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

Carney to address EU Parliament after Trump calls Canada associate membership a possible hostile act

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will address the European Parliament on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that allowing Canada to become an associate EU member could be a “hostile act.”

Trump’s comments raised the stakes for Carney’s speech, which will be watched for signs the prime minister may deliver another broadside like his Davos address in January, when he warned that great powers like the United States can use economic dependence to bully smaller ones.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the EU’s first associate member on Wednesday, a striking overture as Trump’s threats drive Ottawa closer to Europe.

Speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump threatened to respond to the proposed move by imposing more tariffs on the bloc.

Trump conditioned his latest threat on the “intention” of European leaders, saying that, “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.” He also suggested the U.S. could cut off trade with Europe in certain areas.

___

Federal Reserve hikes key rate for 1st time in 3 years, defying Trump demands for a cut

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for the first time since 2023 in an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation, and the central bank signaled another rate hike could occur later this year.

The quarter-point increase lifts the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. In a set of quarterly projections, the Fed also signaled its rate-setting committee could raise it a second time to 4.1%.

The move comes as Americans are already struggling with high costs for groceries, gas and housing. Affordability has taken on a leading role in the upcoming midterm elections, just seven weeks away.

It adds another potentially dicey economic variable for Republicans and President Donald Trump, who blasted the decision Wednesday and accused the Fed’s top policymakers of trying to hurt him politically.

Chair Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by Trump, emphasized after the announcement that the economy has shown signs of gathering speed since the central bank decided to keep rates unchanged in late July. Inflation has also remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target, and he noted there is little sign it is cooling.

___

UN-backed experts cite possible US war crimes in Iran strikes

GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab.

The international fact-finding mission on Iran says the findings center on a pair of airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.

At the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one U.S. missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened. Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.

“Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” the fact-finding team said in a statement.

The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

___

Russian barrage of missiles and drones on Ukraine injures at least 19, including children

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian barrage of missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s capital and the surrounding region injured at least 19 people overnight and into Thursday morning, authorities said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces carried out overnight strikes against targets in Russia, including an oil refinery in Yaroslavl and a military airfield in the Rostov region.

Peace efforts to end Russia’s 4 1/2-year full-scale invasion have stalled, with the issue of territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine among the central sticking points. Successive rounds of U.S.-brokered talks have failed to produce a breakthrough. Ukraine is also seeking security guarantees from partners for a deal.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said the attacks were recorded at more than 10 locations in the city while 33 sites were damaged in the wider region. A 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy were among the injured, the administration said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed or suppressed 131 Russian aerial targets during the overnight attack in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions. The attack involved ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones and decoys.

___

OpenAI flags concerning new AI behavior and vows to track it more closely

OpenAI has disclosed six reports of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in artificial-intelligence models as the debate on AI safety becomes increasingly heated.

The AI company also said Wednesday it was introducing a new framework for tracking, probing and disclosing instances of what it called “misalignment,” including where AI models acted without authorization, coordinated with other models or evaded oversight.

OpenAI’s latest announcement came as U.S. AI bosses, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are calling for a slowdown in the technology’s development over safety concerns.

Among the new cases reported by OpenAI, an unreleased research model inserted “jailbreak-like instructions” into its own notes to disregard its normal constraints and told itself to be “freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots.”

In another instance, an AI “agent” uploaded files to the internet to obtain a browser citation without asking the user.

___

A global AI safety strategy depends on US-China cooperation. They each see the other as the problem

HONG KONG (AP) — As concern rises over the risks of artificial intelligence, hopes for any kind of global approach depend on cooperation between the U.S. and China — superpowers that seem only to be more skeptical of each other’s AI strategy.

AI governance is expected to be on the agenda in a meeting planned for next week in Washington between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The topic has gained urgency in both countries, with American tech leaders saying that averting worst-case scenarios for rogue AI depends on a degree of cooperation with China.

But both countries are vying for a decisive advantage on AI, with Trump warning that any efforts to regulate the technology would help China. That sets up a meeting in which any agreements might be superficial but a possible start to something larger.

“A formal agreement or consensus may be near impossible, but they do not need to go that far,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs. “Trump and Xi just need to create political space by acknowledging AI poses risks to both countries.”

Trump has pushed back on calls to strengthen regulation of the technology, claiming that doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI. He has repeatedly declared that the nation that leads on the technology “wins.”

