As confetti fell and Frank Sinatras New York, New York blared through the arena, the New York Liberty celebrated the end of a long odyssey.

The team that always fell short, starting from their days in Madison Square Garden, through detours to Radio City Music Hall and Westchester County Center, finally found their way to the top.

Start spreading the news, indeed: Theres finally a pro basketball champion in New York again after a 67-62 overtime win over Minnesota in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night.

Ive been manifesting this moment for awhile, Theres no feeling like it, Breanna Stewart said. Credit to Minnesota, they gave us a tough series. The fans have been amazing everywhere weve gone. To bring a championship to New York, first ever in franchise history its an incredible feeling. I cant wait to continue to celebrate with the city. Its going to be bonkers.

Jonquel Jones scored 17 points to lead New York, which was one of the original franchises in the league. The Liberty made the WNBA Finals five times before, losing each one, including last season. This time they wouldnt be denied, although it took an extra five minutes.

With stars Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggling on offense, other players stepped up. Leonie Fiebich started off OT with a 3-pointer, and then Nyara Sabally, who finished with 13 points, had a steal for a layup to make it 65-60 and bring the sellout crowd to a frenzied state.

Whoever scores in overtime first usually wins, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said.

Minnesota didnt score in OT until Kayla McBride hit two free throws with 1:51 left. The Lynx missed all six of their field goal attempts in overtime. After Ionescu missed a shot with 21 seconds left, her 18th miss on 19 shot attempts, the Lynx had one last chance, but Bridget Carleton missed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left.

Stewart, who missed a free throw with 0.8 seconds left in the end of regulation in Game 1, hit two free throws with 10.1 seconds left in overtime to seal the victory.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock the players hugged and streamers fell from the rafters at Barclays Center. Stewart and Jones hugged. The two prize free agent signees two years ago helped get this team its first title.

New York trailed by two in regulation when Stewart was fouled with 5.2 seconds left. After a lengthy video review, Stewart calmly hit two free throws to tie the game at 60. Minnesota had challenged the foul call and after the game coach Cheryl Reeve still questioned it, saying the title was stolen from her team.

McBride, who finished with 21 points, had an open look for a 3, but it fell off the rim and the game went to OT.

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Many of the former Liberty greats were in the audience, including Teresa Weatherspoon, who hit a half-court heave in the 1999 WNBA Finals to force a decisive Game 3 that year. That was the last time that New York had a chance to play in a championship-deciding game until this year.

Jones, who was the only player on the Liberty to compete in a Game 5 before when she was with Connecticut in 2019, earned MVP honors.

I could never dream of this. You know how many times Ive been denied. It was delayed. I am so happy to do it here, she said.

Napheesa Collier scored 22 points to lead Minnesota before fouling out with 13 seconds left in OT.

The Lynx were trying for a record fifth WNBA title, breaking a tie with the Seattle Storm and Houston Comets. Minnesota won four titles from 2011-17 behind the core group of Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore. That was the teams last appearance in the WNBA Finals until this year.

Congratulations to the Liberty on their first championship, Reeve said. It took them 28 years, congrats to them. We were that close to our fifth, it just didnt happen.

This is the first time since 2019 that the WNBA Finals have gone the distance. Since the league switched to a best-of-five format in 2005, seven other series have gone to a Game 5 and the home team had won five of those previous contests, including in 2019.

This series has been a fitting conclusion to a record-breaking season for the league. All five games came down to the last few possessions and have included two overtime games and a last-second shot, which have led to record ratings.

The first three games each had over a million viewers on average, with the audience growing for each contest. They also have had huge crowds in attendance.

Liberty fan Spike Lee was courtside over an hour before tipoff chatting with the media while wearing his Ionescu jersey. Once Ionescu finished warming up pregame, the pair had a brief exchange and hugged. Lee was part of a sellout crowd of 18,090 that helped this series set both the overall attendance record for a WNBA Finals as well as the average attendance mark.

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Sunday before staging an impromptu news conference, answering questions through the drive-thru window.

As reporters and aides watched, an employee showed Trump how to dunk baskets of fries in oil, salt the fries and put them into boxes using a scoop. Trump, a well-known fan of fast food and a notorious germophobe, expressed amazement that he didn't have to touch the fries with his hands.

It requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast, Trump said with a grin, putting away his suit jacket and wearing an apron over his shirt and tie.

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The visit came as he's tried to counter Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' accounts on the campaign of working at the fast-food chain while in college, an experience that Trump has claimed without offering evidence never happened.

A large crowd lined the street outside the restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, which is part of Bucks County, a key swing voter area north of Philadelphia. Later Sunday, Trump was attending an evening town hall in Lancaster before catching the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New York Jets.

After serving bags of takeout to people in the drive-thru lane, Trump leaned out of the window, still wearing the apron, to take questions from the media staged outside. The former president, who has constantly promoted falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said he would respect the results of next month's vote if it's a fair election.

He joked about getting one reporter ice cream and when another asked what message he had for Harris on her 60th birthday on Sunday, Trump said, I would say, Happy Birthday, Kamala, adding, I think Ill get her some flowers.

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Trump did not directly answer a question of whether he might support increased minimum wages after seeing McDonalds employees in action but said, These people work hard. Theyre great.

He added that I just saw something a process thats beautiful.

When aides finally urged him to wrap things up so he could hit the road to his next event, Trump offered, Wasnt that a strange place to do a news conference?

Trump has long questioned Harris' story of working at McDonald's

Trump has fixated in recent weeks on the summer job Harris said she held in college, working the cash register and making fries at McDonalds while in college. Trump says the vice president has lied about working there, but not offered evidence for claiming that.

