By KIM TONG-HYUNG, Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas on Monday as he began a two-day visit to ally South Korea for security talks.

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Hegseth and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back received a briefing from military officials at Observation Post Ouellette, a site near the military demarcation line that past U.S. presidents, including Donald Trump during his first term in 2019, had visited to peer across the border into North Korea and meet with American soldiers.

Hegseth and Ahn also visited the Panmunjom border village, where an armistice was signed to pause the 1950-53 Korean War. Ahn’s ministry said the visit “reaffirmed the firm combined defense posture and close coordination” between the allies.

Hegseth did not mention North Korea, which has ignored Washington and Seoul’s calls for dialogue in recent years while accelerating the expansion of its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

South Korea’s military also said Monday that the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jin Yong-sung and his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Dan Caine, oversaw a combined formation flight aboard South Korean and U.S. F-16 fighter jets above a major U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek.

The flight, conducted for the first time, was intended to demonstrate the allies’ “ironclad combined defense posture” and the “unwavering” strength of the alliance, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

Hegseth and Ahn, who previously met on Saturday at a defense ministers’ meeting in Malaysia, will attend the allies’ annual defense talks in Seoul on Tuesday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, shakes hands with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back upon arrival at the Camp Bonifas near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (Yonhap via AP)

The talks are expected to cover key alliance issues, including South Korea’s commitment to increase defense spending and the implementation of a previous agreement to transfer wartime operational control of allied forces to a binational command led by a South Korean general with a U.S. deputy.

There are also concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration may demand much higher South Korean payments for the U.S. military presence in the country or possibly downsize America’s military footprint to focus more on China.

Hegseth’s visit comes days after Trump traveled to South Korea for meetings with world leaders, including South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju.

During his meeting with Trump on Wednesday last week, Lee reaffirmed South Korea’s commitment to increase defense spending to reduce the financial burden on America and also called for U.S. support in South Korean efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Trump later said on social media that the United States will share closely held technology to allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, and that the vessel will be built in the Philly Shipyard, which was bought last year by South Korea’s Hanwha Group. The leaders also advanced trade talks, addressing details of $350 billion in U.S. investments South Korea committed to in an effort to avoid the Trump administration’s highest tariffs.

By WAFAA SHURAFA and JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) — Israel on Monday handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians, health officials in Gaza said, a day after Hamas returned the remains of three hostages. Israeli officials identified the three as soldiers who were killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war.

The exchange marked another step forward for the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the two-year war — the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and militant Hamas group.

Since the truce took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now still remaining in Gaza.

For each hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians. Monday’s return brought the number of Palestinian bodies handed back since the ceasefire began to 270.

Slow identification process in Gaza

Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson at the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that the 45 released bodies of Palestinians were received at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza around noon.

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Only about 75 of all the returned bodies have so far been identified, the ministry said. Forensic work is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits in Gaza, it added. The ministry posts photos of the remains online, in the hope that families will recognize them.

Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the three hostages returned to Israel on Sunday night as Capt. Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel and Col. Assaf Hamami. A Hamas statement earlier said their remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.

Neutra, an American-Israeli, was 21 when Hamas abducted him and the rest of his tank crew on Oct. 7, 2023. In December 2024, the military announced Neutra had been killed in the attack that started the war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had spoken with Neutra’s family, describing their relief and heartbreak. “They were thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Trump said.

This undated photo provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows hostage Omer Neutra, who was abducted and brought to Gaza in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum via AP)

Daniel, a 19-year-old staff sergeant, was pulled from his tank and taken into Gaza, along with three others of his crew. He is survived by his parents and twin sister. The remains of the others were returned earlier.

Hamami, commander of Israel’s southern brigade in the Gaza division, died early on Oct. 7, 2023, in fighting to defend Kibbutz Nirim. Hamami and two of his soldiers were killed and their bodies were taken to Gaza. Hamami is survived by his wife and three children.

Militants have released one or two bodies every few days. Israel has urged for faster progress, and in certain cases it has said the remains were not those of any hostage. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation.

Arrests of 2 ex-military figures rocks Israel

Since Sunday, a political scandal has rocked Israel involving the military’s former legal chief, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi. A military official said she was arrested overnight after she has admitted to leaking a video of Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee and resigned from office.

The arrests were widely reported in Israeli media. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak with the media.

A frantic search was underway Sunday along the Tel Aviv beach for Tomer-Yerushalmi, after her family raised concerns for her safety and police found her abandoned car along the coastline, reported Israel’s Channel 12. Police said she was found soon after the search began.

Former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh was also arrested overnight and was appearing in court Monday, reported Israel’s Army Radio.