___

Tens of thousands flee as Iran-backed rebels draw Yemen into the wider war

CAIRO (AP) — As Houthi rebels closed in, Eshraq Abdel Gelil and her husband fled their home, walking through the mountains before catching a ride to a nearby city. Four months pregnant, she feared another miscarriage.

They are among more than 125,000 people who have fled as the Iran-backed rebels have advanced down the Red Sea coast to a key maritime chokepoint. The offensive, linked to the wider Iran war, has threatened Saudi oil exports, pushed up global fuel prices and rattled markets.

The cost has been far greater for Yemenis caught in the crossfire. Many have fled their homes with only what they could carry. The Arab world’s poorest country was pushed to the brink of famine in an earlier phase of the civil war, which killed an estimated 150,000 people.

A Saudi-led blockade, along with the Houthis’ repressive rule and detention of U.N. and aid workers, has made life miserable in the now-expanding territory under rebel control. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, weak and fragmented, has struggled to push them back.

Abdel Gelil is now sheltering with family in the southwestern city of Taiz, while others are sleeping in the streets or erecting makeshift tents out of plastic.

___

Russia’s wartime parliamentary election is set to secure the Kremlin’s power

It’s a challenging time for Russia to hold a parliamentary election, even one whose outcome is all but assured.

The economic and political climate has been seriously affected by 4 1/2 years of full-fledged war with Ukraine. Swarms of enemy drones have inflicted massive damage on Russian oil refineries and logistical facilities. The public, which no longer sees the fighting as something distant, is increasingly nervous.

United Russia, the main Kremlin party, is poised to keep its overwhelming grip on the State Duma alongside a few other parties that vote in sync with President Vladimir Putin’s wishes. Still, authorities have tightened control over the first wartime balloting for the lower chamber of parliament since the 2022 invasion.

The Kremlin stifled even the slightest signs of dissent before three days of voting that begin Friday. The only party that dared to criticize the war was unceremoniously removed from the ballot, and a few anti-war politicians have been imprisoned or forced to flee abroad.

With the result predetermined and Putin’s political dominance under no immediate threat, analysts say the Kremlin sees the election as a key effort to mobilize public support for the war and legitimize its action.

___

Bank of England expected to keep interest rates unchanged despite rising inflation

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates unchanged Thursday even though inflation in the United Kingdom has risen to a five-month high as the fallout from the Iran war continues to ratchet up fuel prices.

Economists expect a majority of the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee will want to see more evidence that higher inflation is feeding through into underlying prices and wages and will therefore vote to keep the bank’s main rate unchanged at 3.75% for the sixth consecutive meeting — unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, which raised rates Wednesday for the first time in three years.

David Rees, head of global economics at Schroders, is one of the many economists who think interest rates will be held because the economic backdrop, such as wages and the labor market, remains relatively soft.

“That should limit the extent to which imported price pressures become embedded in domestic wages and prices,” he said.

Like other central banks, the inflation outlook will be key for the Bank of England.

___

LA news helicopter crashed in birthplace (and, arguably, epicenter) of ‘eye-in-the-sky’ reporting

Los Angeles has been viewed from above by news helicopters for nearly seven decades. When there was a wildfire, a mudslide or O.J. Simpson fleeing the police across its ribbons of highway, an “eye in the sky” tracked it and advised millions how to keep out of harm’s way.

On Tuesday, one of those flying newsrooms crashed live on-air and burst into flames, killing three people while reporters were covering the collision of an SUV and a city bus. NBC4 Los Angeles reported that two people aboard the helicopter — Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw — were killed, and fire officials said another person, Edy Gutierrez Mejia, died on the ground. It was a horrifying addition to at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, in which 16 people have been killed.

Moreno, known widely as “Eli in the Heli,” had been an aerial journalist since 2010, mastering a demanding form of reporting that requires editing, shooting video, intimate knowledge of a city — and quick thinking.

“After working 76 hours since Sunday, I’m almost done!” she posted to Instagram on Sept. 29, 2023. “I can’t complain though because I have the best job in the world.”

Beaming the news from the sky undeniably provides a public service as the descendant of delivery by horseback, teletype and satellite. It’s also true that the “Telecopter” was born in Los Angeles as a way to beat the competition to the scene, according to its inventor, John Silva, chief engineer for KTLA-TV when it debuted the machine in 1958. News from the air dazzled audiences — and it meant a new era of big money for local television stations.