AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST
Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok's petition to overturn the law - which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January - and rebuffed the company's challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," said the court's opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. "Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary´s ability to gather data on people in the United States."
TikTok and ByteDance - another plaintiff in the lawsuit - are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case.
"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting ans´ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.
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Police find bag carried by gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare's CEO, say he likely fled NYC on bus
NEW YORK (AP) - The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer likely left New York City on a bus soon after the brazen ambush that has shaken corporate America, police officials said Friday. But he left something behind: a backpack that was discovered in Central Park.
Three days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still did not know the gunman's name or whereabouts or have a motive for the killing, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, he said.
Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting showed him riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C, according to Kenny.
Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Kenny said.
Investigators on Friday found a backpack in the park that had been worn by the gunman during the shooting, police said, following a massive sweep to find it in a vast area with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and woods.
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Trump offers a public show of support for Hegseth and says he believes he can be confirmed
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Donald Trump on Friday offered a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, whose confirmation by the Senate is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
Hegseth, a former Fox News Host, Army National Guard major and combat veteran, spent much of the week on Capitol Hill trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination and privately reassure Republican senators that he is fit to lead Trump´s Pentagon.
"Pete Hegseth is doing very well," Trump posted on his social media site. "He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense." The president added, "Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!"
Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview recorded Friday that he believes Hegseth will be confirmed and that he still has confidence in him.
"Pete is doing well now," the president-elect said in an excerpt of the interview set to air Sunday. "I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He's a young guy with a tremendous track record."
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IAEA chief: Iran is poised to 'quite dramatically' increase stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Iran is poised to "quite dramatically" increase its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium as it has started cascades of advanced centrifuges, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Friday.
The comments from Rafael Mariano Grossi came just hours after Iran said it conducted a successful space launch with its heaviest payload ever, the latest for its program that the West alleges improves Tehran´s ballistic missile program.
The launch of the Simorgh rocket comes as Iran´s nuclear program now enriches uranium at 60%, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. While Iran maintains its program is peaceful, officials in the Islamic Republic increasingly threaten to potentially seek the bomb and an intercontinental ballistic missile that would allow Tehran to use the weapon against distant foes like the United States.
The moves are likely to further raise tensions gripping the wider Middle East over Israel´s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and as an uneasy ceasefire holds in Lebanon. However, Iran may as well be preparing the ground for possible talks with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran´s nuclear deal with world powers.
Grossi, speaking to journalists in Bahrain, on the sidelines of the International Institute of Strategic Studies´ Manama Dialogue, said his inspectors planned to see just how many centrifuges Iran would be spinning after Tehran informed his agency of its plans.
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US added a strong 227,000 jobs in November in bounce-back from October slowdown
WASHINGTON (AP) - America´s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month, when the effects of strikes and hurricanes had sharply diminished employers´ payrolls.
Last month´s hiring growth was up considerably from a meager gain of 36,000 jobs in October. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in September and October by a combined 56,000.
Friday´s report from the Labor Department report showed that the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1% in October to a still-low 4.2%. Hourly wages rose 0.4% from October to November and 4% from a year earlier - both solid figures and slightly higher than forecasters had expected.
The November employment report provided the latest evidence that the U.S. job market remains durable even though it has lost significant momentum from the 2021-2023 hiring boom, when the economy was rebounding from the pandemic recession. The job market´s gradual slowdown is, in part, a result of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in its drive to tame inflation.
The Fed jacked up interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. Defying predictions, the economy kept growing despite much higher borrowing rates for consumers and businesses. But since early this year, the job market has been slowing.
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Trump taps forceful ally of hard-line immigration policies to head Customs and Border Protection
WASHINGTON (AP) - The picture of who will be in charge of executing President-elect Donald Trump's hard-line immigration and border policies has come into sharper focus after he announced his picks to head Customs and Border Protection and also the agency tasked with deporting immigrants in the country illegally.
