By AMANDA SEITZ and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, is set to find out on Tuesday if he has cleared the first hurdle to become the nation’s top health official when the Senate Finance Committee votes on his nomination.

Democrats are still raising concerns about Kennedy’s potential to profit from anti-vaccine advocacy and lawsuits, but Republicans appear to be rallying behind President Donald Trump’s health secretary nominee. On Monday, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican once viewed as a possible “no” vote, announced he would back Kennedy.

Kennedy needs support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.

What will doctor and Republican Bill Cassidy do?

One key vote remains in question: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who sits on the finance committee that will vote on Kennedy’s confirmation. Last week, during Kennedy’s hearings, Cassidy repeatedly implored Kennedy to reject a disproven theory that vaccines cause autism, to no avail. He ended the hearing by saying he was “struggling” with the vote.

“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy.

On Monday evening, Cassidy told reporters that he had “very cordial” conversations with Kennedy over the weekend but was “still working through” how to handle his vote.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are all seen as potential no votes, too, because they voted against Trump’s defense secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.

In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, McConnell declined to say how he would vote on Kennedy’s nomination but reiterated “vaccines are critically important.”

Democrats still have questions for Kennedy

Democrats, meanwhile, continue to raise alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers if confirmed as health secretary.

“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Kennedy.

Kennedy said he’ll give his son all of the referral fees in legal cases against vaccine makers, including the fees he gets from referring clients in a case against Merck. Kennedy told the committee he’s referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the past three years.

As secretary, Kennedy will oversee vaccine recommendations and public health campaigns for the $1.7 trillion agency, which is also responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.

Who are the wild card votes?

Kennedy’s allies are still holding out hope that they could entice a Democrat or two to their side. A pressure campaign has been focused on Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who has expressed support for Kennedy’s push to make American foods more healthy. Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has also been a focus, although he told Fox News Channel this weekend that the nomination was “challenging.”

A Democratic-led opposition campaign, built around Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advocacy and influence in Samoa during a measles outbreak that left dozens of children and infants dead in 2019, has also narrowed in on Republican Sen. John Curtis, who represents Utah, home to one of the nation’s largest Samoan populations.

Tuesday’s vote is just the start

The Senate finance committee, made up of 25 senators, will vote on whether to recommend Kennedy for a vote on the Senate floor, where all 100 senators will have the chance to vote on the nomination.

The committee vote will be a strong indicator of where things are headed for Kennedy, but it’s not necessarily the final word. Even if the committee votes against his confirmation — seemingly unlikely — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could still push for a floor vote.

If Kennedy gets the committee’s recommendation, he could still have work to do to win over Collins, Murkowski and McConnell. Cassidy also could potentially vote against Kennedy’s final confirmation even if he votes in favor of him Tuesday.

What is ‘MAHA’?

Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support to Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration. Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods. Trump and Kennedy have branded the movement as “Make America Healthy Again.”

By KEN MORITSUGU and HUIZHONG WU, Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — China countered President Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select U.S. imports Tuesday, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.

U.S. tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause as the two countries acted to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days.

The Chinese response was “measured,” said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. “I don’t think they want the trade war escalating,” he said. “And they see this example from Canada and Mexico and probably they are hoping for the same thing.”

This isn’t the first round of tit-for-tat actions between the two countries. China and the U.S. had engaged in a trade war in 2018 when Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods and China responded in kind.

This time, analysts said, China is much better prepared to counter, with the government announcing a slew of measures that cut across different sectors of the economy, from energy to individual U.S. companies.

Counter tariffs

China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday.

“The U.S.’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.”

The impact on U.S. exports may be limited. Though the U.S. is the biggest exporter of liquid natural gas globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the U.S. exported 173,247 million cubic feet of LNG to China, representing about 2.3% of total natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

China imported only about 700,000 cars overall last year, and the leading importers are from Europe and Japan, said Bill Russo, the founder of the Automobility Limited consultancy in Shanghai.

Further export controls on critical minerals

China announced export controls on several elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products.

They include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the U.S. Geological Survey, meaning they are essential to U.S. economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption.

The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium.

“They have a much more developed export control regime,” Philip Luck, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former State Department official, said at a panel discussion on Monday.

“We depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others,” he said. “So … they could put some significant harm on our economy.”

The response from China appears calculated and measured, said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of the Franklin Templeton Institute, a financial research firm. However, he said, the world is bracing for further impact.

“A risk is that this is the beginning of a tit-for-tat trade war, which could result in lower GDP growth everywhere, higher U.S. inflation, a stronger dollar and upside pressure on U.S. interest rates,” Dover said.

US companies also impacted

In addition, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said Tuesday it is investigating Google on suspicion of violating antitrust laws. The announcement did not mention the tariffs but came just minutes after Trump’s 10% tariffs on China were to take effect.

It is unclear how the probe will affect Google’s operations. The company has long faced complaints from Chinese smartphone makers over its business practices surrounding the Android operating system, Gong said.

Otherwise, Google has a limited presence in China, and its search engine is blocked in the country like most other Western platforms. Google exited the Chinese market in 2010 after refusing to comply with censorship requests from the Chinese government and following a series of cyberattacks on the company.

Google did not immediately comment.

The Commerce Ministry also placed two American companies on an unreliable entities list: PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Illumina, which is a biotechnology company with offices in China. The listing could bar them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments in the country.

Beijing began investigating PVH Group in September last year over “improper Xinjiang-related behavior” after the company allegedly boycotted the use of Xinjiang cotton.

Putting these U.S. companies on the unreliable entities list is “alarming” because it shows that the Chinese government is using the list to pressure U.S. companies to take a side, said George Chen, managing director for The Asia Group, a Washington D.C.-headquartered business policy consultancy.

“It’s almost like telling American companies, what your government is doing is bad, you need to tell the government that if you add more tariffs or hurt U.S.-China relations at the end of the day it’ll backfire on American companies,” Chen said.

Wu reported from Bangkok. AP writers Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Christopher Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2025. There are 330 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 4, 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, ordering Simpson to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families.

Also on this date:

In 1789, electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

In 1801, John Marshall took office as chief justice of the United States, a position he would hold for a record 34 years.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, 19, was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1976, more than 23,000 people died when a severe earthquake struck Guatemala with a magnitude of 7.5.

In 2004, Facebook had its beginnings as Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched “Thefacebook.”

