A federal judge on Monday paused plans by the Trump administration to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a week before they were scheduled to expire.

The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire April 7. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the National TPS Alliance and TPS holders across the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced the end of TPS for an estimated 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September.

Chen said in his ruling that the action by Noem threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.

He said the government had failed to identify any real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries and said plaintiffs will likely succeed in showing that Noems actions are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.

Chen, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said his order applies nationally.

He gave the government one week to file notice of an appeal and the plaintiffs one week to file to pause for 500,000 Haitians whose TPS protections are set to expire in August. Alejandro Mayorkas, the previous secretary, had extended protections for all three cohorts into 2026.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress created TPS, as the law is known, in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to live and work in the U.S. in increments of up to 18 months if the Homeland Security secretary deems conditions in their home countries are unsafe for return.

The reversals are a major about-face from immigration policies under former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and come as Republican President Donald Trump and his top aides have ratcheted up attacks on judges who rule against them, with immigration being at the forefront of many disagreements.

At a hearing last Monday, lawyers for TPS holders said that Noem has no authority to cancel the protections and that her actions were motivated in part by racism. They asked the judge to pause Noems orders, citing the irreparable harm to TPS holders struggling with fear of deportation and potential separation from family members.

Government lawyers for Noem said that Congress gave the secretary clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and that the decisions were not subject to judicial review. Plaintiffs have no right to thwart the secretarys orders from being carried out, they said.

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But Chen found the government's arguments unpersuasive and found that numerous derogatory and false comments by Noem and by Trump against Venezuelans as criminals show that racial animus was a motivator in ending protections.

Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism, he wrote.

Biden sharply expanded use of TPS and other temporary forms of protection in a strategy to create and expand legal pathways to live in the United States while suspending asylum for those who enter illegally.

Trump has questioned the the impartiality of a federal judge who blocked his plans to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, levelling his criticism only hours before his administration asked an appeals court to lift the judges order.

The administration has also said it was revoking temporary protections for more than 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have come to the U.S. since October 2022 through another legal avenue called humanitarian parole, which Biden used more than any other president. Their two-year work permits will expire April 24.

NASAs celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing's Starliner again.

SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.

In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.

Wilmore didn't shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing's bungled test flight.

Ill start and point the finger and Ill blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide, he told reporters. All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.

Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. Because we're going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We're going to fix them. We're going to make it work, Wilmore said, adding he'd go back up in a heartbeat.

Williams noted that Starliner has a lot of capability and she wants to see it succeed. The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.

The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeings first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.

Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months.

President Donald Trump urged SpaceXs Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended March 18 with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.

NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliners thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, Starliner is ready to go," Wilmore said.

The space agency may require another test flight with cargo before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by year's end.

Despite Starliners rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing U.S. companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs.

A tree fell on a van in Michigan, killing three children, during a fierce weekend storm that swept the region and contributed to the death of an 84-year-old man in an Amish buggy in Indiana, authorities said Monday.

Meanwhile, more potentially dangerous weather rolled across parts of the Southeastern U.S.

Trees and power lines were no match for freezing rain and extreme winds over the weekend, and utilities were gradually restoring power in Michigan, although 276,000 outages remained by Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. Indiana and Wisconsin had trimmed their outages to roughly 80,000.

The victims of the fallen tree in Kalamazoo County were a 2-year-old girl, her 4-year-old brother and an 11-year-old girl who was their cousin. Three other people in the van were injured Sunday about 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of Detroit.

The family could not have avoided this, Sheriff Richard Fuller told reporters, adding that the tree struck the passenger area where the children were sitting.

It was such a large tree that it came across two lanes of traffic and out the other side of the vehicle for about 12 more feet, the sheriff said.

The area had been under a severe thunderstorm warning at the time, one of several Sunday in southern Michigan.

At roughly the same time, an Amish buggy in Middlebury, Indiana, flipped because of intense winds, killing Lonnie Yoder, police said.

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Michigans northern Lower Peninsula remained a mess Monday, with thousands of trees down because of freezing rain that struck Saturday. Police urged people to stay off roads. The Alpena News said it couldn't publish a newspaper because it had no power, like the rest of Alpena County.

The Mackinac Bridge, a 5-mile (8-kilometer) span connecting Michigan's two peninsulas, was shut down because of the danger of thick ice falling on cars from the bridge's towers and cables.

In Valparaiso, Indiana, investigators believe severe crosswinds blew over a tractor trailer Sunday afternoon, killing the driver at the property of Pratt Industries, the Porter County sheriffs office said. Jagbir Singh, 34, of Ontario, Canada, was found outside the passenger compartment.

A warehouse in Elkhart, Indiana, was destroyed, though no injuries were reported, WSBT-TV said.

Winds in southwest Ohio toppled a church steeple, damaged homes and flipped campers Sunday night, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Storm damage was reported in several counties in Tennessee, including Maury and Humphreys, WSMV-TV reported. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis reported damage across the county, including a roof torn off a house. The homeowners were trapped inside but not injured.

