By FARNOUSH AMIRI, EDITH M. LEDERER AND JON GAMBRELL - Associated Press Qatar's premier accuses Israel of not caring about hostages
UNITED NATIONS -- Israel's leaders showed they "do not care" about the hostages held in the Gaza Strip after its attack this week on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar's prime minister told the United Nations on Thursday, but vowed to keep pressing for peace as global powers united to condemn the strike.
With Tuesday's deadly attack on the U.S. ally, Israel has "gone beyond any borders, any limitations," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. However, Qatar would not give up on efforts to end the nearly two-year war in Gaza and would "continue our humanitarian and diplomatic role without any hesitation in order to stop the bloodshed," he said.
The strike killed at least six people as Hamas leaders gathered in Doha to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, risking upending negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt and intensifying Israel's growing global isolation.
"Extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages -- otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?" Sheikh Mohammed said. Earlier, he told CNN that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly to blame for killing "any hope for those hostages."
In response, Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said that "history will not be kind to accomplices."
"Either Qatar condemns Hamas, expels Hamas, and brings Hamas to justice. Or Israel will," Danon said.
Brazilian Supreme Court panel sentences Bolsonaro
to more than 27 years in prison for coup attempt
BRASILIA, BRAZIL -- A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison Thursday after convicting him of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
Bolsonaro, who has always denied any wrongdoing, can appeal the ruling. He is currently under house arrest in Brasilia.
Four of the five justices reviewing the case in the panel found the far-right politician guilty on five counts, in a ruling that will deepen political divisions and was expected to prompt a backlash from the U.S. government. It makes Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
The U.S. government immediately criticized the ruling and warned it would respond.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "very unhappy" with the conviction. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, he said he'd always found Bolsonaro to be "outstanding."
And later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on his X account that Trump's government "will respond accordingly to this witch hunt."
Trump's administration had already applied a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods, which it said was in reaction to the process against Bolsonaro.
Trump administration requests emergency ruling to remove Cook from Fed board
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve's board of governors by Monday, before the central bank's next vote on interest rates.
The request represents an extraordinary effort by the White House to shape the board before the Fed's interest rate-setting committee meets next Tuesday and Wednesday. At the same time, Senate Republicans are pushing to confirm Stephen Miran, President Donald Trump's nominee to an open spot on the Fed's board, which could happen as soon as Monday.
Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed's board. Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud because she appeared to claim two properties as "primary residences" in July 2021, before she joined the board. Such claims can lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them was declared as a rental property or second home. Cook has denied the charges.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the administration had not satisfied a legal requirement that Fed governors can only be fired "for cause," which she said was limited to misconduct while in office. Cook did not join the Fed's board until 2022.
In their emergency appeal, Trump's lawyers argued that even if the conduct occurred before her time as governor, her alleged action "indisputably calls into question Cook's trustworthiness and whether she can be a responsible steward of the interest rates and economy."
The administration asked an appeals court to issue an emergency decision reversing the lower court by Monday. If their appeal is succesful, Cook would be removed from the Fed's board until her case is ultimately resolved in the courts, and she would miss next week's meeting.
Russian drone incursion in Poland prompts NATO leaders to take stock of bigger threats
WARSAW, POLAND -- European leaders on Thursday expressed alarm over growing Russian hostility threatening their countries as Moscow's forces pursue their invasion of Ukraine -- concerns exacerbated by events of the previous day when multiple Russian drones struck Polish soil.
The incursion into Poland, which came during unrelenting Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, deepened longstanding fears that the three-year war between Poland's neighbors could precipitate a wider conflict. U.S.-led efforts to steer Moscow and Kyiv toward a peace settlement have so far failed to get traction.
European officials described the incursion as a deliberate provocation, forcing the NATO alliance to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time and compelling it to take stock of its military response and capabilities.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the incursion with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday.
Starmer's office said that it "was clear that Russia was continuing to ramp up its aggression, systematically stepping up its attacks through a campaign of increasingly belligerent actions." The German government said it will "extend and expand air policing over Poland."
Judge issues nationwide block on Trump policy that cuts off Head Start for people in US illegally
A federal judge has issued a nationwide block on a Trump administration directive that prevented children in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program.
Head Start associations in several states filed suit against the policy change by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The ruling by a federal judge in Washington state on Thursday comes after a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general succeeded in temporarily halting the policy's implementation within their own states.
With the new ruling, the policy is now on hold across the country.
Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesman, said the agency disagrees with the court's decisions and is evaluating next steps.
In July, HHS proposed a rule reinterpretation to disallow immigrants in the country illegally from receiving certain social services, including Head Start and other community health programs. Those programs were previously made accessible by a federal law in President Bill Clinton's administration.
The change was part of a broader Trump administration effort to exclude people without legal status from accessing social services by making changes to federal eligibility rules.
South Korean workers detained in immigration raid leave Atlanta and head home
ATLANTA -- A plane carrying more than 300 workers from South Korea who were detained during an immigration raid at a battery factory in Georgia last week left Atlanta shortly before noon Thursday, bound for South Korea.
The workers traveled by bus from a detention center in southeast Georgia to Atlanta earlier in the day for their flight, which is expected to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the detainees released by U.S. authorities included 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.
The workers were among about 475 people detained during last week's raid at the battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai's sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. They had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, 285 miles (460 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta.
South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday called for improvements to the United States' visa system, saying Korean companies will likely hesitate to make new investments in the U.S. until that happens.
Associated Press
Lee said during a news conference that Korean and U.S. officials had a back-and-forth discussion over whether the detainees had to be handcuffed while they traveled by bus to Atlanta -- something the Koreans "strongly opposed." He said there was also a debate over whether they would be leaving under "voluntary departure" or deportation.
While those discussions were ongoing, U.S. officials started to return the detainees' belongings. Then, however, "everything suddenly halted," Lee said, adding that they were told that was due to instructions from the White House.
"President Trump had directed that the (detainees) should be allowed to return home freely and those who didn't want to go didn't have to," he said. "We were told that, because of that instruction, the process was paused and the administrative procedures were changed accordingly."