A Texas trooper who had an altercation with South Carolina's Nyck Harbor after his touchdown on Saturday was sent home from the game, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Harbor scored on an 80-yard reception in the second quarter of the game against Texas A&M and ran into the tunnel limping following the score. As he and three other players were walking back to the field, the trooper walked in between Harbor and another player and bumped into them as they passed each other.

The trooper and Harbor turned around and the trooper pointed at Harbor with both hands and said something to him. Harbor was quickly pushed away by his teammate and they continued to the field.

The public safety department issued a statement saying the trooper was sent home.

"Our Office of Inspector General (OIG) is also aware of the incident and will be further looking into the matter. No additional information will be released at this time," the statement reads.

The video was widely shared on social media with many commenting on it, including Lakers star LeBron James.

Federal officials confirmed that a surge of immigration enforcement in North Carolina's largest city had begun as agents were seen making arrests in multiple locations Saturday.

"We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Local officials, including Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, criticized such actions, saying in a statement they "are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty."

"We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives," said the statement, which was also signed by County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Stephanie Sneed of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg education board.

RELATED STORY | US Border Patrol agents will be sent to Charlotte, local sheriff says

The federal government hadn't previously announced the push. But Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden confirmed earlier this week that two federal officials had told him that Customs agents would be arriving soon.

Paola Garcia, a spokesperson with Camino a bilingual nonprofit serving families in Charlotte said she and her colleagues have observed an increase in Border Patrol and ICE agents pulling people over since Friday.

"Basically what we're seeing is that there have been lots of people being pulled over," Garcia said. "I even saw a few people being pulled over on the way to work yesterday, and then just from community members seeing an increase in ICE and border patrol agents in the city of Charlotte."

Willy Aceituno, a Honduran-born U.S. citizen, was on his way to work when he saw Border Patrol agents chasing people.

"I saw a lot of Latinos running. I wondered why they were running. The thing is, there were a lot of Border Patrol agents chasing them," he said.

Aceituno, a 46-year-old Charlotte resident, said he himself was stopped twice by Border Patrol agents. On the second encounter, they forced him out of his vehicle after breaking the car window and threw him to the ground.

"I told them, 'I'm an American citizen," he told The Associated Press. "They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn't believe I was an American citizen."

Finally, he was allowed to go free after showing documents that proved his citizenship.

Charlotte is a racially diverse city of more than 900,000 residents, including more than 150,000 who are foreign-born, according to local officials.

Local organizations responded by having trainings, trying to inform immigrants of their rights, and considering peaceful protests. President Donald Trump's administration has defended federal enforcement operations in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago as necessary for fighting crime and enforcing immigration laws.

But Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat with a Republican-majority legislature, said Friday that the "vast majority" of those detained in these operations have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens."

He urged people to record any "inappropriate behavior" they see and notify local law enforcement about it.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department had emphasized ahead of time that it isn't involved in federal immigration enforcement.

Acceding to President Donald Trump's demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.

Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein's estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.

Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn't explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein's victims.

Hours before Bondi's announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein's "involvement and relationship" with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

RELATED STORY | Victims urge lawmakers to support release of Epstein files

Trump, calling the matter "the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans," said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and "many other people and institutions."

"This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats," the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump's 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: "I'm the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I'm allowed to do it."

In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, "We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."

The president's demand for an investigation and Bondi's quick acquiescence is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department's traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.

It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein's victims.

RELATED STORY | Trump blasts release of Epstein emails as political 'trap'

None of Trump's proposed targets were accused of sex crimes

A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein "but did not help him commit his heinous acts."

"The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks," she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein's victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.

Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein's private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier's crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein's known victims.

Clinton's deputy chief of staff Angel Urea posted on X Friday: "These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else."

Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, but was spared a long jail term when the U.S. attorney in Florida agreed not to prosecute him over allegations that he had paid many other children for sexual acts. After serving about a year in jail and a work release program, Epstein resumed his business and social life until federal prosecutors in New York revived the case in 2019. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.

Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men's part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.

Summers, who served in Clinton's cabinet and is a former Harvard University president, previously said in a statement that he has "great regrets in my life" and that "my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement."

On social media Friday night, Hoffman called for Trump to release all the Epstein files, saying they will show that "the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander." He added, "I was never a client of Epstein's and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT." Hoffman bankrolled writer E. Jean Carroll's sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump.

After Epstein's sex trafficking arrest in 2019, Hoffman said he'd only had a few interactions with Epstein, all related to his fundraising for MIT's Media Lab. He nevertheless apologized, saying that "by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice."

Bondi, in her post, praised Clayton as "one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country" and said the Justice Department "will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people."

Trump called Clayton "a great man, a great attorney," though he said Bondi chose him for the job.

Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term, took over in April as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York the same office that indicted Epstein and won a sex trafficking conviction against Epstein's longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2021.

RELATED STORY | Trump attacks Democrats over Epstein emails, calls it a hoax

Trump changes course on Epstein files

Trump suggested while campaigning last year that he'd seek to open up the government's case files on Epstein, but changed course in recent months, blaming Democrats and painting the matter as a "hoax" amid questions about what knowledge he may have had about Epstein's yearslong exploitation of underage girls.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three Epstein email exchanges that referenced Trump, including one from 2019 in which Epstein said the president "knew about the girls" and asked Maxwell to stop.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of having "selectively leaked emails" to smear Trump.

