BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinian factions are discussing postponing legislative elections that had been planned for November, officials said Thursday.
A top official with the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad group said the factions had reached an agreement to delay the vote, which is facing huge logistical issues in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and war-ravaged Gaza, as well as the long history of internal feuding among the Palestinians.
A spokesperson for Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, stopped short of confirming that a final decision had been reached. But he said the election timing will be part of a “dialogue and national consensus” among the factions and that the potential postponement will be discussed by the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Abbas has set Nov. 28 as the date of parliamentary elections in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. If the elections proceeded on schedule, they would be the first polls in 20 years.
Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Mohammed al-Hindi said in a statement to The Associated Press that after meeting in Cairo, the factions “have reached understandings regarding the resumption of Palestinian national dialogue and agreed to postpone the upcoming Palestinian elections.”
He said that the Fatah delegation will return to Ramallah to finalize consultations.
Fatah spokesperson Abdel Fattah Dolah said the party wants elections to take place but is engaged in dialogue with the other factions on their timing, in light of calls for their postponement and “the difficult circumstances on the ground facing our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank." He described the discussions in Cairo as “very positive.”
Countries that back the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority have pushed for elections as part of broader reforms. In the past, Palestinian leaders have postponed elections at the eleventh hour, citing challenges including campaigning and voting in east Jerusalem. The logistics of voting in the Gaza Strip are even more complicated.
Failing to hold the elections could strain the Palestinian Authority’s relations with donor countries that help fund it.
Key logistical issues for holding the vote in Gaza and east Jerusalem remain unresolved, and leading factions have not registered electoral slates, with the deadline for candidates less than a week away.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said the scheduled elections had been premature.
“Election is part of a democratic process, and it has to be built on a solid Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue to see how can we proceed forward in this conflict, and how to manage our internal disputes, and to offer, or how to present the Palestinians to the world with a united leadership, with a united vision,” he said.
Naim said Hamas would support postponing the election if it would allow for such a dialogue to take place.
Without elections, the Palestinian Authority has gradually lost popularity in Gaza and the West Bank, where many Palestinians see it as ineffective, corrupt and acting as a subcontractor for Israel's decades-long occupation.
Hamas won a majority of seats in the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council the last time elections were held in 2006. Israel and Western countries then boycotted its government, fueling months of unrest that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza the following year. Abbas dissolved the parliament in 2018 and postponed the most recent scheduled elections in 2021.
Not all factions are on board with delaying November's vote. Helmi Al-Araj, a political bureau member with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small faction within the PLO, said that requiring consensus should not be used as an excuse to postpone elections that could “end rule by decree and by one individual.”
“Postponing the elections would cost the Palestinian Authority what remains of its credibility with its people and with the international community,” Al-Araj said.
Ahead of November's scheduled election, an unlikely alliance — which appeared to take aim at 90-year-old Abbas — had emerged between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a bloc led by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief who was exiled in 2010 after a bitter falling-out with Abbas and had previously been driven from Gaza by Hamas. Dahlan has since cultivated close ties with the United Arab Emirates, which has relations with Israel and was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords.
He serves as an adviser to the UAE's ruler and maintains extensive contacts with U.S. and Israeli officials, making him an unlikely ally for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have fought Israel for decades.
There have been multiple attempts over the years to bring Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the Fatah-led PLO, the highest body representing the Palestinian cause internationally, but all have foundered.
A main sticking point has been the PLO’s recognition of Israel. While Hamas officials have said they are willing to accept a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war — they have stopped short of recognizing Israel, while Islamic Jihad takes a harder line.
Both are considered terrorist groups by the U.S. and other Western countries, which have voiced support for Palestinian democracy over the years while rejecting any government that includes Hamas.
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Metz reported from Jerusalem.
Islamic Jihad deputy Secretary General Mohammed al-Hindi talks during an interview with The Associated Press in Istanbul on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
President Donald Trump, facing protesters and a poor political climate, fought to rally Texas voters behind Senate candidate Ken Paxton on Wednesday night in a bid to stave off sweeping Democratic victories in the nation’s most populous red state. The president’s message was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, including by one who appeared to be close to the stage. In all, at least a dozen demonstrators interrupted the president.
Meanwhile, Trump says his administration will make one-time payments of $90 per person to help more than 20 million Medicare enrollees pay for their Part B premiums. It will cost about $2 billion. Less than one-third of all Medicare recipients are eligible for the payments, which are expected to be sent out this week. Not eligible are roughly 35 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, millions of other people with disabilities and low-income Medicare recipients.
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Few Americans think either major political party has the advantage on artificial intelligence issues, the new AP-NORC poll shows.
About 4 in 10 Americans say they don’t trust either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party on AI, while nearly 2 in 10 trust both parties equally. The rest are split between trusting the Republicans and the Democrats.
Even people who identify with the parties are ambivalent about their ability to handle the issue. Only about half of Republicans and Democrats say their party is better equipped to handle AI issues, and roughly 3 in 10 in each case say neither party is.
President Trump also gets a low rating on his handling of the issue, with 67% of U.S. adults disapproving of his performance on AI.
About 8 in 10 U.S. adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. government to ensure AI stays under human control, according to the new AP-NORC poll.