Clusters of thunderstorms accompanied by strong to severe wind gusts and perhaps a few tornadoes were spreading across much of the Southeast on Monday, the National Weather Service said. In Dothan, Alabama, five students suffered minor injuries when a storm caused part of their school's gymnasium roof to collapse, news outlets reported.

Flood watches have been issued for Wednesday through Sunday in 11 states, from northeast Texas through Arkansas and stretching to the western edge of West Virginia. The weather service warned that up to 1 foot (30.5 centimeters) of rain in some areas is not out of the question. This is expected to be a high end event with life-threatening flooding.

A tree that's nearly two centuries old will be removed from the White House grounds because it's deteriorating, President Donald Trump said Sunday.

The southern magnolia stands near the curved portico on the south side of the building. It's where foreign leaders are often welcomed for ceremonial visits, and where the president departs to board the Marine One helicopter.

According to the National Park Service website, "folklore tells us" that President Andrew Jackson brought the tree's seeds from his home near Nashville, Tennessee. It was apparently planted in honor of his wife Rachel, who died shortly before he took office in 1829.

"The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. "This process will take place next week, and will be replaced by another, very beautiful tree."

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Trump said the wood from the tree "may be used for other high and noble purposes!!!"

The tree was significantly pruned in 2017, during Trump's first term. It was also damaged in 1994 when a small Cessna plane crashed into the South Lawn and skidded into the White House.

Waymo on Tuesday added Washington to its pioneering robotaxi service's steadily expanding list of U.S. markets, although passengers will have to wait until next year before they can take a driverless ride around the nation's capital city.

For now, Waymo's robotaxis will continue to map Washington's streets and corridors with a safety driver sitting behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle if something goes wrong a precaution required under the regulations currently in force in the District of Columbia.

That's something Waymo already has been doing since it began sending out its robotaxis in Washington in late January after a brief trial run in the capital last year.

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While the robotaxis continue to learn their way around the city, Waymo executives expressed confidence they will be able to work with regulators to clear the way for completely driverless rides at some point next year through its Waymo One app.

"We're excited to bring the comfort, consistency, and safety of Waymo One to Washingtonians, those who work and play in the city every day, and the millions of people from around the world who travel to the District every year," Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.

If Waymo's ambitions pan out, Washington and Miami next year will be added to four other U.S. markets where its robotaxis are transporting passengers Phoenix, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas as part of a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber. Waymo and Uber also are teaming up to begin dispatching its robotaxis in Atlanta later this year.

The growth has helped turn what began as a head-turning novelty in Phoenix and then in San Francisco into an increasingly common sight in the cities where Waymo operates. The company says it had provided more than 4 million driverless rides to paying customers through the end of last year, and is now providing them at a pace of 200,000 paid trips per week.

That has established Waymo as the early frontrunner in driverless technology while others are racing to catch up. Both Amazon and Tesla are gearing up to launch their own services in different U.S. cities, while another ride-hailing service, Lyft, has announced plans to add robotaxis as an option in Atlanta and Dallas.

Waymo's early lead in the still-nascent robotaxi market is a vindication of a technology that began as a secret project within Google in 2009 before it was spun off into a separate company owned by Alphabet Inc. in 2016.

Austin police say they're investigating several incendiary devices found at a Tesla dealership Monday on the city's north side, the latest in a series of events targeting the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

Austin police responding to a report of hazardous materials found the devices and called in the city's bomb squad, which took them into police custody without incident, the department said in an email to The Associated Press. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

This is an open and ongoing investigation, and there is no further information available for release at this time, the department said.

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Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk's electric-car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas, along with protests nationwide in response to the billionaire's work with the Trump administration cutting federal funding and the workforce.

On Saturday, a man drove his car into protesters outside a Tesla dealership in Palm Beach County, Florida. No one was injured, and the man was arrested on an assault complaint. In California, police said a counter-protestor was arrested Saturday after activating a stun gun during an anti-Musk demonstration outside a Tesla dealership near downtown Berkeley. Nobody was hurt. The 33-year-old man was awaiting charges Monday.

Several more cases of violence targeting Tesla include Cybertrucks being set on fire in Seattle and shots fired at a dealership in Oregon. Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars also have been targeted.

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FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday that the bureau is taking steps to crack down on an increase in violent activity toward Tesla. The agency has created a task force to coordinate investigative efforts into the attacks with officials at the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an FBI spokesperson said in a social media post.

This is domestic terrorism. Those responsible will be pursued, caught, and brought to justice, Patel said in a post on X.

U.S. consumer confidence continued its sharp 2025 decline as Americans views about their financial futures slumped to a 12-year low, driven by rising anxiety over tariffs and inflation.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 7.2 points in March to 92.9, the fourth straight monthly decline and its lowest reading since January of 2021. The reading was short of analysts expectations for a reading of 94.5, according to a survey by FactSet.

The business group found that the measure of Americans short-term expectations for income, business and the job market fell 9.6 points to 65.2.

That's the lowest reading in 12 years and well below the threshold of 80, which the Conference Board says can signal a potential recession in the near future. The proportion of U.S. consumers anticipating a recession remains at a nine-month high, the board reported.