In 2013, British scientists announced that the skeletal remains they had discovered during an excavation beneath a Leicester, England parking lot were, beyond reasonable doubt, the remains of 15th century monarch King Richard III.

In 2021, a voting technology company, Smartmatic USA, sued Fox News, three of its hosts and two former Trump lawyers — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, for allegedly conspiring to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the presidential election. (The case remains ongoing.)

Today’s birthdays:

• Former Argentinian President Isabel Peron is 94.
• Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 78.
• Rock singer Alice Cooper is 77.
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is 72.
• Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is 66.
• Country singer Clint Black is 63.
• Boxing Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya is 52.
• Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 50.
• Rapper Cam’ron is 49.
• Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw is 48.
• Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Carly Patterson is 37.

The post The Grammys had a few surprises up their sleeves. Here are some key moments from the show appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Desmond Claude scored 19, Wesley Yates III had 15 and Southern California upset No. 7 Michigan State 70-64 on Saturday afternoon, snapping the Spartans 13-game winning streak.

Chibuzo Agbo added 14 points for the Trojans (13-8, 5-5 Big Ten), who led the entire game. It was their first win against a top 10 team since beating then fifth-ranked Arizona last March.

Michigan State trailed 65-61 and was looking to make it a one possession game, but was called for a shot clock violation with 39.3 seconds remaining.

Off the inbound, USC’s Saint Thomas threw a cross court pass to Yates, who dunked it to put the Trojans up six.

Jeremy Fears Jr. had 12 points and Jaden Akins 11 for the Spartans (18-3, 9-1). The 13-game run was tied for Michigan State’s longest win streak since 2018-19.

Takeaways

Michigan State: The Spartans came into the game leading the nation in fast-break points (18.5 per game), but were held to nine.

USC: The Trojans got the win despite being the visitors at times in their own building. Michigan State had a large contingent at the Galen Center. USC first-year coach Eric Musselman has remarked a couple times during conference home games about the crowd disparity.

Key moment

Michigan State got within 55-52 with 8:37 remaining on a 3-pointer by Akins, but USC countered with a 10-4 run to get back some breathing room.

Key stat

USC led 35-32 at halftime. It was the first time Michigan State had trailed after 20 minutes since being down by three points against Memphis at the Maui Invitational on Nov. 26, which was the Spartans’ last loss before Saturday. The Trojans are 10-2 when leading at the half.

Up next

Both teams have road games Tuesday. Michigan State is at UCLA while USC travels to Northwestern.

— By JOE REEDY, Associated Press

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Danny Wolf scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and Vladislav Goldin scored 14 points and Michigan won its second straight beating Rutgers 66-63 on Saturday.

Reserve Jamichael Davis scored 20 points for Rutgers, fellow back-up Tyson Acuff scored 14 and Ace Bailey was the only Scarlet Knight starter to reach double-digit scoring with 10 points.

Goldin’s layup with 4:42 before halftime gave Michigan a 22-21 lead and the Wolverines (16-5, 8-2 Big Ten) led the rest of the way. Sam Walters and Will Tschetter each followed with 3-pointers and Roddy Gayle Jr. made a pair of foul shots to extend the lead to 30-21. Michigan led 32-25 at halftime.

Acuff made a jump shot with 15:06 left to play to get Rutgers within 40-35. Five minutes later, PJ Hayes IV made a 3 to get the Scarlet Knights (11-11, 4-7) within 44-41. Zach Martini brought Rutgers within its closest deficit margin — 46-44 — of the second half with a 3-pointer with 7:53 left.

Michigan stretched the lead to 57-50 with a pair of Goldin foul shots. Davis made a 3 to get Rutgers within four before Goldin added a layup and the Wolverines held on from there.

Davis made a 3 as time expired for the game’s final margin.

Michigan hosts 16th-ranked Oregon on Wednesday. Rutgers hosts No. 18 Illinois on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an order to impose stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China fulfilling one of his post-campaign commitments to voters that also carries the risk of sparking higher inflation and disrupting businesses across North America.

Trump declared an economic emergency in order to place duties of 10% on all imports from China and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada Americas largest trading partners except for a 10% rate on Canadian energy, including oil, natural gas and electricity. The tariffs would go into effect on Tuesday, setting a showdown in North America that could potentially sabotage economic growth.

A senior administration official, insisting on anonymity to brief reporters, said the lower rate on energy reflected a desire to minimize any disruptive increases on the price of gasoline or utilities. That's a sign the White House understood as outside economists have warned that the import taxes if sustained could dramatically increase inflation, a possible problem for Trump as he promised to tame inflation after public unhappiness with price spikes under former President Joe Biden.

The order signed by Trump contained no mechanism for granting exceptions, the official said, a possible blow to homebuilders who rely on Canadian lumber as well as farmers, automakers and other industries.

The White House said Trumps order also includes a mechanism to escalate the rates if the countries retaliate against the U.S., as they have threatened. Both Canada and Mexico have plans, if needed, to impose their own tariffs in response.

The Trump administration put the tariffs in place to force the three countries to stop the spread and manufacturing of fentanyl, in addition to pressuring Canada and Mexico to limit any illegal immigration into the United States.

The official did not provide specific benchmarks that could be met to lift the new tariffs, saying only that the best measure would be fewer Americans dying from fentanyl addition.

The order would also allow for tariffs on Canadian imports of less than $800. Imports below that sum are currently able to cross into the United States without customs and duties.

The Republican president is making a major political bet that his actions will not worsen inflation, cause financial aftershocks that could destabilize the worldwide economy or provoke a voter backlash. AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate in last year's election, found that the U.S. was split on support for tariffs.

With the tariffs, Trump is honoring promises that are at the core of his economic and national security philosophy. But the announcement showed his seriousness around the issue as some Trump allies had played down the threat of higher import taxes as mere negotiating tactics.

The president is preparing more import taxes in a sign that tariffs will be an ongoing part of his second term. On Friday, he mentioned imported computer chips, steel, oil and natural gas, as well as against copper, pharmaceutical drugs and imports from the European Union moves that could essentially pit the U.S. against much of the global economy.

It is unclear how the tariffs could affect the business investments that Trump said would happen because of his plans to cut corporate tax rates and remove regulations. Tariffs tend to raise prices for consumers and businesses by making it more expensive to bring in foreign goods.

Many voters turned to Trump in the November election on the belief that he could better handle the inflation that spiked under Democratic President Joe Biden. But inflation expectations are creeping upward in the University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment as respondents expect prices to rise by 3.3%. That would be higher than the actual 2.9% annual inflation rate in December's consumer price index.

