By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plan to address hundreds of U.S. military officials in person Tuesday after the Pentagon suddenly asked top commanders from around the world to convene at a base in Virginia without publicly revealing the reason.

The gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, has fueled intense speculation about the purpose and value of summoning such a large number of generals and admirals to one place, with many stationed in more than a dozen countries that include conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new. But experts say the scale of the gathering, the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it are particularly unusual.

Vehicles drive to the entrance of Marine Corps Base Quantico, Friday Sep. 26, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

“The notion that the secretary is going to talk to the generals and give them his vision for running the department — and maybe also for strategy and organization — that’s perfectly reasonable,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine colonel.

“What’s mystifying is why it’s on such short notice, why it’s in person and what else might be involved,” he said.

The uncertainty comes as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality and what he calls the “warrior ethos,” has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.

News about the abruptly scheduled meeting broke Thursday, and top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed it but declined to release further details.

Trump didn’t seem to know about it when he was asked by reporters during an Oval Office appearance later that day. The Republican president said he’ll “be there if they want me, but why is that such a big deal?”

A White House official said Sunday that Trump also will speak at the gathering. The president told NBC News that he and Hegseth would be “talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things.”

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Vice President JD Vance argued last week that the media had turned it into a “big story” and that it was “not particularly unusual that generals who report to” Hegseth are coming to speak with him.

Italian Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, described the meeting as unusual and told reporters Saturday after a NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, that “as far as my 49 years of service, I’ve never seen that before.”

The lack of detailed information has prompted many observers in Washington to speculate about the meeting’s focus. Whatever it is, Michael O’Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution, said he suspects there will be a dramatic element that may be “as important as any substantive element.”

“Just the sheer scale makes you wonder what kind of meaningful interaction can occur,” said O’Hanlon, Brookings’ director of research for foreign policy. “And therefore it smacks more of theatrics or of trying to impose than of trying to exchange views.”

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, said he expects the meeting to center on the Trump administration’s shift in defense policy. The U.S. military is expected to focus less on Europe and Asia and more on the Northern Hemisphere, a change that breaks with decades of precedent, he said.

Hegseth has championed the military’s role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump’s law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.

“I think they’re trying to set the tone, set the context, for these generals and admirals to say the strategy we have coming out is very different than what you’re used to — we need you to all be on board with it,” Clark said.

Video teleconferencing across the world is difficult because leaders are spread across time zones, Clark said. Forcing them to attend the meeting in person will drill the point home.

“It’s a way of demonstrating,” Clark said, “that this is important.”

Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

WARE, England — The good news for the Vikings is right tackle Brian O’Neill avoided a serious knee injury after getting rolled up on in the 24-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The bad news for the Vikings is O’Neill is still expected to miss some time after being diagnosed with a sprained medical collateral ligament.

Asked for details on the prognosis, head coach Kevin O’Connell actually expressed a little bit of relief, noting that he was initially fearing the worst when he saw O’Neill crumble to the grass on Sunday afternoon Croke Park in Dublin.

“I would consider him week to week,” O’Connell said. “I don’t necessarily see short term injured reserve as being a necessity at this point.”

If the Vikings were to put O’Neill on short term injured reserve, he would be required to miss a minimum of four games.

That would potentially elongate the overall time he’s out since the Vikings have their bye week coming up after they play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon at Tottenham Hotspur in London.

The benefit of the Vikings currently being across the pond is that O’Neill can fully commit to the recovery process without needing to figure out logistics. He’s staying at Hanbury Manor in the English countryside with his teammates, so he has everything he needs at his fingertips.

“He’s doing his rehab where he sleeps,” O’Connell said. “It’s as simple as walking down the hall.”

Briefly

It doesn’t sound like edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel is going to practice this week as he works his way through a neck injury.

“We’re evaluating every avenue and all options to get him feeling 100 percent,” O’Connell said. “I’m hoping that timeline is ongoing and we’re on our way to doing so.”

Though the Vikings haven’t officially ruled him out for the game against the Browns, it’s safe to assume Van Ginkel won’t be able to play if he isn’t able to practice.

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By MARY CLARE JALONICK, LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A partisan standoff over health care and spending is threatening to trigger the first U.S. government shutdown in almost seven years, with Democrats and Republicans in Congress unable to find agreement even as thousands of federal workers stand to be furloughed or laid off.

The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday if the Senate does not pass a House measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while lawmakers finish their work on annual spending bills. Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for it unless Republicans include an extension of expiring health care benefits, among other demands, while President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are refusing to negotiate, arguing that it’s a stripped-down, “clean” bill that should be noncontroversial.

