Today is Monday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2025. There are 303 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On March 3, 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase; amateur video that captured the scene aired on local news that evening, sparking public outrage.
Also on this date:
In 1849, Congress established the U.S. Department of the Interior.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the act creating the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States.
In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green Tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.
In 1945, Allied troops fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II after a monthlong battle that destroyed much of the city.
In 1969, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test NASA’s lunar module.
In 2022, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a nationwide settlement over its role in the opioid crisis, with the Sackler family members who own the company boosting their cash contribution to as much as $6 billion in a deal intended to staunch a flood of lawsuits.
Today’s birthdays:
Filmmaker George Miller is 80.
Singer Jennifer Warnes is 78.
Author Ron Chernow is 76.
Football Hall of Famer Randy Gradishar is 73.
Musician Robyn Hitchcock is 72.
Actor Miranda Richardson is 67.
Radio personality Ira Glass is 66.
Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 63.
Rapper-actor Tone Loc is 59.
Hockey Hall of Famer Brian Leetch is 57.
Actor Julie Bowen is 55.
Actor David Faustino is 51.
Actor Jessica Biel is 43.
Singer Camila Cabello is 28.
NBA forward Jayson Tatum is 27.
FILE – This file photo of Rodney King was taken three days after his videotaped beating in Los Angeles on March 6, 1991. The photo is one of three introduced into evidence by the prosecution in the trial of four LAPD officers in a Simi Valley, California Courtroom, March 24, 1992. The acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of King sparked rioting that spread across the city and into neighboring suburbs. Cars were demolished and homes and businesses were burned. Before order was restored, 55 people were dead, 2,300 injured and more than 1,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed. (AP Photo/Pool,File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mikey Madison won the best actress Oscar on Sunday for “Anora,” a role that catapulted the 25-year-old into a burgeoning film career after achieving initial success on television.
The Brooklyn-set comedy-drama had received six nominations.
Madison had been best known for playing a sullen teenager in the FX comedy series “Better Things,” which ended in 2022. She also appeared in the hit movies “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and the fifth installment of the horror franchise “Scream.”
Those jobs attracted the attention of director-writer Sean Baker, who penned the title role in “Anora” for Madison. She studied Russian and did her own stunts in the film, in addition to learning to pole dance to play an exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch.
The film debuted to critical acclaim at Cannes last year, winning the Palme d’Or. It has gained momentum ever since, with its box-office success easily outearning its $6 million budget.
Hollywood veteran Demi Moore of “The Substance” had been the Oscar front-runner, having won over Madison at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. However, Madison beat out Moore for the BAFTA two days before Oscar voting ended, as well as at last weekend’s Independent Spirit Awards.
She was born Mikaela Madison Rosberg in Los Angeles, one of five children of psychologist parents. Her mother signed her up for an acting class in her mid-teens after Madison had trained in competitive horseback riding, which she found lonely compared to the collaborative nature of acting.
In addition to Moore, the other nominees were Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked,” Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez” and Fernanda Torres for “I’m Still Here.”
Mikey Madison arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean Baker won best director at the Oscars on Sunday for “Anora,” bookending a dominant awards season for the American filmmaker whose stories seek to humanize sex workers and immigrants.
Baker, 53, wrote, produced, directed and edited the film, which is also among the top contenders for best picture. The comedy-drama stars Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who marries the impetuous son of a Russian oligarch. They impulsively tie the knot on a ketamine-induced Las Vegas getaway, angering his parents, who send their bumbling henchmen after the couple to force an annulment.
“If you didn’t cast Mikey Madison in ‘Once Upon a Time,’ there would be no ‘Anora,’” Baker told Quentin Tarantino, who presented the award.
Baker came into the night the favorite for the directing Oscar after earning the top prize from the Directors Guild of America, a win that historically all but guarantees an Oscars victory. He also took home the top awards at the Producers Guild and Independent Spirit Awards.
This year’s best director lineup featured five first-time nominees in the category for the first time in nearly three decades. All had writing credits on their respective films, demonstrating the academy’s growing preference for auteurs who can masterfully bring their own vision to life. For the Oscar, he beat out Brady Corbet of “The Brutalist,” James Mangold of “A Complete Unknown,” Jacques Audiard of “Emilia Pérez” and Coralie Fargeat of “The Substance.”
Going into the night, Baker had the potential to win a record four Oscars for “Anora,” which was nominated for six in total. He won for best original screenplay and best editing — a rarity as directors don’t typically cut their own films. He is also up for best picture.
“Anora” brings Baker’s signature style of provocative comedy from indie theaters into the mainstream, blending slapstick humor with social commentary in a way that makes lessons about marginalized groups palatable to a wider audience. He made the film on a modest budget of $6 million — an amount one producer joked is smaller than the catering budget of some of its competitors. Last year’s best picture winner, “Oppenheimer,” had a $100 million budget.
Baker has been vocal about the difficulty of making independent films and surviving as an indie filmmaker in an industry that increasingly supports big-budget spectacles. In a rousing speech at the Independent Spirit Awards, he said indies are in danger of becoming “calling card films” — movies made only as a means to get hired for projects at major studios. Without backing for independent films, he said, some of the most creative and innovative projects might never be made.
He exhorted filmmakers to keep moving films for the big screen, bemoaning the erosion of the theatergoing experience.
“Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. In a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home,” he said.
Baker has long been passionate about using his craft to help destigmatize sex work. His 2012 film “Starlet” follows a budding friendship between an adult film star and a crotchety widow who sells her a thermos full of cash at a yard sale. Baker said the connections he formed with sex workers involved in the project inspired him to feature them in several other films.
He received widespread praise for “Tangerine” (2015), in which he used three iPhone 5S smartphones to tell a story about transgender sex workers in Los Angeles. In “The Florida Project” (2017), a single mother living in an Orlando motel turns to sex work to provide for her daughter. And “Red Rocket” (2021) follows a retired porn actor’s journey back to his small Texas hometown.
Sean Baker, winner of the award for best film editing for “Anora,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrien Brody clinched his second Oscar for best actor, winning Sunday for his role as a visionary Hungarian architect in “ The Brutalist ” and solidifying his legacy as one of Hollywood’s most compelling talents.
Brody took home best actor at the 97th Academy Awards for his powerful portrayal of Lázló Tóth, who escapes the Holocaust and sails to the United States to find his American Dream. The film spans 30 years in the life of Tóth, a fictional character whose unorthodox designs challenged societal norms, and his relentless pursuit of artistic integrity.