Consumers optimism about future income which had held up quite strongly in the past few months largely vanished, suggesting worries about the economy and labor market have started to spread into consumers assessments of their personal situations, said Stephanie Guichard, senior economist at The Conference Board.

The administration of President Donald Trump has largely played down the souring mood among Americans, saying it doesnt necessarily reflect whats happening in the actual economy. This argument is similar to what officials in former President Biden's administration said as high inflation suppressed consumer confidence without undermining growth.

I just dont think that theres been a very strong correlation between the confidence data and actual consumer spending in recent years, Stephen Miran, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC on Tuesday. You go out in the street, people are going about their lives, you know, theyre getting their paychecks, theyre spending their paychecks, the economy is marching on ahead.

Yet some of the nation's biggest retailers, who have noted a shift in consumer behavior, are telling a different story.

Walmart has thrived with Americans trying to offset higher prices by seeking bargains. Late last month, however, the nations largest retailer slashed its profit forecast for this year. Its sales outlook was also conservative and the company does not include the potential impact of tariffs in its expectations for 2025.

Targets sales and profit slipped during the crucial holiday quarter, and the company predicted that there would be meaningful pressure on its profits to start the year in part because of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.

Macys, Best Buy, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dollar General and others also have grown cautious about their expectations for 2025, with many citing economic uncertainty.

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The boards survey showed that purchasing plans for both homes and cars declined. However, in somewhat of a surprise given respondents anxiety about the future, intentions to buy big-ticket items like appliances increased. The board said that could reflect a desire to buy before the tariffs kick in, leading to price increases.

While inflation has retreated from the highs during the post-pandemic rebound, it has remained above the Federal Reserves 2% target. Those still-elevated prices, combined with the announced tariffs on many imported goods, have Americans feeling sour about spending as concerns about the economy mount.

Consumers had appeared increasingly confident heading into the year-end holidays and spent generously. One month later, however, in January, U.S. retail sales fell sharply, though cold weather shared some of the blame.

Earlier this month, the government reported that Americans stepped up their spending in February after the sharp early year pullback, but only tepidly.

The board reported Tuesday that consumers view of current conditions decreased 3.6 points to 134.5.

The consumer confidence index measures both Americans assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and is closely watched by economists for signs about how the American consumer is feeling.

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Pope Francis medical team briefly considered suspending treatment after a Feb. 28 breathing crisis but instead decided on an aggressive course that put his organs at risk, the doctor coordinating the popes hospital care said in an interview published Tuesday.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri said the 88-year-old pontiff and people close to him alike understood that he might not survive the night, after the bronchospasm attack during which the pope inhaled vomit.

"We needed to choose whether to stop and let him go, or to push it and attempt with all of the possible drugs and the treatments, taking the very high risk of damaging other organs, Alfieri told told the Milan daily Corriere della Sera. In the end, that is the path we chose.

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Francis was released Sunday after 38 days of treatment for double pneumonia, under doctors' orders to observe two months of convalescence during which he should avoid large gatherings. The pope appeared weak and frail when he greeted the crowd outside the Gemelli hospital before his discharge.

The Vatican has said it is not clear if the pope will meet with King Charles III on a Vatican state visit next month or any Holy Week activities leading up to Easter on April 20.

Alfieri said that the pope remained alert throughout the Feb. 28 ordeal and that his personal health care assistant, Massimiliano Strappetti, who knows perfectly the pontiffs wishes, urged them to try everything. Dont give up.

Alfieri acknowledged that the treatment risked damaging the popes kidneys and bone marrow, but we continued, and his body responded to the treatments and the lung infection improved.

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The medical bulletin that night said that the pope had suffered a bronchiospasm so severe that he inhaled vomit worsening his respiratory picture. Doctors used a non-invasive aspiration to clear his airways.

Three days later, in a second life-and-death crisis, the pope suffered a pair of acute bronchiospasms episodes. Doctors used a camera tube with a device to remove mucus plus that yielded abundant secretions. The bulletin emphasized that the pope always remained alert, oriented and collaborative.

Alfieri said he believed that prayers for the pope help keep him alive, something that the doctor said is backed by scientific literature.

In this case the whole world was praying. I can say that twice the situation was lost, and then it happened like a miracle, the doctor said, adding that of course he was a very cooperative patient.

Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow's intention to pursue aerial strikes even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities.

The head of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the city suffered local emergency power outages in three of its districts, an indication that the energy infrastructure of the city could have been damaged.

Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that "joint pressure on Russia, strengthening sanctions and defense support for our state ... is the way to stop such terror and Russias prolongation of the war."

We expect real pressure on Russia from the US, Europe and all our partners, Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram And this is what will allow diplomacy to work.

Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of blowing up a gas facility in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have launched an incursion, in violation of the ceasefire deal. Ukraine denies the accusations.

Russian drone attack sparks massive blazes in Odesa

The strike came shortly before Czech Republic President Peter Pavel visited Odesa early Friday morning and held meetings with the city's leaders and officials from other southern regions.

This is another reminder to the whole world: the war continues and Ukraine continues to fight, Kiper said in a statement.

He reported blazes at at least three locations after the attack late Thursday. Civilian infrastructure, commercial facilities are on fire, cars damaged, Kiper said.

