Huge Brazilian raid on Rio gang leaves at least 64 people dead and 81 under arrest

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left at least 60 suspects and four police officers dead, officials said.

The operation included officers in helicopters and armored vehicles and targeted the notorious Red Command in the sprawling low-income favelas of Complexo de Alemao and Penha, police said.

The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil's recent history, with human rights organizations calling for investigations into the deaths.

Rio’s state Gov. Claudio Castro said in a video posted on X that 60 criminal suspects were “neutralized” during the massive raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city's history. Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said, adding that those killed “resisted police action.”

Rio's civil police said on X that four officers died in Tuesday's operation. “The cowardly attacks by criminals against our agents will not go unpunished,” it said.

An unknown number of people were wounded.

The United Nations' human rights body said it was “horrified” by the deadly police operation, called for effective investigations and reminded authorities of their obligations under international human rights law.

César Muñoz, director of Human Rights Watch in Brazil, called Tuesday’s events “a huge tragedy” and a “disaster.”

“The public prosecutor’s office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death,” Muñoz said in a statement.

Footage on social media showed fire and smoke rising from the two favelas as gunfire rang out. The city's Education Department said 46 schools across the two neighborhoods were closed, and the nearby Federal University of Rio de Janeiro canceled night classes and told people on campus to seek shelter.

Suspected gang members blocked roads in northern and southeastern Rio in response to the raid, local media reported. At least 70 buses were commandeered to be used in the blockades, causing significant damage, the city's bus organization Rio Onibus said.

The operation Tuesday followed a year of investigation into the criminal group, police said.

Gov. Castro, from the conservative opposition Liberal Party, said the federal government should be providing more support to combat crime — a swipe at the administration of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Gleisi Hoffmann, the Lula administration's liaison with the parliament, agreed that coordinated action was needed but pointed to a recent crackdown on money laundering as an example of the federal government's action on organized crime.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and a number of ministers met in response to the operation on Tuesday afternoon. Chief of Staff Rui Costa requested an emergency meeting in Rio on Wednesday, with him in attendance as well as Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.

Emerging from Rio’s prisons, the Red Command criminal gang has expanded its control in favelas in recent years.

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.

While the Tuesday's police operation was similar to previous ones, its scale was unprecedented, said Luis Flavio Sapori, a sociologist and public safety expert at Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais.

“What’s different about today’s operation is the magnitude of the victims. These are war numbers,” he said.

He argued that these kinds of operations are inefficient because they do not tend to catch the masterminds, but rather target underlings who can later be replaced.

“It’s not enough to go in, exchange gunfire, and leave. There’s a lack of strategy in Rio de Janeiro’s public security policy,” Sapori said. “Some lower-ranking members of these factions are killed, but those individuals are quickly replaced by others.”

The Marielle Franco Institute, a nonprofit founded by the slain councilwoman ’s family to continue her legacy of fighting for the rights of people living in favelas, also criticized the operation.

“This is not a public safety policy. It’s a policy of extermination, that makes the everyday life of Black and poor people a Russian roulette,” it said in a statement.

Police stand over suspects during an operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police conduct an operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

People protest outside Getulio Vargas Hospital shortly after their relatives were brought here by police due to injury during a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police walk past a burned car used as a roadblock during a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police gather outside the Getulio Vargas Hospital where a colleague was brought after getting injured in an operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police gather outside the Getulio Vargas Hospital where a colleague was brought after getting injured in an operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Getulio Vargas Hospital workers remove an injured person from a police truck after he was injured during a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A police officer stands over bloodied people lying in the back of a police truck brought to the Getulio Vargas Hospital during a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Getulio Vargas Hospital workers remove an injured person from a police truck after he was injured in a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization "Comando Vermelho" operates in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.

Oil prices fell Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.

Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.

Here's the latest:

Saying it “seems like a miracle to be sitting here in a free country” during her U.S. visit, Machado cast ahead for her home country, which she said she felt was now seeing the “first steps of a true transition to democracy” after Maduro.

Machado said the process ahead is “very complex and difficult” and said she was “absolutely grateful” for Trump.

“It took a lot of courage to do what he did,” she said, in Trump’s move to arrest Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face charges.

She’s begun her remarks to a crowd at the conservative Washington think tank. A Heritage executive said the group was “honored to host history.”

