AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

ID of Thai agricultural worker’s remains leaves 1 final hostage in Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal were those of a Thai agricultural worker, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The return of Sudthisak Rinthalak’s remains leaves just one more hostage to be returned under the agreement.

Sudthisak was an agricultural worker who had been employed at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities in the attack. Israeli officials said the 42-year-old was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack in Israel that triggered the Israel-Hamas war and that his body was taken by the militant group Islamic Jihad.

He was officially declared dead on May 16, 2024.

Sudthisak’s remains were returned Wednesday, a day after militants handed over remains that didn’t match either of the last two hostages.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said Sudthisak’s family has been notified and thanked the Israeli government for assistance that led to the release of all 31 Thai hostages taken at the start of the war. Of them, 28 were returned alive and three dead.

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Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors but still launched a follow-on strike, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The rationale for the second strike was that it was needed to sink the vessel, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The Trump administration says all 11 people aboard were killed.

What remains unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved, one of the people said. The details are becoming crucial as lawmakers have launched investigations and are seeking to determine whether the U.S. acted lawfully during its military operations.

The questions are expected to emerge Thursday during a classified congressional briefing with the commander that the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley.

The Pentagon did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about the reported new details about the Sept. 2 attack.

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Putin says there are points he can’t agree to in the US proposal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating that any deal is still some way off despite intense shuttle diplomacy by American envoys.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the peace efforts have once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future Russian aggression.

Putin said in comments published Thursday that his five-hour talks with U.S. envoys this week were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work.” Some of the proposals were unacceptable to the Kremlin, he said.

Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, on Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel before his visit to New Delhi on Thursday. Before the full interview was broadcast, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti quoted some of Putin’s remarks in it.

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Lawmakers to hear from Navy admiral who ordered attack that killed boat strike survivors

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy admiral who reportedly issued orders for the U.S. military to fire upon survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat is expected Thursday on Capitol Hill to provide a classified briefing to top congressional lawmakers overseeing national security.

The information from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who is now the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, comes at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela. There are mounting questions over whether the strike may have violated the law.

Lawmakers are seeking a full accounting of the strikes after The Washington Post reported that Bradley on Sept. 2 ordered an attack on two survivors to comply with Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.” Legal experts say the incident amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding accountability.

Bradley will speak to a handful of top congressional leaders, including the Republican chairs and ranking Democrats of the House and Senate committees on Armed Services, and separately to the GOP chairman and Democratic vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“This is an incredibly serious matter. This is about the safety of our troops. This is an incident that could expose members of our armed services to legal consequences,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday. “And yet the American public and the Congress are still not hearing basic facts.”

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Federal agents launch immigration crackdown in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal agents began hitting the streets of New Orleans on Wednesday in the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown across the U.S., looking to round up immigrants accused of violent crimes, a Homeland Security official said.

Masked agents patrolled a heavily Hispanic suburb in marked and unmarked vehicles, and a resident told The Associated Press he watched agents arresting men outside a home improvement store in New Orleans — a familiar scene that has played out in several major cities in recent months.

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who led enforcement operations in Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, met up Wednesday with agents assembling in a Home Depot parking lot.

There are more than 200 Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials working on the New Orleans operation, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The objective is to make as many arrests as possible over at least 60 days.

Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the New Orleans operation is targeting immigrants who were released after arrests for crimes such as home invasion, armed robbery and rape.

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Europeans accuse Putin of feigning interest in peace after talks with US envoys

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and its European allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of feigning interest in peace efforts after five hours of talks with U.S. envoys at the Kremlin produced no breakthrough.

The Russian leader “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time.”

The remarks reflected the high tensions and gaping gulf between Russia on one side and Ukraine and its European allies on the other over how to end a war that Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.

A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging the U.S.-led peace efforts — and warned that, if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with Europe.

Since the 2022 invasion, European governments, along with the U.S., have spent billions of dollars to support Kyiv financially and militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the U.S. has tempered its support — and instead made a push to end the war.

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Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Cuellar in bribery and conspiracy case

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case on Wednesday, citing what he called a “weaponized” justice system.

Trump, who has argued that his own legal troubles were a partisan witch hunt, said on social media without presenting evidence that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, were prosecuted because the congressman had been critical of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Trump, a Republican, said in a social media post that Cuellar “bravely spoke out against Open Borders” and accused Biden, a Democrat, of going after the congressman and his wife “for speaking the TRUTH.”

Federal authorities had charged Cuellar and his wife with accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for the congressman advancing the interests of an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. Cuellar is accused of agreeing to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House.

Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent. The couple’s trial had been set to begin next April.

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President Trump’s contempt shocks the country’s largest Somali community

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Even for a president who has long made clear he’s no fan of Somalia, the latest round of White House contempt was a shock Wednesday in the country’s largest Somali community.

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” President Donald Trump told reporters during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting. “We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

On Wednesday, he doubled down: “Somalians should be out of here,” he told reporters during an Oval Office event. “They’ve destroyed our country.”

As for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has repeatedly criticized the president’s rhetoric, Trump dismissed him as a “fool.”

“I wouldn’t be proud to have the largest Somali population,” in the U.S., he said.

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Israel launches airstrike in southern Gaza after earlier attack by militants wounded 5 soldiers

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said it launched an airstrike on a Hamas militant in southern Gaza late Wednesday in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day that wounded five Israeli soldiers.

The strike was the latest test for a fragile ceasefire that has mostly held up since early October, despite claims of violations by both Israel and Hamas. Hamas put out a statement condemning the Israeli strike in Khan Younis.

Earlier Wednesday, Israel received remains of what could be one of the last hostages in Gaza and said it would begin allowing Palestinians to leave the territory through a border crossing with Egypt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas violated the ceasefire Wednesday when, according to the army, militants emerged from a tunnel and attacked Israeli soldiers in an area under their control.

Israel has accused Hamas of ceasefire violations before launching previous airstrikes. Strikes killed 104 people in late October and 33 people in late November, according to local health officials.

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What to know about the hepatitis B shot — and why Trump officials are targeting it

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal vaccine advisory committee this week is expected to discuss whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine — the first shot found to prevent cancer.

Federal health recommendations now suggest that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection in their first day of life, but U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee on Thursday is expected to change that — contradicting previous public health advice.

It’s not clear exactly what the committee is considering, but the American Academy of Pediatrics will still urge a birth dose, said the organization’s Dr. Sean O’Leary.

“We are going to continue to recommend it because it saves lives,” he said.

Here’s a look at the disease, the vaccine and the debate over changing the recommendations.