By MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s prime minister toughened his stance Wednesday by declaring that his country is in charge of its own security and isn’t an American protectorate as he prepared to discuss progress on Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Related Articles

Trump says he’d have final say on money he seeks over past federal investigations into his conduct

What to know about the $250 million ballroom Trump is adding to the White House

Angry New Yorkers confront immigration enforcement agents on famed Canal Street

San Francisco leaders push back against Trump’s National Guard threat

Trump nominates new Army vice chief with current general just two years into the role

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks ahead of his meeting with Vance appeared aimed easing public concerns that the presence of an envisioned international security force in Gaza could limit Israel’s ability to strike in the devastated territory to thwart future threats.

“We are not a protectorate of the United States. Israel is the one that will decide on its security,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office as he headed into the meeting.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting’s start, Vance acknowledged that the road to peace is strewn with huge hurdles but at the same time tried to maintain the buoyant tone he sounded Tuesday on his arrival to Israel.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel. That’s not easy,” Vance said. “There’s a lot of work to do, but I feel very optimistic about where we are.”

Vance is also meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday. He is accompanied by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Questions abound on next steps of ceasefire plan

Uncertainty remains over the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and who will govern the territory. Vance said Tuesday officials are brainstorming on the composition of the security force, mentioning Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to contribute troops.

Britain is also sending a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire.

Palestinians walk trough the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

As Vance’s meetings got underway, Israel said it completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages that were handed over by the Red Cross to the Israeli military in Gaza on Tuesday.

Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar who were killed in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which triggered the two-year war.

Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over, a key element to the ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, the burial of 54 Palestinians is set for Wednesday at a cemetery in Deir al Balah, Gaza. The bodies were displayed outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis ahead of the burial.

Funeral prayers for Palestinians

Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians clad in white shrouds.

The unidentified bodies were among 165 that Israel sent back to Gaza last week. They will be transported to Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah for burial.

A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies bore “evidence of torture” and called for an investigation.

Israel has not provided identification for the bodies or explained their origins. They could include Palestinians who died during the Oct. 7 attacks, detainees who died in custody or bodies that were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.

So far, authorities in Gaza have identified 52 of the returned bodies, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Charity says an armed group took over its Gaza facility

A top Palestinian nongovernmental organization that offers mental health services to people in Gaza said Wednesday that there had been an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one its facilities in the territory last week.

The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said an “armed group” it didn’t identify stormed the facility in Gaza City on Oct. 13, seized the building, expelled guards by force and put up their own families there.

“This blatant attack and serious crime represents a flagrant violation of all laws and norms,” the group said.

It was unclear why the organization waited more than a week to report the takeover, but it said that although it had made immediate requests for authorities to intervene, there had been no “concrete action” to return the facility “despite repeated promises to evacuate.”

They urged Palestinian authorities to act immediately and called on countries sponsoring the ceasefire to “intervene decisively.”

Israelis to bid farewell to a Thai hostage killed on Oct. 7, 2023

Israelis were set on Wednesday to bid farewell to a Thai farmworker whose body will be repatriated to his native Thailand later in the day.

Sonthaya Oakkharasri was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, and his body was held in Gaza until it was returned last weekend.

A statement by the Families’ Headquarters for the Return of the Abductees said a gathering will be held at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to pay last respects to Oakkharasri, calling him a “devoted father and farmer who dreamed of establishing his own farm.”

In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police have busted a criminal group dedicated to stealing your seat. Literally.

Related Articles

The Louvre reopens three days after thieves took French crown jewels in a daylight heist at the Paris museum

Today in History: October 22, Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles

Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount during West Bank olive harvest

The Louvre’s crown jewel heist is now a race against time for authorities — and the brazen thieves

Russia’s new energy assault pushes Ukrainians into another winter of blackouts

Spain’s National Police said Wednesday that they had arrested seven people suspected of stealing more than 1,100 chairs from outdoor seating areas at restaurants and bars in Madrid and another nearby municipality in just two months.

