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To secure Gaza ceasefire, dealmakers overcame enemies' deep distrust

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To secure Gaza ceasefire, dealmakers overcame enemies' deep distrust
News

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To secure Gaza ceasefire, dealmakers overcame enemies' deep distrust

2025-01-23 08:56 Last Updated At:09:01

Inside a lavish clubhouse on Doha’s waterfront, tensions strained by months of fruitless back-and-forth weighed on negotiators as the hour neared 3 a.m.

On the first floor, a Hamas delegation whose leader had once evaded an Israeli airstrike that killed seven family members combed through the details of yet another proposal to halt the war in Gaza. On the second floor, advisers to Israel’s intelligence chief, who had vowed to hunt down those responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, did the same.

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FILE - A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages who were released after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages who were released after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Palestinians stand near buildings destroyed by an Israeli air and ground offensive, Jan. 19, 2025, in Rafah. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hajjar, File)

FILE - Palestinians stand near buildings destroyed by an Israeli air and ground offensive, Jan. 19, 2025, in Rafah. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hajjar, File)

FILE - Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Friends and relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas react to the ceasefire announcement during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

FILE - Friends and relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas react to the ceasefire announcement during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

FILE - Palestinians gather around a TV as they await the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE - Palestinians gather around a TV as they await the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2024. (Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2024. (Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Steve Witkoff speak during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Steve Witkoff speak during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks at a joint press conference with the U.S. secretary of state in Doha, Qatar, June 12, 2024. (Ibraheem Al Omari/AP File)

FILE - Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks at a joint press conference with the U.S. secretary of state in Doha, Qatar, June 12, 2024. (Ibraheem Al Omari/AP File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with his security Cabinet to vote on a ceasefire deal that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2025. (Koby Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office via AP, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with his security Cabinet to vote on a ceasefire deal that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2025. (Koby Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office via AP, File)

FILE - President Joe Biden, center, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, right, speaks at the White House on the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza after more than 15 months of war, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - President Joe Biden, center, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, right, speaks at the White House on the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza after more than 15 months of war, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - A man waves a Palestinian flag as he returns home to Rafah, after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)

FILE - A man waves a Palestinian flag as he returns home to Rafah, after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)

With Qatari, U.S. and Egyptian mediators pushing for resolution, did the sides — such bitter enemies that they refused to speak directly to one another — at last have a deal to pause the fighting and bring dozens of Israeli hostages home?

“They were extremely suspicious towards each other. No trust at all,” said an Egyptian official involved in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The talks that night a week ago dragged on over disagreements about maps showing where Israel would begin withdrawing troops and its demand that Hamas provide a list of hostages who remained alive, he said.

“Both parties were looking at each word in the deal as a trap.”

By the time Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, announced a ceasefire deal last Wednesday evening, mediators had scrambled again to defuse objections by both sides. Even then, disagreements and delays continued over the two days that followed.

But as the fighting in Gaza paused this week, three young Israeli women were released from captivity and dozens of Palestinian prisoners were freed by Israel, the agreement, however tenuous, has held.

The story of how Israel and Hamas found their way to a deal stretches back over more than a year. But the timing and unlikely partners who coalesced to push negotiations across the line help explain why it finally happened now.

“Over the course of the last week all of the stars aligned finally in a way that, after 15 months of carnage and bloodshed, negotiations came to fruition,” said Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University's campus in Qatar.

The agreement was the product of a singular political moment, with one U.S. president preparing to hand power to another.

Both were pushing for a deal to free some 100 Israeli hostages and bring an end to a war that began with the Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 in Israel. Palestinian health officials say more than 47,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the conflict.

The health officials do not distinguish between civilians and militants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

In tiny but wealthy Qatar, the talks had a steward that positions itself as a go-between in a region on edge, one that hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East even as it provides offices for leaders of Hamas and the Taliban. Egypt, eager to ease instability that has driven an influx of Palestinians across its border and sparked attacks on sea lanes by Houthi rebels, worked to keep the talks on track.

The circumstances partnered Sheikh Mohammed with improbable allies. Then-President Joe Biden sent Brett McGurk, a veteran Middle East hand in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Donald Trump dispatched Steve Witkoff, a Bronx-born real estate billionaire with little if any diplomatic experience, but a longtime friendship with the then-president-elect.

The deal they brought together calls for continued negotiations that could be even more fraught, but with the potential to release the remaining hostages and end a war that has destroyed much of Gaza and roiled the entire region.