Harris spokesman Joseph Costello said the former president's McDonald's visit showed exactly what we would see in a second Trump term: exploiting working people for his own personal gain.

Trump doesnt understand what its like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo ops he does, and his entire second term plan is to give himself, his wealthy buddies, and giant corporations another massive tax cut, Costello said in a statement.

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In an interview last month on MSNBC, the vice president pushed back on Trumps claims, saying she did work at the fast-food chain four decades ago when she was in college.

Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonalds is because there are people who work at McDonalds in our country who are trying to raise a family, she said. I worked there as a student.

Harris also said: I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.

Trump has long spread groundless claims about his opponents based on their personal history, particularly women and racial minorities.

Before he ran for president, Trump was a leading voice of the birther conspiracy that baselessly claimed President Barack Obama was from Africa, was not an American citizen and therefore was ineligible to be president. Trump used it to raise his own political profile, demanding to see Obamas birth certificate and five years after Obama did so, Trump finally admitted that Obama was born in the United States.

During his first run for president, Trump repeated a tabloids claims that Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs father, who was born in Cuba, had links to President John F. Kennedys assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Cruz and Trump competed for the partys 2016 nomination.

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In January of this year, when Trump was facing Nikki Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, in the Republican primary, he shared on his social media network a post with false claims that Haleys parents were not citizens when she was born, therefore making her ineligible to be president.

Haley is the South Carolina-born daughter of Indian immigrants, making her automatically a native-born citizen and meeting the constitutional requirement to run for president.

And Trump has continued to promote baseless claims during this campaign. Trump said during his presidential debate with Harris that immigrants who had settled in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents pets a claim he suggested in an interview Saturday was still true even though he could provide no confirmation.

Trump's visit created a spectacle in Pennsylvania

It is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community, the McDonalds locations owner, Derek Giacomantonio, said in a statement. Thats why I accepted former President Trumps request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonalds.

Police closed the busy streets around the McDonalds during Trump's visit. Authorities cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd a couple blocks long gathered, sometimes 10- to 15-deep, across the street straining to catch a glimpse of Trump. Horns honked and music blared as Trump supporters waved flags, held signs and took pictures.

John Waters, of nearby Fairless Hills, had never been to a Trump rally and had hoped to see the former president so close to his house after missing other nearby rallies.

When I drove up, all the cars, unbelievable, I was like, Hes heres, hes coming, hes definitely coming with this all traffic, Waters said.

Trump is especially partial to McDonald's Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. Hes talked often about how he trusts big chains more than smaller restaurants since they have big reputations to maintain, and the former presidents staff often pick up McDonalds and serve it on his plane.

Jim Worthington, a Trump supporter and fundraiser who owns a nearby athletic complex and chaired Pennsylvanias delegation to the Republican National Convention, said he arranged Trumps visit to the locally owned McDonalds franchise.

The campaign contacted him looking for a McDonalds in Pennsylvania and Worthington started looking for one. He got in touch with Giacomantonio through a friend and talked the franchise owner through some initial nervousness.

Giacomantonio needed to know that McDonalds corporate offices would be OK with it, first. Second, he was concerned that being seen as a Trump supporter would hurt his business or a spark boycott, Worthington said.

He certainly had concerns, but I eased his mind, and talked to him about the benefits, Worthington said.

Two crew members who were missing following the crash of a fighter jet in mountainous terrain in Washington during a routine training flight have been declared dead, the U.S. Navy said Sunday.

The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, according to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Search teams, including a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from the air station to try to find the crew and crash site.

Army Special Forces soldiers trained in mountaineering, high-angle rescue and technical communications were brought in to reach the wreckage, which was located Wednesday by an aerial crew resting at about 6,000 feet in a remote, steep and heavily wooded area east of Mount Rainier, officials said.

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The aviators' names wont be released until a day after their next of kin have been notified, the Navy said in a statement Sunday, adding that search and rescue efforts have shifted into a long-term salvage and recovery operation as the cause of the crash is still being investigated.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the loss of two beloved Zappers, said Cmdr. Timothy Warburton, commanding officer of the aviators Electronic Attack Squadron. Our priority right now is taking care of the families of our fallen aviators. ... We are grateful for the ongoing teamwork to safely recover the deceased.

Locating the missing crew members as quickly and as safely as possible had been top priority, Capt. David Ganci, commander, Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Thursday.

The EA-18G Growler is similar to the F/A-18F Super Hornet and includes sophisticated electronic warfare devices. Most of the Growler squadrons are based at Whidbey Island. One squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

The Zappers were recently deployed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The search took place near Mount Rainier, a towering active volcano that is blanketed in snowfields and glaciers year-round.

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The first production of the Growler was delivered to Whidbey Island in 2008. In the past 15 years, the Growler has operated around the globe supporting major actions, the Navy said. The plane seats a pilot in front and an electronics operator behind them.

The EA-18G Growler aircraft we fly represents the most advanced technology in airborne Electronic Attack and stands as the Navys first line of defense in hostile environments, the Navy said on its website. Each aircraft costs about $67 million.

Military aircraft training exercises can be dangerous and sometimes result in crashes, injuries and deaths.

In May, an F-35 fighter jet on its way from Texas to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles crashed after the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was the only person on board in that case and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Last year, eight U.S. Air Force special Operations Command service members were killed when a CV-22B Osprey aircraft they were flying in crashed off the coast of Japan.

The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel's plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the "Five Eyes," which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app and first reported Saturday by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.

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The U.S. has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a cease-fire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel's leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran's missile attack go unanswered.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the leak of the two documents.

The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the U.S. intelligence community, then later the U.S. Defense Department. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.

One of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia's war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.

The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran's capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran's self-described "Axis of Resistance," which includes Middle East militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.