Trump has said that the government should raise more of its revenues from tariffs, as it did before the income tax became part of the Constitution in 1913. He claims, despite economic evidence to the contrary, that the U.S. was at its wealthiest in the 1890s under President William McKinley.

We were the richest country in the world, Trump said Friday. We were a tariff country.

Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted on the social media site X that the tariffs if sustained, would be a massive shock a much bigger move in one weekend than all the trade action that Trump took in his first term.

Setser noted that the tariffs on China without exemptions could raise the price of iPhones, which would test just how much power corporate America has with Trump. Apples CEO Tim Cook attended Trumps inauguration last month.

Recent research on Trumps various tariff options by a team of economists suggested the trade penalties would be drags on growth in Canada, Mexico, China and the U.S. But Wending Zhang, a Cornell University economist who worked on the research, said the fallout would be felt more in Canada and Mexico because of their reliance on the U.S. market.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians that they could be facing difficult times ahead, but that Ottawa was prepared to respond with retaliatory tariffs if needed and that the U.S. penalties would be self-sabotaging.

Trudeau said Canada is addressing Trumps calls on border security by implementing a CDN$1.3 billion (US$900 million) border plan that includes helicopters, new canine teams and imaging tools.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has stressed that her country has acted to reduce illegal border crossings and the illicit trade in fentanyl. While she has emphasized the ongoing dialogue since Trump first floated the tariffs in November, she has said that Mexico is ready to respond, too.

Mexico has a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides, she said.

Trump still has to get a budget, tax cuts and an increase to the governments legal borrowing authority through Congress. The outcome of his tariff plans could strengthen his hand or weaken it.

Democrats are sponsoring legislation that would strip the president of his ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. But that is unlikely to make headway in a Republican-controlled House and Senate.

If this weekends tariffs go into effect, theyll do catastrophic damage to our relationships with our allies and raise costs for working families by hundreds of dollars a year, said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Congress needs to stop this from happening again.

Today is Saturday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2025. There are 333 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 1, 1960, four Black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they had been refused service.

Also on this date:

In 1865, abolitionist John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1943, during World War II, one of America’s most highly decorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese Americans, was activated.

In 1959, men in Switzerland rejected giving women the right to vote by a more than 2-to-1 margin in a referendum. (Swiss women finally gained the right to vote in 1971.)

In 1979, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY’-nee) was welcomed home by millions in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.

In 1991, an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport, resulting in 35 deaths.

In 1994, Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to racketeering for his part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in exchange for a 24-month sentence and a $100,000 fine.

In 2002, Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was killed by Islamist militants in Pakistan after being kidnapped nine days earlier.

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

In 2016, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which was linked to birth defects in the Americas.

Today’s birthdays:

• Actor Garrett Morris is 88.
• Political commentator Fred Barnes is 82.
• Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 60.
• Actor Sherilyn Fenn is 60.
• U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Michelle Akers is 59.
• Comedian-actor Pauly Shore is 57.
• Actor Michael C. Hall is 54.
• Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 50.
• Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell is 46.
• TV personality Lauren Conrad is 39.
• Mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey is 38.
• Actor Julia Garner is 31.
• Singer-actor Harry Styles is 31.

DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham scored 40 points a day after being selected as an All-Star reserve, helping the Detroit Pistons beat the Dallas Mavericks 117-102 on Thursday night.

Cunningham matched a season high for points on 17-of-30 shooting. He added six rebounds and four assists while falling three points of his career-best 43 points.

Detroit snapped a three-game losing streak. Tobias Harris added 17 points and Jalen Duren had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Kyrie Irving led Dallas with 28 points. P.J. Washington had 22 points and 13 rebounds.

After the Mavericks cut it to 93-91 with 10:13 left, the Pistons responded with a 10-2 run with Cunningham on the bench.

Takeaways

Mavericks: Luka Doncic is still sidelined by the calf injury that has kept him out since Christmas Day. Doncic has averaged 36.1 points in eight career games against the Pistons – his highest average against any team – along with 8.5 rebounds and 9.8 assists.

Pistons: Isaiah Stewart served a one-game suspension for accumulating six flagrant-foul points. … Pistons owner Tom Gores is leading a group bidding for a WNBA expansion team. The Detroit Shock played in the WNBA from 1998-2009, winning three championships before moving to Tulsa.

Key moment

Cunningham scored eight of his 16 third-quarter points in the final 2:42 of the period, allowing the Pistons to keep an eight-point lead. He outscored his teammates 16-15 in the quarter, shooting 63.6% (7 of 11) from the floor while they were 6 of 13.

Key stats

Both teams crashed the offensive boards in the first half — Dallas got back 41.7% (10-24) of their own misses, while the Pistons were at 37.5% (9-24) — but Detroit finished with a 16-6 edge in second-chance points.

Up next

Both teams are back in action Sunday. Dallas is at Cleveland, and Detroit hosts Chicago.

— DAVE HOGG, The Associated Press

A pro-Palestinian group at the University of Michigan has been suspended for two years and will lose its funding in connection with protesters' demands for divestiture from companies doing business with Israel.

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, also known as SAFE, was accused of violating the university's standards of conduct for recognized student organizations following a protest last spring outside a regents home and a demonstration without school permission on its Ann Arbor campus.

Tensions over the Israel-Hamas war led to emotional demonstrations on U.S. campuses, including a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments that led to about 3,200 arrests.

The war was sparked by an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for aggressive action to fight antisemitism on college campuses and promising to prosecute offenders and revoke visas for international students found to be Hamas sympathizers.

The University of Michigan's sanctions against SAFE were handed down nearly two weeks earlier, on Jan. 16. The group also is prohibited from reserving university spaces. It has until next Thursday to appeal.

The suspension could be lifted earlier than two years if the group satisfies all the sanctions against it and meets with school officials to discuss the university's decision and the awareness of policies for student organizations. However, that could occur no sooner than winter 2026.

Protests are welcome at U-M, so long as those protests do not infringe on the rights of others, significantly disrupt university events or operations, violate policies or threaten the safety of the community," the school said in a statement. "The university has been clear that we will enforce our policies related to protests and expressive activity, and that we will hold individuals and student organizations accountable for their actions in order to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all.

The Associated Press left several email messages seeking comment with SAFE and with its national umbrella organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, on Friday.

