Netanyahu slams ‘cruel and malicious violation’ of Gaza ceasefire deal over release of body

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge Friday for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement after a body that Hamas released as part of the deal was found to not be that of an Israeli mother of two young boys, as the militants had promised.

The incident has thrown the future of the fragile ceasefire into question. Six more living hostages are scheduled to be released Saturday as part of the tenuous ceasefire that has paused over 15 months of war.

Hamas militants turned over four bodies Thursday as part of the deal. They were supposed to have been those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli authorities said that while the remains of the two boys and of Lifshitz were positively identified, the fourth body was found to not be that of Shiri Bibas, or of any other Israeli hostage held in Gaza.

“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said. “The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge.”

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Senate Republicans approve budget framework, pushing past Democratic objections after all-night vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators pushed a $340 billion budget framework to passage early Friday, chugging through an all-night session and Democratic opposition in a step toward unleashing money the Trump administration says it needs for mass deportations and border security that top their agenda.

The hours-long “vote-a-rama” rambled along in a dreaded but crucial part of the budget process, as senators considered one amendment after another, largely from Democrats trying to halt it. But Republicans used their majority power to muscle the package to approval on a largely party-line vote, 52-48, with all Democrats and one GOP senator opposing it.

“What we’re doing today is jumpstarting a process that will allow the Republican Party to meet President Trump’s immigration agenda,” Senate Budget Committee chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said while opening the debate.

Graham said President Donald Trump’s top immigration czar, Tom Homan, told senators that the administration’s deportation operations are “out of money” and need more funding from Congress to detain and deport immigrants.

With little power in the minority to stop the onslaught, Democrats instead used the all-night debate to force GOP senators into potentially embarrassing votes — including the first one, on blocking tax breaks to billionaires. It was turned back on procedural grounds. So were many others.

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Middle East latest: Netanyahu says body Hamas released was that of a woman from Gaza, not a hostage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a body that Hamas militants released during the handover of remains of Israeli hostages is that of a woman from Gaza instead of that of Shiri Bibas, the mother of two young boys whose bodies were returned on Thursday.

In a statement released Friday, Netanyahu criticized the handover of the wrong remains as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which has halted fighting in the Gaza Strip, and said Hamas would “pay the full price” for the action.

Hamas militants turned over four bodies on Thursday under the tenuous ceasefire, which has paused over 15 months of war. Israeli confirmed one body was that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack on Israel that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

The remains of Shiri Bibas’ two young sons, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, were positively identified, the Israeli Defense Forces said, but added the fourth body was not that of their mother, nor of any other hostage.

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Trump loyalist Kash Patel is confirmed as FBI director by the Senate despite deep Democratic doubts

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries.

“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts.

A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency he will now lead, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.

But he’s also echoed Trump’s stated desire for reprisal, raising alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and the media.

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The Latest: Judge declines to halt Trump administration’s federal workers layoffs

A federal judge on Thursday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration’s mass layoff of federal workers while a lawsuit brought by five unions moves forward.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the unions must bring their claims under federal employment law rather than in district court.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, a decision that places him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency, despite concerns from Democrats over his qualifications and the prospect that he would do President Donald Trump’s bidding.

Here’s the latest:

Trump has returned to the White House after wrapping up his speech to the Republican Governors Association.

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A news conference between Zelenskyy and Trump’s Ukraine envoy is canceled as tension rise

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy was canceled Thursday as political tensions deepened between the two countries over how to end the almost three-year war with Russia.

The event was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelenskyy and retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, but it was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where the two posed for journalists. They did not deliver statements or field questions as expected. The change was requested by the U.S. side, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov said.

Kellogg’s trip to Kyiv coincided with recent feuding between Trump and Zelenskyy that has bruised their personal relations and cast further doubt on the future of U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Dozens of journalists gathered at Ukraine’s presidential office in Kyiv after being invited to take photos and observe a news conference with Zelenskyy and Kellogg. As the meeting began, photographers and video journalists were allowed into a room where the two men shook hands before sitting across from each other at a table.