Trump said late Thursday he was tapping Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief who´s been a vocal supporter of tougher enforcement measures, for CBP commissioner.
As acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump said he had chosen Caleb Vitello, a career ICE official with more than 23 years in the agency.
They will work with an immigration leadership team that includes South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security; former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan as border czar; and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff.
Here's a closer look at the picks:
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Romania's top court annuls first round of presidential vote won by far-right candidate
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.
The Constitutional Court´s unprecedented decision - which is final - came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.
The court, without naming Georgescu, said that one of the 13 candidates in the Nov. 24 first round had improperly received "preferential treatment" on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.
Georgescu denounced the verdict as an "officialized coup" and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the center-right Save Romania Union party.
Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a runoff on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the runoff for Romania´s large diaspora, but had to be halted.
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Crews recover the body of a woman from a Pennsylvania sinkhole after a 4-day search
The remains of a woman who fell into a sinkhole were recovered Friday, four days after she went missing while searching for her cat, a state police spokesperson said.
Trooper Steve Limani said the body of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard was sent to the Westmoreland County Coroner´s Office for an autopsy after rescuers used machinery to bring her to the surface.
Limani told reporters Pollard was found at about 11 a.m. approximately 30 feet (9 meters) underground, some 12 feet (4 meters) from the opening of the sinkhole. Limani said Pollard apparently fell onto a cone-shaped pile of debris created by the crumbling mine, then rolled or otherwise moved toward the southwest to where her body was recovered.
The autopsy may help determine whether Pollard was killed by the fall, Limani said.
The announcement came in the fourth day of the search for Pollard, who had last been seen Monday evening, looking for the cat near a restaurant half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from her home in the village of Marguerite.
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Jury will consider lesser charge in NYC subway chokehold case, judge dismisses manslaughter charge
NEW YORK (AP) - The judge overseeing the trial of a man accused of using a deadly chokehold on an unruly New York subway passenger dismissed the top charge in the case on Friday at prosecutors' request, allowing jurors to consider a lesser count after they deadlocked on whether Daniel Penny was guilty of manslaughter.
Judge Maxwell Wiley's decision will let jurors deliberate a charge of criminally negligent homicide, which carries a lighter punishment.
"Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea. But I´m going to direct you to focus your deliberations on count two," he said, before directing them to "go home and think about something else."
The judge´s decision came hours after Manhattan jurors sent him a note saying they couldn't agree on a manslaughter verdict. Jurors previously were instructed that they needed to reach a verdict on the top charge before they could consider the lesser count.
Jurors have been deliberating since Tuesday on whether to convict Penny in the death of Jordan Neely. Penny, a former U.S. Marine, placed Neely in a chokehold for about six minutes on a New York City subway in May 2023 after Neely got on the car yelling and asking people for money.
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Vance tells residents in hurricane-stricken North Carolina that they haven't been forgotten
FAIRVIEW, N.C. (AP) - Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday assured residents of western North Carolina still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene that they haven't been forgotten as he surveyed storm wreckage and talked to first responders in one of his first public appearances since the election.
Vance said he was visiting because the holidays are approaching and he wants to provide some comfort to those affected by the hurricane as they go about trying to rebuild their homes and livelihoods.
"My simple message to the people of Appalachia is that we haven´t forgotten you - we love you," said Vance, who made a name for himself writing about the region in his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy."
He added, "Certainly when this administration changes hands in the next 45 days, we´re going to do everything that we can to help people rebuild, to get them back on their feet, to bring some commerce back to this area, but, most importantly, to allow people to live in their homes."
The hurricane struck in late September. In North Carolina, the state government estimates that the storm caused a combined $53 billion in damages and needed upgrades to protect against future natural disasters. More than 100 North Carolina residents died from the storm, which the state estimates damaged over 120,000 homes, at least 6,000 miles (9,700 kilometers) of roads and over 160 sewer and water systems.