Soon after, Republicans on the committee disclosed a far bigger trove of Epstein's email correspondence, including messages he sent to longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon and to Britain's former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Andrew settled a lawsuit out of court with one of Epstein's victims, who said she had been paid to have sex with the prince.

The House is speeding toward a vote next week to force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein.

"I don't care about it, release or not," Trump said Friday. "If you're going to do it, then you have to go into Epstein's friends," he added, naming Clinton and Hoffman.

Still, he said: "This is a Democrat hoax. And a couple, a few Republicans have gone along with it because they're weak and ineffective." __

Bedayn reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.

A man has been arrested after federal officials alleged that he destroyed property while trying to confront New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, Alina Habba.

Keith Michael Lisa, 51, has been arrested, FBI spokesperson Emily Molinari confirmed Saturday.

Molinari did not say when or where Lisa was arrested, what charges he might face, whether he was in jail, or when he might go before a judge. It's unclear whether Lisa is represented by a lawyer. The federal public defender in Newark didn't immediately respond to an electronic message Saturday asking whether it was representing Lisa.

The FBI on Friday had offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information about Lisa, saying he was wanted on charges of destroying government property and possession of a dangerous weapon inside a U.S. court facility. That bulletin said Lisa tried to enter a federal office building in downtown Newark on Wednesday with a bat and was turned away. Lisa returned without the bat, the bulletin said, and was admitted. He then went to the U.S. Attorney's office, where Habba works, and destroyed property, the bulletin said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X on Saturday that the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations had worked together to arrest Lisa.

"No one will get away with threatening or intimidating our great U.S. attorneys or the destruction of their offices," Bondi wrote.

Habba was previously President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, representing him in various cases and acting as his spokesperson on legal matters. She served as a White House adviser briefly before Trump named her as interim U.S. attorney in March.

"We got him," Habba wrote on X on Saturday. "This Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi and our federal partners will not tolerate any acts of intimidation or violence toward law enforcement. So grateful to the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations for their tireless work to capture him. Now justice will handle him."

Bondi had vowed that federal officials would find and prosecute the person, writing earlier that "Any violence or threats of violence against any federal officer will not be tolerated. Period."

Trump formally nominated Habba as New Jersey's permanent U.S. attorney on July 1, but the state's two Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim opposed it, stalling the confirmation process.

A few weeks later, as Habba's 120-day interim appointment was expiring, New Jersey federal judges moved to replace her with her second-in-command. Bondi then fired that prosecutor and renamed Habba as acting U.S. attorney.

Last month, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a case challenging her appointment. It hasn't ruled.

A Mega Millions player in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot on Friday, overcoming abysmal odds to win the huge prize.

The numbers selected were 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57 with the gold Mega Ball 7.

The winner overcame Mega Millions' astronomical odds of 1 in 290.5 million by matching all six numbers. The next drawing will be on Tuesday.

A winner can choose an annuity or the cash option a one-time, lump-sum payment of $452.2 million before taxes. If there are multiple jackpot winners, the prize is shared.

There were four Mega Millions jackpot wins earlier this year, but Friday's drawing was the 40th since the last win on June 27, a game record, officials said.

In September, two Powerball players in Missouri and Texas won a nearly $1.8 billion jackpot, one of the largest in the U.S. The current Mega Millions jackpot isn't among the top 10 U.S. lottery jackpots but would be the eighth-largest for Mega Millions since the game began in 2002.

Other prizes

Mega Millions offers lesser prizes in addition to the jackpot. The odds of winning any of these is 1 in 23.

There were more than 800,000 winners of non-jackpot prizes from the Nov. 11 drawing.

Tickets are $5 each and are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Half the proceeds from each Mega Millions ticket remains in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold. Local lottery agencies run the game in each jurisdiction and how profits are spent is dictated by law.

Gambling addictions

Sometimes, gambling can become addictive.

The National Council on Problem Gambling defines problem gambling as "gambling behavior that is damaging to a person or their family, often disrupting their daily life and career."

It is sometimes called gambling addiction or gambling disorder, a recognized mental health diagnosis. The group says anyone who gambles can be at risk.

It's National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-522-4700, connects anyone seeking assistance with a gambling problem to local resources.

President Donald Trump has publicly called it quits with one of his most stalwart MAGA-world supporters, calling Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene "'Wacky' Marjorie" and saying he would endorse a challenger against her in next year's midterms "if the right person runs."

The dismissal of Greene once the epitome of "Make America Great Again," sporting the signature red cap for President Joe Biden's 2024 State of the Union address and acting as a go-between for Trump and other Capitol Hill Republicans appeared to be the final break in a dispute simmering for months, as Greene has seemingly moderated her political profile. The three-term U.S. House member has increasingly dissented from Republican leaders, attacking them during the just-ended federal government shutdown and saying they need a plan to help people who are losing subsidies to afford health insurance policies.

Accusing the Georgia Republican of going "Far Left," Trump wrote that all he had witnessed from Greene in recent months is "COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!" adding, of Greene's purported irritation that he doesn't return her phone calls, "I can't take a ranting Lunatic's call every day."

In a response on X, Greene wrote Friday that Trump had "attacked me and lied about me." She added a screenshot of a text she said she had sent the president earlier in the day about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, which she said "is what sent him over the edge."

Greene called it "astonishing really how hard he's fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level," referencing next week's U.S. House vote over releasing the Epstein files.

Writing that she had supported Trump "with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him," Greene added, "I don't worship or serve Donald Trump."