In the end, negotiators got it done in a matter of days. But it followed months of deadlock over the number of Israeli hostages that would be freed, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and the parameters of a pullback by Israeli troops in the embattled enclave.

In late May, Biden laid out a proposed deal, which he said had come from Israel. It drew heavily on language and concepts hammered out with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, calling for a phased agreement with continued negotiation toward a “sustainable calm” – verbiage designed to satisfy both sides.

But talks had stalled even before the detonation of a bomb, attributed to Israel, in late July killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau. And efforts by mediators to restart them were derailed when Israeli forces found the bodies of six hostages in a Gaza tunnel in August.

“Whoever murders hostages does not want a deal,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said.

Pressure on Hamas increased after Israeli forces killed leader Yahya Sinwar — an architect of the Oct. 7 attack — and launched a devastating offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the group’s longtime ally.

But Qatari officials, frustrated by the lack of progress, announced they were suspending mediation until both sides demonstrated willingness to negotiate.

Weeks later, Trump dispatched Witkoff, a golfing buddy whose most notable prior link to the Middle East was his $623 million sale of New York’s Park Lane Hotel to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in 2023.

Flying to Doha in late November, Witkoff asked mediators to lay out the problems undermining the talks, then continued on to meet officials in Israel. The talks restarted soon after, gaining ground through December.

“Witkoff and McGurk were pushing the Israelis. Qatar was pushing Hamas,” said an official briefed on the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Assigning credit for the progress depends on viewpoint.

The Egyptian official recounted the frustration of successfully pushing Hamas to agree to changes last summer, only to find Netanyahu imposing new conditions.

An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity last week because the negotiations were ongoing said Sinwar’s death and Iran’s weakening influence in the region forced Hamas’ hand, leading to real give-and-take rather than “playing a game of negotiation.”

He and others close to the process said Trump's rhetoric and dispatch of an envoy had injected new momentum. The Egyptian official pointed to a statement by Trump on social media that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released, saying it had pressured both Hamas and Israeli officials to get a deal done.

And mediators said the willingness of Witkoff and McGurk -- representing leaders loathe to give one another credit for the deal – to partner up was critical.

“How they have handled this as a team since the election, without yet being in office, has really helped close the gaps that allowed us to reach a deal,” Majed Al Ansari, the adviser to Qatar’s prime minister and spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.

In early January, there was a breakthrough in the talks when Hamas agreed to provide a list of hostages it would release in the first phase of a deal, an official briefed on the talks said.

McGurk flew from Washington to Doha hours later. Witkoff followed at week’s end.

The following day – Saturday, January 11 – Witkoff flew to Israel, securing a meeting with Netanyahu even though it was the Jewish Sabbath. McGurk called in. Netanyahu agreed to send the heads of Israeli intelligence and internal security back to Doha for negotiations.

That led to extended negotiations, most convening in the Qatari prime minister’s private office, that lasted late into the night.

At points, mediators shuttled back and forth between adversaries on different floors. At others, the chief negotiators for the two sides cycled separately into the prime minister’s office to hash out details.

“But the Hamas and Israeli delegations never crossed paths,” said the official briefed on the talks.

After the lead negotiators for each side left Sheikh Mohammed’s office late Tuesday, the work shifted to the waterfront club owned by the foreign affairs ministry, where “technical teams” from both sides pored over the specific language, a floor apart.

“Until late the first hours of Wednesday we were working tirelessly to resolve last-minute disputes,” said the Egyptian official involved in the negotiations.

After extended discussions focused on the buffer zone Israel is to maintain in Gaza and the names of prisoners to be released, the long night ended with an agreement seemingly at hand, said the official briefed on the talks.

But with reporters gathering Wednesday evening for an announcement, “a last-minute hiccup, last-minute requests from both sides” forced a delay, the official said.

Israel accused Hamas of trying to make changes to already agreed upon arrangements along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Hamas called the claims “nonsense.”

A senior U.S. official involved in the talks said Hamas negotiators made several last-minute demands, but “we held very firm.”

After calling the Hamas negotiators into his office, with the media and the world still anxiously waiting, the Qatari prime minister met separately with the Israelis and U.S. envoys. Finally, three hours behind schedule, Sheikh Mohammed stepped to a lectern to announce the parties had reached an agreement.

Even then, negotiations resumed the following day to wrangle with questions about final implementation of the deal and mechanisms for doing so. By the time the talks ended, it was 4 a.m.

Hours later, Israeli President Isaac Herzog voiced his hope that the deal would bring a national moment of goodwill, healing and rebuilding.