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It’s unclear if either side will blink before the deadline.

“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Monday after a meeting with Trump at the White House that yielded little apparent progress. “He can avoid the shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”

Vice President JD Vance, who was also in the meeting, said afterward, “I think we’re headed into a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”

While partisan stalemates over government spending are a frequent occurrence in Washington, the current impasse comes as Democrats see a rare opportunity to use their leverage to achieve policy goals and as their base voters are spoiling for a fight with Trump. Republicans who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate will likely need at least eight votes from Democrats to end a filibuster and pass the bill with 60 votes, since Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it.

No agreement at the White House

Trump had shown little interest in entertaining Democrats’ demands on health care, even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Vice President JD Vance, listen. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

As he headed into the meeting, Trump made it clear he had no intention to negotiate on Democrats’ current terms.

“Their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said.

It was Trump’s first meeting with all four leaders in Congress since retaking the White House for his second term, and he did more listening than talking, Jeffries told House Democrats at the Capitol afterward, according to a lawmaker who attended the private caucus meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

Schumer said after the closed-door meeting that they had “had candid, frank discussions” with Trump about health care. Vance also said Trump found several points of agreement on policy ideas.

Schumer said Trump “was not aware” of the potential for health insurance costs to skyrocket once the subsidies end Dec. 31.

But Trump did not appear to be ready for serious negotiations. Hours later, Trump posted a fake video of Schumer and Jeffries taken from footage of their real press conference outside of the White House after the meeting. In the altered video, a voiceover that sounds like Schumer’s voice makes fun of Democrats and Jeffries stands beside him with a cartoon sombrero and mustache. Mexican music plays in the background.

Jeffries posted in response that “Bigotry will get you nowhere.”

He added, “We are NOT backing down.”

Expiring health care subsidies

Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits that have boosted health insurance subsidies for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits, which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people, are set to expire at the end of the year.

“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said.

Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later. Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits, but they want to place new limits on them.

“We’re willing to sit down and work with them on some of the issues they want to talk about,” Thune told reporters at the White House, adding, “But as of right now, this is a hijacking of the American people, and it’s the American people who are going to pay the price.”

A crucial, and unusual, vote for Democrats

Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive, and it’s unclear how or when it would end. But party activists and voters have argued that Democrats need to do something to stand up to Trump.

Some groups called for Schumer’s resignation in March after he and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote.

Schumer said he voted to keep the government open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump’s administration was slashing government jobs. He says things have changed since then, including the passage this summer of the massive GOP tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid.

Some of the Democrats who voted with Schumer in March to keep the government open were still holding out hope for a compromise. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said Monday there’s still time before the early Wednesday deadline.

“A lot can happen in this place in a short period of time,” Peters said.

Shutdown preparations begin

Federal agencies were sending out contingency plans if funding lapses, including details on what offices would stay open and which employees would be furloughed. In its instructions to agencies, the White House has suggested that a shutdown could lead to broad layoffs across the government.

Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, told reporters at the White House that a shutdown would be managed “appropriately, but it is something that can all be avoided” if Senate Democrats accepted the House-passed bill.

Before joining the administration, Vought had advised hard-line conservatives in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to negotiate for policy concessions. But on Monday, he berated Democrats for engaging in a similar ploy.

“This is hostage-taking,” he said. “It is not something that we are going to accept.”

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.

By AMIR VAHDAT, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Tuesday that 120 Iranians detained in the United States for illegally entering in the country will be returned to Iran in the coming days.

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As many as 400 Iranians would be returning to Iran as part of the deal with the U.S., Iranian state television said, citing Hossein Noushabadi, director-general for parliamentary affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry. He said the majority of those people had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico illegally, while some faced other immigration issues.

The U.S. has not acknowledged striking a deportation deal with Iran.

The New York Times first reported the deportations.

Noushabadi said the first planeload of Iranians would arrive in one or two days after stopping over in Qatar on the way. Authorities in Qatar have not acknowledged that

In the lead up to and after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, a large number of Iranians fled to the United States. In the decades since, the U.S. had been sensitive in allowing those fleeing from Iran over religious, sexual or political persecution to seek residency. Iran has criticized Washington for hosting dissidents and others in the past.

It’s unclear exactly what has changed now in American policy. However, U.S. President Donald Trump since reentering the White House has cracked down on those living in the U.S. illegally.

Noushabadi said that American authorities unilaterally made the decision without consultations with Iran.