A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore The Associated Press full access to cover presidential events, ruling on a case that touched at the heart of the First Amendment and affirming that the government cannot punish the news organization for the content of its speech.

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled that the government can't retaliate against the APs decision not to follow the presidents executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The decision handed the AP a major victory at a time the White House has been challenging the press on several levels  and drew applause from inside the press area at the White House on Tuesday.

Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalistsbe it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhereit cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints, McFadden wrote. The Constitution requires no less.

RELATED STORY | White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on 'Gulf of America'

The AP has been blocked since Feb. 11 from being among the small group of journalists to cover Trump in the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One, with sporadic ability to cover him at events in East Room.

The organization had asked McFadden to rule that Trump had violated APs constitutional right to free speech by taking the action because he disagreed with the words that its journalists use. He had earlier declined APs request to reverse the changes through an injunction.

It was unclear whether the White House would move to put McFaddens ruling into effect. McFadden held off on implementing his order immediately and gave the government a week to respond.

Budget carrier Avelo Airlines signed an agreement to fly federal deportation flights from Arizona starting in May, according to the company, whose founder acknowledged the decision may be controversial.

Andrew Levy, also CEO of the Houston-based airline, said Avelo is flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys Immigration Control and Enforcement agency as part of a long-term charter program to support the agency's deportation efforts. The company decided the move would help with expansion and protect jobs, he said.

We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic," Levy said in a statement.

The domestic and international flights will be supported by three Boeing 737-800 planes and based at Mesa Gateway Airport, Avelo said in a statement.

RELATED STORY | Supreme Court lifts order blocking deportations under 18th century wartime law

In an online job listing for the Arizona operation, Avelo states that the flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHSs deportation efforts.

Tom Cartwright, a flight data analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles, said he isn't aware of any other commercial airlines that have provided such flights for ICE in the past five years he's been tracking flights. He called the decision by Avelo unusual" considering charter companies the public likely hasn't heard of typically make these flights.

They may fly a flight with all migrants or deportation flights today and they might fly fans to the Masters golf tournament tomorrow, he said of the charters. They dont sell tickets in a retail manner like Avelo does.

In New Haven, Connecticut, where Avelo flies out of Tweed New Haven Airport, Democratic Mayor Justin Elicker said he called Levy over the weekend to express his opposition to the arrangement and urged the CEO to reconsider.

RELATED STORY | El Salvador's president to visit White House amid Trump immigration crackdown

Avelo Airlines decision to charter deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing. For a company that champions themselves as New Havens hometown airline, this business decision in antithetical to New Havens values, Elicker said in a statement.

Travel should be about bringing people together, not tearing families apart, he added.

A local immigrant advocacy group called the New Haven Immigrants coalition is urging people to sign an online petition pledging to boycott the airline.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ This story has been corrected to show the airport name is Mesa Gateway Airport.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an order for the Trump administration to return to work thousands of federal employees who were let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government.

The justices acted in the administrations emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California ordering that 16,000 probationary employees be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didnt follow federal law.

The effect of the high courts order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge's order in place.

RELATED STORY | Supreme Court lifts order blocking deportations under 18th century wartime law

A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. But that order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration.

The Justice Department is separately appealing the Maryland order.

At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director. He ordered rehiring at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

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His order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations that argued theyd be affected by the reduced manpower.

Alsup, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, expressed frustration with what he called the governments attempt to sidestep laws and regulations by firing probationary workers with fewer legal protections.

He said he was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.

The administration has insisted that the agencies themselves directed the firings and they have since decided to stand by those terminations, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.

At least 58 people died and 160 others were injured in the Dominican capital early Tuesday when the roof collapsed at an iconic nightclub where politicians, athletes and others were attending a merengue concert, authorities said.

Crews were searching for potential survivors in the rubble at the one-story Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Mndez, director of the Center of Emergency Operations.

We presume that many of them are still alive, and that is why the authorities here will not give up until not a single person remains under that rubble, he said.