Machado met Thursday with Trump at the White House, where she later said she had “presented” him with her Nobel Peace Prize. The White House later posted a photo of Machado standing next to Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame.

Machado also held meetings with senators on Capitol Hill.

Trump interrupted Sen. Dan Sullivan, seemingly pressuring him to bring his fellow Alaskan Lisa Murkowski in line with the president.

Sullivan was bragging on Trump’s health care agenda, especially rural health spending.

“Will you get Lisa Murkowski to vote for it?” Trump broke in.

Sullivan explained that Murkowski did back the “Big Beautiful Bill” that included rural health money. Trump clarified he meant upcoming votes on the GOP’s proposed health savings accounts to replace Affordable Care Act insurance premium subsidies.

“Are you gonna get her to vote for it?” Trump asked several times.

Sullivan finally relented: “We’ll work on it, sir. We’ll work on it.”

Murkowski has voted with Democrats to extend ACA subsidies. Neither Trump nor Sullivan mentioned that Sullivan also voted to extend the subsidies.

Separately, Murkowski resisted Trump’s pressure this week and voted to restrict his war powers in Venezuela. Sullivan stuck with Trump.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that efforts to crack down on Mexican cartels and slow migration north were showing “compelling results” in an effort to head off intervention talk by the Trump administration.

The comments come after Trump threatened that U.S. forces “will now start hitting land” in Mexico targeting drug cartels, after the dramatic United States military raid on Venezuela that deposed then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Sheinbaum, a leftist who boasts of taking on chaos with a “cool head,” has sought to placate Trump and, unlike Maduro, has worked to build out a strong relationship between the Mexican and U.S. governments. The early January raid in Venezuela set much of Latin America on edge, fueling concern that Trump could soon turn American forces on other nations, particularly Cuba and Mexico.

▶ Read more about relations between Mexico and the U.S.

A senior embassy official says there’s been “no outreach from Saudi Arabia to the White House regarding potential military strikes against Iran.” The official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The embassy denial comes after several news outlets, including The Associated Press, reported Thursday that the kingdom was among several Middle Eastern allies of the United States that have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters.

Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had raised concerns that U.S. military action against Iran would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, according to an Arab diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Ambassador Mike Waltz, the chief U.S. envoy to the United Nations, on Thursday said all options remain on the table even as Trump highlighted that Iran has stopped the killing of protesters and backed away from plans to execute hundreds of protesters.

— Aamer Madhani

He’s pushing for bipartisan support for the GOP proposal to replace expanded Affordable Care Act premium subsidies with individual health savings accounts.

Trump said he hopes to get votes from Democrats but said Republicans can own the issue without them.

Recent AP-NORC polls have shown why Trump is concerned. Approval of Trump’s handling of health care was 34% in November. It slipped to 29% in December.

Most of the decrease came from Republicans. In November, 68% of Republicans had a positive view of Trump’s handling of health care. In December, while still a majority, it was down to 59%.

Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi told reporters Friday in Washington that he still believes Trump’s promise that “help is on the way” for the Iranian people still stands despite lack of action by the U.S.

Asked if he’s lost faith in the U.S. president, Pahlavi said, “I believe the president is a man of his word. As I said before, how many days it may take? Who knows? Hopefully sooner than later. But as I said before, regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice to carry on the fight.”

There had been reports that Pahlavi met over the weekend with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, but Pahlavi refused to discuss any meetings with U.S. officials, including whether he’ll directly meet Trump.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” the president said, without providing details. “We need Greenland for national security.”

Trump for months has insisted the U.S. should control Greenland, a self-governing territory that’s part of the kingdom of Denmark.

But he’d not previously mentioned using tariffs to try and force the issue.

European leaders have joined Denmark in saying the U.S. can’t control the world’s largest island.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened fewer than 10 sexual violence investigations nationwide since it was hit by mass layoffs last March, according to internal data obtained by The Associated Press.

Previously, it had been opening dozens of such investigations a year.

The layoffs last year left half as many lawyers to investigate complaints of discrimination based on race, sex or disability in schools.

At the same time, the administration has doubled down on sexual discrimination cases of another kind. Trump officials have used Title IX, a 1972 gender-equality law, against schools that make accommodations for transgender students and athletes. The Office for Civil Rights has opened nearly 50 such investigations since Trump took office.