Journalists were then informed that there would be no news conference with remarks by the leaders or questions from reporters. Nikiforov gave no reason for the sudden change except to say that it was in accordance with U.S. wishes.

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A flight to a Toronto paramedics conference becomes a real emergency for a former EMT

TORONTO (AP) — Former paramedic Peter Carlson is still having difficulty putting into perspective the shuddering jolt he and 79 others aboard Delta Air Lines flight 4819 experienced earlier this week.

One moment, the 40-year-old was looking forward to arriving in Toronto where he was speaking at an Ontario paramedic chiefs convention. The next, he was hanging — strapped only by his seatbelt — looking down at the airplane’s ceiling, attempting to assess the chaos around him.

As blood flowed from a gash on the back of Carlson’s head, he noticed other injured passengers, including one pinned beneath a seat behind him. There was an overwhelming smell of jet fuel as it streamed down the window next to his seat by the plane’s right wing which was sheared off during Monday’s crash landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

“It was a forceful impact, a sideways movement and suddenly just inverted,” Carlson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “And the only mission was to get out.”

Carlson’s friend and convention chairman Michael Nolan, 53, was waiting to pick him up when he spotted a plume of black smoke in the distance.

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Vatican says Pope Francis is ‘improving slightly’ as cardinals acknowledge resignation is possible

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ overall clinical condition is “improving slightly” and his heart is working well as he battles pneumonia, the Vatican said Thursday, as some of his cardinals cheered him on and insisted that the Catholic Church was very much alive and well even in his absence.

In a late update, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis has no fever and that his key heart parameters “continue to be stable.”

The 88-year-old pope was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 after a case of bronchitis worsened; doctors later diagnosed the onset of pneumonia in both lungs on top of asthmatic bronchitis and prescribed “absolute rest.”

“If you really want him to rest, you have to hospitalize him,” quipped Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, France, referring to Francis’ work ethic.

Aveline was speaking at a Vatican news conference about a Mediterranean youth peace initiative alongside his counterpart from Barcelona, Cardinal Juan Josè Omella. But given the limited amount of information about Francis’ condition, they were peppered with questions about the pope’s health and whether he might decide to resign if he doesn’t recover fully.

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French street artist Shuck One pays tribute to Black history at Pompidou Center in Paris

PARIS (AP) — French street artist Shuck One is honoring Black figures who shaped France’s recent history on the mainland and overseas, in an art installation being produced for an exhibition starting next month at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Shuck One is a Black graffiti and visual artist native of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which is a French overseas department. He is participating in the “Black Paris” exhibition, which retraces the presence and influence of Black artists in France from the 1950s to 2000.

The Pompidou Center, one of the world’s top modern art museums, said that it will celebrate 150 artists of African descent, from Africa to the Americas, whose works have often never been displayed in France before.

Shuck One is one of five artists chosen to provide contemporary insights.

“I wanted to invoke the memory of the Black figures who created the ‘Black Paris’ and who, in a way, were pioneers before us in artistic, intellectual and other fields,” Shuck One told The Associated Press. “It’s a way for me to honor them.”

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No injuries from Israeli bus explosions in suspected militant attack, police say

BAT YAM, Israel (AP) — A series of explosions Thursday on three parked buses has rattled central Israel in what authorities suspected was a militant attack. No injuries were reported.

The explosions happened on a day when Israel was already grieving after Hamas returned the bodies of four hostages from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. The bus explosions were reminiscent of bombings during the Palestinian uprising of the 2000s, but such attacks are now rare.

Explosives were found on two other buses but did not detonate, police spokesman Asi Aharoni told Channel 13 TV. Israeli police said the five bombs were identical and equipped with timers, and said bomb squads were defusing the unexploded bombs.

Investigators in white coveralls searched for evidence inside the burned-out metal shells of the buses, which blew up in a parking lot in Bat Yam, a city outside Tel Aviv.

The city’s mayor, Tzvika Brot, said it was a miracle no one was hurt. The buses had been parked after finishing their routes, he said.