The group of six men and a woman worked at night to pilfer the chairs from 18 different establishments in Madrid and Talavera de la Reina, a smaller city to the southwest of the capital, in August and September. The estimated impact of the stolen property was around 60,000 euros ($69,000), according to police.

The suspects, who face charges of theft and belonging to a criminal organization, resold the chairs in Spain but also in Morocco and Romania, police said.

In Spain, many restaurants and bars leave tables and chairs, which are usually made of metal or hard plastic, outdoors during the night. The chairs will normally be kept in stacks and chained down.

By THOMAS ADAMSON, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The Louvre reopened on Wednesday to long lines beneath its landmark Paris glass pyramid, just three days after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world for its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped in and out of the world’s most visited museum — making off with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels — a cultural wound that some officials compared to the burning of Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019.

The Sunday raid — steps from the Mona Lisa and valued at more than $100 million — has put embattled President Emmanuel Macron and Louvre chief Laurence des Cars under fresh scrutiny. It comes just months after a staff strike warned of chronic understaffing and under-resourced protections, with too few eyes on too many rooms, raising pointed questions about security failures.

Crowds bunched at the barriers as they were being removed Wednesday, a coda to frantic forensic work and staff briefings that had taken place. Inside, the scene of the crime — the Apollo Gallery housing the Crown Diamonds — stayed sealed, a folding screen obscuring the doorway at the gallery’s rotunda entrance.

Three days on, the stolen jewels remain missing and the thieves are still at large.

France acknowledges failings

Authorities say the thieves spent less than four minutes inside the Louvre on Sunday morning: a freight lift was wheeled to the Seine-facing façade, a window was forced open and two vitrines were smashed.

Related Articles

This seat taken? Thieves busted for stealing over 1,000 restaurant chairs in Spain

Today in History: October 22, Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles

Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount during West Bank olive harvest

The Louvre’s crown jewel heist is now a race against time for authorities — and the brazen thieves

Russia’s new energy assault pushes Ukrainians into another winter of blackouts

Then came the getaway on motorbikes through central Paris. Alarms had gone off drawing agents to the gallery and forcing the intruders to bolt.

“We have failed,” Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said, noting that the ability to plant a freight lift undetected on a public way projects “a very negative image of France.”

As it reopened, the Louvre declined questions from The Associated Press to detail any reinforced protocols. It said no uniformed police were posted in the corridors. With school holidays swelling demand, the day was fully booked and access limited in places.

Wednesday’s opening followed a routine closer on Tuesday, a day when the museum is normally shut.

The loot

The thieves made away with a total of eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.

They also made off with an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship — were also part of the loot.

One piece — the emerald-set imperial crown of Empress Eugénie, with more than 1,300 diamonds — was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable.

Fears the jewels will be destroyed

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau valued the haul at about $102 million, a “spectacular” figure that still fails to capture the works’ historical weight. She warned the thieves would be unlikely to realize anything close to that sum if they pry out stones or melt the metals — a fate curators fear would pulverize centuries of meaning into anonymous gems for the black market. The jewels remain missing; no arrests have been announced.

Beccuau said expert analyses are underway; four people have been identified as present at the scene, and roughly 100 investigators are mapping the crew and any accomplices.

The heist has sharpened scrutiny of the museum’s security and brought its president-director, Laurence des Cars, before the Senate’s culture committee on Wednesday — though top officials have refused to remove her.

Questions about Louvre’s security overhaul

All this comes after President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced new measure in January for the Louvre — complete with a new command post and expanded camera grid that the culture ministry says is being rolled out.

It also raises hard questions, including whether Sunday’s breach is tied to staffing levels, and how uniformly the upgrades in the overhaul are being applied.

Protection for headline works is airtight — the Mona Lisa is behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled case — yet the break-in exposed seams elsewhere in a 33,000-object labyrinth. For many French, the contrast is a public embarrassment at the landmark.

There is another raw nerve: the issue of swelling crowds and overstretched staff.

A June staff walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing delayed opening. Unions argue that mass tourism leaves too few eyes on too many rooms and creates pressure points where construction zones, freight access and visitor flows intersect.

