By NATALIE MELZER, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hinted that ceasefire efforts in Gaza are now focused on a comprehensive deal that would release the remaining hostages all at once, rather than in phases.

Arab officials told The Associated Press last week that mediators Egypt and Qatar were preparing a new framework for a deal that would include the release of all remaining hostages in one go in return for a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The long-running indirect talks appeared to break down last month. But a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for ceasefire talks on Tuesday, Egypt’s state-run Qahera news channel reported, a sign that efforts have not been abandoned after 22 months of war.

Israel has threatened to widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, and where most of the territory’s 2 million residents have sought refuge.

Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. Hamas still holds 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

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‘I want all of them’

In an interview with Israel’s i24 News network broadcast Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal. Egyptian Foreign Ministry Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce.

“I think it’s behind us,” Netanyahu replied. “We tried, we made all kinds of attempts, we went through a lot, but it turned out that they were just misleading us.”

“I want all of them,” he said of the hostages. “The release of all the hostages, both alive and dead — that’s the stage we’re at.”

He added, however, that Israel’s demands haven’t changed, and that the war will end only when all hostages are returned and Hamas has surrendered. He has said that even then, Israel will maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The group has refused to lay down its arms, as Israel has demanded.

UN warns about starvation, malnutrition

The United Nations on Tuesday warned that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reported the warning from the World Food Program and said Gaza’s Health Ministry told U.N. staff in Gaza that five people died over the last 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.

The ministry says 121 adults and 101 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war.

“Against this backdrop, humanitarian supplies entering Gaza remain far below the minimum required to meet people’s immense needs,” Dujarric said.

The U.N. and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, he said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities that prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed.

Hamas-led combatants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in that 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza’s population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. It has killed more than 61,400 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.

The ministry says 121 adults and 101 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

Israel says it struck combatants disguised as aid workers

In a separate development, the Israeli military said it recently struck a group of combatants in Gaza who were disguised as aid workers and using a car with the logo of international charity World Central Kitchen.

The army said it carried out an airstrike on the men after confirming with the charity that they were not affiliated with it and that the car did not belong to it.

World Central Kitchen confirmed that the men and the vehicle were not affiliated with it. “We strongly condemn anyone posing as World Central Kitchen or other humanitarians, as this endangers civilians and aid workers,” it said in a statement.

The military shared video footage showing several men in yellow vests standing around a vehicle with the charity’s logo on its roof. The military said five of the men were armed.

The charity, founded in 2010, dispatches teams that can quickly provide meals on a mass scale in conflict zones and after natural disasters.

In April, an Israeli strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza. Israel quickly admitted it had mistakenly killed the aid workers and launched an investigation.

In November, an Israeli strike killed five people, including a World Central Kitchen worker who Israel said was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war. The charity said at the time that it was unaware the employee had any connection to the attack.

Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy and Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed.

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday released human rights reports for countries worldwide, which eliminate mentions of discrimination faced by LGBTQ people, reduce a previous focus on reproductive rights and criticize restrictions on political speech by U.S. allies in Europe that American officials believe target right-wing politicians.

The reports, which cover 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, reflect his administration’s focus on free speech and protecting the lives of the unborn. However, the reports also offer a glimpse into the administration’s view of dire human rights conditions in some countries that have agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“This year’s reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners,” the State Department said.

The congressionally mandated reports in the past have been frequently used for reference and cited by lawmakers, policymakers, academic researchers and others investigating potential asylum claims or looking into conditions in specific countries.

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The reports were delayed by the Trump administration’s changes

The reports had been due to be released in March. The State Department said in an overview that the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to “adjust” the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration. Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses.

“Frequently, eyewitnesses are intimidated or prevented from reporting what they know,” the overview said. “On the other hand, individuals and groups opposed to a government may have incentive to exaggerate or fabricate abuses. In similar fashion, some governments may distort or exaggerate abuses attributed to opposition groups.”

Human rights groups decried the changes in focus and omissions of certain categories of discrimination and potential abuse.

The new reports “reveal a disturbing effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture the alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The reports do follow previous practices in criticizing widespread human rights abuses in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

Laying out the poor human rights records of countries accepting migrant deportees

Although such deportations did not begin until after Trump took office, the reports, with one notable exception, detail general poor human rights conditions in many of the countries that have agreed to accept migrants, even if they are not citizens of that nation.

The exception is El Salvador, which was the first of several countries in Latin America and Africa to agree to accept non-citizen migrant deportees from the U.S. Despite claims from rights advocates to the contrary, the report about the country says “there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses” in El Salvador in 2024 and that “the government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.”

Human rights groups have accused authorities of abuses, including at a notorious prison where many migrants are sent.

However, for Eswatini — a small country in Africa formerly known as Swaziland — South Sudan and Rwanda, the reports paint a grimmer picture. All have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States.

In all three countries, the reports noted “significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment … serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association.”

Those governments “did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses,” the reports said.

Singling out the treatment of white South Africans

South Africa was also singled out for its human rights situation “significantly worsening.” The report pointed to unfair treatment of white Afrikaners following the signing of major land reforms that the Trump administration has said discriminate against that minority, which ran the country’s apartheid government.