Juan Soto was supposed to the difference maker, the one who pushed the New York Yankees back to the top.

They're one step away.

Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series and first in 15 years by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night.

Baseball's biggest brand is going back to October's main stage.

Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade from San Diego in December, pushed the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing.

This was why he came, for this moment and for so many more.

"Obviously he put up an amazing season statistically speaking, but in the biggest moments, that's what he does," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. "And it shouldn't be taken for granted."

The Yankees, who missed the playoffs a year ago, will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 6 of the NL Championship Series is on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

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With the score tied 2-2 in the third consecutive tight game in three nights at Progressive Field, Austin Wells walked with one out in the 10th and Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to Guardians second baseman Andrs Gimnez, whose soft toss to the bag was dropped by rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio for an error.

Hunter Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres and had Soto in a 1-2 count before New York's stylish outfielder, who fouled off four pitches, sent a towering shot over the wall in center."

"Just an at-bat for the ages," Boone said.

Soto danced down the first-base line and paused to celebrate with his teammates before circling the bases.

"I was just saying to myself, `You're all over that guy. You're all over that guy. He ain't got anything,'" said Soto, who moved alongside Boone as the only New York players to homer in an extra-inning, series-clinching win.

Luke Weaver got the final three outs with Lane Thomas flying out to right field for the last one, which was caught by Soto naturally.

When he got to New York, there were those who wondered how he would fit in. Could he handle the searing spotlight of playing in the Big Apple where every game is dissected like a season? Could he co-exist alongside Aaron Judge?

Not only has Soto fit in. He's led the charge.

"He's just easy to be around," Boone said. "You bring a superstar player in, how is he going to look? What's he going to be like? He's just one of the guys. That's been rewarding to see, man, I don't have to go out of my way to worry about him. He's good. I feel like I've developed a great relationship with him, but he's one of the guys."

The 25-year-old Soto is eligible for free agency this winter, and Yankees fans chanted "Re-sign Soto!" during the postgame festivities. He's expected to get a contract upwards of $600 million, and his heroics in Game 5 may have raised his price.

"I think we should re-sign Soto," said third baseman Jazz Chisolm Jr. "$700 million, final offer!"

Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer and was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees took care of the Guardians in five games. It wasn't easy.

New York won the first two at Yankee Stadium without much fanfare or any major drama. However, it was a different story in Cleveland as all three games at Progressive Field were nail-biters.

The Guardians rallied to win Game 3 on two, two-run homers in their last two at-bats, and the Yankees held on to win Game 4 after blowing a four-run lead.

"This was a rollercoaster and we were able to just keep punching back," Stanton said. "We know there's much more work to do and it's only uphill from here and we got to get it done."

Cleveland just didn't have enough and a surprising season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt ended just short of a World Series. The franchise remains without a title since 1948, baseball's current longest drought.

"There's only one team that gets to win the last game of the year, and unfortunately it's not going to be us," Vogt said. "But we accomplished a lot as a group. We got better. We worked extremely hard. I couldn't be more proud of this group. We just didn't get quite as far as we wanted to."

The Yankees are back in the World Series, back where their fans expect them to be every year.

The club's 82-80, fourth-place finish in the AL East last season led to some "soul searching as an organization" during the winter, according to Boone, who has been widely criticized but is one of just three managers to take New York to playoffs in six of his first seven seasons.

While the team's core stayed mostly intact, getting Soto in a blockbuster trade on Dec. 7 New York sent five players to San Diego for the three-time All-Star accelerated the team returning to title contender.

"That was a good day," Boone said with a laugh before the game.

Stanton's 446-foot rocket into the left-field bleachers tied it at 2 in the sixth and chased Tanner Bibee, who had struck out New York's dangerous DH in his first two at-bats and held the Yankees scoreless for the first five innings.

It was Stanton's fourth homer in this series his third in three days and his 16th in the postseason, moving him into fourth place on the club's career list behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).

"That's as good a swing that you can put on a ball," Boone said.

For Boone, who is from one of baseball's royal families, finally eased the pressure after falling short of expectations. It took seven years, but he's finally got the Yankees back where they belong.

"We've had some great groups, some great camaraderie, some great clubhouses," Boone said. "This group is as close as I've ever seen, and they trust each other. They lean on each other. They love each other. They play for each other."

Like Soto, Chisolm was an outsider before joining the Yankees in a July trade from Miami. But from the moment he arrived, he knew he joined something special."

"I thought I was just going to come to a baseball team," he said. "But came into a family."

Georgia authorities said Sunday they are investigating the "catastrophic failure" of a dock gangway that collapsed and killed seven on Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island's tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

"It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we'll see what the investigation unfolds," Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference.

The gangway was installed in 2021, authorities said.

Rabon said three people remained hospitalized in critical condition from Saturday's collapse.

Rabon said "upwards of 40 people" were on the gangway when the "catastrophic failure" occurred, and at least 20 people fell into the water. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.

None of the seven people killed were residents of the island, Rabon said. Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them were initially reported Saturday to have critical injuries.

The ferry dock was rebuilt after Georgia officials in October 2020 settled a federal lawsuit by residents of the tiny community of Hogg Hummock, who complained the state-operated ferry boats and docks they rely upon to travel between Sapelo Island the mainland failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

The state agreed to demolish and replace outdated docks while upgrading ferry boats to accommodate people in wheelchairs and those with impaired hearing. The state also paid a cash settlement of $750,000.

Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others searched the water, according to Natural Resources spokesperson Tyler Jones. The agency operates the dock and ferry boats that transport people between the island and the mainland.

A team of engineers and construction specialists were on site early Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway failed, Jones said.

