By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital by a suspect who is an Afghan national, the Trump administration announced a flurry of policies aimed at making it harder for some foreigners to enter or stay in the country.

The administration said it was pausing asylum decisions, reexamining green card applications for people from countries “of concern” and halting visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.

Days before the shooting, a memo obtained by The Associated Press said the administration would review the cases of all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.

The stepped up effort to restrict immigration has been harshly criticized by refugee advocates and those who work with Afghans, saying it amounts to collective punishment. Critics are also saying it is a waste of government resources to reopen cases that have already been processed.

The Trump administration says the new policies are necessary to ensure that those entering the country — or are already here — do not pose a security threat.

Here’s a look at the major changes announced over roughly a week:

All asylum decisions suspended

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said on the social platform X last week that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Besides the post, no formal guidance has been put forward, so details remain scarce about the planned pause.

People seeking asylum must show to U.S. officials a threat of persecution if they were sent back to their home country, whether because of race, nationality or other grounds. If they’re granted asylum, they’re allowed to stay in the U.S. and eventually apply for a green card and then citizenship.

The Afghan suspect in the National Guard shooting was granted asylum earlier this year, according to advocate group #AfghanEvac.

The right to apply for asylum was already restricted by the Trump administration. In January, Trump issued an executive order essentially halting asylum for people who have come into the country through the southern border. Those cases generally go through immigration courts which are overseen by the Department of Justice.

USCIS oversees the asylum process for foreigners the government isn’t trying to remove via immigration courts. While Trump’s January order didn’t affect those cases, Edlow’s social media post suggests they will now come under additional scrutiny. Edlow did not say how long the agency’s pause on asylum decisions would last or what happens to people while those decisions are paused.

Caseloads have been rising for all types of asylum applications. The number of asylum cases at USCIS rose from 241,280 in 2022 to a record 456,750 in 2023, according to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.

A focus on countries ‘of concern’

On Nov. 27, Edlow said his agency was conducting a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of every green card for people he said come from “every country of concern.”

“American safety is non negotiable,” Edlow said.

The agency said in a press release that same day that it was issuing new guidance that could make it tougher for people from 19 countries the administration considers “high-risk,” including Afghanistan, when they apply for immigration benefits such as applying for green cards or to stay in the U.S. longer.

The administration had already banned travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 of those countries and restricted access for people from seven others.

No visas for Afghans

Other stricter stricter measures are also directed at Afghans.

On Nov. 26, USCIS said it would be suspending all “immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.” That would affect Afghans already living in the U.S. who are applying for green cards or work permits or permission to bring family members to the U.S.

Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late Friday on X that the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing visas for all people traveling on Afghan passports.

The Trump administration had already severely limited travel and immigration from Afghanistan. The one avenue that had remained open was the Special Immigrant Visa program. Created by Congress, it allowed Afghans who closely supported the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan and faced retribution because of their work to emigrate to America.

But the State Department’s announcement means even that avenue is now closed.

According to #AfghanEvac, a group that advocates for Afghans coming to the U.S., about 180,000 Afghans were in the process of applying for the SIV program.

A review of refugees admitted under the Biden administration

Even before the shooting of two National Guard members, the Trump administration was planning a sweeping review of tens of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration as part of the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program.

That program, first launched in 1980, oversees the process by which people fleeing persecution can come to the U.S. Refugees are distinct from people seeking asylum, although they meet the same criteria. Refugees have to apply and wait outside the U.S. to be admitted while asylum-seekers do so once they reach the U.S.

Trump suspended the refugee program the day he took office and only a trickle of refugees have been admitted since then, either white South Africans or people admitted as part of a lawsuit seeking to restart the refugee program.

Then on Nov. 21, Edlow said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that the administration was going to review all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration. That’s nearly 200,000 refugees.

Advocates say refugees already undergo rigorous vetting.

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Four Republican-led states agreed to settle lawsuits against the federal government over access to voters’ citizenship data, ending a dispute that began with the Biden administration in advance of the 2024 presidential election.

Officials in Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio entered the settlement with the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem roughly a year after the states individually sued the agency under President Joe Biden. They had alleged the previous administration was withholding information about citizenship status that they needed to determine whether thousands of registered voters were actually eligible to cast a ballot.

Each of the states could soon run searches for thousands of voters using names, birthdays and Social Security numbers through the federal government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program. It has been significantly upgraded under the Trump administration. In turn, the settlement reached Friday says the states may share driver’s license records with the Department of Homeland Security “to assist in improving and modernizing” its database.

The information sharing is likely to be a focal point of the 2026 midterm elections. Voting rights groups have already sued the administration over the expanded program, known as SAVE, arguing that the recent updates could result in eligible voters being unlawfully purged from voter lists. Separately, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has asked at least half the states for their complete voter rolls, a request that Democratic elections officials have questioned out of concern that the data would be provided to DHS.

Voting by noncitizens is illegal in federal elections and can lead to felony charges and deportation. State reviews show it is rare for noncitizen s to register to vote and even rarer that they actually cast a ballot.

Still, before the 2024 election, Trump pushed claims without evidence that noncitizens might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. Many Republican candidates and lawmakers nationally emphasize that even one instance of a noncitizen voting illegally is too many.

The SAVE program, which has been around for decades, is operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of DHS. It has been widely used by local and state officials to check the citizenship status of people applying for public benefits by running them through a variety of federal databases.

DHS and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency updated the SAVE program earlier this year, according to public announcements. It is now free for election officials, allows searches for voters by the thousands instead of one at a time and no longer requires agencies to search using DHS-issued identification numbers. When a name, date of birth and government-issued number is entered, the database will return initial verification of citizenship status within 48 hours, according to the settlement.

As part of the settlement, Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio will develop a memorandum of understanding with the federal government within 90 days on use of the SAVE program. The settlement also dictates that they will negotiate a new information-sharing agreement for “for the purpose of improving” the SAVE system. That may include providing DHS with 1,000 “randomly selected driver’s license records from their state” within 90 days.

By AAMER MADHANI and REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that September incident.

Leavitt in her comments to reporters did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike in the incident. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said that he “wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike” when asked about the incident.

“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” said Leavitt, referring to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who at the time was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reports of attacking survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious legal concerns and merited further scrutiny.

The White House weighed in after Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. He added, “And I believe him.”

Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the four bipartisan lawmakers leading the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. He reiterated “his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon,” Caine’s office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on “addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.”

Congress wants answers

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that they’re necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States.

Thune said the committees in Congress will conduct oversight looking into what happened. “I don’t think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts,” he said of the Sept. 2 strike. “We’ll see where they lead.”

After the Post’s report, Hegseth said Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”

“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth wrote.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Hegseth a “national embarrassment” over his response to critics. Schumer added that the armed services committees should demand that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panel’s inquiry would start “with briefings about what actually happened” from the officials involved.

Reed also called for the administration to release unredacted video of the strike.

“If they’ve done nothing wrong, then that video should exonerate them completely. Why don’t they release it?” he asked.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged that his investigation would be “done by the numbers.”

“We’ll find out the ground truth,” he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were “serious charges.”

Venezuela’s president reacts

Trump met later Monday with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The U.S. administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump confirmed Sunday that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

Speaking to supporters in Caracas on Monday, Maduro said U.S. pressure has “tested” the country, but Venezuelans are ready “to defend it and lead it to the path of peace.”