Efforts to ramp up Gaza aid and a vaccination campaign

The exchange of hostage remains for Palestinian bodies has been the central part of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The 20-point plan includes the formation of an international stabilization force of Arab and other partners that would work with Egypt and Jordan on securing Gaza’s borders and ensure the ceasefire is respected.

Multiple nations have shown interest in taking part in a peacekeeping force but have called for a clear U.N. Security Council mandate before committing troops.

Other difficult questions include Hamas’ disarmament and the governance of a postwar Gaza, as well as when and how humanitarian aid will be increased.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will visit Jordan on Monday and call on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. She is expected to visit a warehouse where British aid remains stuck waiting to enter Gaza.

Ahead of the visit, Cooper said that “humanitarian support is desperately needed and the people of Gaza cannot afford to wait.”

“Following the U.S.-led peace process and the plans for a substantial increase in aid for Gaza, we need an increase in crossings, an acceleration in lifting of restrictions and more agencies able to go in with aid,” Cooper said.

Cooper also announced that Britain will provide an extra $7.9 million of humanitarian support for Gaza, provided by the UN Population Fund.

Also Monday, Gaza’s health ministry announced that a campaign to vaccinate some 40,000 Palestinian children under three years old against preventable diseases like measles, polio and meningitis will kick off next week.

It will focus on children who missed routine vaccinations or received only partial doses due to the war, Dr. Nedal Ghoneim, the Health Ministry’s public health manager, told the AP. The exact number of children in need of routine vaccinations is unknown due to challenges record-keeping during the war, said Ghoneim.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel two years ago killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 68,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.

Israel, which has denied accusations by a U.N. commission of inquiry and others of committing genocide in Gaza, has disputed the ministry’s figures without providing a contradicting toll.

Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Renata Brito in Jerusalem; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel; Jill Lawless in London and Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major question hangs over the Supreme Court’s closely watched case on President Donald Trump’s far-reaching tariffs: Will the conservative majority hold the Republican president to the same exacting standards it used to limit his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden?

Key legal principles at the heart of conservative challenges to major initiatives in the Biden years are driving the arguments in the fight against Trump’s tariffs, which is set for arguments at the high court on Wednesday.

The businesses and states that sued over the tariffs are even name-checking the three Trump-appointed conservative justices whose votes they hope to attract to stop a centerpiece of Trump’s economic agenda in a key test of presidential power.

Trump invoked an emergency powers law to justify the tariffs

Trump imposed two sets of tariffs, determining that sustained trade deficits had brought the United States to “the precipice of an economic and national-security crisis” and that hundreds of thousands of deaths from imported fentanyl had created a crisis of its own, the administration told the justices.

Until this year, no president had used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs since its enactment in 1977.

The law makes no mention of tariffs, taxes, duties or other similar words, although it does allow the president, after he declares an emergency, to regulate the importation of “any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest.”

That authorization, the administration argued, is enough to support the tariffs, and the absence of any “magic words” is irrelevant.

The court has ruled Congress must speak clearly on major policy questions

During Biden’s presidency, conservative majorities made it harder to fight climate change under existing law and blocked several actions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

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The court ended a pause on evictions, prohibited a vaccine mandate for large businesses and rejected Biden’s $500 billion student loan forgiveness program.

In each case, the court held that Congress had not clearly authorized an action of economic and political significance, a legal principle known as the major questions doctrine.

The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had little trouble applying those precedents to the tariffs case.

Referring to the eviction pause and the student debt cases, a seven-judge majority wrote, “Indeed, the economic impact of the tariffs is predicted to be many magnitudes greater than the two programs that the Supreme Court has previously held to implicate major questions.”

The tariff challengers are defending the appellate decision at the Supreme Court by leaning into the opinions from the earlier cases.

“Absent vigilance under the major questions doctrine, ‘legislation would risk becoming nothing more than the will of the current President,’” lawyers for a Chicago-area toy company, Learning Resources Inc., wrote, quoting an opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch in the climate change case.

A separate group of small businesses cited Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion in the student loan case to make the point that in relying on IEEPA for the tariffs, Trump “asserts ‘highly consequential power … beyond what Congress could reasonably be understood to have granted.’”

The businesses also invoked a dissenting opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in another pandemic case about the dangers of easily accepting emergency declarations. “This Court’s history is littered with unfortunate examples of overly broad judicial deference to’ assertions of ‘emergency powers,’” lawyers for the businesses wrote.

But does the major questions doctrine apply to the tariffs case?

The Trump administration argues that the doctrine does not apply to the tariffs case, and it cites a lengthy dissenting appellate opinion, as well as Kavanaugh.