Over 70 people and 20 fire engines were involved in extinguishing what the emergency services called massive fires.

Russia accuses Ukraine of blowing up natural gas facility in the Kursk region

Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up a gas metering station near the town of Sudzha in Russias Kursk region, in what it described as a deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime, which is part of a series of recent strikes on Russias energy infrastructure in order to discredit the U.S. presidents peaceful initiatives.

Ukraines military General Staff rejected Moscows accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the Sudzha gas metering station as part of Russias discrediting campaign.

The gas metering station serves a major pipeline that had pumped Russia's natural gas to Europe until supplies were halted last year.

Views differ on what is covered by the truce

Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the countries leaders this week, though it remained to be seen what possible targets would be off limits to attack.

The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said energy and infrastructure would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.

Zelenskyy told reporters after Wednesday's call with Trump that technical talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend would seek to resolve what types of infrastructure would be protected from attack under the agreement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized Friday that the agreement reached between Trump and Putin referred only to energy facilities, adding that the Russian military is fulfilling Putins order to halt such attacks for 30 days.

The Russian military is currently refraining from strikes on Ukraines energy infrastructure in accordance with the agreement reached between Russia and the United States, Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Other attacks reported by both sides

In another attack, Russian glide bombs injured at least six people, including a child, in the Zaporizhzhia region overnight Thursday to Friday. Regional head Ivan Fedorov published photos showing firefighters extinguishing flames at multiple damaged residential buildings.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia fired 214 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks. It said 114 of them were intercepted and another 81 were jammed.

Russias Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 43 Ukrainian drones, 34 of them over the Volgograd region and others over Rostov, Kursk and Belgorod regions. The authorities didnt report any casualties or significant damage.

Meanwhile, a massive blaze at an oil depot in the Krasnodar region has continued to rage since it was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack late Wednesday.

A large fire near London's Heathrow Airport knocked out power Friday to Europes busiest flight hub, forcing it to shut down all day and disrupting global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said, and the impact was likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule their travel and airlines work to get planes and crew to the right places.

Authorities do not know what caused the fire but so far they have no evidence it was suspicious.

Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the electrical substation near the airport.

Some 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned around and others diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris or Irelands Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.

Lawrence Hayes was three-quarters of the way to London from New York when Virgin Atlantic announced they were being diverted to Glasgow.

It was a red-eye flight and Id already had a full day, so I dont even know how long Ive been up for, Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. "Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and shes kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but its going to be an incredibly long day.

Heathrow is one of the worlds busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% from the same period last year.

Still, the disruption Friday fell short of the one caused by the 2010 eruption of Icelands Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and created trans-Atlantic air travel chaos for months.

Fire under control but impact to last days

It was too early to determine what sparked the huge blaze about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the airport, but theres no suggestion of foul play, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

Still, the Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives are leading the investigation into the cause because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure. The force said counterterrorism command has specialist resources and capabilities that can help find the cause quickly.

They are working with the London Fire Brigade.

Miliband said the fire, which took seven hours to control, also knocked out a backup power supply to the airport. Heathrow said in a statement that it had no choice but to close the airport for the day.

We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens," the airport said.

Heathrow was at the heart of a shorter disruption in 2023 when Britains air traffic control system was hit by a breakdown that slowed takeoffs and landings across the U.K. on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Anita Mendiratta, an aviation consultant, said the impact of the closure will be felt over two to four days as airlines, cargo carriers, and crews are moved into position and passengers rebooked.

As soon as the airport opens up at midnight tonight, its not only about resuming with tomorrows flights, its the backlog and the implications that have taken place, Mendiratta said. Crew and aircraft, many are not where theyre supposed to be right now. So the recalculation of this is going to be intense.

Diverted, canceled and in limbo

At Heathrow, a family of five traveling to Dallas showed up in the hopes their flight home still listed as delayed would take off.

But when Andrea Sri brought her brother, sister-in-law and their three children to the airport, they were told by police that there would be no flight.

It was a waste of time. Very confusing, said Sri, who lives in London. We tried to get in touch with British Airways, but they dont open their telephone line until 8 a.m.

Travelers who were diverted to other cities found themselves trying to book travel onward to London. Qantas airlines sent flights from Singapore and Perth, Australia, to Paris, where it said it would bus people to London, a process likely to also include a train shuttle beneath the English Channel.

Budget airline Ryanair, which doesn't operate out of Heathrow, said it added eight rescue flights between Dublin and Stansted, another London airport, to transport stranded passengers Friday and Saturday.

National Rail canceled all trains to and from the airport.

Flights normally begin landing and taking off at Heathrow at 6 a.m. due to nighttime flying restrictions. But the skies were silent Friday morning.

Living near Heathrow is noisy, there are planes every 90 seconds or so, plus the constant hum of traffic, but you get used to it, to the point of no longer noticing, said James Henderson, who has lived next to the airport for more than 20 years. Today is different, you can hear the birds singing.

Blaze lit up the sky and darkened homes

Matthew Muirhead was working Thursday night near Heathrow when he stepped outside with a colleague and noticed smoke rising from an electrical substation and heard sirens crying out.

