By MATTHEW LEE and SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Hamas must be eliminated and all hostages released for there to be peace in Gaza, setting aside calls for an interim ceasefire in favor of an immediate end to the conflict.

Rubio had come to Israel seeking answers from Netanyahu about how Israel intended to proceed in Gaza and assess interest in Qatar retaining a mediating role after Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha. The two said after their talks that the only way to peace is the complete destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages living and dead.

“As long as they’re around, there will be no peace in this region because they are not agents of peace. They are agents of barbarism,” Rubio said of Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) at the Prime Minister’s Office, during his visit, in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

The comments came as Israel on Monday continued attacks on Gaza City, which it aims to take over saying it’s Hamas’ last stronghold. Israel ordered the evacuation of another high-rise building, one of the tallest in Gaza City. In recent days the Israel military destroyed multiple high-rises, accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.

Airstrikes overnight killed at least 12 people, including children, said health officials at Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Rubio’s visit proceeded despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger at Netanyahu over the Israeli strike in Doha, which he said the United States wasn’t notified of beforehand. The Doha attack, which killed at least six people, also appears to have ended attempts to secure an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of hostages.

Despite comments by Trump that he wasn’t “thrilled” after Israel’s strike, there appeared to be little daylight between the U.S. and Israel after Rubio and Netanyahu met. “Your presence here in Israel today is a clear message that America stands with Israel. You stand with us in the face of terror,” said Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (not shown) hold a joint press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office, during Rubio’s visit, in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

When asked by a reporter about how the U.S. will handle Israel’s attack in Doha, Rubio didn’t directly answer, saying the U.S. was focused on what happens next and that it will continue to encourage Qatar to play a role in the talks.

Rubio downplayed U.S. concerns about Israel’s latest operations in Gaza City, repeating several times that Trump is determined to see the conflict come to an end and that requires the destruction of Hamas.

And Netanyahu gave no indication that Israel would back down from its strikes on high-rise and other buildings in Gaza City where it says Hamas fighters are hiding.

Concerns over a recognition of a Palestinian state

One of Rubio’s reasons for visiting Jerusalem now was to show support for Israel as it expects to face growing international condemnation of the war at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session, at which a number of European countries and Canada have said they intend to recognize a Palestinian state over fervent U.S. and Israeli objections.

Rubio said the statehood recognition is actually counterproductive to peace efforts and suggested that such proclamations are self-serving.

“They have really no impact whatsoever in bringing about bringing us any closer to a Palestinian state. The only impact they actually have is it makes Hamas feel more emboldened,” he said. “It’s actually served as an impediment to peace.”

Netanyahu also strongly opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israel presses ahead with offensive in Gaza City

One of the overnight strikes hit a tent with a family in western Gaza City, killing seven people, said hospital staff. A separate strike hit two neighboring houses.

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“It was another night of horror. … The situation is tragic and getting worse day by day,” said Mohammed Saber, a resident in Gaza City.

Israel has been urging Palestinians in Gaza City to head south. But there is little space for people to shelter in what Israel called a humanitarian zone, and many families don’t have money to leave.

Still many people have moved. On Monday, images showed a steady stream of Palestinians walking and driving along the narrow road by the sea that Israel designated a safe corridor.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. There are still 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom Israel believes that 20 are still alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Tesla’s stock is climbing before the market open Monday as CEO Elon Musk disclosed the purchase of more than 2.5 million shares worth approximately $1 billion.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker rose more than 7% in premarket trading.

Musk purchased various amounts of shares at different prices on Friday, according to a regulatory filing. The move may be viewed by the markets as the billionaire remaining confident in the company’s future.

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Earlier this month Tesla released a proposed pay package for Musk that would possibly make him the world’s first trillionaire if he hits a series of extremely aggressive targets for the company over the next decade.

Tesla said in a regulatory filing that it will hand Musk shares worth as much as 12% of the company in a dozen separate packages if the company meets certain performance targets, including massive increases in car production, share price and operating profit. If approved by shareholders, the new pay package could make Musk the world’s first trillion dollar executive, and would mark a new level of outsized pay in a country already known for extreme compensation. But the payoff is in shares, not cash, and the goals are extreme as well.

To get his first package of shares equivalent to 1% of the company, Musk would have to convince investors in the stock market that Tesla is worth $2 trillion in total, double what they value it today, and also hit several other milestones. To receive all the shares offered and make him the world’s first trillion-dollar man would require that market value to then rise to $8.5 trillion, double that of the world’s most valuable company now, chipmaker Nvidia.

Tesla has seen a plunge in sales this year, largely due to blowback over Musk’s affiliation with President Donald Trump. Tesla also faces intensifying competition from the big Detroit automakers and particularly from China.