That system brutally enforced racial segregation, which oppressed the Black majority, for 50 years before ending in 1994.

With the signing of that law in December, the report said that “South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.”

It also said the government “did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities, or violence against racial minorities.”

This year, the administration admitted as refugees some groups of white Afrikaners.

Accusations of European allies restricting right-wing speech

The reports take issue with what the Trump administration believes are restrictions on free speech imposed against generally right-wing voices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The reports use identical language to say that human rights conditions in each of the three NATO allies “worsened during the year.”

The executive summaries for each of the three reports say “significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.”

These governments have rejected such assertions that have been made by senior U.S. officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Targeting Brazil over allegations of restricting Bolsonaro’s speech

Similar freedom-of-speech issues were raised in Brazil, which has more recently provoked Trump’s ire by prosecuting his ally — former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — and led to the imposition of massive U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Brazil’s Supreme Court chief justice.

“The human rights situation in Brazil declined during the year,” the report said. “The courts took broad and disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech and internet freedom by blocking millions of users’ access to information on a major social media platform in response to a case of harassment.”

It added that the government “undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to undermine democracy” and specifically mentioned suppressing the speech of Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Gov. Tim Walz named four new members of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents Tuesday.

Joel Bergstrom and Samuel Heins will serve as at-large representatives, with Kowsar Mohamed serving as the student at-large. Ellen Luger will represent the 5th Congressional District. The new members include a search firm principal, a retired U.S. ambassador, former minister counselor at the United States Mission to the United Nations and a doctoral student.

They replace at-large representatives Bo Thao-Urabe and Mary Davenport and student at-large Mike Kenyanya, as well as 5th Congressional District representative Janie Mayeron. Their terms ended in June.

Members of the 12-seat board serve six-year terms as volunteers with a third of board seats up for election by the Legislature every two years. The positions are typically filled by the Legislature during a joint convention, but that didn’t happen this year. Walz interviewed candidates last week.

“The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is gaining four accomplished, knowledgeable, and dedicated leaders,” Walz said in a statement. “They will bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives, united by a deep commitment to the University’s mission. Their leadership will be critical as the Board addresses current challenges and shapes the University’s future.”

The board controls policy, curriculum, tuition and fees for the University of Minnesota’s campuses around the state and manages all University lands.

One member represents each of the state’s eight congressional districts and four are at-large positions.

The new members join the University at a time it faces significant budgetary challenges. The Board of Regents at its June meeting approved a budget which cut about 7% of the University system budget and raised in-state tuition by 6.5% and out-of-state tuition by 7.5%.

As of late May, the University had lost around $22 million dollars worth of federal research award grants and officials expect to lose 10% to 30% of federal funding. Federal research funding represented more than $600 million for the U last fiscal year.

At the same time, international student enrollment in the state could fall, according to NAFSA, a nonprofit also known as the Association of International Educators, adding to those challenges and following a nationwide trend down in international student enrollment.

The board’s next regular meeting will be Oct. 9 to Oct. 10.

Ellen Luger

Luger will represent the 5th District and most recently served as minister counselor for agriculture at the U.S. mission to the United Nations food agencies in Rome. She was later appointed acting deputy chief of mission.

She has held philanthropic leadership roles at The Minneapolis Foundation and General Mills. Her board service includes work with Twin Cities Public Television, the Global Foodbanking Network and Wellesley College. She holds a juris doctor degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College

Joel Bergstrom

Bergstrom is a principal at Orion Search Group, leading executive searches for clients in the nonprofit, public and private sectors, with a focus on higher education, social services, housing and the arts.

He previously served as vice president at CohenTaylor Executive Search Services and held development leadership positions at Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery and the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Currently, he volunteers with the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation and is a former board member.

Prior to his nonprofit work, Bergstrom worked as an attorney in New York and Minnesota.

He holds a juris doctor  from New York University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in history from the U.

Samuel Heins

Heins is a retired U.S. Ambassador to Norway under President Barack Obama. He previously worked as a senior partner at Heins Mills and Olson, leading securities fraud and antitrust litigation as an attorney.

Heins has founded or co-founded international NGOs including The Advocates for Human Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture. He also has served on election monitoring teams in Pakistan and Ukraine.

He has held board roles with the ACLU of Minnesota, Ploughshares Fund, PEN America and Planned Parenthood North Central States. Heins earned his bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from the U and has received several human rights awards, including the Minnesota Governor’s Award for International Human Rights Activities.

Kowsar Mohamed

Mohamed is the enterprise director of inclusion at the state’s Office of Inclusion and a doctoral student in Natural Resources Science and Management.

She previously served as director of strategic partnerships at the Center for Economic Inclusion and as a senior project manager with St. Paul’s Department of Planning and Economic Development. She has taught urban studies as an adjunct professor at the U and served four years on the Regent Candidate Advisory Council until 2024.

She is a member of Minneapolis’ Climate Legacy Roundtable, the Full Stack St. Paul Steering Committee and Xcel Energy’s Environmental Justice Accountability Board.

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