They’re about as likely to want the government to prioritize protecting the country’s workforce. Most U.S. adults also think minimizing environmental harm and growing the U.S. economy are highly important. About half say this about promoting technological innovation, and slightly fewer say that about competing with China.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say it’s highly important to grow the U.S. economy and to compete with other countries like China. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to say it’s at least “very” important to minimize environmental harm.
About two-thirds of Americans think AI is developing “too fast,” according to a new AP-NORC poll. About 3 in 10 say its development has been “about right” and only 8% say it’s moving “too slow.”
The risk that powerful AI models could evade human control and hurt humanity, once the stuff of science fiction, has been emerging as a more pressing concern. Even leaders of the companies that are developing frontier AI models are calling for a slowdown so government regulation can catch up.
There’s bipartisan concern about the speed of AI’s development. About three-quarters of Democrats say AI is developing “too fast,” while only about half of Republicans share that worry.
People under 30 years old also express higher levels of concern than people 60 or older, the survey found.
Rubio is reiterating that the Trump administration will keep trying to facilitate a negotiated settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine but that it’s been difficult.
“We have tried, we will continue to try, but we’re also not going to invest in pointless processes if we can’t make progress,” he told reporters in Portugal after new Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine killed 30 people.
Rubio warned about the danger of the stalemate in the war because it can lead to escalation.
“That escalation could wind up being a sabotage campaign in neighboring countries that are members of NATO,” he said. That could “quickly turn what is a war between two countries into a much broader and far more dangerous regional conflict.”
European officials have accused Moscow of a campaign of sabotage and disruption aimed at undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations.
President Trump attacked Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in a late Wednesday social media post, referring to him as “Mohammed” and saying he “goes back to the days of the Jihad.”
“He is a RADICAL Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a social media post, El-Sayed, a former public health official who was born in the U.S. to Egyptian immigrant parents, responded by pointing out that the president knows his name: “He says it every day.”
“But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us,” El-Sayed wrote. “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office.”
The Democratic former president called the former Atlanta mayor a friend in a video message released Thursday.
“As a former judge, council member and mayor, Keisha believes that public service is about putting you first,” Obama said, touting Bottoms’ proposals to expand Medicaid and pre-kindergarten access, raise pay for firefighters and police officers, and eliminate state sales tax on groceries.
Obama also endorsed Deb Haaland for New Mexico governor and Troy Jackson in Maine’s Senate race on Thursday, as he steps up his midterm campaign activity.
Bottoms faces Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire who’s spent more than $100 million of his own money in the race.
Jackson has President Trump’s endorsement and said during his primary that he’d be “Trump with a Southern tone.” But he’s recently removed some mentions of Trump from his campaign website.
Bottoms, who also was an adviser to former President Joe Biden, got Biden’s endorsement during her primary campaign.
Texas Democrat James Talarico said Thursday he agrees with President Trump that he and Republican Ken Paxton should debate ahead of the midterm election in their Senate contest.
“Ball’s in your court,” Talarico said in a social media post, tagging Paxton.
In a Truth Social post late on Wednesday after holding a rally with Paxton in Texas, Trump said Talarico should make the debate happen right away.
“He should immediately report to a Debate Stage against Ken Paxton, who is ready, willing, and able,” Trump said.
A message seeking comment was sent to Paxton’s campaign.
The Texas Senate contest is one of the most closely watched in the nation. A reliably Republican state, where Trump won in 2024 by almost 14 percentage points, Texas has become competitive with Election Day less than a month away.
Trump on Thursday is expected to hand out several of the nation’s highest science and technology honors, including to the entrepreneur and former DOGE chief Elon Musk.
The awards will be granted at “Science: A New Golden Age,” an afternoon summit that the White House says will highlight rapid changes in the scientific landscape, including in artificial intelligence technology, which the president refers to as super intelligence.
Musk is expected to receive the National Medal of Science alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Lisa Su, CEO of the semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices.
Trump will also grant the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation,” said Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson.
Trump says his administration will make one-time payments of $90 per person to help more than 20 million Medicare enrollees pay for their Part B premiums. It will cost about $2 billion.
Less than one-third of all Medicare recipients are eligible for the payments, which are expected to be sent out this week. Not eligible are roughly 35 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, millions of other people with disabilities and low-income Medicare recipients.
Some 20.8 million people in the original Medicare Part B who are living in the United States, not receiving premium assistance from Medicaid or not paying an income-related monthly adjusted amount.
The Part B program covers expenses such as doctor’s visits, ambulance services and lab tests. Total monthly costs generally start at about $200 and vary with income.
Payments will come out of the Medicare Improvement Fund created by Congress in 2008 and intended to make improvements to the Medicare fee-for-service program. This is not the first time the fund has been used.
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President Donald Trump, facing protesters and a poor political climate, fought to rally Texas voters behind Senate candidate Ken Paxton on Wednesday night in a bid to stave off sweeping Democratic victories in the nation’s most populous red state.
But Trump’s remarks were not focused solely on Paxton.
Speaking to a packed Freeman Coliseum, Trump also pledged to award retired baseball star Roger Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom, restated his support for the death penalty for drug dealers and clarified recent comments in which he talked about the possibility of Iran bombing American cities as part of a recurring riff about how high fuel costs are “a small price to pay” for the war.
“You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country.”
The president’s message was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, including by one who appeared to be close to the stage. In all, at least a dozen demonstrators interrupted the president. Some were led away by police.
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President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival at the White House, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