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"There was no collision" with a boat or anything else, Jones said. "The thing just collapsed. We don't know why."

Helicopters and boats with side-scanning sonar were used in the search, according to a Department of Natural Resources statement.

Among the dead was a chaplain for the state agency, Jones said.

President Joe Biden said federal officials were ready to provide any assistance needed.

Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.

The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.

Hogg Hummock's slave descendants are extremely close, having been "bonded by family, bonded by history and bonded by struggle," said Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners. His district includes Sapelo Island.

"Everyone is family, and everyone knows each other," Lotson said. "In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They're all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt."

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Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and basket weaving.

In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States' treasured historic sites.

But the community's population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County have been met with protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have been battling for the past year to undo zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock.

Residents say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land that their families have held for generations.

A video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian military fatigues has been released by Ukrainian officials, who say it shows the introduction of troops sent by Pyongyang into the conflict.

The video, published by Ukraines Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which operates under the Culture and Information Ministry, allegedly shows North Korean soldiers standing in line to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen. The Associated Press couldn't verify the video independently.

We received this video from our own sources. We cannot provide additional verification from the sources who provided it to us due to security concerns, said Ihor Solovey, the head of the center.

The video clearly shows North Korean citizens being given Russian uniforms under the direction of the Russian military, he said. For Ukraine, this video is important because it is the first video evidence that shows North Korea participating in the war on the side of Russia. Now not only with weapons and shells but also with personnel.

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The center claims the footage was shot by a Russian soldier in recent days. It didn't say how the footage was obtained. The location is unknown.

It comes after the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, claimed in local media that about 11,000 North Korean infantrymen were currently training in eastern Russia. He predicted they would be ready to join fighting by November. At least 2,600 would be sent to Russias Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion in August, he was quoted as saying.

The emergence of any number of new soldiers is a problem because we will simply need new, additional weapons to destroy them all," Solovey told AP. "The dissemination of this video is important as a signal to the world community that with two countries officially at war against Ukraine, we will need more support to repel this aggression.

The presence of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, if true, would be further proof of intensified military ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Last summer, they signed a strategic partnership treaty that commits both countries to provide military assistance. North Korean weapons have already been used in the Ukraine war.

Some 200,000 mail carriers have reached a tentative contract deal with the U.S. Postal Service that includes backdated pay raises and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks.

The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, runs through Nov. 2026. Letter deliverers have been working without a contract since May 2023.

Both the union and the Postal Service welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday.

Both sides didnt get everything they wanted. But by bargaining in good faith, we ended with an agreement that meets our goals and rewards our members," Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The Associated Press. To make that happen, the Postal Service had to recognize the contributions of members to the Postal Service and the American people.

Among other improvements, the deal increases the top pay and reduces the amount of time it takes new workers to reach that level, Renfroe said. He credited Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his deputy for bargaining in good faith throughout the arduous process.

The Postal Service said the agreement supported its 10-year Delivering for America mission to modernize operations and adapt to changing customer needs.

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This is a fair and responsible agreement that serves the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service, said Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and chief human resources officer.

As part of the agreement, all city carriers will get three annual pay increases of 1.3% each by 2025, some of which will be paid retroactively from Nov. 2023. Workers will also receive retroactive and future cost-of-living adjustments.

There is also a commitment from the Postal Service to make every effort to provide mail trucks with air-conditioning.

The Postal Service in summer began rolling out its new electric delivery vehicles, which come equipped with air-conditioning. While the trucks won't win any beauty contests, they did get rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down and even catching fire.

Within a few years, the new delivery fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Services primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.

Under the tentative contract agreement, the Postal Service must discuss with the union any plans to buy new mail trucks that dont have air-conditioning.

This is the second contract negotiated since DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in 2020. It is expected to take several weeks for union members to ratify the contract. Rural mail deliverers aren't covered by the contract because they are represented by a different union.

The man who gained social media fame with TikTok posts as he was riding out two hurricanes in his boat has been arrested in Tampa, Florida.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office arrest records show Joseph Malinowsky, 54, known as "Lt. Dan" after his TikTok posts, was arrested Friday for trespassing and failure to appear in court on previous charges of operating an unregistered vehicle and having no valid driver's license.

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Malinowsky rejected pleas from officials to seek shelter and instead remained in his boat during Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Malinowsky, whose nickname comes from a character in the movie "Forrest Gump" who rides out a hurricane in a boat, remained jailed Saturday, according to online jail records.

Court records do not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The Israeli government said a drone was launched toward the prime minister's house Saturday, with no casualties, as Iran's supreme leader vowed that Hamas would continue its fight against Israel following the killing of the mastermind of last year's deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Sirens wailed Saturday morning in Israel, warning of incoming fire from Lebanon, including a drone launched toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, the Israeli government said. Neither he nor his wife were home and there were no casualties, said his spokesperson in a statement.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, more than 50 people, including children, have been killed in several Israeli strikes, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter.

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In September, Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport when Netanyahu's plane was landing. The missile was intercepted.

Barrages from Lebanon target northern Israel

In addition to the drone launched at Netanyahu's residence, Israel's military said some 55 projectiles were fired in two separate barrages at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday morning. Four people were injured, one of who had moderate wounds from falling shrapnel, said Israel's medical services.

Israel's emergency services said a 50-year-old man was killed after being hit by shrapnel while sitting in his car in northern Israel. In a separate statement, the emergency services said four people were injured from the strikes. It was unclear if the man killed was one of the injured.

Israel's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah a Hamas ally backed by Iran has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah said Friday that it planned to launch a new phase of fighting by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel. The militant group's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier in October.

Israel also said Saturday it killed Hezbollah's deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. The army said Nasser Rashid supervised attacks against Israel

In Lebanon, the health ministry said an Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a vehicle on a main highway north of Beirut, killing two people. It was unclear who was in the car when it was struck.