Trump's post seemingly tied a bow of finality to fissures that widened following this month's off-cycle elections, in which voters in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races flocked to Democrats in large part over concerns about the cost of living.

Last week, Greene told NBC News that "watching the foreign leaders come to the White House through a revolving door is not helping Americans," saying that Trump needs to focus on high prices at home rather than his recent emphasis on foreign affairs. Trump responded by saying that Greene had "lost her way."

Asked about Greene's comments earlier Friday as he flew from Washington to Florida, Trump reiterated that he felt "something happened to her over the last month or two," saying that, if he hadn't gone to China to meet leader Xi Jinping, there would have been negative ramifications for jobs in Georgia and elsewhere because China would have kept its curbs on magnet exports.

Saying that people have been calling him, wanting to challenge Greene, Trump added, "She's lost a wonderful conservative reputation."

Greene's discontent dates back at least to May, when she announced she wouldn't run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, while attacking GOP donors and consultants who feared she couldn't win. In June, she publicly sided with Tucker Carlson after Trump called the commentator "kooky" in a schism that emerged between MAGA and national security hardliners over possible U.S. efforts at regime change in Iran.

That only intensified in July, when Greene said she wouldn't run for governor. Then, she attacked a political "good ole boy" system, alleging it was endangering Republican control of the state. Greene embarked on a charm offensive in recent weeks, with interviews and appearances in media aimed at people who aren't hardcore Trump supporters. Asked on comedian Tim Dillon's podcast if she wanted to run for president in 2028, Greene said in October, "I hate politics so much" and just wanted "to fix problems" but didn't give a definitive answer.

That climaxed with an appearance on Bill Maher's HBO show "Real Time," followed days later by a Nov. 4 appearance on ABC's "The View." Some observers began pronouncing Greene as reasonable as she trashed Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana for not calling Republicans back to Washington and coming up with a health care plan.

"I feel like I'm sitting next to a completely different Marjorie Taylor Greene," said "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin.

"Maybe you should become a Democrat, Marjorie," said co-host Joy Behar.

"I'm not a Democrat," Greene replied. "I think both parties have failed."

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it plans to roll back some of the restrictions on commercial flights it implemented at 40 major U.S. airports during the shutdown.

The agency says the current mandatory 6% flight cuts are being downgraded to 3% beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday, even though the record 43-day shutdown ended Nov. 12. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has repeatedly said restrictions would remain until staffing at air traffic control facilities stabilizes and safety metrics improve.

The rollback comes amid continued improvements in staffing levels, the FAA and Department of Transportation said Friday, adding that they will continue to monitor the situation throughout the weekend and evaluate whether normal operations can resume.

By Friday afternoon, the flight tracking website FlightAware showed just 159 cancellations for Saturday in the U.S.

RELATED STORY | Domestic flights still curtailed as FAA cautions on shutdown recovery

The unprecedented order, in place since Nov. 7, has affected thousands of flights. The head of the FAA said troubling data showed the measure was needed to ease pressure on the aviation system as the shutdown entered its second month and controller absences rose. Unpaid for more than a month, many controllers cited financial strain and the need to take on side jobs.

The flight cuts started at 4% and later grew to 6%. The FAA originally had a 10% target, but officials held off on further rate increases because they said more controllers were coming to work amid news that Congress was close to reaching a deal to end the shutdown.

Air traffic controllers missed two paychecks during the impasse.

Duffy hasnt shared the specific safety data that prompted the cuts, but he cited reports during the shutdown of planes getting too close in the air, more runway incursions and pilot concerns about controllers responses.

How long it will take for the aviation system to stabilize is unclear. The flight restrictions upended airline operations in just a matter of days. Many planes were rerouted and arent where theyre supposed to be. Airlines for America, the trade group of U.S. airlines, warned there could be residual effects for days.

Some experts predicted the problems could linger longer but airline executives were optimistic that flying could quickly return to normal ahead of the busy Thanksgiving travel week.

The nationwide shortage of controllers isnt new, but the shutdown put a spotlight on the problem and likely made it worse. Duffy said that by the end of the shutdown, 15-20 controllers were retiring daily and some younger controllers were leaving the profession.

Health officials in Washington state say they have identified the nation's first human case of bird flu since February, pending confirmatory testing.

A Grays Harbor County, Washington, resident preliminarily tested positive for the infection, the Washington State Department of Health said Thursday. Health officials say they're still investigating the source of the infection, including contact with wild or domestic birds.

The patient is an older adult with underlying health conditions, state health officials said. They developed a high fever, confusion, and respiratory distress and were hospitalized in early November. The person's treatment is ongoing.

There have been 26 human infections of bird flu confirmed so far this year around the world through Aug. 4, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of them, 23, were found outside the U.S., and 11 people died. The nine-month gap in new cases in the U.S. has stumped health experts tracking the virus' spread.

In 2024 and early 2025, infections were reported in 70 people in the U.S. most of them workers on dairy and poultry farms. One person died, but most of the infected people had mild illnesses.

FROM JULY | CDC ends its emergency response to bird flu as cases decline

While the U.S. hadnt seen a human infection in months, bird flu cases have been happening recently in poultry flocks and livestock.

In the past month, nearly 70 U.S. poultry flocks either commercial or backyard were found to have bird flu infections, with more than 1.7 million birds affected, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The last confirmed livestock detection was about a month ago in Idaho dairy cows, according to USDA.

The CDC characterizes the risk to the general public as low, although it is higher for people who work with cattle and poultry or who are in contact with wild birds.