Nearly 12 hours after the top of the nightclub collapsed down onto patrons, rescue crews were still pulling out survivors from the debris. At the scene, firefighters removed blocks of broken concrete and sawed planks of wood to use them as planks to lift heavy debris as the noise of drills breaking through concrete filled the air.

The confirmed death toll had reached 44, Mndez said in the early afternoon. Earlier, officials had said there were at least 160 people injured.

Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi and sister of seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz, was among the victims. She had called President Luis Abinader at 12:49 a.m. saying she was trapped and that the roof had collapsed, First Lady Raquel Abraje told reporters. Officials said Cruz died later at the hospital.

This is too great a tragedy, Abraje said in a broken voice.

The Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic posted on X that MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel died. Officials had earlier rescued Dotel from the debris and transported him to a hospital.

Meanwhile, the injured include legislator Bray Vargas and merengue singer Rubby Prez, who was performing when the roof collapsed, officials said.

His manager, Enrique Paulino, whose shirt was spattered with blood, told reporters at the scene that the concert began shortly before midnight, with the roof collapsing almost an hour later, killing the group's saxophonist.

It happened so quickly. I managed to throw myself into a corner, he said, adding that he initially thought it was an earthquake.

It wasnt immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse.

Jet Set issued a statement saying it was cooperating with authorities. The loss of human life leaves us in a state of deep pain and dismay, it said.

It wasn't clear when the Jet Set building was last inspected.

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration's actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.

More than 1,200 Hands Off! demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.

Protesters assailed the Trump administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.

Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

Speaking at the Washington protest, Paul Osadebe, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a labor union steward, criticized Trump, Musk and others in the administration for not valuing the work federal employees do in creating a baseline of economic security and power for working people.

Billionaires and oligarchs don't value anything other than profit and power, and they sure as hell don't value you or your life or your community, he said. And we're seeing that they don't care who they have to destroy or who they have to hurt to get what they want.

In Massachusetts, thousands of people gathered on Boston Common holding signs including Hands off our democracy, Hands off our Social Security and Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off! In Ohio, hundreds rallied in rainy conditions at the Statehouse in Columbus.

Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, said at the Columbus rally that he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.

RELATED STORY |Senate GOP approves framework for Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts after late-night session

Hes tearing this country apart, Broom said. Its just an administration of grievances.

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump's golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club's Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.

Archer Moran from Port St. Lucie, Florida, said, They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security."

The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long, Moran said. And it's amazing how soon these protests are happening since hes taken office.

The president plans to go golfing again Sunday, according to the White House.

Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that President Trumps position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.

RELATED STORY | IRS plans major cuts: 75% of employees from civil rights office to be laid off

Senate Republicans plugged away overnight and into early Saturday morning to approve their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework, hurtling past Democratic opposition toward what President Donald Trump calls the big, beautiful bill that's central to his agenda.

The vote, 51-48, fell along mostly party lines, but with sharp dissent from two prominent Republicans. It could not have come at a more difficult political moment, with the economy churning after Trump's new tariffs sent stocks plummeting and experts warning of soaring costs for consumers and threats of a potential recession. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky both voted against the measure.

But with a nod from Trump, GOP leaders held on. Approval paves the way for Republicans in the months ahead to try to power a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress over the objections of Democrats, just as they did in Trumps first term with unified party control in Washington.

RELATED STORY | House Republicans face budget vote amid economic concerns

Let the voting begin," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday night.

Democrats were intent on making the effort as politically painful as possible, with action on some two dozen amendments to the package that GOP senators will have to defend before next years midterm elections.

Among them were proposals to ban tax breaks for the super-wealthy, end Trump's tariffs, clip his efforts to shrink the federal government, and protect Medicaid, Social Security and other services. One, in response to the Trump national security team's use of Signal, sought to prohibit military officials from using any commercial messaging application to transmit war plans. They all failed, though a GOP amendment to protect Medicare and Medicaid was accepted.

Democrats accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for cutting key safety net programs to help pay for more than $5 trillion tax cuts they say disproportionately benefit the rich.

Trump's policies are a disaster," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, as is Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, he added. Republicans could snuff it out tonight, if they wanted.

The Republicans framed their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families, arguing that unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that GOP lawmakers passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year.

