optimist, Speaker Mike Johnson said he believes Republicans will hold on to their U.S. House majority, defying a surge of Democratic momentum in the final stretch of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

It’s the crowds he says he’s seeing as he crosses the country campaigning for GOP candidates. The caliber of recruits and incumbents he calls workhorses, not show horses. And the nearly half a billion he has raised for House Republicans.

He also has faith.

“We run to win, and that’s biblical: You run to win,” he told The Associated Press during a campaign stop in Maine.

“And I believe that we will.”

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A bitter Michigan Senate race rattles Jewish and Muslim voters already on edge over the war in Gaza

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — For many voters in Michigan, the U.S. Senate race has become about far more than which party controls Washington.

In the Detroit suburbs, some Jewish Democrats are confronting deeply personal questions about faith and identity as they weigh whether they can support their party’s nominee. Just miles away in Dearborn, Arab American leaders who backed President Donald Trump two years ago are growing increasingly alarmed by Republican rhetoric.

The concerns are rippling through communities already shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza that followed the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Now they are central players in the bitter open-seat race between Republican Mike Rogers, a onetime congressman, and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who would be the country’s first Muslim senator if elected on Nov. 3.

Rogers has increasingly portrayed El-Sayed as an extremist and a threat to Jewish voters as the Republican tries to win over a traditionally Democratic constituency. Rogers laughed when a visiting Republican senator said El-Sayed slept in an Osama bin Laden jersey, and he agreed with a social media post calling El-Sayed a terrorist.

Emotions were already raw before the latest escalation.