A federal bankruptcy court judge on Friday said he will approve OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharmas latest deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids that includes some money for thousands of victims of the epidemic.

The deal overseen by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane would require members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. The new agreement replaces one that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last year, finding it would have improperly protected members of the family against future lawsuits. The judge said he would explain his decision in a hearing on Tuesday.

It's among the largest in a series of opioid settlements brought by state and local governments against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies. It could close a long chapter and maybe the entire book on a legal odyssey over efforts to hold the company to account for its role in an opioid crisis connected to 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999, including from heroin and illicit fentanyl.

Lawyers and judges involved have described it as one of the most complicated bankruptcies in U.S. history. Ultimately, attorneys representing Purdue, cities, states, counties, Native American tribes, people with addiction and others were nearly unanimous in urging the judge to approve the bankruptcy plan for Purdue, which filed for protection six years ago as it faced lawsuits with claims that grew to trillions of dollars.

Purdue lawyer Marshall Huebner told the judge that he wishes he could conjure up $40 trillion or $100 trillion to compensate those who have suffered unfathomable loss. But without that possibility, he said: The plan is entirely lawful, does the greatest good for the greatest number in the shortest available timeframe.

The opposition is much quieter this time around

The saga has been emotional and full of contentious arguments between the many groups that took Purdue to court, often exposing a possible mismatch between the quest for justice and the practical role of bankruptcy court.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a previous deal because it said it was improper for Sackler family members to receive immunity from lawsuits over opioids. In the new arrangement, entities who don't opt into the settlement can sue them. Family members are collectively worth billions, but much of their assets are held in trusts in offshore accounts that would be hard to access through lawsuits.

This time, the government groups involved have reached an even fuller consensus and there's been mostly subdued opposition from individuals. Out of more than 54,000 personal injury victims who voted on whether the plan should be accepted. just 218 said no. A larger number of people who are part of that group didn't vote.

Unlike with other proceedings, there were no protests outside the courthouse.

A handful of objectors spoke during the three-day hearing, sometimes interrupting the judge. Some said that only the victims, not the states and other government entities, should receive the funds in the settlement. Others wanted the judge to find the members of the Sackler family criminally liable something Lane said is beyond the scope of the bankruptcy court, but that the settlement doesn't bar prosecutors from pursuing.

A Florida woman whose husband struggled with addiction after being given OxyContin following an accident told the court that the deal isn't enough.

The natural laws of karma suggest the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma should pay for what they have done, Pamela Bartz Halaschak said via video.

Deal would be among the biggest opioid settlements

A flood of lawsuits filed by government entities against Purdue and other drugmakers, drug wholesalers and pharmacy chains began about a decade ago.

Most of the major ones have already settled for a total of about $50 billion, with most of the money going to fight the opioid crisis. Theres no mechanism for tracking where it all goes or overarching requirement to evaluate whether the spending is effective. Those hit the hardest generally havent had a say.

Besides contributing cash, members of the Sackler family would formally give up ownership of the company. None have been on its board or received payments since 2018. Unlike a similar hearing four years ago, none were called to testify in this week's hearing.

The company would get a name change to Knoa Pharma and new overseers who would dedicate future profits to battling the opioid crisis. That could happen in the spring of 2026.

Family members would be barred from involvement in companies that sell opioids anywhere in the world. And they would not have their names added to institutions in exchange for charitable contributions. The name has already been removed from museums and universities.

Company documents, including many that would normally be subject to lawyer-client privilege, are to be made public.

Some people hurt by Purdues opioids would receive some money

Unlike the other major opioid settlements, individuals harmed by Purdues products would be in line for some money as part of the settlement. About $850 million would be set aside for them, with more than $100 million of that amount carved out to help children born dealing with opioid withdrawal.

All of money for the individual victims would be delivered next year.

About 139,000 people have active claims for the money. Many of them, however, have not shown proof that they were prescribed Purdues opioids and will receive nothing. Assuming about half of the individual claimants would qualify, lawyers expect that those who had prescriptions for at least six months would receive about $16,000 each and those who had them more briefly would get around $8,000, before legal fees that would reduce what people actually receive.

One woman who had a family member suffer from opioid addiction told the court by video Thursday that the settlement doesn't help people with substance use disorder.

Tell me how you guys can sleep at night knowing people are going to get so little money they cant do anything with it, asked Laureen Ferrante of Staten Island, New York.

Christopher Shore, a lawyer representing a group of individual victims, said in court Friday that the settlement is a better deal than taking on Sackler family members in court. Some Sacklers are bad people, he said, but the reality is that sometimes bad people win in litigation.

Most of the money is to go to state and local governments to be used in their efforts to mitigate damage of the opioid epidemic. Overdose death numbers have been dropping in the past few years, a decline experts believe is partly due to the impact of settlement dollars.

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians players were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers.

MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.

The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct, the league said. The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.

MLB said the agreement included Ballys, Bet365, BetMGM, Bet99, Betr, Caesars, Circa, DraftKings, 888, FanDuel, Gamewise, Hard Rock Bet, Intralot, Jack Entertainment, Mojo, Northstar Gaming, Oaklawn, Penn, Pointsbet, Potawatomi, Rush Street and Underdog.

RELATED STORY | MLB pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz charged with taking bribes to rig pitches for bettors

Cleveland pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment says they helped two unnamed gamblers in the Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches, including some that landed in the dirt.