RELATED STORY | White House defends Trump's tariffs as stocks crater for second straight day

The Senate package pulls in other GOP priorities, including $175 billion to bolster Trump's mass deportation effort, which is running short of cash, and an additional $175 billion for the Pentagon to build up the military, from an earlier budget effort.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 ranking Republican, said voters gave his party a mission in November, and the Senate's budget plan delivers.

It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength, Barrasso said.

The framework now goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could bring it up for a vote as soon as next week as he works toward a final product by Memorial Day.

The House and Senate need to resolve their differences. The House's version has $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years and some $2 trillion in budget cuts, and pointed at changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. Some House Republicans have panned the Senate's approach.

Republican senators used their majority to swat back Democratic amendments, often in rambunctious voice votes.

Among the more than two dozen amendments offered were several to protect safety net programs. Several Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, joined Democrats in voting to preserve some of those programs, particularly regarding health care. Collins opposed the entire package in a warning against steep Medicaid cuts.

Collins said the potential reductions for that health program in the House bill would be very detrimental to a lot of families and disabled individuals and seniors in my state.

Paul questioned the math being used by his colleagues that he said would pile on the debt load. Something's fishy, he said.

Torrential rains and flash flooding battered parts of the Midwest and South on Friday, killing a boy in Kentucky who was swept away as he walked to catch his school bus. Many communities were left reeling from tornadoes that destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed at least seven people earlier this week.

Round after round of heavy rains have pounded the central U.S. for days, and forecasters warned that it could persist through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

In Frankfort, Kentucky, a 9-year-old boy died in the morning after floodwaters swept him away while he was walking to a school bus stop, Gov. Andy Beshear said on social media. Officials said Gabriel Andrews' body was found about a half-mile from where he went missing.

The downtown area of Hopkinsville, Kentucky a city of 31,000 residents 72 miles northwest of Nashville was submerged. A dozen people were rescued from homes, and dozens of pets were moved away from rising water, a fire official said.

The main arteries through Hopkinsville are probably 2 feet under water, Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam said earlier.

Tony Kirves and some friends used sandbags and a vacuum to try to hold back rising waters that covered the basement and seeped into the ground floor of his photography business in Hopkinsville. Downtown was like a lake, he said.

Were holding ground, he said. Were trying to maintain and keep it out the best we can."

A corridor from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southeast Missouri, which has a population of about 2.3 million, could see clusters of severe thunderstorms late Friday. The National Weather Services Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center warned of the potential for intense tornadoes and large hail.

The seven people killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were completely wiped out and it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued.

Flash flood threat looms over many states

Heavy rains were expected to continue in parts of Missouri, Kentucky and elsewhere in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods. The weather service said 45 river locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads and other critical infrastructure possible.

In Christian County, which includes Hopkinsville, 6 to 10 inches fell since Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service said Friday afternoon. The rain caused the Little River to surge over its banks, and 4 to 8 inches more could fall by Sunday, it said.

A pet boarding business was under water, forcing rescuers to move dozens of dogs to a local animal shelter, said Gilliam, the county executive. Crews rescued people from four or five vehicles and multiple homes, mostly by boat, said Randy Graham, the emergency management director in Christian County.

This is the worst Ive ever seen downtown, Gilliam said.

Hundreds of Kentucky roads were impassable because of floodwaters, downed trees or mud and rock slides, and the number of closures were likely to increase with more rain late Friday and Saturday, Beshear said.

A landslide blocked a nearly 3-mile stretch of Mary Ingles Highway in the state's north, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. A landslide closed the same section of road in 2019, and it reopened last year, WLWT-TV reported.

Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural Kentucky where water can rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding in the eastern part of the state.

Extreme flooding across a corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis which have major cargo hubs could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Swollen rivers and tributaries also swamped some parts in Ohio, and Gov. Mike DeWine said about 70 roads were closed. The southern half of the state was expected to see moderate flooding, which has not happened in four years, he added.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. At least 318 tornado warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service since this weeks outbreak began Wednesday.

The outburst comes at a time when nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates after Trump administration job cuts twice that of just a decade ago.