Israeli strikes pound Gaza as Hamas rejects hostage release

A standoff is also ensuing between Israel and Hamas, which it's fighting in Gaza, with both signaling resistance to ending the war after the death of Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar this week. On Friday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sinwar's death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas carried on despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.

"Hamas is alive and will stay alive," Khamenei said.

Since Israel claimed Sinwar's death Thursday, confirmed by a top Hamas official Friday, Hamas has reiterated its stance that the hostages taken from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a cease-fire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops. The staunch position pushed back against a statement by Netanyahu that his country's military will keep fighting until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.

Sinwar was the chief architect of the 2023 Hamas raid on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.

More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and that forces opened fire at the hospital's building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff.

At Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, strikes hit the building's top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement. Three houses in Jabaliya were struck overnight Friday, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry's ambulance and emergency service. At least 80 people were injured.

In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken. Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, the same hospital said. Associated Press journalists counted the bodies from both strikes at the hospital.

The strikes knocked out internet networks in northern Gaza, said Paltel, the Palestinian communications company, on Facebook Saturday.

The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.

RELATED STORY | Biden says Sinwar's death is an 'opportunity' for a hostage deal and an end to war in Gaza

Opportunity in Sinwar's death

Sinwar's killing appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza even as Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other areas of the country.

Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said in a speech Thursday announcing the killing that "our war is not yet ended."

Still, the governments of Israel's allies and exhausted residents of Gaza expressed hope that Sinwar's death would pave the way for an end to the fighting.

In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the Israeli government use Sinwar's killing as a way to restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.

Donald Trump paced his rally stage in silence for nearly 20 minutes Friday night in Detroit after his microphone cut out.

The Republican nominee and former president was about to wax on about one of his favorite subjects, tariffs, working up to naming it by first teasing the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Very quickly afterward, the sound went down.

The crowd chanted USA and We love Trump in support. But with no microphone, Trump simply wandered around the stage. Looking frustrated, his back was turned to most of his audience at times.

It was the second time in a week that one of his events was interrupted though the last time, on Monday, Trump cut off a town hall and instead played music after multiple people in the audience needed medical attention. This time, Trump appeared to have little control over the matter, standing silently while the screens in the room displayed the messages Technical Difficulties" and "Complicated Business.

Trump is famously attuned to his image and the mechanics of his rallies, often commenting on the microphones and teleprompters. Earlier Friday, the hosts of Fox & Friends joked that Trump likes to adjust the lighting when he sits for interviews.

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Aides are known to travel with multiple backup mics though it was unclear why they weren't able to locate one immediately Friday and to carefully prepare the flags that decorate his stages.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign used video of the moment to push its message that Trump, 78, may not have the energy to be president again. It posted on X, An exhausted Trump awkwardly walks in circles on stage after his microphone stops working.

As the delay stretched on, the crowd continued to cheer and chant. At one point, the crowd did the wave.

Finally, after nearly 20 minutes, an aide brought Trump a replacement microphone that worked.

I wont pay the bill for this stupid company," he said. I won't pay the bill, and then well have a story that Trump didnt pay the bill to a contractor.

Cubas electrical grid went offline Friday after one of the islands major power plants failed, and as a massive blackout that started a day earlier swept across the Caribbean island.

Cuba's energy ministry announced that the grid had gone down hours after the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant had ceased operations, at about 11 a.m. local time. Authorities said at the time it was only offline temporarily.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero had sought to assuage concerned citizens about the outage that began Thursday evening. Millions of Cubans were left without power, prompting the government Friday to implement emergency measures to slash demand, including suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling non-essential services.

Various calls by The Associated Press seeking to clarify the extent of the blackout on Friday werent answered. In addition to the Antonio Guiteras plant, Cuba has several others and it wasnt immediately clear whether or not they remain functional.

We are devoting absolute priority to addressing and solving this highly sensitive energy contingency," Cuba's President Miguel Daz-Canel wrote on X. There will be no rest until its restoration.

Cuban officials earlier said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours early Thursday evening, about half the total demand at the time.

The situation has worsened in recent days, Marrero said in a special address on national television in the early hours of Friday. We must be fully transparent ... we have been halting economic activities to ensure energy for the population.

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During his address, Marrero was accompanied by Alfredo Lpez, the chief of UNE, who said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residences air conditioners, as well as breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that havent been properly maintained and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

Changes to electricity rates for small- and medium-sized companies, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are also being considered, Marrero said.

Marrero sought to placate peoples concerns about the outage, citing an expected influx of fuel supply from Cuba's state-owned oil company.

Even in a country accustomed to frequent outages amid a deepening economic crisis, the size of Thursday nights blackout left millions of Cubans on edge. Residents shut their doors and windows they typically leave open at night, and candles or lanterns were visible inside their homes.

The U.S. government's road safety agency is investigating Tesla's Full Self-Driving system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents that it opened the probe on Thursday after the company reported four crashes when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust.

In addition to the pedestrian's death, another crash involved an injury, the agency said.

Investigators will look into the ability of Full Self-Driving to detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if so, the contributing circumstances for these crashes.

The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

A message was left Friday seeking comment from Tesla, which has repeatedly said the system cannot drive itself and human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.

Last week Tesla held an event at a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals. Musk, who has promised autonomous vehicles before, said the company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said.

The investigation's impact on Tesla's self-driving ambitions isn't clear. NHTSA would have to approve any robotaxi without pedals or a steering wheel, and it's unlikely that would happen while the investigation is in progress. But if the company tries to deploy autonomous vehicles in its existing models, that likely would fall to state regulations. There are no federal regulations specifically focused on autonomous vehicles, although they must meet broader safety rules.