Brody triumphed over fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown,” Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing,” Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave,” and Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice.”
“The Brutalist,” which is nominated for 10 Oscars including best picture, is Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour postwar American epic filmed in VistaVision. Brody starred in the film alongside Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce.
After winning best actor at the 78th British Academy Film Awards in February, Brody said “The Brutalist” carries a powerful message for divided times.
“It speaks to the need for all of us to share in the responsibility of how we want others to be treated and how we want to be treated by others,” he said. “There’s no place any more for antisemitism. There’s no place for racism.”
Brody won an Academy Award for best actor in 2003 for his role in “The Pianist.” His gap of 22 years would be the second longest between best actor wins. It was 29 years between wins for “Silence of the Lambs” and “The Father” for Anthony Hopkins.
Brody is also known for his performances “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Darjeeling Limited” and “Midnight in Paris.”
For Brody, his role in “The Brutalist” had obvious echoes with arguably his most defining performance. In Roman Polanski’s 2002 “The Pianist,” Brody also played a Jewish artist trying to survive during WWII.
Adrien Brody arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “I’m Still Here,” a film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, gave Brazil’s first Oscars win on Sunday in the best international film category.
Salles paid homage to Paiva’s bravery, and Torres for portraying her along with Fernanda Montenegro, the daughter of one of the country’s greatest stars. She appears late in the film as the older Eunice.
“This goes to a woman who after a loss suffered during a authoritarian regime decided not to bend and resist. This prize goes to her,” Salles said during his acceptance speech, as the audience gave a standing ovation. “And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her.”
“Today is the day to feel even prouder of being Brazilian,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X, “Pride for our cinema, for our artists and, primarily, pride for our democracy.”
The focus of “I’m Still Here,” based on the memoir by Paiva’s son Marcelo, is Eunice, the mother of five left to remake their family’s life with neither her husband nor any answers for his disappearance. It unfolds as a portrait of a different kind of political resistance — one of steadfast endurance.
Eunice refuses the military dictatorship’s attempt to break her and her family. When, in one scene, Eunice and her children — by then long without their disappeared father — pose for a newspaper photograph, she tells them to smile.
“The smile is a kind of resistance,” Torres told The Associated Press. “It’s not that they’re living happily. It’s a tragedy. Marcelo recently said something that Eunice said that I had never heard: ‘We are not a victim. The victim is the country.’”
“I’m Still Here” is a deeply Brazilian story, made by one of the country’s most acclaimed directors (Salles’ films include “Central Station” and “Motorcycle Diaries”) and Montenegro.
Also nominated for best international film were Denmark’s “The Girl with the Needle,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Latvia’s “Flow” and France’s “Emilia Pérez,” a onetime Oscars favorite marred by controversy.
FILE – Selton Mello, from left, Fernanda Torres, and director Walter Salles, pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film, “I’m Still Here”, during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 1, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Detroit center fielder Parker Meadows is out indefinitely with a nerve issue in his throwing arm.
Manager A.J. Hinch said Saturday that there is no timetable for his return from the issue in his upper right arm. The Tigers haven’t yet ruled him out for Opening Day but for now he can’t do any baseball activities.
“My understanding is that we’re in a wait-and-see (situation),” Hinch told reporters. “We’ve got to get that nerve firing again for him to resume baseball activities. Could be short. Could linger a little bit. No one has a firm timetable on when that can be, but we feel like we’re on a really good path now that we have the diagnosis (and) we now have a treatment plan.”
Meadows was injured in Detroit’s spring training opener on February 22 on a throw from center field. It took some time to pinpoint what the problem was before the Tigers announced that he’d be out indefinitely.
The 25-year-old hit .244 with nine home runs and 28 RBIs in 82 games last season. He played well in the postseason, batting .269 with a hit in each of the team’s seven playoff games as the Tigers reached the American League Division Series.
FILE - Detroit Tigers' Parker Meadows takes a throw during warm ups before Game 2 of the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians Monday, Oct. 7, 2024 in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “No Other Land,” the story of Palestinian activists fighting to protect their communities from demolition by the Israeli military, won the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.
The collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank. Adra’s pleas fall on deaf ears until he befriends a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps him amplify his story.
“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements,” said Adra.
“No Other Land” came into the night a top contender after a successful run on the film festival circuit. It did not, however, find a U.S. distributor after being picked up for distribution in 24 countries. For the Oscar, it beat out “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État.”
The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.
In the film, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham embeds in a community fighting displacement, but he faces some pushback from Palestinians who point out his privileges as an Israeli citizen. Adra says he is unable to leave the West Bank and is treated like a criminal, while Abraham can come and go freely.
The film is heavily reliant on camcorder footage from Adra’s personal archive. He captures Israeli soldiers bulldozing the village school and filling water wells with cement to prevent people from rebuilding.
Residents of the small, rugged region of Masafer Yatta band together after Adra films an Israeli soldier shooting a local man who is protesting the demolition of his home. The man becomes paralyzed, and his mother struggles to take care of him while living in a cave.
FILE – Palestinian Basel Adra, right, and Israeli Yuval Abraham receive the documentary award for “No Other Land” at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
First-time Academy Award nominee Daniel Blumberg is now an Oscar winner. He took home the trophy for original score for “The Brutalist” on Sunday.
Blumberg beat Clément Ducol and Camille (“Emilia Pérez”), Kris Bowers (“The Wild Robot”), Volker Bertelmann (“Conclave”) and John Powell and Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”).
“I’ve been an artist for 20 years now,” Blumberg said in his acceptance speech. “And when I met (director) Brady (Corbet) I met my artistic soulmate.”
Corbet’s “The Brutalist” follows Lázló Tóth, a fictional visionary Hungarian architect who escaped the Holocaust, sailed to the United States to find his American Dream and created the style of architecture the film takes its name from.
When the nominations were announced in January, Blumberg told The Associated Press that he was actually with Corbet when he learned of his first-ever nod. “It’s been quite a surreal day,” he said. The pair shared a hug when the news arrived.
“‘The Brutalist’ was always such an important project for me,” Blumberg continued, describing the team behind it as dedicated to making “something with urgency, to make something with no compromise.”