On Wednesday, the Louvre’s other star attractions — from the Venus de Milo to the Winged Victory of Samothrace — were open again. But the cordoned-off vitrines in the Apollo Room, guarded and empty, told a different story: one of a breach measured not just in minutes and euros, but in the fragility of a nation’s patrimony.

Minnesota entered the Western Conference Finals last spring with an air of confidence.

The Timberwolves had fallen short at this same stage a year prior, but that was part of the process. Now they were back, lessons learned, and ready to take the next step to reach the franchise’s first NBA Finals.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) shoots during the first half of an NBA basketball preseason game against the Indiana Pacers, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Five games later, they were sent home by the Oklahoma City Thunder in embarrassing fashion. The Wolves dropped three games in OKC by 15, 26 and 30 points.

“They kicked our (butts),” Anthony Edwards said this week.

It was the first time an Edwards-led Wolves team had been so thoroughly dismantled over the course of a playoff series.

Minnesota’s star guard spent the immediate aftermath of his team’s elimination admiring Oklahoma City’s defensive connectivity. Wolves coach Chris Finch noted that perhaps veteran floor general Mike Conley could win a championship someday as a coach or general manager.

Because if what Minnesota had just been blown away by was the standard required to lift a trophy, the Timberwolves weren’t nearly as close to the ultimate prize as they’d previously thought.

But there’s no sense in wallowing in pro sports. Rudy Gobert noted it’s “always motivation” when you watch a team finish in a position you thought you could have been in. There’s a process for moving forward.

Step 1: Acknowledge what took place.

“The reality is we lost 4-1 and (it was) a lot of kind of lopsided losses,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said.

Step 2: Figure out how to fix it.

That was Minnesota’s offseason emphasis. The feelings remain raw, but as time passes, it becomes easier to look at the failure analytically.

“We knew certain things that happened in that series that we had to look to try to counter,” Finch said. “It’s a little bit more strategic than it has been emotional.”

It seems everything Minnesota did this offseason — intentionally or otherwise — can be traced back to Oklahoma City.

“We really focused on some of the areas where we thought we were exposed,” Connelly said, “and our guys took the challenge.”

Head coach Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves reacts against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first quarter in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center on May 28, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)

Ball-handling

Minnesota committed a combined 44 turnovers over Games 4 and 5 of the West Finals. Oklahoma City scored 19% of its postseason points directly off opponents’ giveaways.

Finch emphasized the importance of taking care of the ball leading up to and throughout the series. But the Wolves turned the ball over on nearly 15% of their possessions throughout the season, 11th most in the NBA — not something a team can fix with the wave of a wand.

“When you get to that point in time, your fatal flaws rise to the top,” Finch said. “We just have to be better in a lot of little areas and habits — certainly ball control, if you will; turnovers were too high. And a team like that just kind of feasted on it, and they were able to flip the game and, therefore, flip the series on us pretty quickly.”

Decision-making certainly had to improve, but Minnesota’s roster simply didn’t feature enough adept ball handlers. If you can’t dribble, you can’t hold up offensively against high-pressure defenses such as Oklahoma City’s. With that in mind, Edwards, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Jaden McDaniels have all specifically mentioned ball handling as one of their offseason focuses.

Pace

Denver and Indiana both pushed the Thunder to seven games in their respective playoff series. In the conference semifinals, the Nuggets scored 10.7% of their points via the fastbreak. Indiana’s number in the NBA Finals was 11.7%.

In the conference finals, Minnesota scored just 7% of its points in transition.

Consistently playing half-court offense is a losing strategy against the Thunder. But Minnesota’s transition frequency was 27th in the NBA last season. The Wolves never ran consistently, forfeiting easy buckets that can be so valuable — especially against the league’s top defenses — in the process.

The Wolves are slow by nature. It’s not instinctual for most of Minnesota’s players to run the floor. But they’ve tried throughout camp to engrain that habit into their minds in the pursuit of fastbreak points.

The simplest way to beat a great defense will always be not allowing it to get set.

Everyone has the license to grab a defensive rebound and go, with the exception of Gobert. His instructions are to give the ball to Mike Conley, who can look to make a hit-ahead pass to one of his teammates sprinting up the floor.