We saw a bright flash of white, and all the lights in town went out, he said.

The London Fire Brigade sent 10 engines and around 70 firefighters to control the blaze and about 150 people were evacuated from their homes near the power station.

This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible, Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X the power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.

The U.K. government earlier this year approved building a third runway at the airport to boost the economy and connectivity to the world.

A Florida man who killed an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed Thursday evening.

Prison officials said Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He drew the death penalty after pleading guilty to the Sept. 19, 1993, killings of Toni Neuner, 8, and her grandmother, Betty Dick, 58.

As he awaited the injection, James said he did not wish to give a final statement. Then, as the drugs were administered, James breathed heavily, his arms flinching and then he was still.

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Three other executions were carried out this week in the U.S., including the lethal injection earlier Thursday of an Oklahoma man for the fatal shooting of a woman during a home invasion. Arizona executed a man by an injection Wednesday and Louisiana used nitrogen gas for the first time Tuesday, putting a man to death as that state ended a 15-year pause on executions.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied James final appeals earlier in the day, clearing the way for the state's second execution of the year. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed James' death warrant earlier this year and another warrant for an execution in early April.

James had been renting a room in Dicks house in Casselberry, about 10 miles north of Orlando, where Toni Neuner and three other children were staying the night of the attack.

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Court records show James drank up to 24 beers at a party, downed some gin and also took LSD before returning to his room at Dicks house. The girl was raped and strangled to death. The other children were not harmed.

James, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was also convicted of the girls rape and of stealing Dicks jewelry and car after stabbing her 21 times. Court documents show James drove the car across the country, occasionally selling pieces of jewelry until he was arrested on Oct. 6 of that year in Bakersfield, California.

Police obtained a videotaped confession from James, who despite his guilty pleas was sentenced to death upon an 11-1 recommendation by a jury.

James lawyers had filed several appeals with state and federal courts, all of which were denied. Most recently, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an argument that his longtime use of drugs and alcohol, several head injuries and a heart attack in 2023 led to a mental decline that would make executing him cruel and unusual punishment.

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The justices instead agreed with a lower court decision that Jamess cognitive issues do not shield him from execution. The court also rejected an argument from James lawyers that a heart attack he suffered in prison led to oxygen deprivation that affected his brain and should have been considered as new evidence for halting plans to execute him.

The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.

Earlier this year, James Ford was executed for the 1997 killings of a couple in Charlotte County witnessed by their toddler daughter, who survived.

Florida officials said they are next preparing for the scheduled April 8 execution of Michael Tanzi for the 2000 slaying of a woman in the Florida Keys.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar who was detained by the Trump Administration and accused of spreading Hamas propaganda in the latest battle over speech on U.S. college campuses.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said in an order obtained by Scripps News that Indian national Badar Khan Suri shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.

Suris attorney wrote in an earlier court filing that Suri was targeted because of his wifes identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.

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The filing said that federal authorities have provided no evidence that hes committed any crimes and that his detention violates his free speech and due process rights. Suri, who has no criminal record, holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to the motion.

The Trump Administration has openly expressed its intention to weaponize immigration law to punish noncitizens whose views are deemed critical of U.S. policy as it relates to Israel, wrote Hassan Ahmad, Suris Virginia-based attorney.

Suri was accused of spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of States office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Suris case was first reported by Politico.

Suri was arrested Monday night outside of his Virginia home by masked officers who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents and told him his visa had been revoked, according to the filing by Suris lawyer.

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Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have long been doxxed and smeared, Suri's lawyer wrote. Critics have published Salehs photograph online along with information that includes her former employment with Al Jazeera and her birthplace in Gaza City as support for her alleged ties with Hamas.

His lawyer didnt immediately respond to messages seeking further comment Thursday.

Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown, told The Associated Press that Suri was intensely focused on teaching and research that centered on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia.

Suri felt strong solidarity and sympathy for Palestinians, but was not outwardly political on campus, the professor said.

Weve organized dozens of events since Oc. 7th, when the Israel-Gaza war began, and I dont recall seeing him in any of those events, said Hashemi, who directs the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, where Suri is a post-doctoral fellow. Thats not who he was.

Before his arrest, Suri and his wife had been targets of right-wing campus groups, in part because Saleh's father is Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to Hamas, Hashemi said.

Yousef confirmed to The New York Times that Suri is his son-in-law, adding that Suri wasn't involved in any political activism, including on behalf of Hamas.

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Yousef, who has publicly criticized the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, told the newspaper that he left his position in the Hamas-run government in Gaza more than a decade ago and does not hold a senior position with the militant group.

Georgetown's Alwaleed Center said in a statement that Suri's arrest was part of a "campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy higher education in the United States and punish their political opponents.

Suri was later taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings through their habeas motion filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.

Suris detention more than 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometers) away from his family and attorney is plainly intended as retaliation and punishment for Mr. Suris protected speech, his attorney added.

Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa.

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, whose district includes the county where Suri was detained, said in a Thursday statement that the scholars detention was illegal, urging the court to consider Suris case.