Earlier in the night, French composer duo Clément Ducol and Camille took home the original song award at the Oscars on Sunday for their track, “El Mal.”
Clement Ducol, from left, Camille, and Jacques Audiard, accept the award for best original song for “El Mal” from” Emilia Perez” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
In January, “El Mal” also earned the pair a Golden Globe in the same category.
“We are so grateful,” Camille said in her acceptance speech. “We wrote ‘El Mal’ as a song to denounce corruption, and we hope it speaks to the role music and art can play and continue to play as a force of good and progress in the world.”
The award was presented by Mick Jagger. “I wasn’t the first choice,” he joked. “The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do it.”
Ducol and Camille beat Diane Warren for “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight,” Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt for “Never Too Late” from “Elton John: Never Too Late,” and Abraham Alexander, Brandon Marcel and Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada for “Like A Bird” from “Sing Sing.”
They also beat themselves: Their composition “Mi Camino” from “Emilia Pérez” was also up for the award.
The first-time Oscar nominees had a total of three nominations, including original score, at the 97th Academy Awards.
“You go from anxiety to relief, and you’re filled up with energy and you need that,” Camille told The Associated Press in January, when nominations were announced. “We’ve worked so much, and we’ve worked so much for the campaign … I feel very fulfilled and very happy for all the team.”
“It’s a very free, provocative and empathic, compassionate movie. And I really think this is what we need now.”
“It’s totally incredible. I was like, ‘What?’ It’s three nominations. It’s huge,” added Ducol. “We were involved at the beginning of the construction of the story in music … So everything is linked together, is woven together between the script, the screenplay, the songs. And so, we feel like it’s our story, our movie … It’s not just a musical or reflecting a story or reflecting action in the movie. The music and the songs, in this movie, is the script. It is the story.”
Daniel Blumberg arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Tazewell made history at the Oscars, becoming the first Black man to win best costume design.
Tazewell won for his masterful design work in “Wicked” at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday. It is his first win and second nomination. He was previously nominated in the category for his work on Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.”
“I’m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,” he said in his acceptance speech, which was met with a couple standing ovations. “I’m so proud of this.”
Backstage, Tazewell said winning the award is the pinnacle of his career. He said he feels humbled to inspire other Black men aspiring to become costume designers.
“I’ve been designing costumes for over 35 years — that has been on Broadway and now it’s film,” he said. “There was never a Black male designer who I saw that I could follow and see as an inspiration. But to realize now that it’s actually me.”
Before the Oscars, Tazewell won awards at BAFTA, Critics Choice and Costume Designers Guild awards. He’s the second Black person to in the category after Ruth E. Carter made history for her work in 2018 for “Black Panther,” which made her the first African American to win in the category.
“She has paved the way for designers of color,” Tazewell said.
In his acceptance speech, Tazewell thanked “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthis Erivo.
“To my muses, Cynthia and Ariana and all the other cast,” he said. “Thank you for trusting me with bringing your characters to life. This is everything.”
Tazewell built a legendary career, winning an Emmy in 2018 for his costume work on “The Wiz Live!” and a Tony for “Hamilton.” He worked with Erivo on the 2019 film “Harriet,” which was his first feature film.
Tazewell, who has earned nine Tony nominations, gained notoriety through theater projects such as “The Color Purple,” “In the Heights,” “MJ the Musical,” “Suffs” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Paul Tazewell, winner of the award for best costume design for “Wicked,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Sundays Academy Awards, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, will bring to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.
The ceremony kicks off 7 p.m. EST and will be broadcast by ABC and streamed on Hulu. Conan OBrien is hosting for the first time. The official red carpet preshow on ABC and Hulu starts at 6:30 p.m. Unofficial E! red carpet coverage begins at 4 p.m. EST and The Associated Press will livestream arrivals beginning at 3 p.m.
The fires affected many throughout the film industry and within the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Some even called for the cancellation of Hollywoods awards season. While his Pacific Palisades house was spared, OBrien has been living out of a hotel the last two months. Oscar producers have said the show will celebrate the citys resilience.
Is there an Oscar favorite?
The lead nominee is Netflixs Emilia Prez, with 13 nominations, but that film has seen its chances crater following uproar over years-old offensive tweets by its star, Karla Sofa Gascn, the first openly trans actor nominated for best actress.
The favorite is Sean Bakers Anora, about a sex worker who weds the son of a Russian oligarch. The Neon release, the Cannes Palme dOr winner, won with the producers, directors and writers guild. The only movie with the same resume to not win best picture is Brokeback Mountain.
Also in the mix are The Brutalist, nominated for 10 awards, and the musical hit Wicked, also with 10 nominations. Several of the early craft Oscars could be shared between Wicked and Dune: Part Two.
Will politics play a starring role?
For the first time, an actor is nominated for playing the sitting U.S. president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for best actor for his performance as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, as is his co-star, Jeremy Strong, for playing Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film human scum.
Speaking earlier this week, OBrien said he'll strive to strike a delicate balance.
I cannot ignore the moment were in, he said. But I also have to remember its threading a needle. I also have to remember what were here to celebrate and infuse the show with positivity.
Will Timothe Chalamet win his first Oscar?
While the supporting acting categories feature overwhelming favorites in Zoe Saldana (Emilia Prez) and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), both best actor and best actress are close contests.
In best actress, Demi Moore (The Substance) is most likely to win, but Mikey Madison (Anora) or Fernanda Torres (Im Still Here) could pull off the upset.
Adrien Brody is favored in best actor for his performance in The Brutalist. But Timothe Chalamet stands a decent chance of beating him, for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. The 29-year-old Chalamet, who won at the Screen Actors Guild, would become the youngest best actor winner ever, edging Brodys record, set in 2003 in his win for The Pianist.
Can the show lift a battered Hollywood?
This year's Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3% from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.
Last years telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of Oppenheimer and Barbie, led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.
With a not particularly starry array of best song nominees, the academy has done away with performances of original songs this year. But there will be music, including a performance by Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and a tribute to the late Quincy Jones, with Queen Latifah.
Last years acting winners Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, DaVine Joy Randolph will also take part in the ceremony. Though the academy initially said it would bring back the fab five style of presenting the acting awards, with five previous winners per category, organizers have reportedly abandoned those plans.
The ceremony will be taking place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home.
By JUSTIN SPIKE and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine’s leader will meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday at a pivotal moment for his country, one that hinges on whether he can persuade Trump to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.