Presidents have wide latitude when it comes to foreign affairs and national security, and it would be odd for the emergency powers law to be as limited as the challengers say it is, Judge Richard Taranto wrote in his dissent, which was joined by three other judges.

“Such a limitation would be especially out of place in an emergency statute like IEEPA,” Taranto wrote, explaining that it was intended to give presidents flexibility to cope with crises.

Congress, he concluded, made “an eyes-open” choice to give the president broad authority. The major questions doctrine does not apply, Taranto wrote.

Kavanaugh expressed a similarly expansive view of presidential power in an opinion in June about congressional authority.

The major questions doctrine has never been invoked in a case about foreign policy or national security, Kavanaugh wrote. “On the contrary, the usual understanding is that Congress intends to give the President substantial authority and flexibility to protect America and the American people,” he wrote.

Taranto’s opinion drew from a 1981 Supreme Court decision in a case relating to the Iranian hostage crisis that upheld President Jimmy Carter’s invocation of the emergency powers law to unfreeze Iranian assets.

Justice William Rehnquist, five years before becoming chief justice, wrote the court’s opinion. One of his clerks that term was the current chief justice, John Roberts.

DETROIT — All of a sudden the Vikings are right back in the fight.

After leaving the Twin Cities this weekend with roughly a million questions surrounding this particular group, the Vikings returned home with a 4-4 record following a 27-24 upset win over the Detroit Lions.

The highly anticipated return of young quarterback J.J. McCarthy couldn’t have gone much better. He completed 14 of 25 passes for 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns while adding a touchdown on the ground.

The contributions went beyond McCarthy, however, as the Vikings got solid efforts on offense, defense, and special teams. It was a complete team effort that served as the embodiment of the culture head coach Kevin O’Connell has worked so hard to build.

Here are takeaways from the game that helped the Vikings get back on track

J.J. McCarthy provided a spark

The performance from McCarthy was more than a month and a half in the making. After rebuilding some of his mechanics from the ground up while recovering from a high ankle sprain, McCarthy was impressive in how he applied everything in real time. He was decisive with his delivery in the early stages to help the Vikings take control, and while he hit a little bit of a lull midway through the game, he found a way to be at his best down the stretch. In the final minutes, McCarthy delivered a perfect back shoulder fade to receiver Jalen Nailor, who came up with the grab to put the finishing touches on an improbable win for the Vikings. The next step for McCarthy will be staying healthy so he can continue to come into his own. His availability has been his main issue so far in his career.

Aaron Jones showed some juice

It felt like veteran running back Aaron Jones dialed back the clock on his career with the way he was on the field. He was highly effective running the ball while also proving to be a threat catching the ball in space. It’s virtually a guarantee that Jones would’ve cleared 100 yards from scrimmage had he not suffered a minor shoulder injury midway through the game. It would be a significant loss for the Vikings if Jones has to miss an extended period of time. Though the emergence of fellow running back Jordan Mason shouldn’t be overlooked, Jones brings an dynamic element to the backfield that the Vikings simply don’t have without him in the lineup.

Justin Jefferson set the tone

After talking the talk in a team meeting led by the captains, star receiver Justin Jefferson went out and walked the walk. He set the tone from the onset, making an incredible catch in the end zone on the opening drive of the game. There was noticeable professionalism from Jefferson the rest of the way as he everything in his power to will the Vikings to a win. If he wasn’t catching the ball himself, Jefferson was drawing a host of defenders, which provided opportunities for fellow receiver Jordan Addison and tight end T.J. Hockenson to make some splash plays of their home. It was the type of game the Vikings have come to expect from their best player.

The defense bounced back

The critics were out in full force roughly a week and a half ago after the Vikings got roasted by the Los Angeles Chargers in primetime. There were very few adjustments made by defensive coordinator Brian Flores throughout that game as the Vikings hemorrhaged yards pretty much each time they took the field. The unit as a whole seemed to lack juice. That’s why the response from the Vikings against the Lions felt important. They got back to who their identity in a lot of ways, using an interior pass rush to wreak havoc behind the line of scrimmage. Some notable showing included defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, linebacker Blake Cashman, and linebacker Eric Wilson, among a handful of others. The return of edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel also made a big difference for the Vikings.

Myles Price continues to pop

The impact that rookie receiver Myles Price continues to make can’t be overstated. He helped take the edge off after the Vikings fell behind on the scoreboard with 61-yard kick return. He later added a a 99-yard kick return for a touchdown that was nullified by cornerback Tavierre Thomas getting called for holding. There’s an argument to be made that Price is already among the best players in the NFL at his position. He’s slowly becoming a threat to take it the distance every time he touches the ball. He would have even more impressive numbers if his teammates would stop getting penalized. Not bad considering Price made the Vikings as an undrafted free agent.

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