AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Mexican president says she is confident that a tariff war with the US can be averted

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States can be averted.

But her statement — the day after she held a phone call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — did not make clear who had offered what.

“There will be no potential tariff war,” Sheinbaum said flatly when asked about the issue at her daily morning news briefing.

On Wednesday, Trump wrote that Sheinbaum had agreed to stop unauthorized migration across the border into the United States. She wrote on her social media accounts the same day that “migrants and caravans are taken care of before they reach the border.”

But whether that constituted a promise, a pledge or a simple statement of reality remains unclear. In recent years, migrants who have been unable to obtain permission to cross Mexico have joined together in caravans to walk or hitchhike north toward the U.S. border, seeking safety in numbers.

___

Avocados, tequila and other iconic Mexican products are jeopardized by Trump’s tariff threats

URUAPAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexicans are worried that threats by Donald Trump to impose 25% tariffs could affect a wide range of iconic Mexican products and threaten entire regional economies.

In western Mexico, no crop supplies an income for so many small growers as avocados. But avocado growers, pickers and packers worry that U.S. consumers, faced with 25% higher prices, may just skip the guacamole.

“I think that when there is an increase in the price for any product, demand declines,” said avocado grower Enrique Espinoza. Orchards like his are the economic lifeblood in the western Mexico state of Michoacan. “It would be a tragedy if they closed down (the border) on us,” he said.

Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration — when he said he would impose tariffs — couldn’t come at a worse time: It’s around when Mexico starts shipping crates of the green fruit north for Super Bowl Sunday, the annual peak of consumption.

José Luis Arroyo Sandoval, a manager at an avocado packing house in Michoacan, says the economy would be affected.

___

Displaced families in Lebanon who return home are faced with piles of rubble

HANOUIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — During their 37 years of marriage, Mariam Kourani and her husband ran a butcher shop in southern Lebanon, started a business selling serving containers and opened a small restaurant.

An Israeli airstrike in late September destroyed it all.

Walking through the rubble of what used to be her house and restaurant in the village of Hanouiyeh, Kourani, 56, watched as her son-in-law picked up some of his young daughter’s clothes and toys from the ruins.

“This was my house, my dreams and my hard work,” she said, holding back tears. She pointed to one of the serving containers she used to sell, and estimated her family’s total losses at $120,000.

Kourani is among the tens of thousands of residents who have started streaming back into southern Lebanon to check on their homes after the U.S.-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect early Wednesday. Intense Israeli airstrikes over the past two months leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are predominantly Shiite areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong base of support. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.

___

Day 2 of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire sees Israeli airstrike on Lebanon and scattered attacks

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel on Thursday carried out its first airstrike on Lebanon since a truce with Hezbollah announced this week, saying it targeted the militant group’s activity at a rocket storage facility in southern Lebanon that breached the ceasefire.

Lebanese authorities reported scattered incidents of Israeli mortar attacks, strikes and shots fired that wounded two people trying to return to southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s state-run media said the wounded were civilians, while the Israeli military described them as suspects who violated the terms of the truce that ended more than a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The bursts of violence — with no reports of serious casualties — reflected the uneasy nature of the ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold Thursday as Lebanese troops began to deploy in parts of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has based its operations.

The Lebanese military said it was setting up temporary checkpoints and detonating unexploded ordnance in hopes of helping displaced civilians return to their homes.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon during the country’s deadliest war in decades. Thousands of residents, their cars stacked high with mattresses and full of belongings, began to make the odyssey back to their war-ravaged towns on Wednesday, after the ceasefire took effect.

___

Why retailers still see Black Friday as the high point of the holiday shopping season

NEW YORK (AP) — After weeks of plugging increasingly inviting discounts, retailers in the United States and several other countries are preparing for prime time: Black Friday, the bargain bonanza that still reigns as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season even if it’s lost some luster.

Department stores, shopping malls and merchants — big and small — see the day after Thanksgiving as a way to energize shoppers and to get them into physical stores at a time when many gift-seekers are content to do their browsing online. There are enough traditionalists that Black Friday remains the biggest day of the year for retail foot traffic.

“I’m excited about it,” Texas resident Emily Phillips said while visiting the Galleria Dallas last week. “I save up all the things that I want all year and usually try and get them around Black Friday. I prefer to shop in person because then I can try stuff on. It’s a better experience.”

In the U.S., analysts envision a solid holiday shopping season, though perhaps not as robust as last year’s, with many shoppers under financial pressure and cautious with their discretionary spending despite the easing of inflation.

Retailers will be even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

___

Democratic lawmakers from Connecticut report Thanksgiving bomb threats against their homes

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — At least five Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut were targeted by bomb threats on their homes Thursday, the lawmakers or their offices said.