Finch would love if Minnesota were a top-10 team in transition frequency this season but admitted a jump toward the top 15 would be a massive improvement.

Chemistry

The Thunder are mocked as “cornballs” for the way they handle postgame, on-court interviews. Whoever is in front of the mic is surrounded by a hoard of teammates. Everyone barks in unison when the questioning is complete. Maybe it is dorky, but it’s also an example of Oklahoma City’s bond.

Edwards noted the most important thing he has learned in recent years is that teams that go deep in the playoffs are “together.”

“Like, they really care about each other,” he said. “It’s easy to say, ‘We brothers,’ and act like it.”

But can you live it? Edwards lamented Wolves players not attending one another’s youth camps in the offseason, and noted the importance of building early camaraderie. On the eve of training camp, Minnesota went out for a team meal to discuss goals and connect.

“We’ve got to be together. We’ve got to be a team,” Edwards said. “We can’t wait until the all-star break to try to become a team. We’ve got to do it now.”

That would give the bonds enough time to strengthen to an unbreakable point. When Oklahoma City was getting its teeth kicked in by the Wolves in Game 3 in Minneapolis, a mic’d up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was shown calmly explaining to a teammate the ways in which the Thunder didn’t deliver that evening, and how they’d fix it moving forward.

Oklahoma City came out two days later and nabbed a series-defining Game 4 victory at Target Center. The Thunder never lost their way.

“When you go through some adversity, when you go through tough moments and good moments, too, with a group of guys, it builds something. It creates something,” Gobert said. “It creates habits, an automatism that we’re finding each other, knowing how to space for each other. Defensively, knowing how to talk to your teammate, how to push your teammate, who your teammate is.

“These things, when you’re in the Western Conference Finals and it’s Game 5 and you’re going through some adversity, that’s when you need that. That’s when that shows. When everything goes well, obviously, not as much. Last year, I think that’s what separated OKC from us, and that’s what separated even Indiana. I thought Indiana and OKC were the two closest-together teams.”

Naz Reid #11 of the Minnesota Timberwolves reacts during the second quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game One of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena on April 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Approach

Naz Reid felt the Timberwolves let themselves down against the Thunder.

“We were prepared properly,” he said. “I just think we didn’t come out there with the right energy and intensity.”

Well, they did one time, for Game 3, a 42-point Minnesota victory. The Timberwolves were on fire that night, executing on offense and flying around with maximum effort and pressure on defense. That was their winning formula. But they couldn’t replicate it.

Minnesota’s defense in Game 4 fell off, and the Thunder scored 128 points to grab a much-needed road victory.

“I think it points to the inconsistency we had in ball pressure, ball contain,” Finch said.

Two years ago, consistent excellence in that department defined Minnesota. But last season’s team never quite established the repeatable things it could lean on night after night.

The talk throughout training camp centered on re-establishing a defensive identity and being difficult to play against. That’s who Oklahoma City was from Day 1 of last season all the way through Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Even in the most difficult of times, the Thunder maintained their backbone.

Minnesota will aim to do the same starting Wednesday in Portland.

“We went 17-4 in the last stretch (of the regular season). So we kind of built some momentum,” Reid said. “But having that throughout the season, how they did, you obviously could see what that does to a system, a team, an organization.”

It’s how you claim a championship, something for which Minnesota remains in relentless pursuit.

“Fingers crossed, we think it was a really productive summer across the board,” Connelly said, “and we’re more prepared than ever to take the next step.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder shoots the ball against Julius Randle #30 and Donte DiVincenzo #0 of the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first quarter in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on May 26, 2025 in Minneapolis. (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves passes the ball against Chet Holmgren #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the fourth quarter in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on May 26, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Julius Randle #30 of the Minnesota Timberwolves maneuvers the ball with pressure from Cason Wallace #22 of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter in Game Three of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on May 24, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)

Related Articles

Frederick: Jaylen Clark key to Timberwolves restoring defensive dominance

Chris Finch drops a hint about the Timberwolves’ rotation