During his trip to Washington, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s delegation is expected to sign a landmark economic agreement with the U.S. aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.
Though the deal, which is seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, references the importance of Ukraine’s security, it leaves that to a separate agreement to be discussed between the two leaders — talks that are likely to commence Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a news conference at a security summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
As Ukrainian forces hold out against slow but steady advances by Russia’s larger and better-equipped army, leaders in Kyiv have pushed to ensure a potential U.S.-brokered peace plan would include guarantees for the country’s future security.
Many Ukrainians fear that a hastily negotiated peace — especially one that makes too many concessions to Russian demands — would allow Moscow to rearm and consolidate its forces for a future invasion after current hostilities cease.
According to the preliminary economic agreement, seen by The Associated Press, the U.S. and Ukraine will establish a co-owned, jointly managed investment fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from natural resources, including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.
A more detailed agreement on establishing the fund will be drawn up once the preliminary one is signed.
Trump, a Republican, has framed the emerging deal as a chance for Kyiv to compensate the U.S. for wartime aid sent under his predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
But Zelenskyy has remained firm that specific assurances for Ukraine’s security must accompany any agreement giving U.S. access to Ukraine’s resources. On Wednesday, he said the agreement “may be part of future security guarantees, but I want to understand the broader vision. What awaits Ukraine?”
Trump remains noncommittal about any American security guarantees.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees … very much,” Trump told reporters this week. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”
If a truce can be reached, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to send troops for a potential peacekeeping mission to Ukraine to ensure that fighting between Ukraine and Russia doesn’t flare up again. Both leaders traveled to Washington this week before the Zelenskyy visit to discuss with Trump the potential peacekeeping mission and other concerns about the war.
White House officials are skeptical that Britain and France can assemble enough troops from across Europe, at least at this moment, to deploy a credible peacekeeping mission to Kyiv.
It will likely take a “consensual peace settlement” between Russia and Ukraine before many nations would be willing to provide such forces, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Zelenskyy and European officials have no illusions about U.S. troops taking part in such a mission. But Starmer and others are trying to make the case that the plan can only work with a U.S. backstop for European forces on the ground — through U.S. aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case the truce is breached.
“You’ve created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace deal — a deal that I think would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world,” Starmer told Trump. “That is the prize. But we have to get it right.”
Zelenskyy has been vague on exactly what kinds of security guarantees would be suitable for his country, and while he continues to advocate for Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO, he has also suggested a similar security arrangement would suffice.
But Trump on Wednesday said Ukraine “could forget about” joining the Western military alliance.
Still, Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump, their first since the U.S. leader’s inauguration in January, is seen in Kyiv as a diplomatic win for Ukraine. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said being able to meet personally with Trump before Russian President Vladimir Putin does “is a good signal.”
Zelenskyy said he hopes to discuss whether the U.S. plans to halt its military aid to Ukraine and, if so, whether Kyiv would be able to purchase weapons directly from the U.S.
He also wants to know whether Ukraine can use frozen Russian assets for the purchase of weapons and whether Washington plans to lift sanctions on Moscow.
Fears that Trump could broker a peace deal with Russia that is unfavorable to Ukraine have been amplified by recent precedent-busting actions by his administration. Trump held a lengthy phone call with Putin, and U.S. officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without inviting European or Ukrainian leaders — both dramatic breaks with previous U.S. policy to isolate Putin over his invasion.
Trump later seemed to falsely blame Ukraine for starting the war, and called Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding elections after the end of his regular term last year, though Ukrainian law prohibits elections while martial law is in place.
As Zelenskyy seeks to lower the temperature with the U.S. while in Washington, American officials are saying the economic deal, if implemented, would itself provide a measure of security to Ukraine through the presence of U.S. investments on its territory.
On Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. working on mineral extraction in Ukraine would amount to “automatic security because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.”
“It’s a great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there and we’re going to be working over there,” Trump said. “We will be on the land.”
That perspective is echoed by the text of the economic agreement, which says the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace.”
Washington, it continues, has “a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
Spike reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
FILE – Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, right, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands during their meeting at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Today is Friday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2025. There are 306 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Feb. 28, 1993, a gun battle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
Also on this date:
In 1844, a 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded as the ship was sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others; President John Tyler, who also was aboard the ship, was uninjured.
In 1953, Francis H.C. Crick announced that he and fellow scientist James D. Watson had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.
In 1975, 43 people were killed in London’s Underground when a train failed to stop at Moorgate station, smashing into the end of a tunnel.
In 1983, the final episode of the television series “M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H” aired; nearly 106 million viewers saw the finale, which remains the most-watched episode of any U.S. television series to date.
In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated while walking on a Stockholm street with his wife; his assailant was never captured and remains unidentified.
In 2013, Benedict XVI became the first pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontificate. (Benedict was succeeded the following month by Pope Francis.)
In 2014, delivering a blunt warning to Moscow, President Barack Obama expressed deep concern over reported military activity inside Ukraine by Russia and warned “there will be costs” for any intervention.
Today’s birthdays:
Architect Frank Gehry is 96.
Rock singer Sam the Sham (aka Domingo Samudio) is 88.
Actor-director-choreographer Tommy Tune is 86.
Hall of Fame auto racer Mario Andretti is 85.
Actor Mercedes Ruehl is 77.
Actor-singer Bernadette Peters is 77.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is 72.
Basketball Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley is 70.
Actor John Turturro is 68.
Actor Maxine Bahns is 55.
Actor Robert Sean Leonard is 56.
Musician Pat Monahan (Train) is 56.
Actor Tasha Smith is 54.
Hockey Hall of Famer Eric Lindros is 52.
Actor Ali Larter is 49.
Country musician Jason Aldean is 48.
NBA guard Luka Dončić is 26.
A cult flag flies over the Branch Davidian compound in Waco on March 08, 1993 . After a shootout in Waco in 1993 that killed four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days. On the final day, 19 April 1993, a few hours after a government tank rammed the cult’s wooden fortress, the siege ended in a fiery blaze, killing Koresh and 80 of his followers. (Photo by BOB STRONG / AFP) (Photo by BOB STRONG/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday extended a state visit invitation to President Donald Trump on behalf of King Charles.
Trump accepted the invitation, which came at the start of a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Starmer at the White House.