Last May, protesters wearing masks pitched tents and placed fake bloody corpses outside the Okemos home of University of Michigan board member Sarah Hubbard.

Okemos is a community 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of the Ann Arbor campus. Hubbard said at the time that about 30 people were involved in the 6 a.m. demonstration.

They approached my home and taped a letter to my front door and proceeded to erect the tents. A variety of other things were left in the front yard, Hubbard told The Associated Press. They started chanting with their bullhorn and pounding on a drum in my otherwise quiet neighborhood.

The protesters left 30 to 45 minutes later when Meridian Township police arrived, Hubbard said. No arrests were made.

A few days later police wearing helmets and face shields broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Ann Arbor campus. Charges later were filed against nine people who were accused of trespassing or resisting police during the break-up of the camp.

Protesters wanted the schools endowment to stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. The university has insisted that it has no direct investments.

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and JOSHUA GOODMAN

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Friday with a Trump administration official tasked with urging the authoritarian leader to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, announced the release of the six men on social media. The visit by Grenell came as a shock to many Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against Maduro during his first term.

Grenell’s hours long trip to Venezuela, according to the White House, was focused on Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelans back to their home country, which currently does not accept them, and on the release of the detained Americans.

“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell posted on X along with a photo showing him and the men aboard an aircraft. “They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”

The meeting in Venezuela’s capital took place less than a month after Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost last year’s election. The U.S. government, along with several other Western nations, does not recognize Maduro’s claim to victory and instead points to tally sheets collected by the opposition coalition showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.

Venezuelan state television aired footage of Grenell and Maduro speaking in the Miraflores Palace and said the meeting had been requested by the U.S. government.

Signing an executive order in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump was asked if Grenell being filmed meeting with Maduro lent legitimacy to an administration that the Trump White House hasn’t official recognized.

“No. We want to do something with Venezuela. I’ve been a very big opponent of Venezuela and Maduro,” Trump responded. “They’ve treated us not so good, but they’ve treated, more importantly, the Venezuelan people, very badly.”

Trump added that Grenell is “meeting with a lot of different people, but we’re for the people of Venezuela.”

Some Republicans criticized the visit.

“This is terrible timing,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as special envoy to Venezuela and Iran during the first Trump administration. “A meeting with Maduro will be used by him to legitimize his rule and show that the Americans recognize him as president. If the purpose is to deliver a tough message about migration issues, the president could’ve done that himself. There was no need to send someone to Caracas.”

The dispute over the election results sparked nationwide protests. More than 2,200 people were arrested during and after the demonstrations.

Among those detained are as many as 10 Americans who the government has linked to alleged plots to destabilize the country. Neither the White House nor Maduro’s government immediately released the names of the six who were freed Friday.

A nonprofit group that had advocated for the release of a detainee said David Estrella, a 62-yer-old who was last heard from in September, was among those on their way back to the U.S. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello had accused Estrella of being part of an alleged plot to assassinate Maduro.

The Trump administration has taken a slew of actions to make good on promises to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.

Those measures include the revocation earlier this week of a Biden administration decision that would have protected roughly 600,000 people from Venezuela from deportation, putting some at risk of being removed from the country in about two months.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that Trump had instructed Grenell to “identify a place and ensure that repatriation flights” carrying Venezuelans, including members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization, “land in Venezuela.” She said Trump also ordered Grenell to “ensure that all U.S. detainees in Venezuela are returned home.”

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their home country since 2013, when its economy unraveled and Maduro first took office. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the pandemic, migrants increasingly set their sights on the U.S.

Venezuelans’ desire for better living conditions and their rejection of Maduro are expected to keep pushing people to emigrate.

Ahead of the presidential election last year, a nationwide poll by Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed about a quarter of the population thinking about emigrating if Maduro was re-elected.

Grenell has reached out to Maduro before on Trump’s behalf to secure the release of imprisoned Americans only to come home empty handed.

In 2020, he traveled with Erik Prince, the founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, to Mexico City for a secret meeting with a top Maduro aide. The backchannel talks centered on Maduro’s offer to swap eight Americans then imprisoned in Venezuela for businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of the president charged in the U.S. with money laundering, The Associated Press previously reported.

No deal was struck and Grenell’s demand that Maduro step down was dismissed by the Venezuelan president’s envoy. Grenell has always denied he was negotiating a hostage swap.

Later, in December 2023, the Biden administration exchanged Saab for 10 Americans as part of a policy to re-engage Maduro ahead of presidential elections.

Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report from Washington.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is readying orders for the deployment of at least 1,000 additional active duty troops to bolster President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration, U.S. officials said Friday.

They said roughly 500 more soldiers — largely a headquarters unit from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York — will be sent to the southwest border. And about 500 Marines will go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the detained migrants will be held.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements have not been made, said there have been ongoing discussions about the deployments and the numbers could increase if additional details are worked out.

The Pentagon has been scrambling to put in motion Trump’s executive orders signed shortly after he took office on Jan. 20. The first group of 1,600 active duty troops deployed to the border last week.

The deployments reflect Trump’s determination to expand the military’s role in his campaign to shut down the border and send detained migrants back to their home countries.

Troops going to the border are expected to help put in place concertina wire barriers and provide needed transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol. Troops going to Guantanamo could help prepare the facility for an influx of migrants and do other support duties.

Speaking on “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he believes the U.S. can get “thousands of individuals in tents, secured in places at Guantanamo Bay.”

But he also said there’s the possibility that hardened criminals or violent gang members could also be housed there. As a result, he said the Defense Department is preparing detention facilities at Guantanamo “that are basically supermax prisons” to be used to hold them temporarily.

Officials have been saying all week that there are likely to be additional troop deployments to help secure the southern border — potentially rolling out rapidly in the coming days. The eventual total deployed could be as many as 10,000.

Before Trump returned to the White House, there were already about 2,500 Guard and Reserve forces consistently deployed to the border. Officials noted that given the length of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico, it will take additional forces to help put large rolls of concertina wire barriers in place and provide support to the Border Patrol.

The roughly 1,100 Army soldiers and 500 Marines ordered to deploy to the border last week have all arrived in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, and many have already begun work.

Separately, the U.S. military is providing military aircraft for Department of Homeland Security deportation flights for more than 5,000 detained migrants. At least some of those are expected to go to the detention center at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay.

