By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon confirmed Friday that it has accepted an anonymous $130 million gift to help pay members of the military during the government shutdown, raising ethical questions after President Donald Trump had announced that a friend had offered the gift to defray any shortfalls.

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While large and unusual, the gift amounts to a small contribution toward the billions needed to cover service member paychecks. The Trump administration told Congress last week that it used $6.5 billion to make payroll. The next payday is coming within the week, and it is unclear if the administration will again move money around to ensure the military does not go without compensation.

“That’s what I call a patriot,” Trump said during a White House event Thursday when he disclosed the payment from the donor.

The president declined to name the person, whom he called “a friend of mine,” saying the man didn’t want the recognition.

The Pentagon confirmed it had accepted the donation on Thursday “under its general gift acceptance authority.”

“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” said Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the Pentagon. “We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”

Congress is at a stalemate over the government shutdown, now on track to become one of the longest federal closures ever, in its 24th day. Neither Republicans, who have control of the House and Senate, nor Democrats, in the minority, are willing to budge in their broader standoff over health care funding.

Payment for service members is a key concern among lawmakers of both parties as well as a point of political leverage. The Trump administration shifted $8 billion from military research and development funds to make payroll last week, ensuring that military compensation did not lapse.

But it is unclear if the Trump administration will be willing — or able — to shift money again next week as tensions rise over the protracted shutdown.

While the $130 million is a hefty sum, it would cover just a fraction of the billions needed for military paychecks. Trump said the donation was to cover any “shortfall.”

What’s unclear, however, is the regulations around such a donation.

Pentagon policy says authorities “must consult with their appropriate Ethics Official before accepting such a gift valued in excess of $10,000 to determine whether the donor is involved in any claims, procurement actions, litigation, or other particular matters involving the Department that must be considered prior to gift acceptance.”

BALTIMORE (AP) — The U.S. government plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, and could do so as early as Oct. 31, according to a Friday court filing.

The Salvadoran national’s case has become a magnet for opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies since he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, in violation of a settlement agreement. He was returned to the U.S. in June after the U.S. Supreme Court said the administration had to work to bring him back. Since he cannot be re-deported to El Salvador, ICE has been seeking to deport him to a series of African countries.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Maryland has previously barred his immediate deportation. Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit there claims the Trump administration is illegally using the deportation process to punish him for the embarrassment of his earlier mistaken deportation.

A Friday court filing from the Department of Homeland Security notes that “Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent.” Its national language is English; its constitution “provides robust protections for human rights;” and Liberia is “committed to the humane treatment of refugees,” the filing reads. It concludes that Abrego Garcia could be deported as soon as Oct. 31.

“After failed attempts with Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland,” a statement from attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg reads. “Costa Rica stands ready to accept him as a refugee, a viable and lawful option. Yet the government has chosen a course calculated to inflict maximum hardship. These actions are punitive, cruel, and unconstitutional.”

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Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where he faces a “well-founded fear” of violence from a gang that targeted his family, according to court filings. In a separate action in immigration court, Abrego Garcia has applied for asylum in the United States.

Additionally, Abrego Garcia is facing criminal charges in federal court in Tennessee, where he has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling. He has filed a motion to dismiss the charges, claiming the prosecution is vindictive.

By MATTHEW LEE and FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade, sharply escalating tensions with the leftist leader of one of the closest U.S. allies in South America.

The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.

Petro “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate the trafficking of drugs into our nation.”

The move ramps up a growing clash between the Republican U.S. president and Colombia’s first leftist leader, notably over deadly American strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off South America.

This week, the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled. And in an escalation of military firepower in the region, the U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The U.S. last month added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years.

The penalties were expected after Trump recently said he would slash assistance to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports, referring to Petro on social media in recent days as “an illegal drug leader.”

“He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He better watch it, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”

After Trump accused him of having ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would resort to the U.S. court system to defend himself.

“Against the calumnies that high-ranking officials have hurled at me on U.S. soil, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the U.S. courts,” Petro wrote on X without naming Trump but citing a news report about his comments.

A day earlier, Petro’s anti-drug policy was the subject of a meeting between him and the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Colombia, John T. McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy on Thursday.

