AP News in Brief At 6:04 A.m. EST .

Hamas launches 3 frail-looking Israeli captives for Palestinian detainees under Gaza ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – Hamas-led militants released 3 gaunt, frail-looking Israeli captives and Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the most recent exchange of a ceasefire that has actually stopped briefly 16 months of war in Gaza.

The captives ´ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover event stimulated outrage in Israel and could increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin to extend the ceasefire beyond its current six-week phase.

Netanyahu has indicated he would resume the war, even if that suggests leaving dozens of hostages in captivity. “President Trump totally concurred with me: We will do whatever to return all the hostages, but Hamas will not exist,” Netanyahu said after the exchange.

Civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34, were amongst about 250 individuals taken throughout the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that stimulated the war.

Israelis’ joy turned to shock and tears when they saw their emaciated state.

Released Thai hostages go back to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza

BANGKOK (AP) – Five Thai employees launched after being imprisoned for over a year in Gaza showed up in Bangkok on Sunday.

Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange plan.

They were welcomed by member of the family, some of whom sobbed, in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv were both at the airport to welcome home the released hostages.

“We are all very grateful and extremely happy that we get to return to our homeland. All of us would actually like to thank you. I put on ´ t know what else to say,” Pongsak informed a news conference at the airport.

Maris said the Thai government “never ever gave up hope and here is the outcome today. The tears of delight are our motivation.” He included that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai hostage.

Trump states some white South Africans are oppressed, could be resettled in the US. They state no thanks

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) – Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority reacted Saturday to a strategy by President Donald Trump to provide them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by stating: thanks, however no thanks.

The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial support to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were “rights infractions” by the government against a few of its white citizens.

The Trump administration implicated the South African government of enabling violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that allows it to “take ethnic minority Afrikaners’ farming home without settlement.”

The South African government has actually rejected there are any collective attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump’s description of the brand-new land law is complete of false information and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, but likewise French and German colonial inhabitants who first got here in South Africa more than 300 years back. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and stand out from other white South Africans who originate from British or other backgrounds.

Trump’s 3rd week saw more executive orders, a trade war that wasn’t and a Mideast jolt

WASHINGTON (AP) – Three weeks in, President Donald Trump keeps cranking out executive orders created to remake the federal government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more ways to upend the federal workforce.

Trump likewise provoked – then cancelled – trade wars with Canada and Mexico but permitted one with China to move on. He seemingly played down possibly thorny political issues while insisting he was major about the United States taking Gaza, clearing out its homeowners and redeveloping the area into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” It was an idea that friend and opponent alike worldwide turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has actually invested 20 days in office, and on nearly each of them, he has actually signed executive orders – often a number of.

Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions implied to clean out large numbers of his predecessor’s policies. Trump likewise released Day 1 orders to pardon most members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris environment accord and keep TikTok functioning.

31 presumed Maoist rebels and 2 police officers are killed in forest fight in main India

PATNA, India (AP) – A minimum of 31 thought Maoist rebels and two cops authorities were eliminated on Sunday in the most dangerous combat up until now this year in main India, authorities said.

Hundreds of cops and paramilitary soldiers released an operation in the forests of the Indravati location of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that a great deal of rebels had actually collected there, said state cops Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the troops carried out a search operation fighting emerged in the forest, killing a minimum of 31 insurgents and two cops officials. Two other police were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the troops had recovered some arms and ammo, including automated rifles.

There was no immediate statement from the rebels.

Sunday’s battling is the biggest so far this year and the 2nd significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to cops officer Jitendra Yadav.

2 mass graves with bodies of almost 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya

CAIRO (AP) – Libya authorities uncovered almost 50 bodies this week from two mass graves in the country ´ s southeastern desert, authorities said Sunday, in the current tragedy including people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African nation.

The very first mass grave with 19 bodies was discovered Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing cops officers and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.

The al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and eliminated before being buried in the mass grave.

A different mass grave with at least 30 bodies was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said nearly 70 individuals were buried in the tomb, he included. Authorities were still searching the area.

Rescuers hunt for 28 people still missing out on after a landslide in southwest China; 1 body recovered

BEIJING (AP) – Emergency groups in China’s southwestern Sichuan province battled against time Sunday to locate 28 people missing out on after a rain-triggered landslide killed a single person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed authorities, firemens and medical professionals, continued to work in the rescue operation following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, utilizing drones and life-detection radars to find any indications of life with the aid of regional officials who recognized with the location, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They saved two injured individuals and left about 360 other individuals after 10 homes and a production building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a press conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and regional geological conditions. They said these elements transformed a landslide into a debris circulation, resulting in a build-up of debris stretching about 1.2 kilometers (over half a mile) in length, with an overall volume going beyond 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the website to assist the rescue operation and checked out the impacted homeowners. He prompted authorities to strive to search for the missing individuals, according to main news agency Xinhua.

Kosovo elect new parliament as foreign aid decreases and talks with Serbia are stalled

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) – Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election considered a crucial test for setiathome.berkeley.edu Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on normalizing ties with rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for one of Europe’s poorest nations in concern.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is viewed as the front-runner but is not anticipated to win the needed majority to govern alone, exposing the possibility the other 2 competitors sign up with ranks if he fails to form a Cabinet.

The other challengers are the Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, whose main leaders are detained at a global criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war criminal offenses, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest celebration in the country that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

The celebrations made big-ticket pledges to increase public salaries and pensions, enhance education and health services, and battle hardship. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would draw in more foreign investment.

Kurti has been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took several actions that raised stress with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the restriction on using the Serbian currency and dinar transfers from Serbia to Kosovo ´ s ethnic Serb minority that depends upon Belgrade ´ s social services and payments. The U.S., the European Union and wiki.myamens.com the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have prompted the federal government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic dispute.

Here’s what we understand about a commuter airplane crash in Alaska that eliminated 10 individuals

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 people while private investigators are attempting to determine what caused the little commuter aircraft to decrease in the icy Bering Sea.

The single-engine turboprop airplane was taking a trip from Unalakleet to the hub neighborhood of Nome when it vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was found the next day after a substantial search. Nine guests and the pilot were killed.

Crews on Saturday was successful in recuperating the remains of those eliminated in the crash from a wandering ice floe before the awaited start of high winds and snow.

Here are things to understand about the airplane crash, which is one of the most dangerous airplane crashes in the state in 25 years.

Officials said contact with the Cessna Caravan was lost less than an hour after it left Unalakleet on Thursday. Authorities said the flight was a routinely scheduled commuter trip, and the aircraft went missing out on about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Nome.

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Trump’s AI aspiration and China’s DeepSeek overshadow an AI summit in Paris

PARIS (AP) – The geopolitics of synthetic intelligence will remain in focus at a significant top in France where world leaders, executives and experts will work out promises on guiding the development of the rapidly advancing technology.

It’s the newest in a series of worldwide dialogues around AI governance, but one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China’s buzzy and budget-friendly DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the market.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance – making his first trip abroad considering that taking office – will participate in the Paris AI Action Summit beginning Feb. 10, while China’s President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, signaling high stakes for the meeting.

Here’s a breakdown:

Heads of state and top government officials, tech employers and scientists are gathering in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion aims to address how to harness expert system ´ s possible so that it benefits everyone, while containing the technology ´ s myriad threats.