Trump on Wednesday said his administration planned to send the “worst criminal aliens” to Guantanamo. He ordered the Pentagon to prepare to hold up to 30,000 migrants. He said some of the migrants can’t be trusted to stay in their home countries once they are sent back.

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump said.

This is not the first time migrants would be held at Guantanamo. U.S. authorities have detained migrants intercepted at sea at a facility known as the Migrant Operations Center, including people from Haiti and Cuba.

By AAMER MADHANI and WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration has already had “very serious” discussions with Russia about its war in Ukraine and that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could soon take “significant” action toward ending the grinding conflict.

“We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that’ll be significant,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “We want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president.”

Trump did not say who from his administration has been in contact with the Russians but insisted the two sides were “already talking.”

Asked if he has already spoken directly with Putin, Trump was coy: “I don’t want to say that.”

Trump has said repeatedly he wouldn’t have allowed the conflict to start if he had been in office, even though he was president as fighting grew in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv’s forces and separatists backed by Moscow, ahead of Putin sending in tens of thousands of troops in 2022.

Trump since returning to office has criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he should have made a deal with Putin to avoid the conflict.

The president in a Fox News interview earlier in January ridiculed Zelenskyy as “talking so brave,” when Ukraine was so dependent on U.S. aid to fight its war.

“They were brave, but we gave them billions of dollars,” Trump said.

In a recent interview with Russian state television, Putin praised Trump as a “clever and pragmatic man” who is focused on U.S. interests.

“We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president,” Putin said. “I couldn’t disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn’t stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided.”

The Russian’s president’s statement was also a blunt endorsement of Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat in the 2020 election. Numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even his own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.

Trump in his 2024 campaign vowed to bring a quick end to the war, and repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for spending billions in U.S. taxpayer money on military and economic aide for Kyiv to help it fight back against Russia.

Trump’s relationship with Putin has been scrutinized since his 2016 campaign for president, when he called on Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

Trump publicly sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence officials on whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help him, and Trump has praised the Russian leader and even called him “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine.

By MELISSA GOLDIN, ALI SWENSON and ALEXANDRA OLSON

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump wasted little time this week trying to assign blame for the nation’s deadliest air disaster in more than two decades. Among his chief targets: An FAA diversity hiring initiative he suggested had undermined the agency’s effectiveness.

“But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior,” Trump said at a news conference Thursday.

No evidence has emerged that rules seeking to diversify the FAA played any role in the collision Wednesday between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.

Nevertheless, Trump’s comments drew attention to the agency’s attempts to address its most pressing and long-standing problem — a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers who are critical to keeping the nation’s skies safe.

How has Trump tied diversity hiring to the collision?

Trump is using this week’s disaster as another opportunity to push back against diversity programs, after signing executive orders that banned such initiatives across the federal government. That included one specifically for the secretary of transportation and the federal aviation administrator.

During the White House press briefing, Trump said the FAA diversity program allowed for hiring people with hearing and vision issues, as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”

“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” he said.

The FAA’s own data shows people with such disabilities make up only a tiny fraction of air traffic controllers. And there is no indication that investigators into the crash are focused on diversity hiring or staffers with disabilities.

Later Thursday, Trump doubled down on his criticism by signing a presidential memorandum on aviation safety he said would undo “damage” done to federal agencies by the Biden administration’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Are FAA diversity initiatives part of the investigation?

Asked Thursday about Trump’s comments, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said her team examines all factors in any investigation, “the human, the machine and the environment.” She said that means looking at the people involved, the aircraft and the environment in which they were operating.

“That is standard,” she said.

Trump’s remarks drew strong rebukes from Democrats and civil rights leaders.

“There are still bodies being pulled from the Potomac River. Families are grieving the loss of loved ones. Yet Donald Trump is baselessly blaming DEI for last night’s tragic collision,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat who lost both legs while flying Black Hawk helicopters in the Iraq War, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

“Absolutely shameful,” Duckworth said on the X social media platform.

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine veteran, was blunt in his response to Trump’s remarks. “DEI did not cause this tragedy,” he said on X.

Groups representing disabled workers issued a joint statement saying they were dismayed by the scapegoating, noting that anyone hired under the FAA’s diversity initiative had to meet its stringent qualifications.

“The implication that people are being hired to do a job for which they are unqualified is an unfounded lie that further reinforces harmful stereotypes against disabled people,” it said.

What’s behind the FAA’s recruitment strategy?

The FAA has long-faced a shortage of air traffic controllers, which was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Homendy told a Senate panel in 2023 that a surge in close calls between planes at U.S. airports that year was a “clear warning sign” the aviation system was stressed.

The FAA’s diversity efforts aren’t new and were not started under the Biden administration.

Before Trump removed them from the agency’s website after taking office this month, they had been promoted since at least 2013, including during Trump’s first term. Similar language seeking candidates with disabilities was on the site during both Biden’s term and Trump’s first term. Disabilities identified for special emphasis in hiring included conditions such as paralysis, epilepsy or missing extremities.

The FAA during Trump’s first term launched a pilot program to prepare people with disabilities for jobs in air traffic operations.

A 2019 announcement detailed a program to enroll up to 20 people with targeted disabilities in up to a year of training at air traffic control centers, with the potential to be appointed to a temporary position at the FAA’s academy. It noted candidates were subject to the same rigorous standards for aptitude, medical and security qualifications as any other candidates. A federal report from 2023 describes the qualifications.

What do aviation experts say about the FAA’s recruitment program?

The FAA says its Aviation Development Program for hiring diverse candidates into “mission critical occupations” required them to meet the same qualifications as any other applicant.

Former FAA administrator Michael Whitaker said last year that the FAA seeks qualified candidates from a range of sources who must “meet rigorous qualifications” that vary by position.

Paul Hanges, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Maryland, helped compile a report for the FAA in 2013 documenting barriers for women and minorities. The agency followed up by hiring a consulting firm to find the root causes, which led to changes in the testing and hiring process — but Hanges said that did not lower hiring standards.

“It was the same kind of protocol, the same cognitive test, but a different version of it,” he said. “One thing I know about the FAA is they take public safety very seriously. So I’d be surprised that they systematically did stuff that would have put the flying public in danger. I always got the impression that was job one.”

He called Trump’s assertion that this week’s crash is related to diversity efforts “an illogical leap.”

“It is something that is consistent with his message, but we don’t have the data,” he said.

How have the FAA’s recruitment efforts worked?