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Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which moves away from a repressive approach and prioritizes reaching agreements with growers of coca leaf — the raw material for cocaine — to encourage them to switch to other crops, pursuing major drug lords and combating money laundering. He has said his government has achieved record cocaine seizures and questioned U.N. figures showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production.

The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares (625,000 acres) in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That is about triple the size of New York City.

The Trump administration has surged military ships and planes to Latin America to target traffickers accused of funneling drugs to the U.S. Petro has pushed back against the strikes that have killed at least 37 people since they started last month, with the latest two targeting vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a coastline.

Petro has repeatedly feuded with Trump this year. Petro initially rejected U.S. military flights of deported migrants, leading Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York because he told American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

Lee reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Fewer than five minutes remained in a tied Game 6 of Minnesota’s first round series against Memphis in 2022. The Wolves need a win to avoid elimination

Chris Finch sent the unheralded Jordan McLaughlin to the scorer’s table to sub in for D’Angelo Russell.

Russell struggled throughout the series, and had just committed yet another turnover when Finch decided to remove his starting point guard from the floor.

Minnesota still lost the game, as Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards took one rushed, bad shot after another down the stretch without the ball even touching McLaughlin’s hands.

But a tone was set — Finch was coaching to win. That wouldn’t be sacrificed in fear of hurt feelings, no matter your place in the perceived pecking order.

The coach demonstrated conviction in his instincts. That’s when he’s been at his best throughout his tenure in Minnesota, from benching Edwards in the fourth quarter of a game in his rookie season to send a message about his lack of defense to sitting Towns down the stretch of certain games during the 2023-24 campaign in favor of a rolling Naz Reid.

If Finch felt you were the best person to help Minnesota win, you would be on the floor.

It did feel as though the coach veered away from that M.O. at times last season, when Minnesota was married to the eight players atop its rotation.

The logic made sense. These were the eight best players. They needed to be given every opportunity to gel, even through struggles, in an attempt to be the best version of themselves together when it mattered most.

And, to some degree, the strategy was validated by a return trip to the Western Conference Finals. But the road was rocky and flush with frustration as Minnesota repeatedly banged its head on the wall over the first five months of the regular season.

Finch has had guys he’s trusted to no end in the past. He stuck with Kyle Anderson through thick and thin, but that was because he firmly believed the pros Anderson provided far out-weighed the cons.

Last year may have been the first season in which it occasionally felt as though Finch was beholden to a rotational hierarchy, for one reason or another.

That certainly wasn’t the case Wednesday in Portland.

Finch made the call to start Donte DiVincenzo over veteran leader Mike Conley. And then, when neither played well through three quarters, the coach turned to … Bones Hyland?

The guard who re-joined Minnesota on a non-guaranteed deal just a month earlier was suddenly bringing the ball up the floor in the final frame of a tight season opener.

Over Conley. Over DiVincenzo. Over Rob Dillingham, the No. 8 overall pick from the 2024 NBA Draft.

Finch told reporters postgame he felt Minnesota needed someone who could handle Portland’s high-pressure defense on one end while also providing some resistance to the Blazers’ straight-line offensive drives.

The reserve played eight minutes, which Minnesota won by five points. His insertion proved to be the correction choice, and not one Finch likely would’ve made a year ago.

Draft stock and contract status were thrown out the window.

There will be many future games in which DiVincenzo or Conley plays well and take the reins late. Dillingham is sure to get chances over the course of the season. But, against Portland’s harassing, physical lineup, Hyland was the guy.

Naz Reid played just 20 minutes on a night when he struggled, as did DiVincenzo. Conley only played 13. Meanwhile, Terrence Shannon Jr. played 25 minutes off the bench.

In Finch’s mind, that’s who gave Minnesota the best chance to succeed in that situation.

“I’m going to leave myself the license to go anywhere I want with the guys,” Finch told reporters. “That includes who we might start, who we might finish with, who we play along the way. Everybody has to stay ready. Everyone is going to contribute to winning here.”

That’s a philosophy that truly holds players accountable to the standard of performance and winning mentality upon which Finch built the franchise’s foundation.

And, when it’s the guiding force behind his decisions, it’s when the coach is at his best.