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

Palestinians celebrate their return to northern Gaza after 15 months of war

WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas, a dramatic reversal of their exodus 15 months ago.

As a fragile ceasefire held into a second week, Israel was told by Hamas that eight of the hostages to be freed during the deal’s first phase are dead.

Joyous crowds of Palestinians, some holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, walked along a seaside road all day and into the night, carrying bedrolls, bottles of water and other belongings. Armed and masked Hamas fighters flashed a victory sign. The crowd was watched over by Israeli tanks on a nearby hill.

The United Nations said over 200,000 people were observed moving north on Monday morning.

Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and former schools are eager to return to their homes — even though they are likely damaged or destroyed. Many had feared that Israel would make their displacement permanent.

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Northern Gaza is shattered. The spirit of returning Palestinians is not

WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip (AP) — They walked for hours loaded with whatever clothes, food and blankets they could carry. Many smiled, some hugged loved ones they hadn’t seen for months. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians filled Gaza’s main coastal road as they streamed back to homes in the north.

The mood was joyous, even though many knew their homes had been destroyed in Israeli offensives against Hamas that leveled large parts of Gaza City and the surrounding north.

The important thing was to go back, they said, to prevent what many had feared would be a permanent expulsion from their homes.

“By returning, we are victorious,” said Rania Miqdad, who was heading back to Gaza City with her family.

Ismail Abu Mattar returned with his wife and four children to the ruins of their Gaza City home, which was partially destroyed by Israeli bombardment early in the war. Like many others whose houses are damaged, he planned to set up a tent nearby and start clearing the rubble.

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US places dozens of senior aid officials on leave, citing possible resistance to Trump orders

WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 56 senior officials in the top U.S. aid and development agency were placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart President Donald Trump’s orders.

A current official and a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed the reason given for the move Monday. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere also were laid off, the officials said.

It follows Trump’s executive order last week that directed a sweeping 90-day pause on most U.S. foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department.

As a result of the freeze, thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide had stopped work or were preparing to do so. Without funds to pay staff, aid organizations were laying off hundreds of employees.

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Hundreds of US visa appointments canceled in Colombia following spat with Trump over deportations

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Visa appointments at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia were canceled Monday following a dispute between President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro over deportation flights from the U.S. that nearly turned into a costly trade war between the two countries.

Dozens of Colombians arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota and were handed letters by local staff that said their appointments had been canceled “due to the Colombian government’s refusal to accept repatriation flights of Colombian nationals” over the weekend.

Later on Monday, Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the government was sending a Colombian Air Force plane to San Diego to pick up a group of Colombians who were on a deportation flight that was not allowed to land on Sunday morning.

The victory claimed in Washington turned Colombia into an example of what other nations could face if they stand in the way of Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown. It also put on display a clash with a leftist leader of a country that had long been a U.S. partner against drug trafficking.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday the Trump administration will take action if countries do not abide by their agreements, such as accepting deportees.

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What is DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company upending the stock market?

A frenzy over an artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek was upending stock markets Monday and fueling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China in developing AI technology.

DeepSeek’s AI assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple’s iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor. Part of what’s worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative AI at a fraction of the cost.

That, if true, calls into question the huge amounts of money U.S. tech companies say they plan to spend on the data centers and computer chips needed to power further AI advancements.

But hype and misconceptions about DeepSeek’s technological advancements also sowed confusion.

“The models they built are fantastic, but they aren’t miracles either,” said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who follows the semiconductor industry and was one of several stock analysts describing Wall Street’s reaction as overblown.

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CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.”

Experts said the sudden stoppage was a surprise and would set back work on investigating and trying to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa, as well as brewing global threats. It also comes as health authorities around the world are monitoring bird flu outbreaks among U.S. livestock.

The Associated Press viewed a copy of Nkengasong’s memo, which said the stop-work policy applied to “all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual.” It also says CDC staff are not allowed to visit WHO offices.

President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice.

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Trump Justice Department says it has fired employees involved in prosecutions of the president

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signaling an early willingness to take action favorable to the president’s personal interests.

The abrupt termination targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and is consistent with the administration’s determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.

The norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.

“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” said a statement from a Justice Department official. “In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”

It was not immediately clear which prosecutors were affected by the order, or how many who worked on the investigations into Trump remained with the department as Trump took office last week. It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations by arguing that the department had cast aside civil service protections afforded to federal employees.

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In the early going, Trump 2.0 approach on foreign policy is to talk loudly and carry a big stick

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump in his first week back in the White House has offered an early preview to his second-term foreign policy approach: Talk loudly and wield a big stick.

Over the weekend, Trump threatened to levy massive tariffs on Colombia after the country’s leftist president refused to allow a U.S. military plane returning deported migrants from the South American nation to land in the country.

He’s needled the Ukrainian president for “talking so brave” instead of negotiating with Russia. He’s flummoxed even Republican allies with his calls on Mideast nations to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza, potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate.

Through economic coercion and sharp rhetoric, Trump is signaling that he intends to be a bull in the China shop in hopes of extracting what he wants from allies and adversaries alike.

In the Colombia episode, President Gustavo Petro quickly relented in the face of Trump’s threatened tariffs — 25% on all Colombian goods coming into the country and doubling to 50% in a week. The moment may be just a taste of what is to come.

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Rain douses wildfires in Southern California without causing serious mudslides

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first significant storm of the season brought snow and downpours to Southern California that doused wildfires and caused some ash and mud to flow across streets in the Los Angeles area on Monday.

More than an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain fell in many areas, loosening Los Angeles hillsides burned bare by the recent blaze near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where crews cleared inundated roadways including the famed Pacific Coast Highway.

In neighboring Malibu, four schools were closed Monday “due to dangerous road conditions,” the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District said in a statement.

Clouds were clearing, but flood watches from lingering pockets of rain were still in effect for fire-scarred areas of the Palisades, Altadena and Castaic Lake.

“All these fresh burns are very susceptible to rapid runoff,” said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s office for Los Angeles.

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Chiefs look to join the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, Yankees and Michael Jordan with a rare three-peat

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs accomplished a feat that had never been done before: Getting back to the NFL’s championship game following back-to-back Super Bowl wins.

Next up is the rare championship three-peat that hasn’t been accomplished in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball in more than 20 years.

The most recent team in those four leagues to win three straight championships was the Los Angeles Lakers with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the 2000-02 NBA Finals.

Only two NFL teams have ever won three straight championships with Green Bay doing it from 1929-31 when the champion was determined by regular-season record and then again in the 1965-67 seasons. Vince Lombardi’s Packers won the final NFL championship before the start of the Super Bowl era in 1966 and then won the first two games between the AFL and NFL champions that determined the true kings of pro football.

Since the end of that Green Bay run, there have been seven three-peats in the four biggest North American pro sports leagues. Here’s a look at those dynastic teams:

The Associated Press