▶ Read more about Education Department sexual violence investigations

The president quickly turned his health care forum into a grievance session against Democrats and a bragging session on the votes he’s gotten in rural America.

“I’m all about the rural community. … We’re taking care of those great people,” he said, arguing that former President Barack Obama “didn’t care about the rural community, to be totally blunt.”

“The Democrats are so horrible toward the rural community,” Trump added. He asked voters to “remember ... in the midterms” that Democrats did not back his “Big Beautiful Bill” that included $10 billion for rural healthcare this year.

Trump effectively blamed Obama’s “Un-Affordable Care Act” for rural hospital closures and financial struggles. In truth, KFF has found that rural hospitals closed at a higher rate in states that did not expand Medicaid under Democrats’ 2010 health care overhaul than in states that did expand to take in more federal money.

“I actually want to keep you where you are, if you know the truth,” Trump told Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.

Trump made the comment at a White House event on rural health, drawing laughter in the room. But it wasn’t clear the president himself was joking.

It comes as Trump is believed to be in final interviews with potential replacements for the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell, a frequently target of Trump’s public attacks.

“We don’t want to lose him Susie,” Trump said of Hassett to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who also at the health event. “We’ll see how it all works out.”

The White House is touting health care spending across small-town America intended to transform how care is delivered in places that have lost many hospitals and providers.

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That makes him the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the country following the U.S. military strike which captured former leader Nicolás Maduro.

Thursday’s meeting, first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed Friday by a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official said the meeting in Caracas came at President Trump’s direction and was intended to demonstrate the U.S. desire for a better relationship with Venezuela. The official said Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration with the U.S. and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of American adversaries, including drug traffickers.

— David Klepper

As Attorney General Pam Bondi approaches her first year on the job, the firings of Justice Department attorneys have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience and left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark for the rule of law at a time when President Trump, a Republican, is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies.

Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The departures include lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers, counterterrorism prosecutors, immigration judges and attorneys who defend administration policies. They continued this week, when several prosecutors in Minnesota moved to resign amid turmoil over an investigation into the shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

▶ Read more about firings at the Justice Department

The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.

The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to compel PJM Interconnection to hold a power auction for tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants.

The Trump administration and governors will sign a statement of principles toward that end Friday.

▶ Read more about the administration and AI-driven power shortages

The Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has brought heightened attention to a key drama that will play out at the central bank in the coming months: Will Powell leave the Fed when his term as chair ends, or will he take the unusual step of remaining a governor?

Powell’s term as Fed chair ends May 15, but because of the central bank’s complex structure, he has a separate term as one of seven members of its governing board that lasts until January 31, 2028. Historically, nearly all Fed chairs have stepped down from the board when they’re no longer chair. But Powell could be the first in nearly 50 years to stay on as a governor.

Many Fed-watchers believe the criminal investigation into Powell’s testimony about cost overruns for Fed building renovations was intended to intimidate him out of taking that step. If Powell stays on the board, it would deny the White House a chance to gain a majority, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to seize greater control over what has for decades been an institution largely insulated from day-to-day politics.

▶ Read more about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire.

The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.

Trump’s plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims and wait times for care.

Trump has long been dogged by his lack of a comprehensive health care plan as he and Republicans have sought to unwind former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Trump was thwarted during his first term in trying to repeal and replace the law.

▶ Read more about Trump’s health care plan

Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.

Donald Trump isn’t leaving it to future generations.

As the first year of his second term wraps up, his Republican administration and allies have put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.

That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.

▶ Read more about Trump’s renaming efforts

Nearly a year into his second term, Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a significant gap between the economic leadership Americans remembered from Trump’s first term and what they’ve gotten so far as he creates a stunning level of turmoil at home and abroad.

Just 16% of Republicans say Trump has helped “a lot” in addressing the cost of living, down from 49% in April 2024, when an AP-NORC poll asked Americans the same question about his first term.

At the same time, Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of the president’s leadership on immigration — even if some don’t like his tactics.

There is little sign overall, though, that the Republican base is abandoning Trump. The vast majority of Republicans, about 8 in 10, approve of his job performance, compared with 4 in 10 for adults overall.

▶ Read more about the poll’s findings

Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.

Oil prices fell on Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.

Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.

▶ Read more about Trump and Iran

— Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani and Ben Finley

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor the 2025 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)