The justification given for these violations of Mr. Suris right to due process is another violation of the Constitution: a blatant attack on the First Amendment, Beyer said in a statement. Mr. Suri and his family are unfortunately the latest victim of President Trumps assault on the freedom of speech.

Suris lawyers say he hopes to become a university professor. A Georgetown webpage said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.

The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri was duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention, the school said. We support our community members rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.

The alert system on a Delta Air Lines jet that flipped upside down and burst into flames as it tried to land in Toronto last month indicated a high rate of descent less than three seconds before touchdown, according to a preliminary report released on Thursday.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which issued the report, continues to investigate the Feb. 17 crash-landing in which 21 people were hospitalized.

All 76 passengers and four crew members survived when the Delta plane arriving from Minneapolis burst into flames after flipping over and skidding on the tarmac.

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The TSB of Canada report says that when the planes ground proximity warning system sounded 2.6 seconds before touchdown, the airspeed was 136 knots, or approximately 250 kph (155 mph). It says the planes landing gear folded into the retracted position during touchdown and the wing detached from the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel, which caught fire.

The safety board says its ongoing investigation is focusing on several key areas, including metallurgical examination of the wing structure, landing techniques, pilot training and the passenger evacuation process.

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All of those who were hospitalized were released within days of the crash.

At least two lawsuits have been filed in the United States, and a law firm in Canada has said that its been retained by several passengers.

Delta declined to comment on the preliminary report.

We remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment, the airline said.

Ben & Jerry's says its CEO was unlawfully removed by its parent company, Unilever, in retaliation for the ice cream maker's social and political activism.

In a federal court filing late Tuesday, Ben & Jerry's said Unilever informed its board on March 3 that it was removing and replacing Ben & Jerry's CEO David Stever. Ben & Jerry's said that violated its merger agreement with Unilever, which states that any decisions regarding a CEO's removal must come after a consultation with an advisory committee from Ben & Jerry's board.

In a statement Wednesday, London-based Unilever said it hoped Ben & Jerry's board would engage in the agreed-upon process.

"Regrettably, despite repeated attempts to engage the board and follow the correct process, we are disappointed that the confidentiality of an employee career conversation has been made public," Unilever said.

Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry's in 2000 for $326 million. At the time, Ben & Jerry's said the partnership would help the progressive Vermont-based ice cream company expand its social mission.

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But lately, the marriage hasn't been a happy one. In 2021, Ben & Jerry's announced it would stop serving Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem. The following year, Unilever sold its Israeli business to a local company that said it would sell Ben & Jerry's under its Hebrew and Arabic name throughout Israel and the West Bank.

Last May, Unilever said it was planning to spin off its ice cream business including Ben & Jerry's by the end of 2025 as part of a larger restructuring. Unilever also owns personal hygiene brands like Dove soap and food brands like Hellmann's mayonnaise.

But the acrimony continued. In November, Ben & Jerry's sued Unilever in federal court in New York, accusing it of silencing Ben & Jerry's statements in support of Palestinians in the Gaza war.

In its complaint, Ben & Jerry's said Unilever also refused to let the company release a social media post that identified issues it believed would be challenged during President Donald Trump's second term, including minimum wages, universal health care, abortion and climate change.

Tuesday's filing was an amendment to that lawsuit.

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Israeli strikes killed at least 58 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to three hospitals. The strikes hit multiple homes in the middle of the night, killing men, women and children as they slept.

Hours later, the Israeli military restored a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City, that it had maintained for most of the war. It warned residents against using the main highway to enter or leave the north and said only passage to the south would be allowed on the coastal road.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to what remains of their homes in the north after a ceasefire took hold in January. Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the militant group rejected a new proposal that departed from their signed agreement.

The Trump administration, which took credit for helping to broker the ceasefire, has voiced full support for Israel. More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

There have been no reports of Hamas firing rockets or carrying out other attacks.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels early Thursday before it reached Israeli airspace, as air raid sirens and exploding interceptors were heard in Jerusalem. No injuries were reported. It was the second such attack since the United States began a new campaign of airstrikes against the rebels earlier this week.

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One of the strikes on Gaza early Thursday hit the Abu Daqa familys home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village just outside of Khan Younis near the border with Israel. It was inside an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.

The strike killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European Hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.

Another tough night, said Hani Awad, who was helping rescuers search for more survivors in the rubble. The house collapsed over the peoples heads.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the latest strikes. The military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it is deeply embedded in residential areas.

Israeli ground troops advance

On Wednesday, Israeli ground troops advanced in Gaza for the first time since the ceasefire took hold in January, seizing part of a corridor separating the northern third of the territory from the south. The announcement about passage to the south indicated troops will soon retake full control over what is known as the Netzarim corridor, stretching from the border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel, which has also cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians, has vowed to intensify its operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds 35 of whom are believed dead and gives up control of the territory. The Trump administration, which took credit for brokering the ceasefire, says it fully supports Israel.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the ceasefire agreement they reached in January after more than a year of mediation by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

Hamas, which does not accept Israel's existence, says it is willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

A bloody night for hard-hit northern town

The European Hospital in the southern city of Rafah said it received 36 bodies after the overnight strikes, mostly women and children. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received seven and transferred four to European, which were included in its count. In northern Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital said it had received 19 bodies after strikes in the town of Beit Lahiya near the border.