“We have lived through 22 weeks of aggression that can only be described as psychological terrorism,” Maduro said.

The September strike was one in a series carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

More than 80 have been killed the strikes on small boats that the Trump administration alleges smuggle narcotics for drug cartels.

Venezuela’s National Assembly has announced the launch of an investigation into the lethal strikes carried about by the U.S.

Sunday’s announcement by the Assembly’s president, Jorge Rodríguez, marked the first time that a Maduro government official explicitly acknowledged that Venezuelans have been killed in the monthslong U.S. military operation.

Rodríguez, Maduro’s chief negotiator, said a group of lawmakers will come together to investigate “the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.”

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Lisa Mascaro and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

By SAM McNEIL

BRUSSELS (AP) — Money is as central to Europe’s vital support of Ukraine as ammunition and intelligence. Yet, the bloc’s most viable funding mechanism involves seizing billions of dollars worth of Russian assets that U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed taking over.

The first draft of Trump’s 28-point peace plan called for an investment scheme for Ukraine’s reconstruction controlled by the U.S. but financed by $100 billion in frozen Russian assets matched by another $100 billion from the European Union — with 50% of profits sent back to Washington.

The plan surprised Europeans, who have spent years fiercely debating the fate of Russia’s frozen fortune.

Those funds are central to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plan to both maintain pressure on Russia and increase support for Ukraine as mysterious drone incursions and sabotage operations rattle European capitals.

“I cannot see any scenario in which the European taxpayers alone will pay the bill,” she said Wednesday in Strasbourg, France to applause from lawmakers in the European Parliament.

The 27-nation EU has sent Ukraine almost $197 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago. While there’s no consensus on how to provide more aid, there’s near unanimity on seizing the Russian assets to cover the estimated $153 billion for Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027.

The Commission has proposed paying that bill with joint debt taken on by the EU and grants by individual nations, but its main source is the $225 billion assets frozen at Euroclear, a Brussels-based financial institution.

That is, if the Trump administration doesn’t get them first.

Perks of the deal

Trump’s brash negotiating style left many in Europe suspecting he wants a quick deal that forces Europeans to make it work and pay for it. All while the U.S. profits.

Analysts say the proposal was essentially a U.S. attempt to snatch these assets, coming as Brussels and Washington relaunch trade negotiations over tariffs.

Agathe Demarais, a senior fellow at the Berlin-based European Council on Foreign Relations, said the proposal was akin to a “signing bonus” for a peace deal heavily slanted towards Russia.

Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, called the U.S. takeover of the assets “outrageous,” but suggested it might also be acceptable to Europeans “if that is ultimately the price to pay for a good deal.”

After intense discussions between the U.S., Germany, France, the United Kingdom and representatives from the European Commission, the investment scheme was removed from the new draft peace plan. Russia has already signaled its total rejection of the new draft.

The assets frozen in Belgium

A quick seizure of Russia’s frozen assets by the EU would not only secure Ukraine’s defense budget, but also empower Brussels at the negotiation table, Demarais said.

“If the EU rushes to seize Russia’s central bank assets before Washington grabs them, the bloc may be able to drastically curb Trump’s interest in a bad deal,” she said.

The European Commission has proposed taking direct ownership of the assets. Under von der Leyen’s leadership, it could then issue a loan to Ukraine, which would be repaid only if Moscow provides war reparations to Kyiv.

The bulk of these assets are held in a clearinghouse called Euroclear in Belgium. However, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has refused to approve their use as collateral for a massive loan for Ukraine, citing fears that Russia would retaliate against Belgian interests.

“We are a small country, and retaliation could be very hard,” De Wever said in October.

Yet the Belgian position on thawing the assets was influenced by an impasse in local politics over deep federal debt. After months of domestic political wrangling ended last week in a deal, politicians from Riga to Lisbon started hoping that De Wever would be able to lift his objections to seizing Russian assets.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said after the Brussels meeting on Wednesday that “the clock is ticking” and that seizing the assets was “the only realistic financing option that would make a real difference and one that would be most fair to taxpayers” in Europe.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat said Wednesday there is now broad EU support for Belgium.

“It would send the strongest message to Moscow that it cannot wait us out, and we need to make this decision fast,” said Kallas.

On Dec. 18, De Wever will join the other EU national leaders for a summit in Brussels over, among other subjects, seizing the Russian assets.

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Justice Department gets ready to release its files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, a court battle over sealed documents in Maxwell’s criminal case is offering clues about what could be in those files.

Government lawyers asked a judge on Wednesday to allow the release of a wide range of records from Maxwell’s case, including search warrants, financial records, survivor interview notes, electronic device data and material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida.

Those records, among others, are subject to secrecy orders that the Justice Department wants lifted as it works to comply with a new law mandating the public release of Epstein and Maxwell investigative materials.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last week.

The Justice Department submitted the list a day after U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York ordered the government to specify what materials it plans to publicly release from Maxwell’s case.

The government said it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and that it will redact records to ensure protection of survivors’ identities and prevent the dissemination of sexualized images.

“In summary, the Government is in the process of identifying potentially responsive materials” that are required to be disclosed under the law, “categorizing them and processing them for review,” the department said.

The four-page filing bears the names of the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Jay Clayton, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Also Wednesday, a judge weighing a similar request for materials from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case gave the department until Monday 1 to provide detailed descriptions the records it wants made public. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said he will review the material in private before deciding.

In August, Berman and Engelmayer denied the department’s requests to unseal grand jury transcripts and other material from Epstein and Maxwell’s cases, ruling that such disclosures are rarely, if ever, allowed.

The department asked the judges this week to reconsider, arguing in court filings that the new law requires the government to “publish the grand jury and discovery materials” from the cases. The law requires the release of Epstein-related files in a searchable format by Dec. 19.

Epstein was a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians and other powerful men. He killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

In initial filings Monday, the Justice Department characterized the material it wants unsealed in broad terms, describing it as “grand jury transcripts and exhibits.” Engelmayer ordered the government to file a letter describing the materials “in sufficient detail to meaningfully inform victims” what it plans to make public.

Engelmayer did not preside over Maxwell’s trial, but was assigned to the case after the trial judge, Alison J. Nathan, was elevated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released over the years, including through civil lawsuits, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.

In its filing Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 18 categories of material that it is seeking to release from Maxwell’s case, including reports, photographs, videos and other materials from police in Palm Beach, Florida, and the U.S. attorney’s office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s.

Last year, a Florida judge ordered the release of about 150 pages of transcripts from a state grand jury that investigated Epstein in 2006. Last week, citing the new law, the Justice Department moved to unseal transcripts from a federal grand jury that also investigated Epstein.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program. The request to unseal the transcripts is pending.

By HOLLY RAMER

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who was once engaged to the brother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt remains in ICE custody two weeks after being arrested on her way to pick up the son she shares with her former fiancé.

Bruna Ferreira, 33, was driving to her son’s school in New Hampshire on Nov. 12 when she was pulled over in Revere, Massachusetts, her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said Wednesday.

“She wasn’t told why she was detained,” he said. “She was bounced from Massachusetts, to New Hampshire, to Vermont, to Louisiana on this unconstitutional merry-go-round.”