NHTSA also said it would look into whether any other similar crashes involving Full Self-Driving have happened in low visibility conditions, and it will seek information from the company on whether any updates affected the systems performance in those conditions.

In particular, this review will assess the timing, purpose and capabilities of any such updates, as well as Teslas assessment of their safety impact, the documents said.

Tesla reported the four crashes to NHTSA under an order from the agency covering all automakers. An agency database says the pedestrian was killed in Rimrock, Arizona, in November of 2023 after being hit by a 2021 Tesla Model Y. Rimrock is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Phoenix.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety said in a statement that the crash happened just after 5 p.m. Nov. 27 on Interstate 17. Two vehicles collided on the freeway, blocking the left lane. A Toyota 4Runner stopped, and two people got out to help with traffic control. A red Tesla Model Y then hit the 4Runner and one of the people who exited from it. A 71-year-old woman from Mesa, Arizona, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The collision happened because the sun was in the Tesla driver's eyes, so the Tesla driver was not charged, said Raul Garcia, public information officer for the department. Sun glare also was a contributing factor in the first collision, he added.

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Tesla has twice recalled Full Self-Driving under pressure from NHTSA, which in July sought information from law enforcement and the company after a Tesla using the system struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle.

The recalls were issued because the system was programmed to run stop signs at slow speeds and because the system disobeyed other traffic laws. Both problems were to be fixed with online software updates.

Critics have said that Teslas system, which uses only cameras to spot hazards, doesnt have proper sensors to be fully self driving. Nearly all other companies working on autonomous vehicles use radar and laser sensors in addition to cameras to see better in the dark or poor visibility conditions.

Musk has said that humans drive with only eyesight, so cars should be able to drive with just cameras. He has called lidar (light detection and ranging), which uses lasers to detect objects, a fool's errand.

The Full Self-Driving recalls arrived after a three-year investigation into Tesla's less-sophisticated Autopilot system crashing into emergency and other vehicles parked on highways, many with warning lights flashing.

That investigation was closed last April after the agency pressured Tesla into recalling its vehicles to bolster a weak system that made sure drivers are paying attention. A few weeks after the recall, NHTSA began investigating whether the recall was working.

NHTSA began its Autopilot crash investigation in 2021, after receiving 11 reports that Teslas that were using Autopilot struck parked emergency vehicles. In documents explaining why the investigation was ended, NHTSA said it ultimately found 467 crashes involving Autopilot resulting in 54 injuries and 14 deaths. Autopilot is a fancy version of cruise control, while Full Self-Driving has been billed by Musk as capable of driving without human intervention.

The investigation that was opened Thursday enters new territory for NHTSA, which previously had viewed Tesla's systems as assisting drivers rather than driving themselves. With the new probe, the agency is focusing on the capabilities of Full Self-Driving" rather than simply making sure drivers are paying attention.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said the previous investigation of Autopilot didn't look at why the Teslas weren't seeing and stopping for emergency vehicles.

Before they were kind of putting the onus on the driver rather than the car, he said. Here they're saying these systems are not capable of appropriately detecting safety hazards whether the drivers are paying attention or not.

An Alabama man was arrested Thursday for his alleged role in the January hack of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission social media account that led the price of bitcoin to spike, the Justice Department said.

Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, is accused of helping to break into the SEC's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, allowing the hackers to prematurely announce the approval of long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

The price of bitcoin briefly spiked more than $1,000 after the post claimed The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.

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But soon after the initial post appeared, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on his personal account that the SECs account was compromised. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products, Gensler wrote, calling the post unauthorized without providing further explanation.

Authorities say Council carried out what's known as a SIM swap," using a fake ID to impersonate someone with access to the SEC's X account and convince a cellphone store to give him a SIM card linked to the person's phone. Council was able to take over the person's cellphone number and get access codes to the SEC's X account, which he shared with others who broke into the account and sent the post, the Justice Department says.

Prosecutors say after Council returned the iPhone he used for the SIM swap, his online searches included: What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI even if you have not been contacted by them.

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An email seeking comment was sent Thursday to an attorney for Council, who is charged in Washington's federal court with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

The price of bitcoin swung from about $46,730 to just below $48,000 after the unauthorized post hit on Jan. 9 and then dropped to around $45,200 after the SECs denial. The SEC officially approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin the following day.

A former Olympic snowboarder for Canada has been charged with running a drug trafficking ring that shipped vast amounts of cocaine across the Americas and killed four people, authorities said Thursday.

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and extradition of Ryan James Wedding, a Canadian citizen who was living in Mexico and is considered a fugitive. The 43-year-old is charged in the United States with running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes, U.S. prosecutors said.

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U.S. authorities said Wedding's group moved large shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to Canada and other locations in the United States using long-haul semi-trucks. Wedding, who also faces years-old charges in Canada, is one of 16 people charged in connection with a ring that moved 60 tons of cocaine a year, and four of them remain fugitives, said Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.

He chose to become a major drug trafficker and he chose to become a killer, Estrada told reporters.

Krysti Hawkins, FBI special agent in charge in Los Angeles, said a dozen people were arrested in Florida, Michigan, Canada, Colombia and Mexico in connection with the case.

U.S. authorities allege the group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there said was a case of mistaken identity as well as two other people, according to officials and federal court filings. Authorities said they seized cocaine, weapons, ammunition, cash and more than $3 million in cryptocurrency in connection with their investigation.

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Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, authorities said.

Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, said Chris Leather, chief superintendent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Those charges are very much unresolved, Leather said.

Wedding previously was convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. Estrada said U.S. authorities believe that after Wedding's release, he resumed drug trafficking and has been protected by the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.