But no one can say how long it will last.

The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to resume talks just over a week from now, to work out the second phase. That is supposed to include the release of all remaining hostages, living and dead, and a permanent ceasefire. But getting there, observers say, will likely be even tougher.

—-

Magdy reported from Cairo, Geller from New York, and Madhani from Washington. Associated Press reporter Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this story.

FILE - A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages who were released after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages who were released after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Palestinians stand near buildings destroyed by an Israeli air and ground offensive, Jan. 19, 2025, in Rafah. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hajjar, File)

FILE - Palestinians stand near buildings destroyed by an Israeli air and ground offensive, Jan. 19, 2025, in Rafah. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hajjar, File)

FILE - Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

FILE - Friends and relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas react to the ceasefire announcement during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

FILE - Friends and relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas react to the ceasefire announcement during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

FILE - Palestinians gather around a TV as they await the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE - Palestinians gather around a TV as they await the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2024. (Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2024. (Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Steve Witkoff speak during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Steve Witkoff speak during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks at a joint press conference with the U.S. secretary of state in Doha, Qatar, June 12, 2024. (Ibraheem Al Omari/AP File)

FILE - Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks at a joint press conference with the U.S. secretary of state in Doha, Qatar, June 12, 2024. (Ibraheem Al Omari/AP File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with his security Cabinet to vote on a ceasefire deal that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2025. (Koby Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office via AP, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with his security Cabinet to vote on a ceasefire deal that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2025. (Koby Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office via AP, File)

FILE - President Joe Biden, center, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, right, speaks at the White House on the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza after more than 15 months of war, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - President Joe Biden, center, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, right, speaks at the White House on the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza after more than 15 months of war, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - A man waves a Palestinian flag as he returns home to Rafah, after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)

FILE - A man waves a Palestinian flag as he returns home to Rafah, after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal employees by offering them financial incentives.

The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program, which has been commonly described as a buyout.

Here's the latest:

White House press secretary Karoline Levitt says 40,000-plus federal workers have agreed to resign in exchange for continuing to be paid through Sept. 30.

Her comments came moments after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration plan offering incentives for federal workers to resign. That decision moved a deadline for federal employees to take the offer from Thursday back until at least Monday.

“We expect that number to increase,” Leavitt said. “We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer.”

The Trump administration’s abrupt closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development is removing a key way of showing American goodwill around the world — with millions of lives at stake.

The stop-work order has closed clinics in more than 25 countries where two-thirds of all child deaths occur globally, said Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development.

HIV patients in Africa found locked doors at clinics funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is credited with saving more than 25 million lives. In Congo’s conflict zone, American money no longer supports food, water, electricity and basic health care for 4.6 million people. Doctors of the World-Turkey relied on USAID for 60% of its funding in Syria, where it had to shutter 12 field hospitals providing life-saving services.

▶ Read more about the impact on USAID’s global health programs

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal employees by offering them financial incentives.

The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program, which has been commonly described as a buyout.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston did not express an opinion on the legality of the program. He scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. EST.

He also directed administration officials to extend the deadline to apply for the program until after the hearing.

Several labor unions have sued over Trump’s plans, which were orchestrated by Elon Musk, a top adviser. The Republican president is trying to downsize and reshape the federal workforce.

Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s choice to be the top U.S. trade negotiator, promised to pursue the president’s hardline trade policies in testimony Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. But he faced pushback from senators unsettled by Trump’s unpredictable actions on trade.

Trump’s protectionist approach — involving the heavy use of taxes on foreign goods — will give Americans “the opportunity to work in good-paying jobs producing goods and services they can sell in this market and abroad to earn an honest living,’′ Greer said in remarks prepared ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee.

As U.S. trade representative, Greer would have responsibility — along with Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick — for one of Trump’s top policy priorities: waging or at least threatening trade war with countries around the world, America’s friends and foes alike.

▶ Read more about Trump’s pick for U.S. trade negotiator

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared for a photo-op with U.S. senators at the Capitol when a reporter asked the question.

“Mr. Netanyahu, do you think U.S. troops are needed in Gaza to make President Trump’s plan peaceful?”

“No,” he replied, and then press aides shooed journalists from the room.

Trump officials have organized question-and-answer sessions as federal workers decide whether to quit in exchange for several months of pay.

“I know there’s been a lot of questions out there about whether it’s real and whether it’s a trick,” Rachel Oglesby, now chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, told employees, according to a recording obtained by The Associated Press.