Investors have grown increasingly worried about the trajectory of the company after Musk had spent so much time in Washington this year, becoming one of the most prominent officials in the Trump administration in its bid to slash the size of the U.S. government.

Tesla is set to hold its annual shareholders meeting on Nov. 6, where investors will vote on the new pay package.

By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Windsor Castle staff are setting the 164-feet-long mahogany table. Grooms are buffing the hooves of the horses that will pull the royal carriages. And the military honor guard is drilling to ensure every step lands with precision.

Throughout the halls and grounds of the almost 1,000-year-old castle west of London, hundreds of people are working to make sure King Charles III puts on the best show possible when he welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump for his historic second state visit this week.

The visit, featuring glittering tiaras, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet served on 200-year-old silver, is a display of the pomp and ceremony that Britain does like no one else. But it’s a spectacle with a purpose: to bolster ties with one of the world’s most powerful men at a time when his America First policies are roiling longstanding trade and security relationships.

FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prince Charles toast, during the Return Dinner in Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the UK, in Regent’s Park, part of the president’s state visit to the UK, in London, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)

“We’re buttering up to him,” said Robert Lacey, a royal historian and consultant on the Netflix series “The Crown.”

“He wouldn’t come to Britain if he wouldn’t have the chance to stay at Windsor Castle, probably pay homage to the (late) queen he admires so much, and to meet the king.”

Soft power in action

Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up political power and settled for the role of ceremonial head of state, the royals remain a robust instrument of “soft power,” which the elected government uses to reward friends and wring concessions out of reluctant allies.

State visits are the monarchy’s ultimate tool, with world leaders vying to get the full royal treatment.

During seven decades on the throne, the late Queen Elizabeth II hosted everyone from Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu to South African President Nelson Mandela.

The royals have also hosted the last four U.S. presidents, though not all were full-scale state visits.

Hospitality with purpose

While the impact of soft power is hard to quantify, it contributes to a feeling of friendship that “may incline another party to be more open to your entreaties,” said Martin Farr, an expert in modern British history at Newcastle University.

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Six years ago, Britain sought Trump’s support as it prepared to leave the European Union. This time the U.K. is lobbying for favorable trade terms and help in combating Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“A new Trump presidency, a new prime minister, a different government, but the same sense of panic and the same feeling that the biggest lever we can pull with this president is to flatter him and to try and connect him with something he seems genuinely to be impressed by, which is monarchy, and the fact that his mother of course was born” in Scotland, Farr said.

So Prime Minister Keir Starmer hurried to Washington in February, just five weeks after Trump began his second term, and handed him the king’s invitation for a state visit.

It was the first time any world leader received the honor of a second state visit, and the first time the invitation was delivered in a personal letter from the king, which Trump proudly displayed for TV cameras.

“It’s a great, great honor, and that says at Windsor,” Trump said as he praised the king. “That’s really something.”

Pomp and circumstance

There will be plenty of glitz for a president who has gilded the Oval Office and plans to build a White House ballroom for 650 guests.

While the president and first lady Melania Trump will arrive in the U.K. late Tuesday, the meat of the visit begins the next day.

After welcoming the Trumps, Charles and Queen Camilla will accompany them on a carriage ride through the Windsor estate, then back to the castle along a path lined by members of the armed forces.

Inside the crenellated walls of the castle, which William the Conqueror started building in 1070, a military band will play the national anthems of both countries before Charles and Trump review the guard of honor in scarlet tunics and tall bearskin hats.

Hundreds of military personnel will take part in the ceremonies — mounted troops, foot guards and musicians — after months of rehearsals.

When rifles are shouldered, it will come with a single thwack. When boots hit the ground, they will do so in unison. “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” will be note-perfect.

Highlighting history

After the welcoming ceremonies, the Trumps will view an exhibit of documents and artwork put together to highlight the shared history of Britain and the U.S. The palace hasn’t said what will be included, but the options are myriad for two countries with common legal and democratic traditions that stretch back to Magna Carta, the historic charter of rights signed in 1215 at Runnymede, just a few miles from Windsor.

But the centerpiece of the visit will be Wednesday night’s state banquet, where the men will don white ties and tail coats and the women will wear designer gowns and jewels that will sparkle in the flickering light from antique candelabra.

“The tiaras will be out in force,’’ said Hugo Vickers, a royal historian and author of “Alice,” a biography of the late Prince Philip’s mother. “It will all look very splendid.”

Dinner for many

The king and queen will join their guests around the massive Waterloo Table, which is about half the length of a football field and has space for 160 guests. It takes five full days to set the table, which will be laid with the Grand Service, a silver-gilt dining service that includes more than 4,000 pieces ranging from serving dishes to dinner plates and egg cups.

Vickers said the silver and ceremonies pave the way for conciliation, which Elizabeth believed was the way to solve even intractable problems.