Its a trend that has surprised many: Why, despite being squeezed by high prices, have Americans kept spending at retail stores and restaurants at a robust pace?

One key reason is a relatively simple one: Wealthier consumers, boosted by strong gains in income, home equity and stock market wealth, have increasingly driven the spending.

That trend, documented by Federal Reserve research, represents something of a shift from the pre-pandemic period. And it suggests that consumer spending, the primary driver of the U.S. economy, could help sustain healthy growth this year and next.

Lower-income consumers, by contrast, have been disproportionately squeezed by higher-priced rent, groceries and other necessities, leaving them less able to spend on discretionary items, like electronics, entertainment and restaurant meals, than they were before the pandemic. Though their spending is starting to rebound as inflation-adjusted incomes rise, it could be years before their finances fully recover.

The disparities help explain the gap between gloomy consumer sentiment and widespread evidence of a healthy U.S. economy a major dynamic in the presidential race that is now in its final weeks. Only a portion of the American population is fueling most of the growth that is evident in government economic data.

The trends also help illustrate how the economy has managed to keep expanding at a solid pace even though the Federal Reserve, until last month, kept its key interest rate at its highest level in more than two decades. Despite the much higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards that resulted from the Fed's rate hikes, inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose 3% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023. And it increased at a 2.8% annual rate in the April-June quarter, the government said last month.

On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales in the United States rose 0.4% from August to September, a solid gain that suggested that shoppers are confident enough in the economy to continue spending freely. Restaurant sales jumped 1%, a particularly encouraging sign because it meant that many people felt they could spend on meals outside the home. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta now estimates that the economy grew at a strong 3.4% in the July-September quarter.

Higher-income households have been fortified by huge gains in housing and stock market wealth since the pandemic. Home values have marched steadily up, fueled by high demand and an unusually low supply of houses. And the stock market has been consistently hitting new highs, with the S&P 500 index up a sizzling 22.5% for the year. Roughly 80% of stock market value is owned by the richest 10% of U.S. households.

It speaks to the ongoing strength of those Americans, which is still carrying overall spending, said Michael Pearce, deputy chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

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Housing and stock values have soared in particular for the wealthiest one-tenth of Americans over the past four years. The value of their home equity has leapt 70% from the first quarter of 2020 through the second quarter of this year, according to Fed data to $17.6 trillion. Their stock and mutual fund wealth has jumped 86%, to just under $37 trillion. Though inflation has eroded some of those gains, they are still quite substantial.

Such sharp growth in wealth has reduced the need for affluent Americans to save from their paychecks while still ramping up their spending. A report last week by Fed economists found that before the pandemic, retail spending had been rising for all income groups at roughly the same pace. But about three years ago, the trend shifted: Upper- and middle-income consumers started spending at a much faster pace than lower-earners.

By August 2024, inflation-adjusted spending on retail goods was nearly 17% higher than it was in January 2018 for upper-income households, defined as those earning more than $100,000. For middle-income households earning $60,000 to $100,000 their spending rose 13.3% during the same period, the Fed study found. And for those earning less than $60,000, spending has risen just 7.9% since 2018. It actually fell from mid-2021 through mid-2023.

Middle- and high-income households have been fueling the strong demand for retail goods, Fed economist Sinem Hacioglu Hoke and two colleagues wrote.

Among those who have felt pressure to spend cautiously is Helaine Rapkin, a 69-year-old teacher who was shopping last week at a Kohls in Ramsey, New Jersey, looking for discounts on athletic wear and gifts for her nephew, niece and daughter. Rapkin said shes wrestling with higher costs on a range of items and isn't feeling the benefits of a dramatically reduced inflation rate.

I am not feeling good at all, she said. "I cant believe how expensive things have gottenClothes or food.

Pearce, in his own research, has found that since the pandemic, lower-income Americans have had to cut their spending on discretionary items. Inflation sharply increased the portion of their income that they had to spend on housing and food, leaving little for other purchases.

As a result, for the lowest-income one-fifth of Americans those earning less than $28,000 the share of their spending on discretionary items fell 2.5 percentage points by the second quarter of this year compared with 2019. It also declined for the second-lowest one-fifth of households and for the middle fifth. But for the wealthiest one-fifth, the share of their spending on discretionary purchases actually increased.

This has clearly been a very large shock to households, particularly those at the lower end," Pearce said. What surprised me is how little has been clawed back.

One sign of the struggles that lower-income consumers have faced is that the proportion of borrowers who are behind on credit cards or auto loans has risen in the past two years to the highest levels in about a decade.

Karen Dynan, an economist at Harvard and a nonresident fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, suggested, though, that such trends aren't likely to derail the overall economy.

There are increasing cracks in consumers spending, she said. "But its not yet a broader economic story.

Dynan and Pearce say they're optimistic that consumers overall including lower-income ones will keep spending in the coming months as inflation-adjusted incomes keep rising, restoring more of Americans' purchasing power.

Were probably past the worst, the most intense pressures on spending from both the inflation shock and from rising interest rates, Pearce said. Now, I think the outlook is pretty strong.

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President Joe Biden said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops is a good day for the world, calling it an opportunity to free hostages held by the militant group and end the yearlong war in Gaza.

Nows the time to move on. ... Move toward a cease-fire in Gaza, make sure that we move in a direction that were able to make things better for the whole world, Biden told reporters as he arrived in Berlin for a short visit. "Its time for this war to end and bring these hostages home. Thats what were ready to do.

U.S. officials expressed such measured optimism that the killing of a militant characterized by national security adviser Jake Sullivan as a massive obstacle to peace" might breathe new life into cease-fire talks that have failed to produce a breakthrough for months despite periodic signs of progress.