“And it’s exactly what it looks like. It’s one of the many tools that he’s using to try to achieve the campaign promise to bring reform to the civil service and changes to D.C,” she said.

A similar discussion was recorded at the Department of Agriculture.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers,” said human resources official Marlon Taubenheim. “These are very trying times.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s effort to reduce the federal workforce

President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary will face her first confirmation test next week.

Linda McMahon is scheduled to go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Feb. 13. If confirmed, Trump said her top priority will be dismantling the agency, saying he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job.”

McMahon, 76, is a longtime Trump ally and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed last week’s deadly collision of a passenger jet and Army helicopter on what he called an “obsolete” computer system used by U.S. air traffic controllers, and he vowed to replace it.

Trump said during an event that “a lot of mistakes happened” on Jan. 29 when an American Airlines flight out of Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter as the plane was about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Trump blamed diversity hiring programs for the crash. But on Thursday, he blamed the computer system used by the country’s air traffic controllers.

“It’s amazing that it happened,” Trump said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol. “And I think that’s going to be used for good. I think what is going to happen is we’re all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new — not pieced together, obsolete.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s response to the crash

Trump is tapping Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an effort to root out “anti-Christian bias” nationwide.

The president said during the National Prayer Breakfast that the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination.”

It’s envisioned as an office within the White House that Trump said would place a special emphasis on bias within the federal government, “at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”

The emergence of X owner Elon Musk as the most influential figure around President Donald Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic — a White House adviser using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while intimidating its detractors.

The world’s richest man is using the social media platform as a cudgel and a megaphone for the Republican administration at a time when his power to shape the electorate’s perspective is only growing, with more Americans getting their news from ‘influencers’ online. Musk alone has 215 million followers.

Requests for comment from Musk’s special commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, and X were not returned.

Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University and the author of “How Democracies Die,” said “This is a combination of economic, media and political power that I believe has never been seen before in any democracy on Earth.”

▶ Read more about how Musk is wielding his power

IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season will not be allowed to accept the Trump administration’s offer to be paid to quit until after the taxpayer filing deadline.

A letter to IRS employees Wednesday says such workers are exempt until May 15.

Union leaders and worker advocates have criticized the proposal and question whether the Trump administration will honor its terms.

“This country needs skilled, experienced federal employees,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “We are urging people not to take this deal because it will damage the services to the American people and it will harm the federal employees who have dedicated themselves and their career to serving.”

▶ Read more about how Trump’s push to get federal workers to quit affects the IRS

The Trump administration’s decision to close the U.S. Agency for International Development has drawn widespread criticism from congressional Democrats and raised questions and concern about the influence billionaire ally Elon Musk wields over the federal government.

The United States is by far the world’s largest source of foreign assistance, although several European countries allocate a much bigger share of their budgets to aid. USAID funds projects in some 120 countries aimed at fighting epidemics, educating children, providing clean water and supporting other areas of development.

▶ Read more about the global impact of closing USAID

A federal judge is considering next steps in a slow-moving court case over whether to release documents that could spell legal trouble for Prince Harry.

The influential Heritage Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, seeking to reveal if he lied on his immigration paperwork about past drug use or received special treatment when he and his wife Meghan Markle moved to Southern California.

“People are routinely deported for lying on immigration forms,” Heritage’s attorney Samuel Dewey told reporters after a Wednesday hearing.

▶ Read more about the case involving Prince Harry

Democratic senators are still at it, having talked through the night to protest Trump’s pick of Russ Vought as budget director.

Seizing the Senate floor is one of the remaining tools the minority party has to stonewall a confirmation. Democrats unanimously oppose Vought, a Project 2025 author who is influential in Musk’s DOGE efforts to gut government.

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D. Colo., said his office was flooded with complaints over Trump’s temporary freeze of federal funds, which has since been rescinded and blocked by a court. He said Congress has appropriated this money and the White House cannot unilaterally cut it.

Republicans have the votes to easily confirm Vought once the 30 hours of debate expires Thursday.

Two Elon Musk allies have “read only” access to Treasury Department payment systems, but no one else will get access for now, including Musk himself, under a court order signed Thursday.

It comes in a lawsuit filed by federal workers unions trying to stop the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency from following through on what they call a massive privacy invasion.

Two Musk allies, Marko Elez and Tom Krause, have been made “special government employees” and already have access to the system, government attorneys have said.

The temporary order blocks further access by DOGE as U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly considers the case.