RELATED STORY | Forecasters predict another active hurricane season for the Atlantic basin in 2025

Tornadoes leave a path of damage, and more could be coming

Homes were ripped to their foundations this week in Selmer, which was hit by a tornado with winds estimated up to 160 mph, according to the weather service. Advance warning of storms likely saved lives, as hundreds of people sheltered at a courthouse, the governor said.

In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The states emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.

Mississippi's governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.

As the Trump administration weighs the future of the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters, it is ending a key program that has been used by communities across the country to pay for projects designed to help them prepare for natural disasters like flooding and fires.

In a news release Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, calling the move part of efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters," the agency said in a statement.

In addition to ending the program going forward, FEMA said it was also cancelling all applications to the program from 2020 to 2023 and that money that was awarded as part of grants but not already distributed would be immediately returned to the federal government.

The program was started under the first Trump administration and then expanded under the Biden administration.

RELATED STORY | President Trump proposes 'getting rid of FEMA' while visiting North Carolina

About $1 billion had been allocated to the program as part of the Biden administration's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021. According to FEMA, about $133 million has already been handed out to about 450 applicants across the country.

Communities across the country have used program funds to help their cities and towns mitigate disasters, such as raising roads to keep them out of floodwaters or building underground storage units to prepare for droughts.

The announcement didn't detail what exactly the agency found to be wasteful, but the Trump administration has targeted programs or funding across the federal government that goes to address climate change or that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

Under the Biden administration, the BRIC program was a key part of the government's efforts to address climate change and while grants were awarded to a wide range of communities across the country, there was a special emphasis on helping historically underserved communities.

The cuts come as the future of FEMA itself is in question. President Donald Trump has questioned whether to disband it entirely and give money directly to states to handle disasters. Trump has created a council to study what to do with FEMA and whether to get rid of it.

President Donald Trumps administration has decided not to cover expensive, high-demand obesity treatments under the federal government's Medicare program.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said late Friday that it would not cover the medications under Medicares Part D prescription drug coverage. Medicare covers health care expenses mainly for people age 65 and older.

Trumps predecessor, Joe Biden, proposed a rule in late November after Trump won re-election that would have extended coverage of drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy. The rule was not expected to be finalized until Trump took office.

Trump returned to office in January. The Senate confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday.

CMS did not offer an explanation Friday for its decision, and federal spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

RELATED STORY | Senate confirms Mehmet Oz to take lead of Medicare and Medicaid agency

Trump's Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been an outspoken opponent of the injectable drugs, which have exploded in popularity due to the potentially life-changing weight loss that some patients experience.

Polls show Americans favor having Medicaid and Medicare cover the costs. But many insurers, employers and other bill payers have been reluctant to pay for the drugs, which can be used by a wide swath of the population and can cost hundreds of dollars a month.

Biden's proposal was expensive: It would have included coverage for all state- and federally funded Medicaid programs for people with low incomes, costing taxpayers as much as $35 billion over next decade.

Proponents of the coverage have argued that treating obesity can actually reduce longer-term costs by cutting down on heart attacks and other expensive health complications that can arise from the disease.

The benefits consultant Mercer has said that 44% of U.S. companies with 500 or more employees covered obesity drugs last year.

Medicare does pay for drugs like Wegovy for patients who have heart disease and need to reduce their risk of future heart attacks, strokes and other serious problems. The federal program also covers versions of the drugs that treat diabetes.

More than a dozen state Medicaid programs already cover the drugs for obesity.

The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administrations plea to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher-training money as part of its anti-DEI efforts, while a lawsuit continues.

The justices split 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent.

The cuts had been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston, who found that they were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage. The federal appeals court in Boston turned away an appeal from the administration to allow them to resume.

RELATED STORY | Future of DOGE, federal layoffs hang in balance as Supreme Court rulings near

The emergency appeal is among several the high court is considering in which the Justice Department argues that lower-court judges have improperly obstructed President Donald Trumps agenda.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order sought by eight Democratic-led states that argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from Trumps administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The Republican president also has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as woke and wasteful.