Pomerleau said Ferreira’s 11-year-old son lives with her former fiancé, Michael Leavitt, in New Hampshire, but they have shared custody and maintained a co-parenting relationship for many years since their engagement broke off.

“She was detained for no reason at all. She’s not dangerous. She’s not a flight risk. She’s not a criminal illegal alien,” he said. “She’s a business owner who pays taxes and has a child who was wondering where mommy was after school two weeks ago.”

Michael Leavitt did not respond to a message sent to his workplace. The White House press secretary declined comment. Karoline Leavitt grew up in New Hampshire, and made an unsuccessful run for Congress from the state in 2022 before becoming Trump’s spokesperson for his 2024 campaign and later joining him at the White House.

Pomerleau said his client was 2 or 3 when she and her family came to the U.S. from Brazil, and she later enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama-era policy that shields immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. He said she was in the process of applying for a green card.

The Department of Homeland Security said Ferreira entered the U.S. on a tourist visa that required her to leave in 1999. A department spokesperson said Ferreira had a previous arrest for battery, an allegation her attorney denied.

An online search of court cases in several Massachusetts locations where she has lived found no record of such a charge.

“They’re claiming she has some type of criminal record we’ve seen nowhere. Show us the proof,” Pomerleau said. “She would’ve been deported years ago if that was true. And yet, here she is in the middle of this immigration imbroglio.”

A DHS spokesperson confirmed Ferreira is being held in Louisiana.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to broadly reshape immigration policy have included changing the approach to DACA recipients. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently issued a statement saying that people “who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”

Fiddy is making good on his promise to expose Diddy.

Hip-hop superstar Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s eagerly anticipated documentary about Sean “Diddy” Combs will finally see the light of day two years after the project was announced.

Netflix is set to release “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” globally on Dec. 2, the streamer confirmed on Tuesday.

The four-part series — directed by Alexandria Stapleton and executive produced by 50 Cent — is described by the streaming giant as “a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend and convicted offender.”

The documentary will feature new interviews with “those formerly in Combs’ orbit,” according to Tuesday’s announcement. It also promises to “[tell] the story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built — and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface.”

In a teaser also released on Tuesday, former Bad Boy Records rapper Mark Curry is heard saying: “You can’t continue to keep hurting people and nothing ever happens. It’s just a matter of time.”

Combs was found guilty in July on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, following a nine-week trial in which his ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, served as the star witness.

Last month, he began serving his four-year federal prison sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey. He’s also currently facing a barrage of civil lawsuits connected to sexual misconduct allegations as he attempts to appeal his conviction and sentence.

“This isn’t just about the story of Sean Combs or the story of Cassie, or the story of any of the victims, or the allegations against him, or the trial,” said Stapleton, whose previous credits include documentaries on Reggie Jackson, Chelsea Handler and JonBenét Ramsey.

“Ultimately, this story is a mirror [reflecting us] as the public, and what we are saying when we put our celebrities on such a high pedestal,” she continued. “I hope [this documentary] is a wake-up call for how we idolize people, and to understand that everybody is a human being.”

50 Cent, meanwhile, said he’s “grateful to everyone who came forward and trusted us with their stories,” adding that he’s proud to have Stapleton to “bring this important story to the screen.”

The “In Da Club” rapper has had long-standing beef with Diddy, dating back to the 2006 diss track “The Bomb,” in which 50 accused Combs of having something to do with the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G.

The feud has continued ever since through social media jabs and rival business ventures. Actress, model and entrepreneur Daphne Joy, who shares a son with 50 Cent, was also named as one of Diddy’s “sex worker[s]” in a lawsuit filed by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones.

50 Cent has said he suspected Combs’ alleged illegal behavior for years and that the documentary was already in the works prior to Diddy’s arrest in September 2024.

By MARK SHERMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t immediately allow the Trump administration to fire the director of the U.S. Copyright Office, instead delaying a decision until after they rule in two other high-profile firing cases.

The justices’ Wednesday order leaves in effect for now lower court rulings that held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired.

The case is the latest that relates to Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The Supreme Court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed.

Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have allowed Perlmutter to be fired as her lawsuit proceeds. The court majority, though, decided to wait to make a decision until after they rule in two other lawsuits over Trump firings.

Arguments are set for December in the first case, over the removal of Rebecca Slaughter as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

And in January the court will hear the case of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who remains in her job despite Trump’s attempt to fire her.

Rulings are expected weeks or months after the court hears arguments.

Perlmutter’s case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. She is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.

Despite the ties to Congress, the register “wields executive power” in regulating copyrights, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.

Perlmutter claims Trump fired her in May because he disapproved of advice she gave to Congress in a report related to artificial intelligence. Perlmutter had received an email from the White House notifying her that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” her office said.

A divided appellate panel ruled that Perlmutter could keep her job while the case moves forward.

Perlmutter’s attorneys have argued that she is a renowned copyright expert. She has served as register of copyrights since then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her to the job in October 2020.

Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to replace Hayden at the Library of Congress. The White House fired Hayden amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.

By Sarah Hepola, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — One of the happier narrative arcs in Hollywood belongs to Macaulay Culkin, who shot to superstardom as a kid in the 1990 smash “Home Alone.” It’s hard to endure the fame machine at only 10 years old, but Culkin turned out OK. These days, he lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Brenda Song, another former child star (Disney’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”), and their two little boys.

After years of distancing himself from “Home Alone’s” Kevin McCallister, the precocious boy left behind on a family Christmas trip to Paris, Culkin has learned to accept his fate as the (screaming) face of a generation.

I spoke with Culkin by phone on Nov. 17, a day after “Home Alone’s” 35th anniversary. When I mentioned this, there was a beat of silence as he checked the date. “What do you know? I missed it!” He laughed. “Thank you for reminding me.” He’d spent the previous day with Song at a Los Angeles Rams game that the team won by two points. “Man, that was a nailbiter,” he said.

Q: Everyone has to deal with growing older, but you’re like a mirror held up to the rest of the world. As you grow older, we grow older, too.

A: Exactly. I am the opposite of Dorian Gray. This movie being 35 years old doesn’t just age me, it ages everyone else. Someone at the grocery store will ask how old I am, and I’ll say, aw, man, you don’t want to know. I’m 45, and sometimes, it’s a little punch in the gut.

Q: You pushed away from “Home Alone” for a long time. What convinced you to come back?

A: I’ve been embracing it a lot over the last few years, because I have kids of my own [Dakota, 4, and Carson, 2]. I show it to them, and my kids don’t even know it’s me. I’m taller now, I’m bearded, so they don’t quite put it together. My oldest thinks he’s Kevin. I’ll ask him if he remembers sliding down the stairs on the sled, and he’s like, sure do. What a liar! [Laughs.]

But the movie has taken on a different meaning for me. It’s fun getting people together to see this movie in a theater. Laughter is infectious. I did the tour last year, and I was touched by the reception. People want to share it with their kids the way I want to share it with my kids.

It’s a different experience watching it as an adult. There are a number of jokes that go past the kids’ heads. And slapstick is funny. Watching people get smashed in the face and fall on their butts — who doesn’t love that?

Q: I’m curious if you have any memories attached to Dallas.

A: Dallas was the first city I flew on a plane to visit. I went there to work on Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July.” I was cast in that movie, and they cut my part out. I’ve never seen the scene in any DVD extras, so Lord knows it’s probably lost to time.