“Keir Starmer has, cleverly in a way, used the king to lure President Trump over here, to give him a very good time,” he said. “And (it’s) a wonderful opportunity, with all the goodwill that will be engaged at this point, to talk to him … and if there’s any hope of sorting out Ukraine, etc. This is all a step in the right direction.”

Those discussions take place Thursday, when Trump and Starmer meet at Chequers, the country estate of British prime ministers.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sign of how unusual this week’s Federal Reserve meeting is, the decision it will make on interest rates — usually the main event — is just one of the key unknowns to be resolved when officials gather Tuesday and Wednesday.

For now, it’s not even clear who will be there. The meeting will likely include Lisa Cook, an embattled governor, unless an appeals court or the Supreme Court rules in favor of an effort by President Donald Trump to remove her from office. And it will probably include Stephen Miran, a top White House economic aide whom Trump has nominated to fill an empty seat on the Fed’s board. But those questions may not be resolved until late Monday.

FILE – Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, walks at the White House, June 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is mired in uncertainty. Hiring has slowed sharply, while inflation remains stubbornly high.

So a key question for the Fed is: Do they worry more about people who are out of work and struggling to find jobs, or do they focus more on the struggles many Americans face in keeping up with rising costs for groceries and other items? The Fed’s mandate from Congress requires it to seek both stable prices and full employment.

For now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed policymakers have signaled the Fed is more concerned about weaker hiring, a key reason investors expect the central bank will reduce its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point on Wednesday to about 4.1%.

FILE – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, left, talks with Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, right, during an open meeting of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, June 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Still, stubbornly high inflation may force them to proceed slowly and limit how many reductions they make. The central bank will also release its quarterly economic projections Wednesday, and economists project they will show that policymakers expect one or two additional cuts this year, plus several more next year.

Ellen Meade, an economics professor at Duke University and former senior economist at the Fed, said it’s a stark contrast to the early pandemic, when it was clear the Fed had to rapidly reduce rates to boost the economy. And when inflation surged in 2021 and 2022, it was also a straightforward call for the Fed, which moved quickly to raise borrowing costs to combat higher prices.

But now, “it’s a tough time,” Meade said. “It would be a tough time, even if the politics and the whole thing weren’t going on the way they are, it would be a tough time. Some people would want to cut, some people would not want to cut.”

Amid all the economic uncertainty, Trump is applying unprecedented political pressure on the Fed, demanding sharply lower rates, seeking to fire Cook, and insulting Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull,” “fool,” and “moron.”

Loretta Mester, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said that Fed officials won’t let the criticisms sway their decisions on policy. Still, the attacks are unfortunate, she said, because they threaten to undermine the Fed’s credibility with the public.

“Added to their list of the difficulty of making policy because of how the economy is performing, they also have to contend with the fact that there may be some of the public that’s skeptical about how they’ve gone about making their decisions,” she said.

David Andolfatto, an economics professor at the University of Miami and former top economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said that presidents have pressured Fed chairs before, but never as personally or publicly.

“What’s unusual about this is the level of open disrespect and just childishness,” Andolfatto said. “I mean, this is just beyond the pale.”

There are typically 12 officials who vote on the Fed’s policies at each meeting — the seven members of the Fed’s board of governors, as well as five of the 12 regional bank presidents, who vote on a rotating basis.

If a court rules that Cook can be fired, or Miran isn’t approved in time, then just 11 officials will vote on Wednesday. Either way, there ought to be enough votes to approve a quarter-point cut, but there could be an unusual amount of division.

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Miran, if he is on the board, and Governor Michelle Bowman may dissent in opposition to a quarter-point reduction in favor of a steeper half-point cut.

There could be additional dissenting votes in the other direction, potentially from regional bank presidents who might oppose any cuts at all. Beth Hammack, president of the Fed’s Cleveland branch, and Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, have both expressed concern that inflation has topped the Fed’s 2% targer for more than four years and is still elevated. If either votes against a cut, it would be the first time there were dissents in both directions from a Fed decision since 2019.

“This degree of division is unusual, but the circumstances are unusual, too,” Andolfatto said. “This is a situation central banks really don’t like: The combination of inflationary pressure and labor market weakness.”

Hiring has slowed in recent months, with employers shedding 13,000 jobs in June and adding just 22,000 in August, the government reported earlier this month. And last week a preliminary report from the Labor Department showed that companies added far fewer jobs in the year ending in March than previously estimated.

At the same time, inflation picked up a bit last month and remains above the Fed’s 2% target. According to the consumer price index, core prices — excluding food and energy — rose 3.1% in August compared with a year earlier..

With inflation still elevated, the Fed may have to proceed slowly with any further cuts, which would likely further frustrate the Trump White House.

“When you get to turning points, people can reasonably disagree about when to go,” Meade said.