The two programs at issue the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development provide more than $600 million in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas such as math, science and special education, the states have argued. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five years.

The majority found that the states can keep the programs running with their own money for now, but the federal government likely wouldnt be able to recover the cash if they ultimately win the lawsuit.

RELATED STORY | Supreme Court sides with the FDA in dispute over sweet-flavored vaping products

The administration halted the programs without notice in February. Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, found that the cancellations probably violated a federal law that requires a clear explanation.

The appellate panel that rejected the administrations request for a stay was also made up of judges appointed by Democrats.

California is leading the ongoing lawsuit, joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.

Three alleged MS-13 gang members have been federally charged in connection with a killing a decade ago in Florida, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday, seeking to highlight the Trump administration's push to prosecute violent gangs.

Bondi joined law enforcement officials in Fort Lauderdale to promote the Justice Department's efforts to go after the gang, which the Republican administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization" and has seized on as the threat posed by illegal immigration.

More arrests are coming, Bondi said. If you are a gang member living in this country, Id self-deport right now because were coming after you.

RELATED STORY | How the US deported suspected gang members, triggering a legal battle

The three alleged gang members are among nine who have been arrested in four killings in South Florida in 2014 and 2015. The three men federally charged last month are accused of participating in the killing of someone who was stabbed about 100 times and then shot, the attorney general said.

Jose Ezequiel Gamez-Maravilla and Wilber Rosendo Navarro-Escobar were arrested in Florida. Hugo Adiel Bermudez-Martinez was arrested in Minnesota. Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the men.

The violent killings in South Florida were carried out using knives or machetes, authorities say. The cases were reopened in 2020 after going cold, and one of the investigations led to a multi-day excavation to recover the body of Joel Canizales-Lara in 2021, after he was reported missing in 2014.

RELATED STORY | DEA raid in Colorado ends in 49 arrests, including some Venezuelan gang members

The announcement comes a week after Bondi lauded the arrest of the alleged East Coast leader of the MS-13 gang.

In the past decade, the Justice Department has intensified its focus on MS-13, which originated as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. The gang has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the U.S. with numerous branches or cliques.

Four space tourists who orbited the north and south poles returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific to end their privately funded polar tour.

Bitcoin investor Chun Wang chartered a SpaceX flight for himself and three others in a Dragon capsule that was outfitted with a domed window that provided 360-degree views of the polar caps and everything in between. Wang declined to say how much he paid for the 3 1/2-day trip.

The quartet, who rocketed from NASAs Kennedy Space Center on Monday night, returned off the Southern California coast. It was the first human spaceflight to circle the globe above the poles and the first Pacific splashdown for a space crew in 50 years.

RELATED STORY | NASA's newly returned astronauts say they would fly on Boeing's Starliner capsule again

The Chinese-born Wang, now a citizen of Malta, invited Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian polar guide Eric Philips, all of whom shared stunning vistas during their voyage.

It is so epic because it is another kind of desert, so it just goes on and on and on all the way, Rogge said in a video posted by Wang on X while gazing down from orbit.

Mikkelsen packed the capsule with camera equipment and spent much of her time behind the lens.

All four suffered from space motion sickness after reaching orbit, according to Wang. But by the time they woke up on day two, they felt fine and cranked open the window cover right above the South Pole, he said via X.

RELATED STORY | 'Frothy,' cosmic tornado captured in new images from NASA's Webb telescope

Besides documenting the poles from 270 miles (430 kilometers) up, Wang and his crew took the first medical X-rays in space as part of a test and conducted two dozen other science experiments. They named their trip Fram2 after the Norwegian sailing ship that carried explorers to the poles more than a century ago. A bit of the original ships wooden deck accompanied the crew to space.

SpaceX said its decision to switch splashdown sites from Florida beginning with this flight was based on safety. The company said Pacific splashdowns will ensure that any surviving pieces of the trunk jettisoned near flights end falls into the ocean.

The last people to return from space to the Pacific were the three NASA astronauts assigned to the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission.

The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that would thwart President Donald Trumps ability to impose tariffs on Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade.