The agency’s recruitment programs have resulted in a modest deepening of its workforce diversity over the years. Progress has been especially slow in roles it considers “mission critical,” including air traffic controllers.

The FAA’s overall workforce of more than 44,000 employees remains predominately male, according to a 2023 FAA report on the status of its Equal Employment Opportunity program.

Among its nearly 18,000 air traffic controllers, more than 80% were men. White men constituted the biggest percentage of air traffic controllers at 64%, the report said.

The FAA’s overall workforce also remained predominately white, with racial minorities making up 30% of its employees.

About 2% of the FAA’s overall workforce are people with more severe disabilities. Among air traffic controllers, less than 1% are people with such disabilities.

The claims that diversity efforts factored into this week’s crash come after Trump surrogates blamed other recent crises, including the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles, on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, although there has been no evidence to support that.

It’s a focus that has generated anger among those who feel Trump and his allies are quick to use horrific disasters to further their political agenda.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin specifically called out Trump for quickly pointing the finger this week at the FAA’s diversity programs: “The American people deserve real answers, not narcissistic speculations.”

Associated Press writers Graham Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, Wyatte-Grantham-Philips in New York, Haleluya Hadero in South Bend, Indiana, Angeliki Kastanis in Los Angeles and Claire Savage in Chicago contributed to this report.

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press

Public health data disappeared from websites, entire webpages went blank and employees erased pronouns from email signatures Friday as federal agencies scrambled to comply with a directive tied to President Donald Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people.

The Office of Personnel Management directed agency heads to strip “gender ideology” from websites, contracts and emails in a memo sent Wednesday, with changes ordered to be instituted by 5 p.m. Friday. It also directed agencies to disband employee resource groups, terminate grants and contracts related to the issue, and replace the term “gender” with “sex” on government forms.

Some parts of government websites appeared with the message: “The page you’re looking for was not found.” Some pages disappeared and came back intermittently.

Asked by reporters Friday about reports that government websites were being shut down to eliminate mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion, Trump and said he didn’t know anything about it but that he’d endorse such a move.

“I don’t know. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me,” Trump said, adding that he campaigned promising to stamp out such initiatives.

Much public health information was taken down from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website: contraception guidance; a fact sheet about HIV and transgender people; lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary kids; details about National Transgender HIV Testing Day; a set of government surveys showing transgender students suffering higher rates of depression, drug use, bullying and other problems.

Eliminating health resources creates dangerous gaps in scientific information, disease experts said. The Infectious Diseases Society of America, a medical association, issued a statement decrying the removal of information about HIV and people who are transgender. Access is “critical to efforts to end the HIV epidemic,” the organization’s leaders said.

A Bureau of Prisons web page originally titled “Inmate Gender” was relabeled “Inmate Sex” on Friday. A breakdown of transgender inmates in federal prisons was no longer included.

The State Department on Friday removed the option to select “X” as a gender on passport applications for nonbinary applicants. It also replaced the word “gender” from the descriptor with the word “sex.”

All State Department employees were ordered to remove gender-specific pronouns from their email signatures. The directive, from the acting head of the Bureau of Management, said this was required to comply with Trump’s executive orders and that the department was also removing all references to “gender ideology” from websites and internal documents.

“All employees are required to remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5:00 PM today,” said the order from Tibor Nagy. “Your cooperation is essential as we navigate these changes together.”

An official from the U.S. Agency for International Development said staffers were directed to flag the use of the word “gender” in each of thousands of award contracts. Warnings against gender discrimination are standard language in every such contract. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, under a Trump administration gag order prohibiting USAID staffers from speaking with people outside their agency.

The official said staffers fear that programs and jobs related to inclusion efforts, gender issues and issues specific to women are being singled out and possibly targeted under two Trump executive orders.

Some Census Bureau and National Park Service pages were also inaccessible or giving error messages.

Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day back in office, calls for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and policies such as federal prison assignments.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military to immediately stop recognizing identity a day before the start of February’s Black History Month, saying they “erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.”

Mike Stobbe in New York and Amanda Seitz, Matthew Lee, Will Weissert and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s cybersecurity agency has played a critical role in helping states shore up the defenses of their voting systems, but its election mission appears uncertain amid sustained criticism from Republicans and key figures in the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has not named a new head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and for the first time since it was formed, there are no plans for anyone in its leadership to address the main annual gathering of the nation’s secretaries of state, which was being held this week in Washington.

On Thursday, a panel on cyberthreats included an update from an FBI official who said the threats remained consistent.

“I’m often asked what the FBI sees as the top cyberthreats facing the U.S., and really the FBI’s answer for the last several years has been the same: China, China, China, ransomware, Russia, Iran, North Korea,” Cynthia Kaiser, a deputy assistant director in the bureau’s Cyber Division, told attendees at the National Association of Secretaries of State meeting.

Trump’s new homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said during her Senate hearing that CISA had strayed “far off mission.” She pledged to work with senators “should you wish to rein them in” with legislation.

The agency formed in 2018 during the first Trump administration is charged with protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure, from dams and nuclear power plants to banks and voting systems. It is under the Department of Homeland Security, but CISA is a separate agency with its own Senate-confirmed director.

The agency has received bipartisan praise from many state and local election officials, but Trump and his allies remain angry over its efforts to counter misinformation about the 2020 presidential election and the coronavirus pandemic. The agency’s first director, Chris Krebs, was fired by Trump after Krebs highlighted a statement issued by a group of election officials that called the 2020 election the “most secure in American history.”

That drew Trump’s ire as he was contesting his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Republicans have claimed repeatedly since then that CISA had worked with social media companies to censor conservative viewpoints on issues related to elections and health.

Agency officials have disputed that: “CISA does not censor, has never censored,” the agency’s then-director, Jen Easterly, said last fall in an interview with The Associated Press. Nevertheless, Republicans continue to blame the agency and insist changes are necessary.

“Joe Biden’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was more focused on undermining President Trump than they were protecting our own critical infrastructure,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., chair of the newly formed House subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, said in a social media post last week. “The thugs responsible for that kind of waste and abuse will be held accountable!”

During the 2020 election, agency officials worked with states to help them notify social media companies about misinformation spreading on their platforms, but they have said they never instructed or sought to coerce those companies to act. For the 2024 election, CISA and other federal agencies alerted the public to various foreign misinformation campaigns, including a fake video linked to Russia purporting to show the mishandling of ballots in Pennsylvania.