Related to Rubio’s first stop on his trip, the U.S. State Department said late Wednesday on X that the Panamanians had agreed to allow U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal without charge.

But Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino later denied that, saying Thursday he had told U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a day earlier that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them, so he was surprised by the statement suggesting otherwise.

The State Department had no immediate comment Thursday.

The fees had been one focus of President Donald Trump’s complaints about the canal, which he has threatened to retake from Panama unless Panama severely limits Chinese influence in the area.

The Trump administration plans to seize a jet that belongs to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 's government.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will announce the seizure on Thursday in the Dominican Republic, the last stop of his Latin American tour, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter and a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. Publicly, the State Department calls it a “law enforcement engagement.”

Carrying out the seizure required Rubio to get Justice Department approval and to free up more than $230,000 in frozen foreign aid to cover storage and maintenance fees.

The U.S. seized another of Maduro’s planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024.

The State Department document says this plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that Maduro and top aides used to travel the world in violation of U.S. sanctions.

▶ Read more about Rubio and the Venezuelan jet

Candidate Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation-building.

But just weeks into his second term, President Trump is proposing to use American power to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and to buy Greenland from Denmark.

The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is flummoxing some of his allies.

“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, posted on social media. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”

▶ Read more on how people are trying to understand Trump’s imperialistic comments

Democrats said workers shouldn’t accept the deferred resignation program because it wasn’t authorized by Congress, raising the risk they won’t get paid. Unions have sued to stop Trump’s plans, and a judge will consider whether to block the offer at a hearing Thursday afternoon in Boston.

“It’s a scam and not a buyout,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “If it was me, I wouldn’t do it.”

An employee at the Department of Education who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation said the administration appears desperate to get people to sign, but there are too many red flags, such as a clause waiving the right to sue if the government fails to honor its side of the deal.

By Chris Megerian, Collin Binkley and Byron Tau.

▶ Read more on the Trump administration effort to persuade federal workers to resign

When the Rev. Mariann Budde called for Trump to show mercy to Americans scared about his second term in office, the president retorted online that she was “not very good at her job” and owed the public an apology. Catholic Vice President JD Vance has jabbed at top US leaders of his own church over immigration issues.

Many clergy across the country are worried about the removal of churches from the sensitive-areas list. And religious refugee resettlement groups are among those that were left scrambling after federal aid was cut off.

▶ Read more about Trump and religion

During the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, as he advocated for Americans to “bring God back into our lives.”

“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” Trump said. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

Trump reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling lawmakers and attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”

“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

The president, who’s a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”

▶ Read more about Trump and religion

Trump said Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

He added that the U.S. would work “with great development teams from all over the World,” and “slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”

Trump reasserted his commitment to his Gaza plan the day after his top diplomat and his chief spokesperson walked back that the president is advocating for the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rejected the U.S. taking “ownership” of the territory.

President Donald Trump says “no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.

The comments come two days after Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, suggested relocating Gaza residents and redeveloping the land for people from around the world.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in a posting on his Truth Social platform.

The Republican-led Senate is expected to confirm a chief architect of Project 2025 as director of the Office of Management and Budget on Thursday.

Senate Democrats vowed to give around-the-clock speeches to protest Trump’s nomination of Russ Vought to the influential position, and all 47 said they would vote against him. But as the minority party in the Senate, that’s not enough to stop his confirmation.

Vought also is influential in the effort to broadly dismantle the federal government, led by Elon Musk’s DOGE team.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year’s event.

In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.

In 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.

Trump attended the official prayer breakfast and will also speak at a separate prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel sponsored by a private group.

President Donald Trump says “no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.

The comments come two days after Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, laid out his vision for relocating Gaza residents and redeveloping the land for people from around the world.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in a posting on his Truth Social platform. He added that Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

He added that the U.S. would work “with great development teams from all over the World,” and “slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”

Trump reasserted his commitment to his Gaza plan the day after his top diplomat and his chief spokesperson walked back that the president is advocating for the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rejected the U.S. taking “ownership” of the territory.

The Republican-led Senate is expected to confirm a chief architect of Project 2025 as director of the Office of Management and Budget on Thursday.

Senate Democrats vowed to give around-the-clock speeches to protest Trump’s nomination of Russ Vought to the influential position, and all 47 of them said they would vote against him. But as the minority party in the Senate, that’s not enough to stop his confirmation.

Vought also is influential in the effort to broadly dismantle the federal government, led by Elon Musk's DOGE team.

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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