Q: No way! What was your role?

A: I was probably just “boy in the crowd No. 1.” It was the third movie I’d done, so this would have been like 1988. I think Tom Cruise was in a parade or something, and my line was, “Mom, when I grow up I wanna be just like him,” and the mother turns to me and says, “No you don’t.”

Q: OK, rank these things: Dallas Cowboys, “Dallas” the TV show and the Von Erich wrestling family.

A: Ooh, the Von Erichs are No. 1 for sure. I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid. I even got [my partner] Brenda into wrestling. So wrestling is a part of my DNA, and there’s quite a legacy in Texas.

Now, I don’t want to alienate any of your readers, but I’m going to say the show “Dallas” next, and I’m going to put the Cowboys last, simply because: Go Rams! Also, I grew up a Giants fan, because I’m from New York, and at the same time, the Rams are me and Brenda’s team. I can’t for the life of me put the Cowboys anywhere but last.

Q: I think a lot of our readers will agree with that ranking. Last question: You’re the one leaving your kids home for the holidays now. What will you miss most?

A: Everything. They’re such a fun age, where they believe in magic. Christmas is their favorite. Being away from them is tricky, but I make sure to go home, three days on, four days off. Last year I didn’t do that, and it was kind of a grind. Last year we had to get a plastic tree, because I’m the one who takes care of the tree. This year we got a real tree.

©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By LAURIE KELLMAN, SAM McNEIL and AAMER MADHANI

LONDON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war closely mirrors the tactics he used to end two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas: bold terms that favor one side, deadlines for the combatants and vague outlines for what comes next. The details — enforcing the terms, guaranteeing security, who pays for rebuilding — matter less.

“You know what the deadline is to me? When it’s over.” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday.

The formula has worked so far in the tense Middle East, though its long-term viability remains in question. Trump got his moment to claim credit for “peace” in the region from the podium of the Israeli parliament. Even there, he made clear that next on his priority list was resolving the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

“Maybe we set out like a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza,” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser in a phone call the day after Trump’s speech, on Oct. 14. A recording of that call leaked to Bloomberg News.

They did just that, issuing a 28-point plan heavily tilted toward Russia’s interests that set off alarms in Europe, which had not been consulted. Trump insisted Ukraine had until Nov. 27 — Thanksgiving in the U.S. — to accept it.

But by Tuesday, Trump had eased off the hard deadline. It seemed clear, even to Trump, that the Israel-Gaza model doesn’t fully apply in Russia and Ukraine as long as Putin refuses to be flattered, pushed or otherwise moved to take the first step of a ceasefire, as Israel and Hamas consented for different reasons on Oct. 9. Making the point, Putin launched waves of bombings on Ukraine Tuesday and Wednesday even as American negotiators renewed Trump’s push to end the war.

“I thought (a Russia-Ukraine deal) would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress,” Trump said during the annual White House turkey pardon to mark the Thanksgiving holiday. Hours later, he told reporters that the 28-point plan actually “was not a plan, just a concept.”

The president’s goal may not be a formal, long-lasting peace treaty, one expert said.

“Trump’s approach emphasizes the proclamation of a ceasefire, not its observance,” Mariia Zolkina, a political analyst at the Kyiv-based Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, wrote on Liga.net, a Ukrainian news outlet, adding: “Donald Trump is not interested in whether the ceasefire will be sustainable.”

Trump’s approach toward ‘peace’ bears similarities to the tactics and style he used in the Israel-Gaza talks

Fresh off the Gaza deal and coveting the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump named his next priority before he’d even left the Israeli Knesset.

“If you don’t mind, Steve, let’s focus on Russia first, All right?” Trump said, turning to Witkoff.

Where the Gaza ceasefire agreement had 20 points, the Russia-Ukraine proposal would start with 28 items and include more detail on who would pay for reconstruction. They envision “peace” boards headed by the president to lead and administer the aftermath. Both lack detail on incentives for complying and enforcement. And both depend on a ceasefire.

Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think tank, said the proposals for Gaza and Ukraine show a kind of “naivete by believing that by intervening at that level, by imposing your will on something like this, that you will reach some form of long-term conclusion.”

He said both proposals reflect Trump’s political and personal self-interest.

“In the end, the focus is solely on what Trump thinks he will get out of this in terms of reputation and money,” Zuleeg said.

Each Trump administration plan to end the wars heavily favor one side.

The Trump plan for Gaza leans to Israeli terms. It makes disarming Hamas a central condition for any progress in rebuilding the devastated territory. It also lays out no strict timetable for a full Israeli troop withdrawal, making it conditional on deployment of an international security force.

For Russia and Ukraine, Witkoff looked to open peace plan talks with terms skewing toward Russia. He quietly hosted Kirill Dmitriev, a close ally of Putin’s, for talks in south Florida to help launch the plan that opened talks in Geneva, according to a senior administration official and a U.S. official familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House insists that the plan was U.S.-authored with input from both the Ukrainians and Russians.

But that’s where the similarities end. The differences are buy-in — and Putin

The draft that was formally presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decidedly favored the Russians, with no European input. In contrast, the Gaza ceasefire talks got buy-in from Egypt, Qatari, Jordanian, Saudi and other regional powers.

The 28-point Russia-Ukraine plan called for Ukraine to give up land in the industrial Donbas region that the Russians currently don’t control and dramatically shrink the size of its military. It also effectively gave Russia oversight of both NATO and EU expansion. The draft has narrowed by a few points since it was first presented, and Trump is sending his envoys on a bit of shuttle diplomacy to “sell it,” as he said. He said Witkoff will visit Moscow next week — perhaps joined by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was also involved in the Gaza plan. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukranians.

European leaders worried that Trump is leaving them out of high-level discussions and vulnerable to Russian aggression.

“He appears perfectly ready to sacrifice Ukraine’s security and Europe’s in the process,” Hannah Neumann, a German member of the European Parliament, said of Trump on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted Trump’s pressure to agree to a ceasefire, for a time. But Putin refuses to concede anything on Ukraine.

He’s appeared to be considering the matter, notably when Trump rolled out a red carpet for the Russian leader at a summer summit in Alaska — an old front line of the Cold War. Trump left without an agreement from Putin to end the bloodshed. The Russian leader walked off with long-sought recognition on the world stage.

To the horror of Ukraine and the vexation of Trump, Putin has stood firm.

As the envoys flew home from Geneva last week without any agreement, the White House scrambled to explain. One U.S. official argued that the 28-page plan, which calls on Ukraine to cede the Donbas region and bar Ukraine from joining NATO, represents considerable concessions from Putin because he would be agreeing to give up on his claim, once and for all, that all of Ukraine should be part of Russia.

Putin, the official noted, has long grumbled that the West doesn’t respect Russia’s position in the global world order. The official added that the Trump White House in its approach is not affirming Putin’s position but trying to reflect the Russian perspective is given its due in the emerging peace plan.

It’s not for the administration to judge Putin’s positions, the official said, but it does have “to understand them if we want to get to a deal.”

McNeil reported from Brussels and Madhani from Washington. Associated Press writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed.

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Rights groups on Tuesday slammed the Trump administration’s decision to end protected status for Myanmar citizens due to the country’s “notable progress in governance and stability,” even though it remains mired in a bloody civil war and the head of its military regime faces possible U.N. war crimes charges.

