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Trump envoy Witkoff says US cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing its negotiating team home from Qatar to discuss next steps after Hamas’ latest response “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday.

“While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” Witkoff said in a statement. “We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza.”

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott would not offer details on what “alternative options” the U.S. is considering to free hostages held by the militant group.

Hamas said in a statement that it was surprised by Witkoff’s “negative remarks” and said it has shown responsibility and flexibility in the negotiating track. It added that it was “keen to reach an agreement that ends the aggression and the suffering of our people in Gaza.”

A breakthrough on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas following 21 months of war has eluded the Trump administration as humanitarian conditions worsen in Gaza. Thursday’s move is the latest setback as Trump has tried to position himself as peacemaker and vowed to broker agreements in conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza.

Talks for a Gaza ceasefire have dragged on

When pressed on whether and how the U.S. would proceed on seeking a truce in Gaza, Pigott did not offer clarity and told reporters that “this is a very dynamic situation.”

He said there’s never been a question of the U.S. commitment to reaching a ceasefire and faulted Hamas.

The sides have held weeks of talks in Qatar, reporting small signs of progress but no major breakthroughs. Officials have said a main sticking point is the redeployment of Israeli troops after any ceasefire takes place.

Witkoff said the U.S. is “resolute” in seeking an end to the conflict in Gaza and it was “a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way.”

The White House had no comment.

Hamas, in the statement it released early Friday, said it had offered its final answer following wide consultations with Palestinian factions, mediators and countries in the region. It said it has dealt positively with all remarks it received reflecting a “true commitment” to making the efforts of the mediators successful and to “deal constructively” with the presented initiatives.

Hamas said it reaffirmed its “keenness to continue the negotiations and to engage in a way that would ease obstacles and ensure reaching a permanent ceasefire.”

Israel also calls back its negotiators

Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s office recalled his negotiating team in light of Hamas’ response. In a brief statement, Netanyahu’s office expressed appreciation for the efforts of Witkoff and other mediators Qatar and Egypt but gave no further details.

The deal under discussion was expected to include an initial 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Aid supplies would be ramped up, and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting ceasefire.

The talks have been bogged down over competing demands for ending the war. Hamas says it will only release all hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to end the conflict until Hamas gives up power and disarms. The militant group says it is prepared to leave power but not surrender its weapons.

Hamas is believed to be holding the hostages in different locations, including tunnels, and says it has ordered its guards to kill them if Israeli forces approach.

Trump has been pushing for peace

Trump has made little secret of the fact he wants to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. For instance, he has promised to quickly negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, but little progress has been made.

On the war in Gaza, Trump met with Netanyahu at the White House this month, putting his weight behind a push to reach a deal.

But despite a partnership further solidified by their countries’ joint strikes on Iran, the Israeli leader left Washington without any breakthrough.

The State Department had said earlier in the week that Witkoff would be traveling to the Middle East for talks, but U.S. officials later said that Witkoff would instead travel to Europe. It was unclear if he held meetings there Thursday.

The apparent derailing of the talks comes as Israel’s blockade and military offensive have driven Gaza to the brink of famine, according to aid groups. The U.N. food agency says nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe, acute malnutrition, and the Gaza Health Ministry has reported a rise in hunger-related deaths.

Israel is criticized for its role in Gaza

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would hold an emergency call Friday with officials from Germany and France to discuss how to urgently get food to people in need and launch steps to build a lasting peace.

“The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” he said in a statement. The three European countries “all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France would recognize Palestine as a state, saying, “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved.″

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post late Thursday, “Canada condemns the Israeli government’s failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza.” He called for “a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.”

Israel has come under mounting pressure, with 28 Western-aligned countries calling for an end to the war and harshly criticizing Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. More than 100 charity and human rights groups released a similar letter, saying even their own staff are struggling to get enough food.

The U.S. and Israel rejected the allegations and blamed Hamas for prolonging the war by not accepting their terms for a ceasefire.

Israel says it is allowing in enough aid and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it. But those agencies say it is nearly impossible to safely deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order, with crowds of thousands unloading food trucks as soon as they move into Gaza.

A separate Israeli- and U.S.-backed system run by an American contractor has also been marred by chaos.

“Of course, we want to see the end of devastation that is taking place in Gaza,” Pigott said. “That is why we have supported the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. That is why we’ve seen those 90 million meals being distributed.”

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Krauss reported from in Ottawa, Ontario. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.





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Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos mocks Alabama with merch after opener upset

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Less than 24 hours after handing Alabama its first loss in a season opener since 2001, Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos is capitalizing on the weekend’s biggest upset.

Castellanos’ website is selling eight shirts and sweatshirts taunting the No. 8 Crimson Tide over its 31-17 loss to the Seminoles. Alabama entered the game as a heavy favorite, even on the road.

Some of the merchandise features the line “Nick Can’t Save Them,” a reference to his eyebrow-raising comments about the Tide in June, when he said, “They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

At ACC media days in July, he doubled down on his prediction, telling reporters: “We stand on what I said. I said what I said, and we stand on that.”

 

 

On Saturday, he backed up those words, leading FSU to a stunning victory.

Other items Castellanos is selling show a cartoon of him standing on a brick with Saturday’s score painted on it, while others say “Stand On What I Said.”

Castellanos, a senior who transferred to FSU after two seasons at Boston College, completed 9 of 14 pass attempts for 152 yards against Alabama. He also ran for 78 yards and a touchdown.