Starmer called the invitation for a second state visit to Trump, who already received the honor during his first term, as “historic” and “unprecedented.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is visiting the White House on Thursday to try to convince President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.
“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump said Wednesday as he held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. “For Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much (land) back as possible.”
But the Republican president’s rapprochement with Russia has unsettled America’s historic allies in Europe. They have found themselves on their heels with Trump returning to the White House with a determination to dramatically make over U.S. foreign policy to correspond with his “America First” world view.
The Trump administration held talks last week with Russia without Ukrainian or other European allies represented. And this week, the U.S. refused to sign on to resolutions at the United Nations blaming Russia for the war, which began three years ago when Moscow invaded. The drifting White House view of Ukraine under Trump is leading to a tectonic shift in transatlantic relations.
His administration is pushing back on the notion that Trump is ignoring Europe or is too eager in his push for settlement talks with Putin.
“He hasn’t conceded anything to anyone,” Vice President JD Vance said. “He’s doing the job of a diplomat.”
Trump’s meeting with Starmer comes a day before a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two leaders are expected to sign off Friday on a contentious agreement that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, which are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. Zelenskyy had chafed at signing off on an agreement without specific security guarantees from Washington.
Trump was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees. “I’m not going to make security guarantees … very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”
If a truce can be reached, Starmer and Macron have agreed to send troops for a potential peacekeeping mission to Ukraine to ensure that fighting between Ukraine and Russia doesn’t flare up again.
But White House officials are skeptical that Britain and France can assemble enough troops from across Europe, at least at this moment, to deploy a credible peacekeeping mission to Kyiv.
It will likely take a “consensual peace settlement” between Russia and Ukraine before many nations would be willing to seriously providing such forces, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Zelenskyy, while en route to Washington, met on Thursday with Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, who said he told Zelenskyy that Ireland is open to helping, including sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy and European officials have no illusions about U.S. troops taking part in such a mission. But Starmer and others are trying to make the case that the plan can only work with a U.S. backstop for European forces on the ground — through U.S. aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case of breaches of a truce.
Trump is also looking at the moment as an opportunity to potentially reopen economic relations with Russia after three years of U.S.-led sanction efforts to punish Moscow for the invasion.
“I think there’ll be plenty of of economic cooperation opportunities between the two countries,” Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said in an appearance Thursday on Fox News.
Starmer is hosting a Sunday meeting in the United Kingdom of international leaders that will focus on Ukraine. Zelenskyy is expected to attend. The prime minister also announced plans this week for the U.K. to bolster defense spending. That should sit well with Trump, who has been critical that European allies are spending too little on defense.
Starmer’s government will increase military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, years earlier than expected, and aim to reach 3% by 2035.
Beyond the war in Ukraine, Starmer said the talks will home in on “a stable economy, secure borders and national security,” as well as cooperation on AI and other cutting-edge technology. He will stress that Europe must “play its part on global defense and step up for the good of collective European security.”
“The world is becoming ever more dangerous, and it is more important than ever that we are united with our allies,” Starmer said.
Starmer is also keen to discuss “the opportunities that further technology and AI partnerships could deliver,” his office said, including ambitious but vague “shared moonshot missions across top technologies including quantum and AI, and a deeper partnership on space.”
Britain has signaled it aims to eschew the European Union’s high-regulation approach to AI as it seeks to become a leader in the field.
The U.K. joined the U.S. in refusing to sign a joint declaration at an artificial intelligence summit hosted by Macron in Paris this month in what was seen as an attempt to curry favor with Washington and seek investment from American tech companies. Starmer’s office said the prime minister “will make the case for further integration between the two countries’ tech sectors to make them the most efficient, ambitious technology sectors in the world.”
Peter Mandelson, Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., said the two allies should stand “shoulder to shoulder” at “a very, very significant moment for our lives, between our two countries and indeed for all the freedom-loving democracies in the world.”
“We share people, we share cultures, we share a lot of intelligence, we share technologies, and … we also share some of the fighting of our adversaries as well,” Mandelson said.
Associated Press writer Panagiotis Pylas in London contributed to this report.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, is greeted by President Donald Trump as he arrives at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Senate unanimously confirmed Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as Air Force chief of staff in 2020, President Donald Trump hailed a “historic day for America!” on social media and said he was ”Excited to work even more closely with Gen. Brown, who is a Patriot and Great Leader!”
Trump’s Feb. 21 social media post firing Brown, who had since risen to the military’s top uniformed officer, was comparatively reserved. The Republican president dismissed Brown, the second African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with five other Pentagon officials in a rare move that some critics fear pushes politics into an institution vaunted for its nonpartisanship and adherence to the Constitution.
On Capitol Hill, the move drew little criticism from many Republican senators who had once hailed Brown’s service to the nation.
“My understanding is the president does have the ability to decide who he wants to be as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Gen. Brown, I believe, has done an excellent job,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
“I would’ve been more than happy if the president had left him right in there. But the president has the ability and the authority to make up his own mind as to who he wants,” said Rounds, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., compared the firings to the way President Barack Obama, a Democrat, shook up military leadership as he pursued military gains in Afghanistan. He said he was still trying to understand whether Trump’s dismissals were really without precedent.
“I don’t know if I should be concerned or not, if it’s really far afield from what you normally see in transitions,” Tillis said.
Fired alongside Brown were five other top officials: Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy; Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force; and the top judge advocate generals, who advise the military on how to legally conduct their actions, for the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
But it was Brown’s dismissal that attracted the most attention, given that Trump campaigned heavily on removing “woke” generals from the military. Brown rose to the job after a career as one of the Air Force’s top aviators, but he drew conservative ire for speaking about his experiences as a Black man in the military after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., lambasted Brown’s firing. She said the message from the White House to rank-and-file troops is clear: “Your expertise and service is not what’s important. What’s important is your political loyalty to Donald Trump.”
Brown was only the second African American to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman, after the late Army Gen. Colin Powell. He was confirmed for the job in 2023 with significant bipartisan support, but few Republicans came to his defense after his firing.
Many Republicans emphasized that Trump has the right, as the commander-in-chief, to dismiss Brown.
“I think the president is entitled to have his team, including on the Joint Chiefs,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “And I thought the president handled that well, thanked him for service and a distinguished career, but it’s probably time for change.”
Hawley did not specify why Brown had to be removed before his four-year tenure as chairman expired but said he expected Trump would provide some explanation.