In her announcement Monday ending temporary protection from deportation for citizens of Myanmar, also known as Burma, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited the military’s plans for “free and fair elections” in December and “successful ceasefire agreements” as among the reasons for her decision.

“The situation in Burma has improved enough that it is safe for Burmese citizens to return home,” she said in a statement.

The military under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power from democratically-elected Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and is seeking to add a sheen of international legitimacy to its government with the upcoming elections. But with Suu Kyi in prison and her party banned, most outside observers have denounced the elections as a sham.

“Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem is treating those people just like her family’s dog that she famously shot down in cold blood because it misbehaved — if her order is carried out, she will literally be sending them back to prisons, brutal torture, and death in Myanmar,” Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, said in a statement.

“Secretary Noem is seriously deluded if she thinks the upcoming elections in Myanmar will be even remotely free and fair, and she is just making things up when she claims non-existent ceasefires proclaimed by Myanmar’s military junta will result in political progress.”

The military takeover sparked a national uprising with fierce fighting in many parts of the country, and pro-democracy groups and other forces have taken over large swaths of territory.

The military government has stepped up activity ahead of the election to retake areas controlled by opposition forces, with airstrikes killing scores of civilians.

In its fight, the military has been accused of the indiscriminate use of landmines, the targeting of schools, hospitals and places of worship in its attacks, and the use of civilians as human shields.

An arrest warrant was also requested last year for Min Aung Hlaing by International Criminal Court prosecutors accusing him of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority before he seized power.

The shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, established by elected lawmakers who were barred from taking their seats after the military took power in 2021, said it was saddened by Homeland Security’s decision.

NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said the military is conducting forced conscription, attacking civilians on a daily basis, and that the elections were excluding any real opposition and would not be accepted by anybody.

“The reasons given for revoking TPS do not reflect the reality in Myanmar,” Nay Phone Latt told The Associated Press.

In her statement, Noem said her decision to remove the “TPS” protection was made in consultation with the State Department, though its latest report on human rights in Myanmar cites “credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest or detention.”

And the State Department’s latest travel guidance for Americans is to avoid the country completely.

“Do not travel to Burma due to armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, poor health infrastructure, land mines and unexploded ordnance, crime, and wrongful detentions,” the guidance reads.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 30,000 people have been arrested for political reasons since the military seized power, and 7,488 have been killed.

Still, Homeland Security said that “the secretary determined that, overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Burmese citizens can return home in safety,” while adding that allowing them to remain temporarily in the U.S. is “contrary to the national interest.”

John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said that “extensive reporting on Myanmar contradicts almost every assertion” in the Homeland Security statement.

The decision could affect as many as 4,000 people, he said.

“Homeland Security’s misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them,” he said in a statement.

“Perhaps no one was expected to.”

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2025. There are 36 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 25, 1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by two sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle that eventually saw him repatriated to his father in Cuba.

Also on this date:

In 1783, following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the last remaining British troops in the United States were evacuated from New York City.

In 1961, the USS Enterprise was commissioned; it was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and remains the longest naval vessel ever built, at 1,123 feet.

In 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral procession through Washington, D.C. An estimated 1 million people lined the somber procession route.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 2001, as the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif that erupted while he was interviewing detainees, becoming the first American combat casualty of the conflict.

In 2016, Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to a victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of authoritarian rule in Cuba, died at age 90.

In 2020, Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona died of a heart attack at age 60. Maradona led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs is 85.
• Actor John Larroquette is 78.
• Dance judge Bruno Tonioli (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) is 70.
• Musician Amy Grant is 65.
• Football Hall of Famer Cris Carter is 60.
• Rapper-producer Erick Sermon is 57.
• Actor Jill Hennessy is 57.
• Actor Christina Applegate is 54.
• Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb is 49.
• Television personality Jenna Bush Hager and twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush, daughters of former President George W. Bush, are 44.
• Soccer manager and former player Xabi Alonso is 44.
• Actor Stephanie Hsu is 35.

By JESSICA DAMIANO

We tend to think that fall is when the garden winds down, and spring is when the work begins. But there are several chores that, if completed now, will make your spring job much easier.

For starters, pulling up weeds by their roots in the fall will dramatically reduce their reappearance when the weather warms up again. I’m practically addicted to a long-handled tool called Grampa’s Weeder, which makes easy work of the task.

While you’re at it, thoroughly rake beds and borders where fungus, black spot or mildew diseases emerged this year. This will help prevent the pathogens from taking hold in the soil and infecting next year’s plants. Dispose of the leaves and debris in the trash.

Other disease-preventing measures include removing shriveled, “mummified” fruit from tree branches, and disinfecting tomato cages and plant stakes before storing (use a solution made of 1 part bleach and 9 parts water, or spray with a household disinfectant spray and allow to air dry.)

Clean, sharpen and oil tools now so they’ll be ready when you are. There’s little worse than heading out to plant your new seedlings only to find your spade has rusted over the winter.

Protect your trees and property

If you planted new fruit trees this year, install protective guards around them to prevent mouse and rabbit damage. I’m partial to coiled-plastic trunk wraps, but mesh, wire and higher-end metal tree surrounds are also highly effective.

For safety’s sake, examine tree branches now, and remove any that are split, dead or broken, lest they rip off during winter storms and threaten people and property.

Prepare for new beds

If you’re planning to start new beds next year, save yourself the back-breaking labor of digging up the lawn (or the money spent on renting a sod cutter) by smothering the grass over winter.

Define the future bed and cover the area with large pieces of cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, using landscape staples or rocks to hold it in place. Then, cover it with a few inches of mulch or compost.

The cardboard may be entirely decomposed by spring, but if not, just leave it in place and dig planting holes right through it.

Clear out the old beds

Clear out spent vegetable beds, then lightly turn the soil, incorporating compost, well-rotted manure and, if indicated by a low pH test result, lime. The amendments will work their way deeply into the soil by spring, enriching the root zone to give next year’s crops a natural, nutritional boost.

And for an early-spring gift to yourself, don’t forget to get flower bulbs (and garlic!) into the ground. The longer you wait, the bigger the risk of delayed blooms, but you can keep planting them as long as the soil is soft enough to dig.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

When six Southern public university systems this summer formed a new accreditation agency, the move shook the national evaluation model that higher education has relied on for decades.

The news wasn’t unexpected: It arrived a few months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April overhauling the nation’s accreditation system by, among other things, barring accreditors from using college diversity mandates. It also came after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in May made it easier for universities to switch accreditors.

The accreditation process, often bureaucratic, cumbersome and time consuming, is critical to the survival of institutions of higher education. Colleges and their individual departments must undergo outside reviews — usually every few years — to prove that they meet certain educational and financial standards. If a school is not accredited, its students cannot receive federal aid such as Pell grants and student loans.

Some accreditation agencies acknowledge the process needs to evolve. But critics say the Trump administration is reshaping accreditation for political reasons, and risks undermining the legitimacy of the degrees colleges and universities award to students.

Trump said during his campaign that he would wield college accreditation as a “secret weapon” to root out DEI and other “woke” ideas from higher education. He has made good on that pledge.

Over the summer, for example, the administration sent letters to the accreditors of both Columbia and Harvard universities, alleging that the schools had violated federal civil rights law, and thus their accreditation rules, by failing to prevent the harassment of Jewish students after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.