Ortizs lawyer, Chris Georgalis, said in a statement that his client was innocent and has never, and would never, improperly influence a game not for anyone and not for anything. A lawyer for Clase, Michael J. Ferrara, said his client has devoted his life to baseball and doing everything in his power to help his team win. Emmanuel is innocent of all charges and looks forward to clearing his name in court.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was unconstitutional, allowing states to legalize sports betting.

Ortiz appeared Monday in federal court in Boston. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell granted Ortiz his release on the condition he surrender his passport, restrict his travel to the Northeast U.S. and post a $500,000 bond, $50,000 of it secured. Ortiz was ordered to avoid contact with anyone who could be viewed as a victim, witness or co-defendant.

Last month, more than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were arrested in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said rigged poker games backed by Mafia families and leaked inside information about NBA athletes.

Billups attorney, Chris Heywood, issued a statement denying the allegations. Roziers lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement his client is not a gambler and looks forward to winning this fight.

Sally Kirkland, a one-time model who became a regular on stage, film and TV, best known for sharing the screen with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting and her Oscar-nominated title role in the 1987 movie Anna, has died. She was 84.

Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died Tuesday morning at a Palm Springs hospice.

Friends established a GoFundMe account this fall for her medical care. They said she had fractured four bones in her neck, right wrist and left hip. While recovering, she also developed infections, requiring hospitalization and rehab.

Kirkland acted in such films as The Way We Were with Barbra Streisand, Revenge with Kevin Costner, Cold Feet with Keith Carradine and Tom Waits, Ron Howard's EDtv, Oliver Stone's JFK, Heatwave with Cicely Tyson, High Stakes with Kathy Bates, Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey and the 1991 TV movie The Haunted, about a family dealing with paranormal activity. She had a cameo in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles.

RELATED STORY | Diane Ladd, 3-time Oscar nominee, dies at 89

Her biggest role was in 1987's Anna as a fading Czech movie star remaking her life in the United States and mentoring to a younger actor, Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination along with Cher in Moonstruck, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, Holly Hunter in Broadcast News" and Meryl Streep in Ironweed.

Kirkland is one of those performers whose talent has been an open secret to her fellow actors but something of a mystery to the general public, The Los Angeles critic wrote in her review. There should be no confusion about her identity after this blazing comet of a performance.

Kirklands small-screen acting credits include stints on Criminal Minds, Roseanne, Head Case and she was a series regular on the TV shows Valley of the Dolls and Charlies Angels.

Born in New York City, Kirklands mother was a fashion editor at Vogue and Life magazine who encouraged her daughter to start modeling at age 5. Kirkland graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with Philip Burton, Richard Burtons mentor, and Lee Strasberg, the master of the Method school of acting. An early breakout was appearing in Andy Warhol's 13 Most Beautiful Women in 1964. She appeared naked as a kidnapped rape victim in Terrence McNallys off-Broadway Sweet Eros.

Some of her early roles were Shakespeare, including the lovesick Helena in A Midsummer Nights Dream for New York Shakespeare Festival producer Joseph Papp and Miranda in an off-Broadway production of The Tempest.

I dont think any actor can really call him or herself an actor unless he or she puts in time with Shakespeare, she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. It shows up, it always shows up in the work, at some point, whether its just not being able to have breath control, or not being able to appreciate language as poetry and music, or not having the power that Shakespeare automatically instills you with when you take on one of his characters.

Kirkland was a member of several New Age groups, taught Insight Transformational Seminars and was a longtime member of the affiliated Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, whose followers believe in soul transcendence.

She reached a career nadir while riding nude on a pig in the 1969 film Futz, which a Guardian reviewer dubbed the worst film he had ever seen. It was about a man who fell in love with a pig, and even by the dismal standards of the era, it was dismal, he wrote.

Kirkland was also known for disrobing for so many other roles and social causes that Time magazine dubbed her the latter-day Isadora Duncan of nudothespianism.

Kirkland volunteered for people with AIDS, cancer and heart disease, fed homeless people via the American Red Cross, participated in telethons for hospices and was an advocate for prisoners, especially young people.

Vaishnavi Srinivasagopalan, a skilled Indian IT professional who has worked in both India and the U.S., has been looking for work in China. Beijing's new K-visa program targeting science and technology workers could turn that dream into a reality.

The K-visa rolled out by Beijing last month is part of China's widening effort to catch up with the U.S. in the race for global talent and cutting edge technology. It coincides with uncertainties over the U.S.'s H-1B program under tightened immigrations policies implemented by President Donald Trump.

"(The) K-visa for China (is) an equivalent to the H-1B for the U.S.," said Srinivasagopalan, who is intrigued by China's working environment and culture after her father worked at a Chinese university a few years back. "It is a good option for people like me to work abroad."

The K-visa supplements China's existing visa schemes including the R-visa for foreign professionals, but with loosened requirements, such as not requiring an applicant to have a job offer before applying.

Stricter U.S. policies toward foreign students and scholars under Trump, including the raising of fees for the H-1B visa for foreign skilled workers to $100,000 for new applicants, are leading some non-American professionals and students to consider going elsewhere.

"Students studying in the U.S. hoped for an (H-1B) visa, but currently this is an issue," said Bikash Kali Das, an Indian masters student of international relations at Sichuan University in China.

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China wants more foreign tech professionals

China is striking while the iron is hot.

The ruling Communist Party has made global leadership in advanced technologies a top priority, paying massive government subsidies to support research and development of areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and robotics.

"Beijing perceives the tightening of immigration policies in the U.S. as an opportunity to position itself globally as welcoming foreign talent and investment more broadly," said Barbara Kelemen, associate director and head of Asia at security intelligence firm Dragonfly.