Alabama suffered multiple upsets last season under new head coach Kalen DeBoer, and some fans feel the team has underperformed since Saban’s retirement, posting a 9-5 record since the switch.

The Seminoles will face East Texas A&M next Saturday, while Alabama is set to take on Louisiana-Monroe the same day.

(Photo by Butch Dill / Getty Images)





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Rudy Giuliani hospitalized after his “vehicle was struck from behind at high speed”

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Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized with multiple broken bones after his vehicle was “struck from behind at high speed” in New Hampshire, his spokesperson said Sunday.

According to his spokesperson, Michael Ragusa, Giuliani was diagnosed with “fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg.” 

The crash occurred Saturday night. 

Ragusa said that before the crash, Giuliani was flagged down by a woman who was a victim of domestic violence. He “rendered assistance,” contacted 911, and “remained on scene with her until responding officers arrived to ensure her safety.” It’s unclear how that incident is related to the car crash that injured the former mayor.

In a follow-up, Ragusa said the crash was “not a targeted attack.”

Giuliani rose to fame in the 1980s and ’90s in New York City as a prosecutor before being elected mayor. After two terms as mayor, he dabbled in national politics, even running for president in 2008. Later, he became a close adviser to President Trump in his first term and became a key spreader of conspiracy theories targeting the ballot counters after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election.

Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. and he declared bankruptcy after being found liable for $146 million for spreading falsehoods about Georgia election workers. 



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Judge blocks deportation of Guatemalan migrant children as flights were ready to take off

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A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending any unaccompanied migrant child to Guatemala unless they have a deportation order, just hours after lawyers alerted her of what they described as a hurried government effort to deport hundreds of children.

U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued her order as the deportation effort was fully underway, with planes with migrant children on board ready to take off from Texas.

Earlier Sunday, in the overnight hours, Sooknanan issued a temporary restraining order barring officials from sending a group of 10 migrant children between the ages of 10 and 17 to Guatemala, granting a request from attorneys who alleged the effort would skirt legal protections Congress established for these minors. She also scheduled a hearing in the afternoon to weigh the case’s next steps.

But Sooknanan abruptly moved up the hearing earlier on Sunday, saying she had been alerted that some migrant children were already in the process of being deported.

As that hearing got underway, Sooknanan announced she had just issued a broader temporary restraining order blocking any deportations of unaccompanied children from Guatemala and in U.S. custody who did not have a deportation order. She instructed Drew Ensign, the Justice Department lawyer representing the Trump administration, to quickly inform officials they had to halt their deportation plans.

Ensign acknowledged deportation planes had been prepared to take off on Sunday, but said they were all “on the ground” and still on U.S. soil. He said he believed one plane had taken off earlier but had come back. 

At the request of Sooknanan, Ensign said he confirmed that the children on the planes would be deplaned and returned to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for caring for migrant minors who enter the U.S. without authorization and without their parents or legal guardians.

HHS houses unaccompanied children in shelters or foster homes until they turn 18 or until they can be placed with a suitable sponsor in the U.S., who are often family members.

Sooknanan conceded her temporary restraining order, which is set to last 14 days, is “extraordinary” but justified it on the grounds that the government had decided to “execute a plan to remove these children” in the “wee hours” of a holiday weekend.

In their lawsuit, lawyers for the group of Guatemalan children said the Trump administration had launched an effort to deport more than 600 migrant minors to Guatemala without allowing them to request humanitarian protection, even though U.S. law protects them from speedy deportations. They alleged the children could face abuse, neglect or persecution if returned to Guatemala.

Ensign, the Justice Department attorney, said the Trump administration was not trying to formally deport the Guatemalan children under U.S. immigration law, but instead repatriate them to Guatemala so they could reunite with relatives there. He said the Guatemalan government and the children’s relatives had requested the reunifications.

But lawyers for the children disputed the government’s claims, citing one case in which they say a child’s parents did not request any repatriation. They also said a law known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act says unaccompanied migrant children who are not from Mexico must be allowed to see an immigration judge and apply for legal protections before any deportation effort.  Some of the children facing return to Guatemala still have pending immigration cases, the attorneys said.

Ensign said the government’s legal position is that it can “repatriate” these children, based on authority given to HHS to reunite “unaccompanied alien children with a parent abroad in appropriate cases.”

Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the deportation plans. 

Neha Desai, an attorney at the California-based National Center for Youth Law who works with migrant minors, said the U.S. government was attempting to deport children with “already filed claims for legal relief based on the abuse and persecution that they experienced in their home country.”

“This is both unlawful and profoundly inhumane,” Desai added.

Most of the unaccompanied children who cross the U.S. southern border without legal permission hail from Central America and tend to be teenagers. Once in the U.S., many file applications for asylum or other immigration benefits to try to stay in the country legally, such as a visa for abused, abandoned or neglected youth.

As part of its larger crackdown on illegal immigration, the Trump administration has sought to make drastic changes to how the U.S. processes unaccompanied children. It has made it harder for some relatives, including those in the country illegally, to sponsor unaccompanied children out of government custody and offered some teenagers the option to voluntary return to their native countries.

The Trump administration has also directed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies to conduct “welfare checks” on children released from HHS custody, a move it has said is in response to disputed claims that the Biden administration “lost” hundreds of thousands of migrant minors.

There are currently roughly 2,000 migrant children in HHS care. 



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