In recent months, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has echoed the GOP claims and announced plans to dismantle the company’s fact-checking program.

One of the first actions Trump took after returning to the White House on Jan. 20 was a signing of an executive order “ending federal censorship” and instructing his attorney general to investigate federal actions under the previous administration and to propose “remedial actions.” There is little information about what’s next and whether CISA’s mission could change under new leadership.

Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for a Republican administration, recommended that CISA be moved to the Transportation Department and focused solely on protecting government networks and coordinating the security of critical infrastructure.

It said the agency should only help states assess whether they have “good cyber hygiene in their hardware and software in preparation for an election — nothing more.” That’s what the agency has been doing in recent years, by providing training and security reviews.

Voting systems were designated critical infrastructure after an effort by Russia in 2016 to interfere in that year’s presidential election, which included scanning state voter registration databases for vulnerabilities.

Some state election officials were initially resistant to the idea of federal assistance. But many now credit the agency and federal money with helping them improve security ahead of the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat who is president of the secretaries of state association, said it was understandable that a new administration needed time to decide what role it wanted for the cybersecurity agency. But he hoped its work with the states would continue, both in improving election security and highlighting disinformation campaigns.

“We need to know if a foreign adversary is seeking to misdirect and mislead Americans on any subject, whether it’s elections or science or national security or foreign policy,” he said in a phone interview Thursday from Minnesota before he was scheduled to leave for Washington.

By ZEKE MILLER and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned the actions of the army helicopter pilot and air traffic controller ahead of a deadly midair collision in Washington and quickly veered into politics to speculate that Democrats and diversity initiatives shared blame for the deaths of 67 people.

As Trump spoke, a federal investigation into the crash was just getting started and first responders were still working to recover bodies from the wreckage of the commercial jet and army helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night.

Speaking from the White House — just over three miles from the scene — Trump at points acknowledged that it was too soon to draw conclusions as he encouraged the nation to pray for the victims. But he moved nonetheless to assign blame.

Trump said “we are one family” as he expressed condolences for the crash. He then proceeded to attack political opponents and unleash grievances about diversity initiatives.

“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” Trump said. He added that the program allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”

Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be geniuses. “They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”

Trump said he had no evidence to support his claims that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and hiring preferences played a role in the crash, allowing that “it just could have been.” He defended doing so “because I have common sense.”

The plane crash marked the first major disaster of Trump’s new term, and his response evoked his frequent — and controversial — briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic. His handling of the pandemic helped sour voters on him as he failed to win reelection in 2020.

Trump said “we do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions.” Then he proceeded to hold forth at length about what happened, at one point wondering if the helicopter pilot was wearing night vision goggles.

Trump declared that “you had a pilot problem” and the helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad.” And he questioned why the Army pilot didn’t change course, saying that “you can stop a helicopter very quickly.” He also mused about the air traffic controller, saying of the two aircraft, “for whatever reason they were at the same elevation,” adding “they should have been at a different height.”

Vice President JD Vance, new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all lined up behind Trump to praise his leadership and echo his concerns about DEI programs and hiring.

“When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand, you’re not getting the best people in government,” Vance said, “But on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there.”

Trump complained specifically about Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, calling him “a disaster.”

“He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.

Complaining about the previous administration, Trump continued, “their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.”

Buttigieg responded in a post on X, calling Trump’s comments “despicable.” He added: “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.”

Trump made a point to tell Duffy, who was sworn in on Tuesday as Buttigieg’s replacement, “It’s not your fault.” Duffy took the White House podium alongside Trump and declared, “When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination.” Duffy added, “We will not accept excuses.”

Despite the crash, Trump said he “would not hesitate to fly.”

By MARIA SHERMAN, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The 2025 Grammy Awards are right around the corner, which means it is time to get those viewing party plans in action. Allow us to help.

The 67th annual Grammy Awards will still take place Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles — though the Recording Academy has refocused its aim to support relief efforts following the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires.

Here’s what you need to know about watching the 2025 Grammys, including how to stream and where you can see music’s biggest stars walking the red carpet.

When does the Grammys start and how can I watch?

The main show will air live on CBS and Paramount+ beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers can also watch live and on demand.

Who is performing at the Grammys?

Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli xcx, Doechii, RAYE, Sabrina Carpenter, Shakira and Teddy Swims will perform at the Grammys.

Who is hosting the Grammys?

Comedian Trevor Noah will host the show for the fifth consecutive time.

The only other people to host five or more Grammy telecasts were musical artists: Andy Williams hosted seven shows, followed by John Denver with six and LL Cool J with five.

How do I stream the Grammys?

The Grammys can also be watched through live TV streaming services that include CBS in their lineup, like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and FuboTV.

Paramount+ subscribers will be able to stream the Grammy Awards the day after the ceremony.

How can I watch the red carpet?

The Associated Press will stream a three-hour red carpet show with interviews and fashion footage. It will be streamed on YouTube and APNews.com.

Who is nominated for the Grammys?

Beyoncé leads the Grammy nods with 11, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. That makes her the most nominated artist in Grammy history.

As of 2023, she’s also the most decorated artist, having earned 32 trophies across her career.

Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli XCX follow with seven nominations.

Taylor Swift and first-time nominees Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan boast six nominations each.

How will the Los Angeles-area wildfires affect the Grammys?

The 2025 Grammy Awards will go on as planned but will focus its attention on wildfire relief efforts.

Each year, the Recording Academy hosts a multitude of events to welcome the music industry during Grammy week; record labels do the same. However, many institutions have canceled their plans — Universal Music Group, BMG and Warner Music Group among them — and instead are allocating resources to Los Angeles-area wildfire relief and rebuilding efforts.

On Wednesday, the Recording Academy announced it had condensed pre-Grammy week plans to just four events, each featuring a fundraising element.

Events like the annual pre-Grammy Black Music Collective event, Grammy advocacy brunch, and others scheduled to take place at the immersive pop-up Grammy house have been canceled. In all, at least 16 pre-Grammy events sponsored by the Recording Academy have been canceled.

“We understand how devastating this past week has been on this city and its people. This is our home, it’s home to thousands of music professionals, and many of us have been negatively impacted,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said in a statement.

Last week, the Recording Academy and MusiCares launched the Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort with a $1 million donation. According to the letter, thanks to additional contributions, they’ve already distributed $2 million in emergency aid.

How is the broader music industry responding to the fires?