Trump’s firings did draw some pushback, if muted. A bipartisan group of House members sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling for “clear, transparent and apolitical” criteria for the removal of top military officials.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, from right, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown gives his opening statement before the start of their meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“An apolitical military is an essential component of our democracy and our national security,” wrote a group of six lawmakers that included Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., alongside moderate Democrats.
And Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Brown and the other officers fired had been doing a “good job.”
“It’s the president’s prerogative and I recognize that,” Collins said. “But I do not think based on the merits that the decision to fire them was warranted.”
Others cheered Trump’s dismissals. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a former Navy SEAL, slammed the Pentagon’s leadership under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, saying “the folks from that era just need to go away.”
“We need a clean slate at the DOD,” Van Orden said, referring to the Department of Defense.
Hegseth, who was confirmed by the Senate as defense secretary in a dramatic tie-breaking vote despite questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon and allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women, has defended Trump’s firings.
Trump said his nominee to replace Brown will be retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, whom Trump first met during a trip to Iraq. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, notably flying above the nation’s capital in the hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
While Caine’s military service includes combat roles in Iraq, special operations postings and positions inside some of the Pentagon’s most classified special access programs, he lacks key assignments that are required by law to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman. Trump can waive those requirements — but no waiver was required when Brown was confirmed under Biden, as he had fulfilled all the criteria.
Caine’s lack of command roles is a gap but also gives him more independence than his predecessors, said retired Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville, who is a friend and flew F-16s on Sept. 11 with Caine.
“He never asked for the job. Never politicked for it,” Sasseville said. “This is not how he is going to define himself.”
But Democratic senators say the firings are an ominous sign, given that Trump has long made clear his desire to involve the military in his domestic policy goals, including his crackdown on immigration.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the firings a “travesty” that “will have a ripple effect throughout the military in recruiting and retaining really qualified, able men and women, because it sends a message that political kowtowing to the president is more important than ability and skill.”
Blumenthal said Republican colleagues had expressed “deep misgivings” to him but would not air those concerns publicly.
Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed to this report.
FILE – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, speaks during a hearing, May 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is abandoning cases that sought to force police and fire departments to end what the Biden administration alleged were discriminatory hiring processes, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday in the latest move by the Trump administration to end government support for efforts to increase diversity.
A Justice Department official said the administration is walking away from four cases, including one that led to a settlement agreement resolving an investigation into discriminatory hiring practices affecting Black and female applicants to the Maryland State Police. It’s part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back initiatives and programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, which Republicans contend threaten merit-based hiring.
“American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety – not to meet DEI quotas,” the attorney general said in an emailed statement.
In the Maryland case, the Biden administration announced in October that it had reached an agreement with state police to change the ways applicants are tested after the department alleged police used a written test that discriminated against Black candidates and a physical fitness test that discriminated against female applicants.
The Biden administration found the tests disqualified Black and female applicants from the hiring process at significantly disproportionate rates, concluding that the tests violated a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, and religion.
Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said in a social media post that the Biden administration had sought to punish police and fire departments “for using race-neutral hiring tools,” even though he said there is “no evidence that the departments engaged in intentional discrimination.”
Maryland State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
Other cases were related to fire or police departments in North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana, Mizelle said.
Trump signed an order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference regarding immigration enforcement at the Justice Department, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in their New Mexico home, authorities said Thursday.
Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing.
Hackman, 95, was found dead with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog when deputies preformed a welfare check at the home around 1:45 p.m., Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the finest actors of his generation, appearing as both villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for The French Connection and Unforgiven 21 years apart. His death comes just four days before this years ceremony.
The couples home is in a gated community just outside New Mexicos capital city. Hackman moved to the area in the 1980s, where he was often seen around town and served as a board member of the Georgia OKeeffe Museum in the 1990s, according to the local paper, The New Mexican.
Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired about 20 years ago. His was the rare Hollywood retirement that actually lasted.
In his later years, he wrote novels from the hilltop ranch that provided a view of the Rocky Mountains.
An email sent to his publicist was not immediately returned early Thursday.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Trump administration’s demand that federal agencies plan to radically downsize is driven by a key figure in the conservative movement who has long planned this move.
In President Donald Trump’s first term, Russell Vought was a largely behind-the-scenes player who eventually became director of the influential but underappreciated Office of Management and Budget. He is back in that job in Trump’s second term after being the principal author of Project 2025, the conservative governing blueprint that Trump insisted during the 2024 campaign was not part of his agenda.
The memo Vought co-signed Wednesday is the clearest assertion of his power and the latest seminal writing for a man who argues the federal bureaucracy is an existential threat to the country itself and that it should dramatically downsize. An OMB spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here is the context of the Wednesday memo and Vought’s previous work:
To Vought, the federal bureaucracy is itself a constitutional crisis
In Wednesday’s memo, Vought framed the federal government as “costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt” and declared that it is “not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs.”
He used similar language in passages of Project 2025 and in a 104-page budget plan proposed by his think tank, the Center for Renewing America, in 2022.
“The overall situation is constitutionally dire, unsustainably expensive, and in urgent need of repair. Nothing less than the survival of self-governance in America is at stake,” he wrote in Project 2025.
That tracks with what Vought said before Trump again nominated him to the role in November.
In a post-election appearance with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, Vought was even more explicit: “The left has innovated over 100 years to create this administrative state … that is totally unaccountable to the president.”
Vought made clear he would leverage a second chance at OMB
In Project 2025, Vought wrote that OMB “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and that “the Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind.”
OMB, he wrote, should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”
He told Carlson that “OMB is the nerve center of the federal budget” and that “it has the ability to turn off the spending that is going on at the agencies” and control “all of government execution.”
Presidents, he said, “use OMB to tame the bureaucracy, the administrative state.”
Speaking with Carlson, Vought described the approach as “radical constitutionalism.”
In his Project 2025 writing, Vought says the OMB director “should present a fiscal goal to the President early in the budget development process” without specifying a date.
Vought has praised DOGE and pushed back at Trump critics
Asked after the election about the president’s proposal to empower billionaire Trump aide Elon Musk and, at the time, former presidential GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with sweeping power over the federal government, Vought was on board.
“I think they’re bringing an exhilarating rush … of creativity, outside the box thinking, comfortability with risk and leverage,” he told Carlson.