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It was a bloody night for the people of Beit Lahiya, said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministrys emergency service in northern Gaza, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble from homes that were hit. The situation is catastrophic.

Beit Lahiya was heavily destroyed and largely depopulated during the first phase of the war before Januarys ceasefire. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a gathering of mourners killed 17 people there, according to health officials.

No end in sight to the 17-month war

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.

Israel's retaliatory offensive, among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, has killed nearly 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war at its height displaced around 90% of Gaza's population and has caused vast destruction across the territory. Hundreds of thousands of people returned to their homes during the ceasefire, but many found only fields of rubble and the bombed-out shells of buildings.

Heavily redacted court filings released Tuesday shed no fresh light on the circumstances under which Prince Harry entered the United States, the latest development in a legal fight by a conservative group that is pushing to find out whether Harry lied about past drug use on his immigration forms.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials responded to a request from U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols by saying the records were being withheld in full" and that all records are deemed categorically exempt from disclosure.

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The case has centered on the circumstances under which Harry the Duke of Sussex and the son of King Charles III entered the U.S. when he and his wife Meghan Markle moved to Southern California in 2020. The Heritage Foundation sued after DHS largely rejected its Freedom of Information Act request to release Harrys records. Harry is not a party in the lawsuit.

Heritage has argued there is intense public interest in knowing whether Harry received special treatment during the application process, particularly after his 2023 memoir Spare revealed past drug use. Harry has not consented to having his records made public, said Shari Suzuki, an official handling Freedom of Information Act requests for DHS and Customs and Border Protection.

To release (Prince Harry's) exact status could subject him to reasonably foreseeable harm in the form of harassment as well as unwanted contact by the media and others," another official, DHS chief FOIA officer Jarrod Panter, wrote.

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Panter wrote that the Heritage Foundation bears the burden of establishing that the public interest in disclosure outweighs an individuals personal privacy interests in their information and that a significant public benefit would result from the disclosure of the individuals records.

Panter's statement to the court includes multiple pages that are entirely blacked out.

Harry wrote in Spare that he took cocaine several times starting around age 17. He also acknowledged using cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms.

It wasnt very fun, and it didnt make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different, he wrote.

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The U.S. routinely asks about drug use on its visa applications, a query that has been linked to travel headaches for celebrities, including chef Nigella Lawson, singer Amy Winehouse and model Kate Moss. Acknowledgment of past drug use doesnt necessarily bar people from entering or staying in the country, but answering untruthfully can have serious consequences.

In a February hearing on the issue, Judge Nichols said he was seeking to strike a balance between revealing too much information in the DHS statements and redacting them to the point of meaninglessness.

Theres a point where redactions would leave just a name or a date, he said.

A Columbia University student arrested and threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel gave his first public statement Tuesday, saying that his detention is indicative of anti-Palestinian racism demonstrated by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

In a letter dictated from a Louisiana immigration lockup and released by his attorney, the student, Mahmoud Khalil, said he is being targeted as part of a larger effort to repress Palestinian voices.

My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention," he said.

For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.

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Khalil and the federal government have been sparring in court over the Trump administrations move to ship him halfway across the country to the lockup in Louisiana.

The government says he could not be detained at an immigration facility near where he was originally arrested in part because of a bedbug infestation, so they sent him to Louisiana. Khalil says there was no such discussion of bedbugs and he feared he was being immediately deported.

Khalil said in a declaration filed in Manhattan federal court Monday that while he was held overnight at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, "I did not hear anyone mention bedbugs.

In court papers over the weekend, lawyers for the Justice Department also blamed his move on overcrowded facilities in the Northeast.

Khalil made the statement about bedbugs in an exhibit attached to court papers in which his lawyers asked that he be freed on bail while the courts decide whether his arrest violated the First Amendment.

The lawyers have also asked a judge to widen the effect of any order to stop the U.S. government from arresting, detaining, and removing noncitizens who engage in constitutionally protected expressive activity in the United States in support of Palestinian rights or critical of Israel.

Khalil said in court records that he was put in a van when he was taken away from the Elizabeth facility and he asked if he was being returned to FBI headquarters in Manhattan, where he was taken immediately after his arrest.

I was told, no, we are going to JFK Airport. I was afraid they were trying to deport me, he recalled.

RELATED STORY | What to know about the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil

Of his time spent at the Elizabeth facility, he wrote: I was in a waiting room with about ten other people. We slept on the ground. Even though it was cold inside the room, there were no beds, mattresses, or blankets.

Khalil, in the letter released by his attorney on Tuesday, said I see in my circumstances similarities to Israels use of administrative detention imprisonment without trial or charge to strip Palestinians of their rights."

For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace," he said.

In the weekend court papers, lawyers for the Justice Department gave a detailed description of Khalil's March 8 arrest and his transport from Manhattan to Elizabeth and then to Kennedy International Airport in New York the next day for his transfer to Louisiana, where he has been held since.