Spotify has canceled all of its Grammy week events, including its annual Best New Artist showcase. “We’ve decided that the most impactful approach is canceling all our Grammy Week events, including our annual Best New Artist party, and redirecting funds to support efforts to reach local fans and charitable organizations,” Spotify’s Global Head of Music Partnerships & Audience Joe Hadley wrote in an announcement.

Universal Music Group, one of the big three major record labels, has canceled all of its Grammy-related events. Those include its annual artist showcase, held on Saturday, and its after-party on the Sunday of Grammy week. Instead, it will redirect those funds to wildfire relief.

BMG will no longer host its pre-Grammy party and a representative for Warner Music Group confirmed to The Associated Press that the major label will not host a party this year and are instead “redirecting funds to support efforts.” Earlier this week, WMG and the Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund pledged $1 million to Los Angeles area fire relief and rebuilding efforts.

Sony Music Group confirmed it has canceled its events during Grammy week and after the ceremony and will instead redirect efforts and money to local relief efforts.

MusiCares, an organization that helps music professionals who need financial, personal or medical assistance, holds its annual Persons of the Year benefit gala at the Los Angeles Convention Center a few days before the Grammys. The 2025 gala will still take place on Jan. 31, this year honoring the Grateful Dead with an additional commitment to wildfire relief.

“At our upcoming Persons of the Year, we will make a special appeal for donations to support our wildfire relief efforts,” according to an email sent by the Recording Academy to its members on Tuesday.

By JILL COLVIN

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean Duffy, the new transportation secretary, is facing his first major crisis just hours after his swearing-in.

Duffy, who was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday, quickly emerged as a public face of the federal government’s response to the deadly plane crash at Reagan National Airport, the closest airport to Washington, D.C. An Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members Wednesday night while the plane was landing, sending it careening into the frigid Potomac River. All onboard are feared dead in what is shaping up to be the deadliest U.S. air crash in decades.

“Our new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy — his second day on the job when that happened. That’s a rough one,” Trump said as they appeared together during a White House briefing Thursday.

“Great gentleman. Just started. It’s not your fault,” he later said.

Here are some things to know about Duffy:

He was on scene at the airport and by Trump’s side at the White House

Duffy appeared alongside Washington D.C.’s mayor and other local officials at airport briefings overnight and early Thursday, representing the administration. And he joined Trump in the White House briefing room Thursday, where the new president offered prayers to the victims and lamented the tragedy, but also made a series of politically charged accusations that he acknowledged were not based on fact.

Duffy began his remarks by complimenting Trump, saying his “leadership has been remarkable during this crisis.” And he assured victims’ loved ones that he was committed to getting to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible.

While Duffy did not explicitly echo Trump’s claims that diversity hiring and lower standards were somehow to blame for the tragedy — it is still unclear exactly what happened to cause the crash – he also did not refute them.

“When we deal with safety, we can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety that impact the lives of our loved ones, our family members,” Duffy said. “We are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA, to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again.”

He’s a former reality TV star, lumberjack and congressman from Wisconsin

A former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, Duffy’s résumé includes stints as a lumberjack athlete, reality TV star, prosecutor and Fox News host.

He was featured on MTV’s “The Real World: Boston” in 1997 and met his his wife, “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, on the set of MTV’s “Road Rules: All Stars” in 1998.

Duffy later worked as a special prosecutor and the district attorney of Ashland County in northern Wisconsin. He won election to Congress as part of the tea party wave in 2010.

Rep. Tom Tiffany, who succeeded Duffy in Congress, said he first knew of Duffy when he was a lumberjack in the 1990s before either of them entered politics.

“He’s got a big job ahead of him here,” Tiffany said. “It’s jumping right into the frying pan with a situation like this.”

An underdog who served nine years

When he first ran for Congress, Duffy was considered an underdog. But he attracted national attention with his campaign ads, which featured him dramatically chopping wood while donning a red flannel shirt. He told voters he came from a “long line of lumberjacks” and would bring his axe to Washington.

Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years. He was member of the Financial Services Committee and chair of the subcommittee on insurance and housing.

Fox News defender

After leaving Congress in 2019, citing the need to care for his growing family, Duffy became a contributor to Fox News and one of Trump’s most visible defenders on cable television. He served as co-host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business before being picked for the new administration.

He was one of several Fox personalities that Trump chose to fill his Cabinet, including Pete Hegseth, the new defense secretary.

A father to nine

Duffy has nine children, the youngest of whom was born with a heart condition.

In announcing his pick, Trump noted that “Sean knows how important it is for families to be able to travel safely, and with peace of mind.”

Because of his large family, Duffy will have empathy with the relatives of crash victims, said Mark Graul, a longtime Republican operative in Wisconsin who has known Duffy for more than 25 years.

“When you have the size of family he has, empathy is part of the process there,” Graul said. “He’s going to want to bring certainty to everyone who is hurting from this.”

Graul said Duffy is an “incredibly decent person” and “very approachable,” which will aid him as he navigates this crash.

“His family is the center of his universe and more than most politicians he cares a great deal about being successful,” Graul said. “He doesn’t want to just do things to get attention. He likes having success.”

A sprawling agency

The Transportation Department oversees the nation’s complex and aging transportation system, including its highways, railroads and airspace. It sets safety standards for trains, cars and trucks.

The department regulates the airline industry through the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been grappling with a shortage of air traffic controllers. The agency also includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates automakers and sets fuel economy standards for cars and trucks.

In his statement announcing the pick, Trump had said Duffy would “prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports” and said he would “make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers.” DEI refers to “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, which Trump has worked to bar through federal action since returning to office.

In his first act after his swearing-in, Duffy rolled back fuel mileage standards put in place by the Biden administration.

His confirmation hearing

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Duffy had promised to scrutinize Boeing ’s safety issues and “restore global confidence” in the beleaguered company, as well as to hire more air traffic controllers amid a national shortage. (The plane involved in Wednesday night’s collision was a CRJ-700 manufactured by Canada-based Bombadier.)

Duffy also said he would cut DEI programs at the agency and create federal rules for self-driving cars instead of leaving that to a patchwork of state regulations, a key priority of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is running Trump’s government efficiency effort.

Duffy assured lawmakers that he would not interfere in ongoing agency investigations into Musk’s electric car company over the safety of Tesla vehicles.

He was approved by a bipartisan 77-22 vote.

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report from Madison, Wisconsin.