The administration’s antipathy toward DEI has prompted some accreditors to remove diversity requirements. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, for instance, removed diversity and inclusion language from its guiding principles earlier this year. Under White House pressure, the American Bar Association this year suspended enforcement of its DEI standards for its accreditation of law schools and has extended that suspension into next year.

But state legislatures laid the groundwork for public university accreditation changes even before Trump returned to the White House.

In 2022, Florida enacted a law requiring the state’s public institutions to switch accreditors every cycle — usually every few years — forcing them to move away from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, known as SACSCOC.

North Carolina followed suit in 2023, with a law prohibiting the 16 universities within the University of North Carolina system and the state’s community colleges from receiving accreditation from the same agency for consecutive cycles.

Then, the consortium of six Southern university systems this summer launched its new accreditation agency, called the Commission for Public Higher Education. The participating states include Florida and North Carolina, along with Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news release that the commission will “break the ideological stronghold” that other accreditation agencies have on higher education. Speaking at Florida Atlantic University, he said the new organization will “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels.”

“We care about student achievement; we care about measurable outcomes; we care about efficiency; we care about pursuing truth; we care about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic,” DeSantis said.

Jan Friis, senior vice president for government affairs at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which represents accrediting agencies, said the century-old system is in the midst of its most significant changes since the federal government tied accreditation to student aid after World War II.

“If the student picks a school that’s not accredited by a recognized accreditor, they can’t spend any federal aid there,” Friis said. “Accreditation has become the ‘good housekeeping seal of approval.’”

What’s next for the new accreditor

Dan Harrison, who is leading the startup phase of the Commission for Public Higher Education, described accreditation as “the plumbing of the whole higher ed infrastructure.”

“It’s not dramatic. It’s not meant to be partisan. But it’s critical to how schools function,” said Harrison, who is the University of North Carolina System’s vice president for academic affairs.

Though the founding schools of the new commission are all in the South, Harrison said, he expects accreditation to shift away from the long-standing geography-based model. In the past, universities in the South were accredited by SACSCOC simply because of location. In the future, he said, public universities across the country might instead be grouped together because they share similar governance structures, funding constraints and oversight.

“In 2025, if you were designing accreditation from scratch, you wouldn’t build it around geography,” Harrison said. “Public universities have more in common with each other across states than they do with private or for-profit institutions in their own backyard.”

The Commission for Public Higher Education opened with an initial cohort capped at 10 institutions within the first six states. Harrison said that based on the interest, the group could have accepted 15 to 20.

“I thought we’d be at six or seven. We reached 10 quickly and across a wider range of institutions than expected,” he said. “We already have an applicant outside the founding systems. That’s well ahead of where I thought we would be.”

That early interest, he said, reflects frustration among public institutions around finances. In particular, public universities are mandated to undergo audits from the state, but also feel burdened by audits required by accreditors.

“Public universities already undergo multiple audits and state budget oversight,” he said. “Then accreditation requires them to do the same work again. It feels like reinventing the wheel and it pulls faculty and staff away from teaching and research.”

Harrison estimates it will take five to seven years for the new accreditor to be fully up and running, and that institutions will need to maintain dual accreditation to avoid risking Pell Grants and federal loans.

The commission is busy assembling peer review teams made up primarily of current and former public university leaders such as governing board members, system chancellors, provosts, chief financial officers, deans and faculty. In contrast to regional accreditors, which typically draw reviewers from both public and private institutions, the new commission is prioritizing reviewers from public universities.

“Ultimately, we want to be a true nationwide accreditor,” Harrison said. “Not a regional one. Not a partisan one. Just one that is organized around sector and peer expertise.”

While the creation of a public university accreditor is new, the concept of sector-specific accreditation exists in other parts of higher education, including for two-year colleges.

Mac Powell, president of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, said that tailoring accreditation to a sector can make the peer-review model more meaningful, because reviewers can identify with similar challenges. He said reviewers have been moving away from measuring resources and bureaucratic compliance toward assessing what students actually get out of their education.

“The big shift was moving from counting inputs to asking, ‘Did students actually learn what we said they would learn?’” said Powell, whose organization accredits 138 colleges across Arizona, California, New York and the Pacific.

The most important metric all accreditation models should value is how they transition their students into the workforce, he said.

“Every accreditor today is paying much more attention to retention, persistence, transfer, career outcomes and return on investment,” Powell said. “It’s becoming less about how many books are in the library and more about whether students can find a pathway to the middle class.”

The institution evolves

Stephen Pruitt is in his first year as the president of SACSCOC, the accreditation organization that the half-dozen Southern state university systems just left. Pruitt, a Georgia native, jokes that his “Southern accent and front-porch style” has helped him break down the importance of accreditation to just about anyone.

In simple terms, he said, accreditation is the system that makes college degrees real. But he feels he has to clarify a misconception about the role of accreditation agencies like SACSCOC.

“There’s this myth that I’m sitting in Atlanta deciding if institutions are good or not,” he said. “That’s not how American accreditation works. Your peers evaluate you. People who do the same work you do.”

At the same time, Pruitt isn’t dismissing the concerns that prompted states such as Florida and North Carolina to explore alternatives to SACSCOC. According to Pruitt, institutions have long raised concerns about slow turnaround times, redundant paperwork and standards that have not always adapted quickly to the evolving landscape in higher education.

“Some of the frustration is real. Institutions want less redundancy and more responsiveness. Competition isn’t something we’re afraid of,” he said. “We’re doing a full audit of our processes. We have to be more contemporary. Faster approvals, more flexibility, more transparency. Accreditation shouldn’t just be the stick. It should be the carrot too.”

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Miriam Fauzia, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — The saying goes that you should stay out of the kitchen if you can’t take the heat, but new research suggests otherwise — for the sake of your blood pressure.

In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers at UNT Health Fort Worth found at-home heat therapy may hold the key to lowering blood pressure. A group of older adults wore heated pants for an hour a day, four days a week. After eight weeks, their blood flow improved and their systolic blood pressure, which measures blood flow when the heart beats, dropped by around 5 points.

The study comes at a time when nearly 120 million American adults have high blood pressure, but only one in four of those adults has it under control. In Texas, about 32% of adults report being told by a health care professional they have high blood pressure. And in 2023, high blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause in over 664,000 deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Exploring ways to reduce the risks of high blood pressure — like stroke and heart attack — is crucial, and “this is an important proof-of-concept study,” said Dr. Amit Khera, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the research.

Khera doesn’t see heat therapy “as a replacement for blood pressure medicine,” he said, but he does find it intriguing. “It could be a potential adjunctive treatment for other heart diseases and problems.”

Crank up the heat

Anyone who’s stepped out of a sauna or settled into a hot tub knows heat can feel good. Research backs that up: A 2025 study found soaking in hot water can lower blood pressure, stimulate the immune system and, over time, improve how the body handles heat stress.

Other studies similarly found heat therapy can improve cardiovascular function in middle-aged and older adults — whether or not they have chronic diseases — and that its benefits can be comparable to aerobic exercise, said Scott Romero, an associate professor of physiology and anatomy at UNT Health, who led the study.

