Some recent military funerals in the region are not including full military honors because of the federal government shutdown that began last week.

Jerome Feltis, a licensed funeral director at Gregory J. Norman Funeral Chapel in Grand Forks, said he was first told Friday morning that a funeral on Saturday for a retired Navy sailor would not be attended by U.S. Navy Reserve members from the Navy Reserve Center in Fargo.

“I don’t recall that ever happening,” Felstis said, referring to previous government shutdowns.

The honors that would normally be performed by requested military personnel would include presenting a U.S. flag to the family members of the deceased. The total number of reserve or active service members who attend can vary between military branches, according to Feltis, but most will send at least two members.

The hold on military honors doesn’t seem to be affecting every branch of the military, either; Feltis said another request he put in to have service members from the Grand Forks Air Force Base attend an upcoming funeral was approved only a few hours after he was notified about the Navy Reserve members. He added he’s unsure if any other branches are providing military personnel during the shutdown or not.

“I haven’t had to request anyone from the National Guard yet or from the Marines since the shutdown, so I don’t know what their response would be,” he said.

Because of the shutdown, military workers will not be paid until a funding deal is reached, according to the government. No new orders may be issued to active and reserve personnel until the government is reopened either, except in cases of natural disaster or national security.

Members of the East Grand Forks American Legion Post 157 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3817 will continue to provide their own services at local military funerals if requested, according to Jack Chatt, a member of the Legion and VFW who coordinates military services with local funeral homes.

Those services can include playing taps and providing riflemen. Chatt also said Legion members can present flags to family members themselves if other military personnel cannot attend.

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“We will continue to be there,” Chatt said.

The shutdown itself is likely to last at least into this week after a fourth vote to pass a funding bill failed in the Senate on Friday. The Senate adjourned until Monday, and House Speaker Mike Johnson also announced the House would not be returning to Washington until Oct. 14.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Monday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits under the 2010 New START arms reduction treaty for one more year, and he urged Washington to follow suit. When asked about the proposal, Trump said Sunday it “sounds like a good idea to me.”

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s statement, noting that “it gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.”

While offering to extend the New START agreement, Putin said its expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. He also argued that maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”

The Russian leader reaffirmed the offer Thursday, noting that Russia and the U.S. could use the one-year extension to work on a possible successor pact.

Such an agreement will involve complex talks that could deal with battlefield nuclear weapons and prospective strategic weapons systems that Russia has developed, Putin said.

“We haven’t forgotten about anything that we have planned, the work is ongoing and it will produce results,” he declared at a forum of international foreign policy experts.

He mentioned the longtime U.S. push for including China in any prospective nuclear arms control pact but emphasized that it’s up to Washington to try to persuade Beijing to do so. China has rejected the idea, arguing that its nuclear arsenals are far smaller than those of the U.S. and Russia.

Putin also argued that the nuclear arsenals of NATO members Britain and France should be included in a prospective agreement.

He noted at the forum that some in the U.S. oppose New START’s extension, and “if they don’t need it, we don’t need it either. We feel confident about our nuclear shield.”

Putin’s offer came at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, with concerns rising that fighting in Ukraine could spread beyond its borders.

The New START, signed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also stipulates the need for on-site inspections to verify compliance, although inspections were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

The treaty was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration and the lack of dialogue to secure a successor deal, warning of the possibility of a new nuclear arms race and the increased risk of a nuclear conflict.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. 

By NOKUKHANYA MUSI and GERALD IMRAY, Associated Press

MANZINI, Eswatini (AP) — A group of 10 migrants deported from the United States arrived early Monday in the African nation of Eswatini, authorities there said.

They are the latest of more than 40 deportees sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five nations there to take migrants under the new third-country deportation program that rights groups and others have protested.

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A lawyer for two of the latest deportees told The Associated Press earlier on Monday that their flight had arrived in the southern African kingdom after departing from Alexandria, Louisiana, and stopping in Puerto Rico, Senegal and Angola.

Tin Thanh Nguyen, the U.S.-based lawyer, said he represents two Vietnamese nationals who were on the flight. He said they had been held at the Alexandria Staging Facility immigration detention center in Louisiana. Nguyen said he tracked their flight with help from rights group Human Rights First.

The Eswatini government confirmed in a statement that 10 deportees had arrived and “have been securely accommodated in one of the country’s correctional facilities.” It didn’t name them, give details on their nationalities or say where they are being held. It said they were “in good health and undergoing admission processes.”

Four men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen who were deported to Eswatini in mid-July have been held in the country’s maximum-security Matsapha prison without charge for nearly three months, their lawyers have said. Nguyen represents two of those men.

The U.S. said the men sent to Eswatini in July were convicted criminals who had deportation orders. A Jamaican man in that first group was repatriated to his home country last month.

After the arrival of the latest deportees, the Eswatini government said it “remains committed to the humane treatment of all persons in its custody.”

The four men have been allowed to make phone calls to their families and lawyers in the U.S. However, authorities haven’t allowed an Eswatini-based lawyer to visit them. The lawyer won a court ruling on Friday granting him access but the government immediately appealed, blocking him from visiting them.

U.S. authorities have referred questions over the men’s treatment to officials in Eswatini, a small kingdom bordering South Africa where the king holds absolute power and has been accused of clamping down on pro-democracy movements.

Few details of the deportation deals struck between the U.S. and African countries have been released, but international rights group Human Rights Watch has said it has seen documents that show the U.S. will pay Eswatini $5.1 million as part of an agreement to take up to 160 deportees.

The U.S. has said it wants to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Eswatini.

Rights groups have criticized the deportation program for sending migrants to countries where they will likely be denied due process.

The U.S. has also sent deportees to South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana and has an agreement with Uganda, though no deportations there have been announced.

Six deportees are still detained in an unspecified facility in South Sudan, while Rwanda hasn’t said where it is holding seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana are suing the government there for holding them in what they described as terrible conditions at a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

By DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount said Monday that it has bought the commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, a newly created position.

The announcement, while anticipated, is a bold move for the venerable television news network initiated by new corporate leader David Ellison. Weiss’ experience is in print journalism, particularly in commentary.

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“I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News,” Ellison said in a news release. “This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world.”

Some at CBS News have been concerned that the news division is moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump.

This year, Paramount Global agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit regarding the editing of an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris on CBS’ storied “60 Minutes” news program.

Journalists were infuriated and a senator suggested an investigation to determine whether bribery laws were broken. The company was hoping to put the issue to rest as it sought administration approval of a major merger.

That deal has since been approved by the Trump administration.

No purchase price was announced for The Free Press, which has been a success in the five years since Weiss started it after leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that talked about a culture of intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who disagreed with her.

In a letter to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said that CBS was part of a deep family tradition growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“My goal in the coming days and weeks is to get to know you,” she wrote. “I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world. I’ll approach it the way any reporters would — with an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent deadline.”

Ellison said Weiss will report directly to him and partner with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount executive George Cheeks.

Ellison said that Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.”

He said that “we believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”