Unemployment among Chinese graduates remains high, and competition is intense for jobs in scientific and technical fields. But there is a skills gap China's leadership is eager to fill. For decades, China has been losing top talent to developed countries as many stayed and worked in the U.S. and Europe after they finished studies there.

The brain drain has not fully reversed.

Many Chinese parents still see Western education as advanced and are eager to send their children abroad, said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.

Still, in recent years, a growing number of professionals including AI experts, scientists and engineers have moved to China from the U.S., including Chinese-Americans. Fei Su, a chip architect at Intel, and Ming Zhou, a leading engineer at U.S.-based software firm Altair, were among those who have taken teaching jobs in China this year.

Many skilled workers in India and Southeast Asia have already expressed interest about the K-visa, said Edward Hu, a Shanghai-based immigration director at the consultancy Newland Chase.

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Questions about extra competition from foreign workers

With the jobless rate for Chinese aged 16-24 excluding students at nearly 18%, the campaign to attract more foreign professionals is raising questions.

"The current job market is already under fierce competition," said Zhou Xinying, a 24-year-old postgraduate student in behavioral science at eastern China's Zhejiang University.

While foreign professionals could help "bring about new technologies" and different international perspectives, Zhou said, "some Chinese young job seekers may feel pressure due to the introduction of the K-visa policy."

Kyle Huang, a 26-year-old software engineer based in the southern city of Guangzhou, said his peers in the science and technology fields fear the new visa scheme "might threaten local job opportunities".

A recent commentary published by a state-backed news outlet, the Shanghai Observer, downplayed such concerns, saying that bringing in such foreign professionals will benefit the economy. As China advances in areas such as AI and cutting-edge semiconductors, there is a "gap and mismatch" between qualified jobseekers and the demand for skilled workers, it said.

"The more complex the global environment, the more China will open its arms," it said.

"Beijing will need to emphasize how select foreign talent can create, not take, local jobs," said Michael Feller, chief strategist at consultancy Geopolitical Strategy. "But even Washington has shown that this is politically a hard argument to make, despite decades of evidence."

China's disadvantages even with the new visas

Recruitment and immigration specialists say foreign workers face various hurdles in China. One is the language barrier. The ruling Communist Party's internet censorship, known as the "Great Firewall," is another drawback.

A country of about 1.4 billion, China had only an estimated 711,000 foreign workers residing in the country as of 2023.

The U.S. still leads in research and has the advantage of using English widely. There's also still a relatively clearer pathway to residency for many, said David Stepat, country director for Singapore at the consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates.

Nikhil Swaminathan, an Indian H1-B visa holder working for a U.S. non-profit organization after finishing graduate school there, is interested in China's K-visa but skeptical. "I would've considered it. China's a great place to work in tech, if not for the difficult relationship between India and China," he said.

Given a choice, many jobseekers still are likely to aim for jobs in leading global companies outside China.

"The U.S. is probably more at risk of losing would-be H-1B applicants to other Western economies, including the UK and European Union, than to China," said Feller at Geopolitical Strategy.

"The U.S. may be sabotaging itself, but it's doing so from a far more competitive position in terms of its attractiveness to talent," Feller said. "China will need to do far more than offer convenient visa pathways to attract the best."

President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to throw out a jurys finding in a civil lawsuit that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

Trumps lawyers argued in a lengthy filing with the high court that allegations leading to the $5 million verdict were propped up by a series of indefensible evidentiary rulings" that allowed Carroll's lawyers to present highly inflammatory propensity evidence against him.

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host, testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower.

The jury also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he made comments in October 2022 denying her allegation.

Trumps lawyers, led by St. Louis, Missouri-based attorney Justin D. Smith, called Carroll's claims a politically motivated hoax."

They accused the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, of warping federal evidence rules to bolster Carroll's implausible, unsubstantiated assertions. They said that by upholding the verdict, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in conflict with other federal appeals courts on how such rules should be applied.

President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred, Smith and his co-counsel wrote. No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carrolls story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.

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A message seeking comment was left with Carrolls lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

In September, when Trump's lawyers first indicated they would appeal to the Supreme Court, she said, We do not believe that President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement the Supreme Court appeal was part of the president's crusade against Liberal Lawfare.

The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes," the statement said.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting Trumps claims that trial Judge Kaplan's decisions spoiled the trial, including by allowing two other Trump sexual abuse accusers to testify. The women said Trump committed similar acts against them in the 1970s and in 2005. Trump denied all three womens allegations.

In June, 2nd Circuit judges denied Trumps petition for the full appellate court to take up the case. That left Trump with two options: accept the result and allow Carroll to collect the judgment, which hed previously paid into escrow, or fight on in Supreme Court, whose conservative majority including three of his own appointees could be more open to considering his challenge.

Trump skipped the 2023 trial but testified briefly at a follow-up defamation trial last year that ended with a jury ordering him to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.

Judge Kaplan presided over both trials and instructed the second jury to accept the first jurys finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll. Judge Kaplan and Carrolls lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, are not related.

In their Supreme Court filing, Trumps lawyers said Kaplan compounded his significant evidentiary errors at first trial by improperly preventing Trump from contesting the first jurys finding that he had sexually abused Carroll, leading to an unjust judgment of $83.3 million.

The 2nd Circuit upheld that verdict on Sept. 8, with a three-judge panel calling the jurys damages awards fair and reasonable. Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling.