“The crazy thing is, the cardiovascular responses to heat exposure are almost identical to exercise,” Romero said. “Heart rate changes, blood flow changes, muscle changes. It’s almost identical, which is one of the reasons why we think that heat therapy is efficacious, especially in a clinical population, because it almost mimics exercise.”

Raising your core temperature with heat therapy usually means regular time in a sauna or hot tub — tough if you don’t have either. To make heat therapy more accessible, Romero and Ysabella Ruiz, the study’s first author and a graduate student in Romero’s lab, tested whether pants lined with tubes that circulate hot water could deliver similar cardiovascular benefits. (The pants, Romero said, were adapted from suits developed by NASA to study cardiovascular function during heat stress.)

The researchers recruited 19 adults, aged 55 to 80, without a diagnosed condition of high blood pressure and split them into two similarly aged groups. One wore heated pants circulating water at nearly 124 degrees Fahrenheit, which raised skin temperature to about 104 degrees. (Romero and Ruiz chose that setting based on earlier work showing it nudged up core body temperature by about one to two degrees Fahrenheit over an hour in older adults.) The other group wore pants that were mildly warm, with the water heated near 88 degrees Fahrenheit and skin temperatures just over 90 degrees. Romero said these pants would feel pleasant but wouldn’t make people sweat like in the heat therapy group.

Participants had their blood pressure checked three ways: at the start of the study, during the day while active and after eight weeks. The researchers also used ultrasound before and after the treatment to see how well it helps widen the endothelium, or inner lining, of a blood vessel to let blood flow. Problems with this lining are among the earliest signs of aging in the circulatory system and can appear even without the usual risk factors for heart disease. When the lining stops functioning normally, the risk of clogged arteries, cardiovascular disease and complications such as stroke or death goes up.

The participants kept their normal routines, setting aside an hour a day, four days a week, to wear the pants. After eight weeks, when they returned to the lab for final tests, the results stood out: systolic blood pressure was about 5 points lower for the heat therapy group, and on ultrasound, the inner lining of the blood vessels among those group members seemed much improved, dilating better than before.

Further studies needed

Romero and Ruiz aren’t sure why the heated pants led to these results. One possibility, Romero said, is that the brain adjusts how tense or springy blood vessels are in response to heat. Another is that the vessels change and improve with repeated heat exposure.

“We think that some of those things are actually changing long term,” Romero said. “We didn’t actually measure the mechanisms,” since the study focused on whether the therapy would be effective in this population.

Khera is curious how the results would translate to people with diagnosed hypertension. There’s also a question of the clinical significance of a modest drop in blood pressure when treating patients one on one.

“On a population level, if you treated 100,000 people, 5 points help,” Khera said. “But on an individual level, [blood pressure] pills are much stronger than that. … If your blood pressure is modestly high and you want to start with this as a feasible first step, as they continue to do more studies, this could be a potential treatment.”

Khera added it’s unclear how long the benefits of heat therapy last. Romero and Ruiz acknowledged that’s something they hope to determine as they investigate the underlying biology behind the results.

The researchers’ longer-term goal with at-home heat therapy is to create an accessible way for older adults to acclimate to heat.

“We know that older folks are most at risk for heat-related illnesses, especially in Texas, where we have really hot summers,” Romero said. “Those older folks are the ones who are getting sick and the ones that are dying during heat waves. Our idea is to be proactive about these heat waves and have individuals heat acclimate themselves at home.”

Romero said preliminary data from his lab suggests that at-home heat therapy can help older adults build better resilience to heat stress. That matters because heat-related deaths disproportionately affect older adults, and research from 2024 projects that as many as 246 million more people in this demographic will face dangerous levels of heat by 2050.

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ADRIANA MORGA

NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe your car broke down, your computer was stolen, or you had a surprise visit to urgent care. Emergencies are inevitable, but you can prepare to deal with them by building an emergency fund.

“There are so many things that happen in our lives that we don’t expect and most of them require financial means to overcome,” said Miklos Ringbauer, a certified public accountant.

The industry standard is to save three to six months of expenses in an emergency fund. However, this can feel daunting if you live paycheck to paycheck or if you have debt. But if you’re in either of these situations, it’s even more crucial to build a financial safety net that can help you in times of crisis.

“Emergency funds allow you to prevent further debt,” said Jaime Eckels, certified financial planner and wealth management leader for Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Suppose you’re paying multiple credit cards and other loans. In that case, Rachel Lawrence, head of advice and planning for Monarch Money, a financial planning and budgeting app, recommends that you make the minimum payments while you build your emergency fund. Once you’ve hit an amount that feels right for your lifestyle, you can go back and continue tackling your debt more aggressively.

Whether you want to start an emergency fund or create better habits while you save, here are some expert recommendations:

Start with small milestones

The idea of saving for three to six months’ worth of expenses can be daunting, so it’s best to start with a smaller milestone. Lawrence recommends starting with a goal of saving $1,000, then moving on to save one, three, and six months of expenses.

The way you approach this goal can vary depending on your income and your budget. But starting with small, attainable goals can help you build an emergency fund without feeling financially strained.

“Starting small is okay. Even if it’s $20 right out of your paycheck, those small things can add up,” Eckels said.

She recommends building your emergency fund in a separate account from your regular savings account, ideally a high-yield savings account, which offers a higher interest rate than a traditional savings account.

Decide on the appropriate amount for your life

Knowing how much to save for your emergency fund depends on your life situation. Lawrence suggests you gauge your own financial responsibilities to estimate how much your ideal emergency fund should be.

For single professionals with no significant financial responsibilities, such as a mortgage or a car, the amount might be $2,000 to $3,000. At the same time, people with children and several pets might aim to save for six months’ expenses.

“There’s no one-shoe-fits-all solution. Everybody is different, especially if you have variable expenses on a monthly basis,” Ringbauer said.

Lawrence recommends that self-employed people maintain two emergency funds: one to buffer low-income months and another for true emergencies. To build your buffer account, Lawrence recommends setting aside some money during high-earning months.

“You set that amount aside in your buffer account until you have two or three months of the amount that you want, she said. “Because that way any month where you have less money, you go pull from the buffer and it’s no big deal.”

Automate your savings

Eckels recommends setting up automatic savings as a low-effort way to build your emergency fund.

Scheduling your savings to be withdrawn from your bank account as soon as your paycheck arrives is an effective way to build a savings habit without having to transfer the money manually.

“I always tell people if it was never in your bank account, you never had it, right?” Eckels added.

She also recommends that her clients open a separate account, one that isn’t at the same bank as their checking account, so they aren’t tempted to transfer the money in a non-emergency.

Make it visual

As you’re making progress towards your emergency fund goal, making it visual can help you stay motivated, according to Lawrence.

She recommends getting creative with how you track your progress, ideally with a method that brings you joy.

“You want your brain to get rewarded as often as possible when you’re seeing a bunch of progress,” she said.

Some options to make your progress visual include drawing a thermometer-like tracker and keeping it updated as you advance toward your goal, documenting your progress on a habit-building tracker on your phone, or using a budgeting app with a tracking tool.

Save windfalls

If your budget is really tight and you don’t have much wiggle room to set aside money for an emergency fund, Lawrence recommends saving windfalls.

“Unexpected chunks of money that maybe you weren’t expecting, like tax refunds or getting a third paycheck when you normally get paid twice a month, or a bonus, those are your best ways to make progress when you’re tight otherwise,” said Lawrence.