Over the past few weeks, there have been no negotiations for an end to the war because Sinwar has refused to negotiate, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. We now see an opportunity with him having been removed from the battlefield, being removed from the leadership of Hamas, and we want to seize that opportunity.

Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on the mission that killed Sinwar. They also discussed how to use this moment to bring the hostages home and to bring the war to a close with Israels security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza, according to a White House summary of the call.

However, Netanyahu said Thursday that our war has not yet ended. Besides seeking the release of hostages, Netanyahu has said Israel must keep long-term control over Gaza to ensure Hamas does not rearm opening the possibility of continued fighting.

Biden said he would be sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel in the coming days.

In an earlier statement, the president compared the reaction to Sinwar's death to the feeling in the U.S. after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He said the killing of the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.

RELATED STORY | Israeli military confirms death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

The inability to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and deliver the return of the hostages has bedeviled negotiators from the start. Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel in the attacks that launched the war and took about 250 hostage. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.

The U.S. has been working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar on a cease-fire proposal since the war began a year ago, sending Blinken and other envoys to the Middle East multiple times to try to broker a deal without success.

Last month, on Blinkens 10th trip to the region since the war in Gaza began, he skipped Israel and withheld optimistic projections of a breakthrough.

On multiple occasions over the past months, Sinwar rebuffed efforts by the United States and its partners to bring this war to a close through an agreement that would return the hostages to their families and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, Blinken said in a statement Thursday.

The halting progress and seemingly conflicting priorities have caused friction in the Biden-Netanyahu relationship as the Israeli leader's pledge to achieve total victory against Hamas has clashed with U.S. officials' concerns about large-scale civilian casualties in Gaza. Israeli leaders presented the killing of Sinwar as a moment for Hamas to surrender.

The Biden administration also had urgently called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to avoid the possibility of all-out war in the Middle East before shifting its message after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike and pressed ahead with a ground invasion in Lebanon.

Biden said with Sinwars death there is now the opportunity for a day after in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

He praised U.S. special operations forces and intelligence operatives who helped advise Israeli allies on tracking and locating Sinwar and other Hamas leaders over the past year though the U.S. said the operation that killed Sinwar was an Israeli one.

Sullivan said Sinwar's removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home.

Now we will have to work to ensure that his death actually does deal the kind of long-term blow to Hamas that of all of us would like to see," he said.

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Lebanons Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region continued to reckon with Israel's claim that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza the previous day.

Hamas has still not responded to the Israeli announcement, but its ally Iran released a statement commemorating the Palestinian militant leader via its mission to the United Nations. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.

When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed," Iran said. "Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed. However when Muslims look up to martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forth his path for the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.

RELATED STORY | Israeli military confirms death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war in the 1980s that began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran. It killed more than 1 million people on both sides.

Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar's death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killing that Our war is not yet ended.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israels security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israels offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

A statement issued by one of Hamas political leaders abroad Friday tacitly but not directly confirmed the death of Sinwar, in Gaza, and said that Israel is mistaken if it believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people.

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Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said that past leaders in the organization had also been killed and Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine. He added that it is painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders but that the Palestinian militant group is sure it will be eventually victorious.

When asked if the statement was a confirmation of Sinwars death, Naim said it was not.

A Georgia grand jury indicted both a father and son on murder charges Thursday in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.

Georgia media outlets reported that the Barrow County grand jury meeting in Winder indicted 14-year-old Colt Gray on Thursday on a total of 55 counts including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, plus aggravated assault and cruelty to children. His father, Colin Gray, faces 29 counts including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.

Deputy court clerk Missy Headrick confirmed that Colin and Colt Gray had been indicted in separate indictments. She said the clerks office had not yet processed the indictments and that the documents likely wouldnt be available to the public until Friday.

Both are scheduled to appear for arraignment on Nov. 21, when each would formally enter a plea. Colin Gray is being held in the Barrow County jail. Colt Gray is charged as an adult but is being held in a juvenile detention center in Gainesville. Neither has sought to be released on bail and their lawyers have previously declined comment.

Investigators testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for Colin Gray that Colt Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle on the school bus that morning, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. They say the boy left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.

The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

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Investigators have said the teenager carefully plotted the shooting at the 1,900-student high school northeast of Atlanta. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the boy left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step handwritten instructions to prepare for the shooting. It included a diagram of his second-period classroom and his estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others, writing that he'd be surprised if I make it this far.

There had long been signs that Colt Gray was troubled.

Colt and Colin Gray were interviewed about an online threat linked to Colt Gray in May of 2023. Colt Gray denied making the threat at the time. He enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year began and then skipped multiple days of school. Investigators said he had a severe anxiety attack on Aug. 14. A counselor said he reported having suicidal thoughts and rocked and shook uncontrollably while in her office.

Colts mother Marcee Gray, who lived separately, told investigators that she had argued with Colin Gray asking him to secure his guns and restrict Colts access in August. Instead, he bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.

After Colt Gray asked his mother to put him in a "mental asylum, the family arranged to take him on Aug. 31 to a mental health treatment center in Athens that offers inpatient treatment, but the plan fell apart when his parents argued about Colts access to guns the day before and his father said he didn't have the gas money, an investigator said.

Colin Gray's indictment is the latest example of prosecutors holding parents responsible for their childrens actions in school shootings. Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first to be convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their sons deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021.

In this case, your honor, he had primary custody of Colt. He had knowledge of Colts obsessions with school shooters. He had knowledge of Colts deteriorating mental state. And he provided the firearms and the ammunition that Colt used in this, District Attorney Brad Smith told the judge Wednesday at the preliminary hearing.