Sen. Chris Murphy and Reps. Jim Himes, Joe Courtney, John Larson and Jahana Hayes all reported being the subject of such threats. Police who responded said they found no evidence of explosives on the lawmakers’ properties.

There was no immediate word whether Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the fifth Democratic House member from the state, and Connecticut’s other Democratic senator received threats.

The bomb threats against Democrats happened a day after a number of President-elect Donald Trump ’s most prominent Cabinet picks and appointees reported that they had received such threats, as well as “swatting attacks,” in which perpetrators initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a victim under false pretenses.

Murphy’s office said his Hartford home was the target of a bomb threat, “which appears to be part of a coordinated effort involving multiple members of Congress and public figures.” Hartford Police and U.S. Capitol Police determined there was no threat.

___

Latest ‘massive’ Russian aerial attack cuts power to 1 million homes in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia conducted a “massive” attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday, firing nearly 200 missiles and drones and leaving more than a million households without power, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia’s second major aerial attack on Ukraine’s power grid in less than two weeks amplified fears that the Kremlin aims to cripple the country’s power generation capacity before winter.

“Attacks on energy facilities are happening all over Ukraine,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a post on Facebook. He added that emergency power outages were implemented nationwide.

Russia in previous years has targeted Ukraine’s electricity generation, aiming to deny civilians critical heating and drinking water supplies during the bitter winter months and break Ukrainian spirits. The attacks also seek to hobble Ukraine’s defense industry that is now producing missiles, drones and armored vehicles, among other military assets.

In some regions on Thursday, Kalibr cruise missiles with cluster munitions smashed into civilian targets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, calling it “an insidious escalation.” Cluster munitions release numerous small bombs over a wide area, making them dangerous to civilians both during and after an attack.

___

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Big balloons, wet weather and 21 protesters arrested

NEW YORK (AP) — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched, soared and roared into its second century on Thursday despite a drenching rain and a brief disruption from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

New York City police said they arrested 21 people after protesters jumped barricades and sat down on the parade route with Palestinian flags and a “Don’t Celebrate Genocide” banner. They chanted “Free, free Palestine!” as a giant Ronald McDonald balloon bore down on them on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue.

People protesting Israel’s war in Gaza also interrupted last year’s parade.

Thanks to the wet weather, ponchos and umbrellas were part of the festivities, along with the usual giant balloons, floats and star-studded performances.

The latest edition of the annual holiday tradition featured new Spider-Man and Minnie Mouse balloons, zoo and pasta-themed floats, an ode to Big Apple coffee and bagels, performances from Jennifer Hudson, Idina Menzel and Kylie Minogue, and more.

___

The outlook is uncertain for AI regulations as the US government pivots to full Republican control

WASHINGTON (AP) — With artificial intelligence at a pivotal moment of development, the federal government is about to transition from one that prioritized AI safeguards to one more focused on eliminating red tape.

That’s a promising prospect for some investors but creates uncertainty about the future of any guardrails on the technology, especially around the use of AI deepfakes in elections and political campaigns.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to rescind President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, which sought to protect people’s rights and safety without stifling innovation. He hasn’t specified what he would do in its place, but the platform of the Republican National Committee, which he recently reshaped, said AI development should be “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”

It’s an open question whether Congress, soon to be fully controlled by Republicans, will be interested in passing any AI-related legislation. Interviews with a dozen lawmakers and industry experts reveal there is still interest in boosting the technology’s use in national security and cracking down on non-consensual explicit images.

Yet the use of AI in elections and in spreading misinformation is likely to take a backseat as GOP lawmakers turn away from anything they view as potentially suppressing innovation or free speech.

___

Crew mistakes caused the sinking of a New Zealand navy ship off Samoan coast, inquiry finds

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Mistakes by members of the crew caused a New Zealand navy ship to plow into a reef off the coast of Samoa, where it caught fire and sank, according to the preliminary findings of a military Court of Inquiry released Friday.

The ship’s crew did not realize autopilot was engaged, believed something else had gone wrong with the ship, and did not check the HMNZS Manawanui was under manual control as it maintained course toward land, a summary of the inquiry’s first report said. The full report has not been made public.

All 75 people on board the vessel evacuated safely as the boat foundered about 1.6 kilometers (a mile) off the coast of Upolu, Samoa, in October. The ship was one of only nine in New Zealand’s navy and was the first the country lost at sea since World War II.

Officials did not know the cause of the sinking at the time, and Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding ordered a Court of Inquiry to investigate.

“The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been,” Golding told reporters in Auckland on Friday. “Muscle memory from the person in control should have leaned over to that panel and checked whether the screen said autopilot or not.”

The Associated Press