As for concerns over constitutional separation of powers, meaning those who believe Trump’s White House seeks to takeover spending decisions that rest with Congress, Vought said, “separation of powers is meant to have strong, opinionated conviction and leadership that go as fast as they can and hard as they can in their direction.”
The memo goes into more detail than previous Vought writing
Vought’s latest memo requires agencies to submit an initial overhaul plan by mid-March. This so-called “Phase I” deadline was introduced by Trump.
So-called “Phase II” plans are due by April 14. Among other details, they must include a “future-state organizational chart” and documentation of “all reductions, including (full-time) positions, term and temporary positions, reemployed annuitants, real estate footprint, and contracts.”
Vought invokes religious imagery and texts with his agenda
The latest OMB memo does not venture into religious texts or assertions. But Vought is an outspoken conservative Christian and invokes his faith as part of his governing philosophy.
The Center for Renewing America’s 2022 budget outline begins by quoting the Old Testament, specifically the eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel, to set up a critique of the federal government’s size and scope:
“He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to the officers and to his servants … He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day, you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves.”
FILE – Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s choice for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, appears before the Senate Budget Committee during a hearing to examine his nomination, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, file)
In a report to the White House, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called for a rewrite of the agency’s finding that determined planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, according to four people who were briefed on the matter but spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the recommendation is not public.
The 2009 finding under the Clean Air Act is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources.
A spokesperson for the EPA on Wednesday declined to reveal Zeldin’s recommendation, which was made last week under an executive order from Republican President Donald Trump. The order, issued on Trump’s first day in office, directed the EPA to submit a report “on the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding.
The Washington Post first reported that Zeldin had urged the White House to strike down the endangerment finding.
The Obama-era finding “is the linchpin of the federal government’s policies for what the president and I call the climate hoax,” said Steve Milloy, a former Trump transition adviser who disputes mainstream science on climate change.
“If you pull this (finding) out, everything EPA does on climate goes away,” Milloy told the AP.
Myron Ebell, another former Trump transition adviser who has questioned the science behind climate change, said he was “very excited” at Zeldin’s apparent recommendation.
“It’s the basis of all the economically damaging rules to regulate carbon dioxide,” Ebell said, calling repealing “a hard step, but a very big step.”
Environmental groups and legal experts said any attempt to repeal or roll back the endangerment finding would be an uphill task with a slim chance of success.
“This would be a fool’s errand,” said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “In the face of overwhelming science, it’s impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding that would stand up in court.”
Trump, who has repeatedly denounced what he calls a “green new scam” pushed by Democrats and environmentalists, may view a repeal of the endangerment finding as a “kill shot” that would allow him to make all climate regulations invalid, Doniger said.
“But it’s a real long shot for them,” he added, noting that courts repeatedly have upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate pollution from greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
“The directive to reconsider the endangerment finding comes straight from Project 2025 and is both cynical and deeply concerning given the mountain of scientific evidence supporting the finding, the devastating climate harms Americans are experiencing right now and EPA’s clear obligation to protect Americans’ health and welfare,” said Peter Zalzal, a senior lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, another environmental group.
Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for a hard-right turn in American government and society, includes a recommendation to reconsider the endangerment finding.
Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the UCLA School of Law, said any effort to overturn the endangerment finding would “raise more havoc — part of the administration’s overall strategy to flood the zone” with chaotic actions and directives.
“The science could not be clearer that greenhouse gas emissions have already led the earth to warm — so much so that it now appears we have breached the 1.5 Celsius limit” set by the global community in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, Carlson said.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change on the ground and across the globe in the form of hotter temperatures, more frequent drought, more intense flooding, fiercer hurricanes and more intense wildfires,” she said,
If the endangerment finding is upended, “the havoc will happen sooner and more sweepingly,” she said.
FILE – EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks at the East Palestine Fire Department in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2025. (Rebecca Droke/Pool Photo via AP, File)
LONDON (AP) — No matter your ailment, there are plenty of TV doctors waiting to treat you right now on a selection of channels and streamers.
Whether it’s Noah Wyle putting on his stethoscope for the first time since “ER,” Morris Chestnut graduating to head doctor, Molly Parker making her debut in scrubs or Joshua Jackson trading death for life on a luxury cruise, new American hospital dramas have something for everyone.
There’s also an outsider trying to make a difference in “Berlin ER,” as Haley Louise Jones plays the new boss of a struggling German hospital’s emergency department. The show’s doors slide open to patients Wednesday on Apple TV+.
These shows all contain the DNA of classic hospital dramas — and this guide will help you get the TV treatment you need.
This image released by Apple TV+ shows Haley Louise Jones as Dr Suzanna Parker in a scene from “Berlin ER.” (Apple TV+ via AP)
“Berlin ER”
Dr. Suzanna “Zanna” Parker has been sent to run the Krank, which is only just being held together by hardened — and authority-resistant — medical staff and supplies from a sex shop. The result is an unflinching drama set in an underfunded, underappreciated and understaffed emergency department, where the staff is as traumatized as the patients, but hide it much better.
From former real-life ER doc Samuel Jefferson and also starring Slavko Popadić, Şafak Şengül, Aram Tafreshian and Samirah Breuer, the German-language show is not for the faint of heart.
Jones says she eventually got used to the blood and gore on the set.
“It’s gruesome in the beginning, highly unnerving. And then at some point, it’s just the most normal thing in the world,” she explains. “That’s flesh. That’s the rest of someone’s leg, you know, let’s just move on and have coffee or whatever.”
As it’s set in the German clubbing capital, the whole city seems to live at a frenetic pace and the staff deals with the pressure by partying. The music, the lighting and the pulse of the drama also rubs off on the audience.
“When I saw it the first time I was sitting there, my heart was racing,” says Jones of watching the program. “I knew what was coming, but I just, you know, my body just reacted. And I think that really says a lot.”
Would she agree to be treated by Dr. Parker? Jones reckons it depends on what day you catch her.
DIAGNOSIS:“This is Going To Hurt” gets the “ER” treatment — side effects include breathlessness and heartbreak.
This image released by Max shows Noah Wyle, left, Mackenzie Astin and Rebecca Tilney, right, in a scene from “The Pitt.” (Warrick Page/MAX via AP)
“The Pitt”
Emergencies are often against the clock, but in “The Pitt,” they are on a timer. Attached to a bomb.
