Combs receives

4-year sentence

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to over four years in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters.

The judge’s decision on Friday caps a federal case involving harrowing testimony against the hip-hop icon. The 55-year-old Combs has already served a year in jail, meaning he could be released in about three years. He was also fined $500,000. In July, a jury convicted Combs of flying people around the country for drug-fueled sexual encounters. He was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

Shortly before sentencing, Combs apologized for his actions, calling them “disgusting” and “shameful.”

Funding vote

fails in Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown are fading. Democrats have refused to budge in a Senate vote.

President Donald Trump is readying plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government. On the third day of the shutdown, another Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would reopen the government failed on a 54-44 tally. That’s well short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the chamber would close for legislative business next week. It’s a move meant to force the Senate to work with the government funding bill that has been passed by House Republicans.

Attack on small

boat kills 4

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs off Venezuela. It expands what the Trump administration has declared is an “armed conflict” with cartels.

In a social media post Friday, Hegseth asserted that the “vessel was trafficking narcotics” and those aboard were “narco-terrorists.” He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to.

This follows the U.S. designating several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. It’s the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean and the latest since revelations that President Donald Trump said he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them.