Trump has had recent success fending off costly civil judgments. In August, a New York appeals court threw out Trumps staggering penalty in a state civil fraud lawsuit.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

Hormone-based drugs used to treat hot flashes and other menopause symptoms will no longer carry a bold warning label about stroke, heart attack, dementia and other serious risks, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

U.S. health officials said they will remove the boxed warning from more than 20 pills, patches and creams containing hormones like estrogen and progestin, which are approved to ease disruptive symptoms like night sweats.

The change has been supported by some doctors including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who has called the current label outdated and unnecessary.

The labeling change reflects a "more nuanced, evidence-based communication of hormone therapy risks," Makary and other FDA officials wrote in a commentary published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

FDA officials justified the new label by pointing to studies suggesting hormone therapy has few risks when started before age 60 or within 10 years of menopause symptoms.

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"We're challenging outdated thinking and recommitting to evidence-based medicine that empowers rather than restricts," Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said introducing the change.

The long-standing FDA warning advised doctors that hormone therapy can increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and other health issues, citing data published more than 20 years ago.

Many doctors and pharmaceutical companies have called for removing or revising the label, which they say discourages prescriptions and scares off women who could benefit.

But other experts have vigorously opposed making changes to the label without a careful, transparent process. They say the FDA should have convened its independent advisers to publicly consider any revisions.

Current medical guidelines generally recommend the drugs for a limited duration in younger women going through early or mid-stage menopause who don't have complicating risks, such as breast cancer or heart problems. FDA's updated prescribing information mostly matches that approach.

But Makary and some other doctors have suggested that hormone therapy's benefits can go far beyond managing uncomfortable mid-life symptoms. Before becoming FDA commissioner, Makary dedicated the first chapter of his most recent book to extolling the overall benefits of hormone therapy and criticizing doctors unwilling to prescribe it.

In Monday's commentary he reiterated that viewpoint, citing figures suggesting hormone-therapy may help reduce heart disease, bone fractures and Alzheimer's.

"With the exception of antibiotics and vaccines, there may be no medication in the modern world that can improve the health outcomes of older women on a population level more than hormone therapy," Makary wrote.

The veracity of those benefits and whether they outweigh the drugs' risks remains the subject of intense debate. Experts including those whose research led to the original warning have disputed overall health claims for the drugs.

In the 1990s, millions of U.S. women took estrogen alone or in combination with progestin on the assumption that in addition to treating menopause it would reduce rates of heart disease, dementia and other issues.

But a landmark study of more than 26,000 women upended that idea, linking two different types of hormone pills to higher rates of stroke, blood clots, breast cancer and other serious risks. After the initial findings were published in 2002, prescriptions plummeted among women of all age groups, including those in earlier stages of menopause.

Since then, all estrogen drugs have carried the FDA's boxed warning the most serious type. National health data shows prescribing of the drugs has not increased over the last 20 years.

But continuing analysis has shown a more nuanced picture of the risks.

A new analysis of the 2002 data published in September found that women in their 50s taking estrogen-based drugs faced no increased risk of heart problems, whereas women in their 70s did. The data was unclear for women in their 60s, and the authors advised caution.

Additionally, many newer forms of the drugs have been introduced since the early 2000s, including vaginal creams, rings and tablets which deliver lower hormone doses than pills, patches and other drugs that circulate throughout the bloodstream. Those products will receive their own label, reflecting their unique risks and benefits, the agency said.

The original language contained in the boxed warning will still be available to prescribers, but it will appear lower down in the prescribing information. Additionally the label will retain a boxed warning that women who have not had a hysterectomy should receive a combination of estrogen-progestin due to risks of cancer in the lining of the uterus.

Hanging over Monday's announcement is the way the agency laid the groundwork for the decision.

Rather than convening one of the agency's standing advisory committees on women's health or drug safety, Makary earlier this year invited a dozen doctors and researchers who overwhelmingly supported the health benefits of hormone-replacement drugs.

Many of the panelists invited to the July meeting consult for drugmakers or prescribe the medications in their private practices. Some also had ties to a pharmaceutical-sponsored campaign called Unboxing Menopause, which lobbied the FDA to remove the warning.

Nearly 80 researchers later sent a letter to the FDA calling for an official advisory committee meeting.

Diana Zuckerman of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research, which analyzes medical research, accused Makary of undermining the FDA's credibility by announcing the change "rather than having scientists scrutinize the research at an FDA scientific meeting."

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots, which have been a target of President Donald Trump.

The justices took up an appeal from Mississippi after a panel of three judges nominated by the Republican president on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the state law allowing ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day to be counted violated federal law.

Mississippi is among 18 states and the District of Columbia that accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The list includes swing states such as Nevada and states such as Colorado, Oregon and Utah that rely heavily on mail voting.

An additional 14 states allow the counting of late-arriving ballots from some eligible voters, including overseas U.S. service members and their families, according to a filing from Democratic-led states that urged the justices to reverse the appellate ruling.

The case will be argued in the late winter or early spring. A final ruling almost certainly will come by late June, early enough to govern the counting of ballots in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, told the Supreme Court that the appellate ruling "will have destabilizing nationwide ramifications" if left in place.

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"The stakes are high: ballots cast by but received after election day can swing close races and change the course of the country," Fitch wrote.

Trump has claimed that late-arriving ballots and drawn-out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections. In March, the Republican president signed an executive order on elections that aims to require votes to be "cast and received" by Election Day. The order has been challenged in court.

The Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi led the challenge to the Mississippi law. A federal judge dismissed a similar challenge to Nevada's law, but the decision has been appealed.

The Supreme Court is separately considering reviving a lawsuit filed by Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and backed by the Trump administration that challenges Illinois' ballot receipt law. The issue is whether the congressman has the legal right to sue.

Some Republican-led states, including Kansas and North Dakota, have taken steps to stop counting late-arriving ballots. In Ohio, Republican lawmakers are advancing legislation that would require ballots to be received by Election Day, closing the window for mailed ballots. The measure has passed the state Senate.

In the Mississippi case, Judge Andrew Oldham wrote for the appellate panel that Congress established a "singular" Election Day for members of Congress and presidential electors, "by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials." Judges James Ho and Stuart Kyle Duncan joined Oldham's opinion invalidating the Mississippi law.

The ruling reversed a decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had held that there was no conflict between the state and federal laws. "All that occurs after election day is the delivery and counting of ballots cast on or before election day," wrote Guirola, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple denied a marriage license.

Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

Thomas was among four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who are on the court today.

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Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize the decision, but he said recently he was not advocating that it be overturned.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has said that there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a constitutional right to abortion.

But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children.

Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson praised the justices' decision not to intervene. The Supreme Court made clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others does not come without consequences, Robinson said in a statement.

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Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky's Rowan County when she turned away same-sex couples, saying her faith prevented her from complying with the high court ruling. She defied court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.

She was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.

Davis lost a reelection bid in 2018.

President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republican's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a Justice Department official says.

Ed Martin, the government's pardon attorney, posted on social media a signed proclamation of the full, complete, and unconditional" pardon, which also names conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. The proclamation, posted online late Sunday, explicitly says the pardon does not apply to Trump.

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Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, and none of the Trump allies named were charged in federal cases over the 2020 election. But the move underscores President Donald Trump's continued efforts to rewrite the history of the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. It follows the sweeping pardons of the hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of attacking law enforcement.

The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those accused of aiding Trump's efforts to cling to power as a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people and said the pardons were designed to continue the process of national reconciliation.

The White House didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump in 2020 and were charged in state cases of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden's victory in those states.

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Trump himself was indicted on felony charges accusing him of working overturn his 2020 election defeat, but the case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was abandoned in November after Trump's victory over Democrat Kamala Harris because of the department's policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.

Giuliani, Meadows and others who were named in the proclamation had been charged by state prosecutors over the 2020 election, but the cases have hit a dead end or are just limping along. A judge in September dismissed the Michigan case against 15 Republicans accused of attempting to falsely certify Trump as the winner of the election in that battleground state.

Two Major League Baseball pitchers were indicted Sunday on charges they took bribes to give sports bettors advance notice of the types of pitches they'd throw and intentionally tossed balls instead of strikes to ensure successful bets.

Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, both of whom pitched for the Cleveland Guardians, have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July while Major League Baseball investigated unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched.

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Clase, 27, and Ortiz, 26, were both charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy. The top charges carry a potential punishment of up to 20 years in prison in the event of a conviction.

Ortiz was arrested by the FBI on Sunday morning at Boston Logan International Airport. He is expected to appear in federal court in Boston on Monday.

Major League Baseball said it contacted federal law enforcement when it began investigating the unusual betting activity and has fully cooperated with authorities. We are aware of the indictment and todays arrest, and our investigation is ongoing, its statement said.

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In a statement, the Guardians said: We are aware of the recent law enforcement action, We will continue to fully cooperate with both law enforcement and Major League Baseball as their investigations continue.

A lawyer for Ortiz declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press and a lawyer for Clase did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Air traffic in the U.S. could slow to a trickle if the federal government shutdown lingers into the busy Thanksgiving travel holiday season, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday.

The Federal Aviation Administration last week ordered flight cuts at the nations busiest airports as some air traffic controllers, who have gone unpaid for nearly a month, have stopped showing up for work.

The reductions started Friday at 4% and will increase to 10% by Nov. 14. They are in effect from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time and will impact all commercial airlines.

On Sunday, 1,375 flights were canceled as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware. That follows more than 1,500 cancellations on Saturday.

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Duffy has said additional flight cuts perhaps up to 20% might be needed, particularly after controllers receive no pay for a second straight pay period.

More controllers arent coming to work day by day, the further they go without a paycheck, Duffy told Fox News Sunday."

And he prepared Americans for what they could face during the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

As I look two weeks out, as we get closer to Thanksgiving travel, I think whats going to happen is youre going to have air travel slow to a trickle as everyone wants to travel to see their families, Duffy said.

With very few controllers working, "youll have a few flights taking off and landing" and thousands of cancellations, he said.

Youre going to have massive disruption. I think a lot of angry Americans. I think we have to be honest about where this is going. It doesnt get better, Duffy said. "It gets worse until these air traffic controllers are going to be paid.

The government has been short of air traffic controllers for years, and multiple presidential administrations have tried to convince retirement-age controllers to remain on the job. Duffy said the shutdown has exacerbated the problem, leading some air traffic controllers to speed up their retirements.

Up to 15 or 20 a day are retiring, Duffy said on CNN.

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Duffy said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted him with an offer to lend military air traffic controllers, but its unclear whether the staff is certified to work on civilian systems.

Duffy denied Democratic charges that the flight cancellations are a political tactic, saying they were necessary due to increasing near-misses from an overtaxed system.

I needed to take action to keep people safe, Duffy said. Im doing what I can in a mess that Democrats have put in my lap.