AP Top News at 11:35 p.m. EST

After Trump’s Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face. He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned.

Trump taps Rollins as agriculture chief, completing proposed slate of Cabinet secretaries

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his agriculture secretary, the last of his picks to lead executive agencies and another choice from within his established circle of advisers and allies. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans when Trump takes office Jan. 20, 2025. Rollins would succeed Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden’s agriculture secretary who oversees the sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition. Rollins, an attorney who graduated from Texas A&M University with an undergraduate degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency.

Trump’s Republican Party is increasingly winning union voters. It’s a shift seen in his labor pick

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working-class voters helped Republicans make steady election gains this year and expanded a coalition that increasingly includes rank-and-file union members, a political shift spotlighting one of President-elect Donald Trump’s latest Cabinet picks: a GOP congresswoman, who has drawn labor support, to be his labor secretary. Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her bid for a second term this month, despite strong backing from union members, a key part of the Democratic base but gravitating in the Trump era toward a Republican Party traditionally allied with business interests. “Lori’s strong support from both the Business and Labor communities will ensure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our Agenda for unprecedented National Success - Making America Richer, Wealthier, Stronger and more Prosperous than ever before!” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice Friday night.

Israeli strikes in central Beirut kill at least 20 as diplomats push for a cease-fire

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli airstrikes Saturday in central Beirut killed at least 20 people, officials said, as the once-rare attacks on the heart of Lebanon’s capital continued without warning while diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, which were the fourth in central Beirut in less than a week. The escalation comes after U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region in pursuit of a deal to end months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has erupted into full-on war. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The week that upped the stakes of the Ukraine war

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — This past week has seen the most significant escalation in hostilities that Ukraine has witnessed since Russia’s full-scale invasion and marks a new chapter in the nearly three-year war — one tinged with uncertainty and fear. It began with U.S. President Joe Biden reversing a longstanding policy by granting Kyiv permission to deploy American longer-range missiles inside Russian territory and ended with Moscow striking Ukraine with a new experimental ballistic weapon that has alarmed the international community and heightened fears of further escalation. Here is a look at the events in Ukraine in the span of a week that has fundamentally altered the stakes of the war: Washington eased limits on what Ukraine can strike with its American-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating the conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

A $300B a year deal for climate cash at UN summit sparks outrage for some and hope for others

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations climate talks adopted a deal to inject at least $300 billion annually in humanity’s fight against climate change, aimed at helping developing nations cope with the ravages of global warming in tense negotiations. The $300 billion will go to developing countries who need the cash to wean themselves off the coal, oil and gas that causes the globe to overheat, adapt to future warming and pay for the damage caused by climate change’s extreme weather. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, but it’s three times a deal of $100 billion a year from 2009 that is expiring.

The Philippine vice president publicly threatens to have the president assassinated

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed, in a brazen public threat that she warned was not a joke. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the “active threat” against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to an elite presidential guards force “for immediate proper action.” It was not immediately clear what actions would be taken against the vice president. The Presidential Security Command boosted Marcos’ security and said it considered the vice president’s threat, which was “made so brazenly in public,” a national security issue.

Will a winter storm hit the US over Thanksgiving week? Here’s what forecasts show so far

WINDSOR, Calif. (AP) — Forecasters warned over the weekend that another round of winter weather could complicate travel leading up to Thanksgiving in parts of the U.S. In California, where a person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more precipitation while still grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm. And thousands in the Pacific Northwest remained without power after multiple days in the dark. A winter storm warning in California’s Sierra Nevada on Saturday was in effect through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph).

Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 37 people

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 37 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday. The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people. Shiite Muslims make up about 15% of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities. Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram. The station house police officer in Kurram, Saleem Shah, said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.

Nigeria turns to natural gas as transport prices soar after petrol subsidies were removed

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — When Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu ended the costly subsidies that made petrol affordable for many in Africa’s most populous country, Ahmed Halilu knew his e-hailing cab business in the capital, Abuja, was about to run into huge losses. Transportation costs skyrocketed as the price of petrol more than tripled in the months that followed last year’s decision, resulting in the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. That meant a massive drop in the number of Halilu’s passengers and ultimately in his earnings. In what they said would eventually lower transportation costs by almost 50%, Nigerian authorities in August introduced a compressed natural gas (CNG) initiative to tap its huge gas reserves — Africa’s largest — and roll out CNG buses while switching petrol-powered vehicles to use it.