Each episode shows an hour of Dr. Michael Robinavitch’s emergency room shift on one of the worst days of his life. After avoiding all doctor roles since the finale of “ER” in 2009, Wyle pulls on the navy hoodie of a weary Dr. Robby — this time in Pittsburgh.
Initially an idea for a “ER” reboot with producer John Wells, the show morphed into a fresh take on the challenges medical professionals face in the wake of the world-shifting pandemic.
“It felt a little sacrilegious to try to walk back into that arena prematurely,” says Wyle. “It was really only thoughtfully, soberly, cautiously and meticulously that we attempted it again.”
Robby is calm and competent in showing his medical students how it’s done, while keeping his own mental health crisis hidden. Not that there are many places to hide: Wyle explains that they are setting themselves apart from other hospital dramas by turning up the lights, cutting the mood-telegraphing music and showing the real dimensions of the department.
“All of those kind of lend themselves to doing something different,” he says. “Rattling the cage, you know, trying to put a new spin on an old form.”
Joining him in Max’s “The Pitt” are co-stars Tracy Ifeachor, Katharine LaNasa, Patrick Ball and Supriya Ganesh.
As for his own medical knowledge, Wyle says there are procedures he feels adept at least pretending to do. With the amount of time he’s spent playing a doctor, he could have earned his own degree by now.
“I’ve been doing this long enough,” he says. “So I’m either the worst student or one of the best doctor actors around.”
DIAGNOSIS: With front-line workers against the clock, it has a similar pathology to both “ER” and “24.”
This image released by CBS shows Morris Chestnut as Dr. John Watson in a scene from “Watson.” (Colin Bentley/CBS via AP)
“Watson”
Also in Pittsburgh, you’ll find The Holmes Clinic for Diagnostic Medicine, where it’s still life-and-death, but your heart rate can afford to slow a little.
It’s run by Dr. John Watson, former colleague of Sherlock Holmes, the famous sleuth who has bequeathed the funding for the medical center.
Chestnut plays the lead “doc-tective,” as he puts it, leading a team trying to solve medical mysteries while avoiding old foe Moriarty (Randall Park) — Watson is still dealing with a traumatic brain injury from their last encounter.
And Chestnut is no stranger to the long words and Latin terms that accompany hospital dramas. Chestnut was a nurse in “ER,” a former army doc in “Nurse Jackie” and a pathologist in “Rosewood.” More recently, he was the ruthless and talented neurosurgeon Barrett Cain on “The Resident.”
Luckily, his Watson has a better beside manner and uses cutting-edge science to help puzzle out a unique selection of patients, alongside his staff, played by Eve Harlow, Inga Schlingmann and Peter Mark Kendall.
The Sherlock mythology is provided by show creator, Arthur Conan Doyle fan and ex-“Elementary” writer Craig Sweeny, who brings a case-of-the-week style to the program. Chestnut reckons it’s this literary twist on the medical mystery formula that sets it apart from “House MD,” whose lead character was more of a Sherlock.
And he wouldn’t hesitate to be treated by Dr. Watson because “he wants to understand you as a person” and “truly cares” about his patients.
DIAGNOSIS: More tests needed to confirm if “Elementary” or “House” is the leading condition.
This image released by Fox shows Molly Parker in a scene from “Doc.” (Peter H. Stranks/Fox via AP)
“Doc”
Over her 30-year career, Molly Parker has never played a doctor before. In “Doc,” based on a true story, she jumped right in with the top job, chief of internal medicine, at Minneapolis’ Westside Hospital.
A car crash causes the overachieving, work-centric Dr. Amy Larsen to lose eight years of her memory, turning her into a patient with a traumatic brain injury. Parker portrays both versions of Larsen through Fox’s debut season — the career woman in flashback and the mother learning to trust again in the present.
The focus of the show is on feelings over physical ailments, as Larsen has to deal, all over again, with the loss of her son.
“What I liked about this is that it has all the elements of that genre, like it has the high stakes and the mystery illness and the romantic love triangle,” explains Parker, who stars alongside Anya Banerjee, Jon-Michael Ecker, Amirah Vann and Omar Metwally. “But at the center of it is this woman who is going through this really profound grief.”
Parker has learned “not to diagnose yourself on the internet,” a deeper respect for health care workers and that playing a doctor is not easy.
“The most you can do is sort of try to get the words right sometimes,” she says with a smile, admitting she still can’t pronounce the name of one particular drug.
“It’s, like, so important in the entire season,” Parker adds, “and I said it wrong every single time.”
DIAGNOSIS: For fans of “Grey’s Anatomy,” where complications come from relationships rather than infections.
This image released by Disney shows Kate Berlant, left, and Joshua Jackson in a scene from “Doctor Odyssey.” (Ray Mickshaw/Disney via AP)
“Doctor Odyssey”
An honorable mention goes to Dr. Max Bankman of “Doctor Odyssey,” who set sail at the end of 2024 and is finishing up Season One’s maiden voyage March 6 on ABC.
Joshua Jackson, who previously portrayed real-life man of malpractice Christopher Duntsch in “Dr. Death,” is on board as the accomplished and smiley new head of a luxury cruise liner’s medical team. “Doctor Odyssey” comes from super producer Ryan Murphy and is set in the same world as his “9-1-1” franchise, with an upcoming crossover episode starring Angela Bassett.
Phillipa Soo and Sean Teale complete the ship’s medical threesome contending with a surprisingly frequent number of bizarre illnesses and accidents that befall the guest stars (episode one: a broken penis). Jackson acknowledges the cases are “absurd and fun and wild and over-the-top,” much to the amusement of his brother, who runs an actual ER.
But that is the appeal, he says, for viewers to “exhale” and find “welcome relief” from the stress of real life.
“To have this, you know, pretty bauble in the middle of your week to just come in and go on an adventure,” Jackson explains. “The stakes are high, the relationships are intense. Everything’s very dramatic. And 42 minutes later, you realize you’re just in the most beautiful place in the world.”
Unfortunately, his own medical skills remain more Dr. Death than Dr. Bankman.
“I could really, really, deeply mess somebody up,” he says. “I have just enough terminology and jargon to sound like I know what I’m doing, but none of the practical skills.”
Jackson wouldn’t hesitate to put his own health in the hands of Dr. Bankman, though, citing the miracles he’s able to perform weekly on The Odyssey.
DIAGNOSIS: Call “9-1-1” for a therapeutic trip on “The Love Boat.”
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