Khalil could not be housed at Elizabeth Detention Facility long-term due to a bedbug issue, so he remained there until his flight to Louisiana, the lawyers wrote. They said he was at the facility from 2:20 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on March 9.

The lawyers have asked that legal issues be addressed by federal judges in New Jersey or Louisiana rather than New York. A Manhattan federal judge has not yet ruled on the request.

Khalil's lawyers, who oppose transferring the case, wrote in a submission Monday that the transfer to Louisiana was predetermined and carried out for improper motives rather than because of a bedbug infestation.

Despite the bedbug claim, the Elizabeth Detention accepted at least four individuals for detention from March 6 through last Thursday and Khalil himself saw men being processed for detention while he was there, they wrote.

Khalil, in the letter released by his attorney on Tuesday, also referenced a wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza ending the ceasefire on Monday night and called it a moral imperative to continue push for freedom for Palestinians.

With Januarys ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs, he said. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of President Donald Trumps executive order banning transgender people from military service on Tuesday, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump's order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights. She was the second judge of the day to rule against the administration, and both rulings came within hours of an extraordinary conflict as Trump called for impeaching a third judge who temporarily blocked deportation flights, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, delayed her order until Friday morning to give the administration time to appeal.

"The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes, Reyes wrote. We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.

Army Reserves 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, one of 14 transgender active-duty servicemembers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he was holding his breath as he waited to find out if he would be separated from the military next week.

This is such a sigh of relief, he said. This is all Ive ever wanted to do. This is my dream job, and I finally have it. And I was so terrified that I was about to lose it.

The White House didnt immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Trumps deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted about the ruling on social media, writing, District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forcesis there no end to this madness?

The judge issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys who also represent others seeking to join the military.

On Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members "conflicts with a soldiers commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in ones personal life and is harmful to military readiness.

In response to the order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity dont match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Plaintiffs attorneys contend Trumps order violates transgender peoples rights to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.

Government lawyers argue that military officials have broad discretion to decide how to assign and deploy servicemembers without judicial interference.

Reyes said she did not take lightly her decision to issue an injunction blocking Trumps order, noting that Judicial overreach is no less pernicious than executive overreach. But, she said, it was also the responsibility of each branch of government to provide checks and balances for the others, and the court therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day.

Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.

In 2016, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trumps first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members. The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office.

Hegseths Feb. 26 policy says service members or applicants for military service who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.

The plaintiffs who sued to block Trumps order include an Army Reserves platoon leader from Pennsylvania, an Army major who was awarded a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and a Sailor of the Year award winner serving in the Navy.

The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificedsome risking their livesto ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them," Reyes wrote.

Their attorneys, from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law, said transgender troops seek nothing more than the opportunity to continue dedicating their lives to defending the Nation.

Yet these accomplished servicemembers are now subject to an order that says they must be separated from the military based on a characteristic that has no bearing on their proven ability to do the job, plaintiffs attorneys wrote. This is a stark and reckless reversal of policy that denigrates honorable transgender servicemembers, disrupts unit cohesion, and weakens our military.

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Government attorneys said the Defense Department has a history of disqualifying people from military service if they have physical or emotional impairments, including mental health conditions.

In any context other than the one at issue in this case, DoDs professional military judgment about the risks of allowing individuals with physical or emotional impairments to serve in the military would be virtually unquestionable, they wrote.

Plaintiffs attorneys say Trumps order fits his administrations pattern of discriminating against transgender people.

Federal judges in Seattle and Baltimore separately paused Trumps executive order halting federal support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19. Last month, a judge blocked prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to mens facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy under another Trump order.

Trump also signed orders that set up new rules about how schools can teach about gender and that intend to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls and womens sports.

From its first days, this administration has moved to strip protections from transgender people across multiple domains including housing, social services, schools, sports, healthcare, employment, international travel, and family life, plaintiffs lawyers wrote.

Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, enlisted in March 2024 as an openly trans person after fighting for roughly nine years to join the service. He said his fellow soldiers gave him some good-natured flak for being so much older than other recruits, but never treated him differently for being trans. Talbott anticipates that his colleagues will be pretty excited that I get to stay.

Now I can go back to focusing on whats really important, which is the mission, said Talbott, a platoon leader for a military policing unit.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the Constitution and blocked billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from further cuts to the agency.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those who were placed on administrative leave.

The lawsuit singled out Musk as a defendant covered by the preliminary injunction, arguing that he was wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate.

The order comes in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for USAID employees and contractors.

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Chuang said the evidence suggests that Musk made decisions to shut down USAID's headquarters and website despite the administration's claim that he was merely President Donald Trump's advisor. Musk's public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has "firm control over DOGE," the judge concluded.

The judge acknowledged that it's unlikely that USAID is no longer capable of performing some of its statutorily required functions.

"Taken together, these facts support the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated," Chuang wrote.

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In February, the Trump administration placed all but a fraction of USAID's worldwide staff on leave and notified at least 1,600 of its U.S.-based staffers they were being fired. The effort to gut the six-decade-old aid agency was part of a broader push to eradicate the foreign aid agency and most of its humanitarian and development programs abroad.

Trump on Inauguration Day issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.

The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.