The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trumps emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier Wednesday announced orders his so-called Liberation Day to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.

The Senates legislation has practically no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it showed the limits of Republican support for Trumps vision of remaking the U.S. economy by restricting free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching with unease as Trump upends the United States relationship with the rest of the world.

Trump earlier Wednesday singled out the four Republicans Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky who voted in favor of the resolution.

In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, said, As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.

To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.

This is not about fentanyl. Its about tariffs. Its about a national sales tax on American families, said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, at a news conference Wednesday.

RELATED STORY | Trump announces baseline 10% tariff on imports for all US trade partners

Democrats argued that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for proposed tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy, but will also make it more expensive to build homes, buy cars and pay for imported grocery products. Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by businesses ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.

Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even to the American dream, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.

On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered early warning signs to Republicans about the popularity of Trump's agenda, Schumer said that the president is particularly vulnerable when it comes to the economy.

Once the American people say, I dont want to embrace somebody, I dont want to vote for somebody, I dont want to support somebody who embraces Trumps policies, things are going to change," he told reporters. Public sentiment is everything."

At the White House on Wednesday, Trump singled out Canada as a beneficiary of unfair trading practices with the U.S., though his latest order did not add to tariffs already in place on Canada and Mexico.

Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say, Youve got to work for yourselves and youve got to? This is why we have the big deficits," Trump said.

For their part, Republican leaders tried to hold their members in line not by talking about the impacts of tariffs, but by emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.

Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former President Joe Biden had also thrown open the northern border. The criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.

"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border," the Wyoming senator said. President Trump is taking the bold, decisive, swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.

Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to underscore the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including at the northern border. However, it was not enough to persuade a key group of Senate Republicans who objected to the tax on Canadian imports.

In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the resolution and noted, The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in America comes from the southern border.

Collins said that Canada is already beefing up border security to address drug trafficking, yet she was concerned about what tariffs would do to businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a paper mill in her home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.

A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial wellbeing of this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500 people in rural, northern Maine. There is not another big employer in that area that can possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs, Collins said.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic views, also delivered an impassioned floor speech, arguing that the president should not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.

Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the pockets of American consumers, he said. Conservatives used to understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives used to be uniformly opposed to raising taxes because we wanted the private marketplace, the private individuals to keep more of their income.

While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump has spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape the economy, a sizable portion of the Republican Conference voiced concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries. Still, most wanted to give Trump room in hopes that he would negotiate better trade deals.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state, like Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. He voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's order would just be a starting point for negotiations to mutually drop tariffs.

The Republican added: Im not overly concerned about it, but obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety."

Democrats planned to keep pressing into that anxiety. After Trumps announcement, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social media he would also force a similar vote in the House on the tariffs.

Republicans cant keep ducking this its time they show whether they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their constituents, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.

The announcement came after Netanyahu's defense minister said that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones. A wave of Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed more than 40 Palestinians, including several women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Palestinians protest Hamas in a rare public show of dissent in Gaza

Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel ended a ceasefire in March and has imposed a monthlong halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid.

Netanyahu described the new axis as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting it would run between the two southern cities. He said it would be "a second Philadelphi corridor " referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt further south, which has been under Israeli control since last May.

Israel has reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, also named for a former settlement, that cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. Both of the existing corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages, Netanyahu said.

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In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N. building in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, killing 15 people, including nine children and two women, according to the Indonesian Hospital. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in a command and control center.

The building, previously a clinic, had been converted into a shelter for displaced people, with more than 700 residing there, according to Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza. No U.N. staff were wounded in the strike.

She said U.N. staff warned people about the dangers of remaining there after Wednesday's strike but that many chose to stay, simply because they have absolutely nowhere else to go.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled for the Food and Drug Administration in its crackdown on sweet-flavored vaping products following a surge in teen electronic cigarette use.

But the justices' unanimous decision throwing out a federal appeals court ruling is not the final word in the case, and the FDA could change its approach now that President Donald Trump has promised to save vaping.

The high court ruled that the FDA, during President Joe Biden's administration, did not violate federal law when it denied an application from Dallas-based company Triton Distribution to sell e-juices like Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry and Suicide Bunny Mothers Milk and Cookies. The products are heated by an e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.

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The FDA has rejected applications for more than a million nicotine products formulated to taste like fruit, dessert or candy because their makers couldnt show that flavored vapes had a net public benefit, as required by law.

It has approved some tobacco-flavored vapes, and recently it allowed its first menthol-flavored e-cigarettes for adult smokers after the company provided data showing the product was more helpful in quitting.

But the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Triton, agreeing that the FDA changed its standards with little warning in violation of federal law.

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While mainly ruling for the FDA on Wednesday, the Supreme Court noted that the agency had said the company's marketing plan would be an important factor in evaluating its application. But it ultimately did not consider the marketing plan, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.

The appeals court was ordered to consider if the failure to do so is an important mistake that might still lead to a decision in Triton's favor.

Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite Iceman in Top Gun, donned a voluminous cape as Batman in Batman Forever and portrayed Jim Morrison in The Doors, has died. He was 65.

Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press. The Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.

Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.

I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed, he says toward the end of Val, the 2021 documentary on his career. And I am blessed.

Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most. His break came in 1984s spy spoof Top Secret! followed by the comedy Real Genius in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including MacGruber and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993s Tombstone, as Elvis ghost in True Romance and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Manns 1995 film Heat with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Vals possessing and expressing character," director Michael Mann said in a statement Tuesday night.

Actor Josh Brolin, a friend of Kilmer, was among others paying tribute.

You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker, Brolin wrote on Instagram. Theres not a lot left of those.

Kilmer who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in Tombstone, he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.

That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.

In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio, he wrote in his memoir, Im Your Huckleberry.

One of his more iconic roles hotshot pilot Tom Iceman Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise almost didnt happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for Top Gun but initially balked. I didnt want the part. I didnt care about the film. The story didnt interest me, he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the films 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.

One career nadir was playing Batman in Joel Schumachers goofy, garish Batman Forever with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris ODonnells Robin before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997s Batman & Robin and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989s Batman and 1992s Batman Returns.

Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role, while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a completely acceptable substitute for Keaton. Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.

When youre in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down, Kilmer said in Val," in lines spoken by his son Jack, who voiced the part of his father in the film because of his inability to speak. You also cant hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, its very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to."

His next projects were the film version of the 1960s TV series "The Saint" fussily putting on wigs, accents and glasses and The Island of Dr. Moreau with Marlon Brando, which became one of the decades most infamously cursed productions.

David Gregorys 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanleys Island of Dr. Moreau, described a cursed set that included a hurricane, Kilmer bullying director Richard Stanley, the firing of Stanley via fax (who sneaked back on set as an extra with a mask on) and extensive rewrites by Kilmer and Brando. The older actor told the younger at one point: "'Its a job now, Val. A lark. Well get through it. I was as sad as Ive ever been on a set, Kilmer wrote in his memoir.

In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ran a cover story about Kilmer titled The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate. The directors Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who finished The Island of Dr. Moreau, said he was difficult. Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again.

Other artists came to his defense, like D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in The Salton Sea and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director's attention.

Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, Youre Batman! Just go do it, Caruso told The New York Times in 2002.

After The Island of Dr. Moreau, the movies were smaller, like David Mamet human-trafficking thriller Spartan"; Joe the King in 1999, in which he played a paunchy, abusive alcoholic; and playing the doomed 70s porn star John Holmes in 2003s Wonderland. He also threw himself into his one-man stage show Citizen Twain, in which he played Mark Twain.

I enjoy the depth and soul the piece has that Twain had for his fellow man and America, he told Variety in 2018. "And the comedy thats always so close to the surface, and how valuable his genius is for us today.

Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.

Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the familys Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.

I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. Im still inspired by him, Kilmer told the Times.

While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play How It All Began and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppolas The Outsiders for the Broadway play, Slab Boys, alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.

Kilmer published two books of poetry (including My Edens After Burns) and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for The Mark of Zorro. He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.

He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley. He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.

I have no regrets, Kilmer told the AP in 2021. Ive witness and experienced miracles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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