In general, Lawrence recommends that people keep 10% of their windfall for themselves and the rest for their emergency fund. With that breakdown, you can both save and feel rewarded by the unexpected income.

If you use it, don’t feel guilty

Chances are that an emergency will happen, and when it does, you don’t need to feel guilty for using your emergency fund, Lawrence said. Instead, it’s best to think about how you’ve achieved your goal of building a financial safety net for yourself.

“You wouldn’t feel bad about using your down payment to buy a house, you wouldn’t feel bad about saving for retirement, actually to retire,” Lawrence said.

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Today is Sunday, Nov. 23, the 327th day of 2025. There are 38 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 23,2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia, becoming Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state. She guided her nation through recovery after its exit from a decade-long civil war.

Also on this date:

In 1863, thousands of Union soldiers under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and battled Confederate forces through Nov. 25, forcing their retreat into Georgia in a significant blow to the South in the American Civil War.

In 1939, early in World War II, the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi was on patrol when it was shelled and sunk in an engagement with two German warships southeast of Iceland, leaving more than 200 dead aboard the Rawalpindi and only a few dozen survivors.

In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1971, the People’s Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.

In 1980, an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.

In 1984, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie completed one of the most famous passes in college football history, connecting with Gerald Phelan for a 48-yard touchdown with no time left on the clock as Boston College defeated the Miami Hurricanes 47-45.

In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean near the Comoro Islands, killing 125 of the 175 people on board, including all three hijackers.

In 2006, former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko (leet-vee-NYEN’-koh) died in London from radiation poisoning after making a deathbed statement blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2008, the U.S. government unveiled a bold plan to rescue Citigroup, injecting a fresh $20 billion into the troubled firm as well as guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets.

In 2011, Yemen’s authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh (AH’-lee ahb-DUH’-luh sah-LEH’) agreed to step down amid a fierce uprising to oust him after 33 years in power. (After formally ceding power in February 2012, he was killed in 2017 by Houthi rebels who were once his allies.)

In 2024, Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more, the latest strikes in renewed fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants. (A U.S.-brokered cease-fire would be reached on Nov. 27, with sporadic violations of that truce for months afterward.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Franco Nero (“Django”) is 84.
• Singer Bruce Hornsby is 71.
• TV journalist Robin Roberts (“Good Morning America”) is 65.
• Composer Nicolas Bacri is 64.
• Poet and author Jennifer Michael Hecht is 60.
• Olympic gold medal sprinter Asafa Powell is 43.
• Ice hockey player Nicklas Bäckström is 38.
• Singer-actor Miley Cyrus is 33.

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, JOSH BOAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ

The two had called each other “fascist” and “communist,” but when President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, they were just two iconoclastic New York politicians who were all smiles.

The much-anticipated face-to-face showed how the politicians’ shared love of New York City — and no doubt some political calculus — could paper over months of insults. Both men used a plainspoken, wry approach tailor-made for the age of social media to make their points, and each left the meeting with something he needed.

Here are some takeaways from the appearance.

Republicans lose their punching bag — at least for now

Trump’s party had been queueing up a 2026 campaign warning that the Democratic Party is getting taken over by people like Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim and self-described democratic socialist who may not play as well west of the Hudson River. But Trump swatted all that down.

“The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump, a native New Yorker, said of Mamdani.

Trump denied a charge by Elise Stefanik, the Republican candidate for New York governor and one of his political allies, that Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel, is a “jihadist,” saying, “I just met with a man who’s a very rational person” and adding that they both wanted peace in the Middle East.

Trump said he’d happily live in Mamdani’s New York, countering conservative suggestions that rich New Yorkers should flee the city. He praised Mamdani’s decision to keep New York’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, noting she was a friend of the president’s daughter Ivanka. And he demurred when asked about Mamdani’s democratic socialism, saying instead that the two had many similar ideas. He noted — and Mamdani emphasized repeatedly — that they’d both run for office on affordability.

It was an inconvenient defense of democratic socialism on the very day that House Republicans muscled through a resolution condemning socialism with the express intent of embarassing their rivals over the mayor-elect. Trump even threw in some praise of another Republican punching bag, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a democratic socialist.

“Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said. He added proudly that Mamdani was wowed by a painting of iconic Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — yet another GOP bugbear — in the Oval Office.

Trump, struggling amid mounting dissatisfaction in his first year back in office, may see an advantage in lashing his star to that of the latest avatar of affordability.

Of course, both Trump and Mamdani are experts at the 21st century art of political brawling and Trump is notoriously mercurial, so the detente may be short-lived. But it’s notable while it’s here.

Mamdani’s visit lets Trump talk about affordability

For the past few weeks, Trump has struggled to address voters’ concerns about inflation, suggesting that prices are already down and any claims otherwise are a “con job by the Democrats.” But Mamdani stomped his competition in the mayoral election by focusing relentlessly on the cost of rent, groceries and other basic needs — a successful strategy that White House officials noticed as they think about next year’s midterms.

The president leaned into that message in their White House meeting, saying he sees his efforts as complementary. He said that just like Mamdani, he too wants to build more housing. The president didn’t lay out any new policies as he repeated his claims that inflation has dropped under his watch.

“Anything I do is going to be good for New York if I can get prices down,” Trump said. “The new word is affordability. Another word is just groceries. You know, it’s sort of an old-fashioned word, but it’s very accurate. And they’re coming down. They’re coming down.”

The challenge for Trump is whether voters trust that he’s genuinely addressing inflation. The consumer price index has jumped to an annual rate of 3% compared to 2.3% in April, when the president rolled out his “Liberation Day” import taxes.

A confidence boost for Mamdani — with implications for his agenda

Throughout his campaign, Mamdani’s opponents claimed his far-left politics and relative inexperience would make him an easy target for Trump. Friday’s meeting will likely quiet those concerns — at least for now. Trump seemed thoroughly impressed with Mamdani, describing him as “a very rational man” who “wants to see New York be great again.”

“We had some interesting conversations and some of his ideas are the same that I have,” Trump added.

For his part, Mamdani struck a delicate balance: flattering Trump in broad terms, while avoiding sensitive subjects or concessions that could enrage his base. He noted repeatedly that many of his own voters were former Democrats who switched over to Trump in the previous election — a line the president seemed to like.

The backing of the president could help the mayor-elect avoid a National Guard deployment in New York, which Trump previously threatened as a likely outcome of his election victory. Trump also indicated that federal funding cuts could be off the table — a move that would give Mamdani a much better shot at achieving his ambitious agenda, which requires raising revenue for programs like universal free childcare.

“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump likely discriminates on the basis of race.

The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito will remain in place at least for the next few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections.

The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.

The order came about an hour after the state called on the high court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary elections approach in March. The justices have blocked past lower-court rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came several months before elections.

The order was signed by Alito because he is the justice who handles emergency appeals from Texas.

Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year’s elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle. The new redistricting map was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the civil rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters were likely to win their case.

If that ruling eventually holds, Texas could be forced to hold elections next year using the map drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2021 based on the 2020 census.

Texas was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting. Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to give Democrats an additional five seats there.

The redrawn maps are facing court challenges in California, Missouri and North Carolina.

The Supreme Court is separately considering a case from Louisiana which could further limit race-based districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It’s not entirely clear how the current round of redistricting would be affected by the outcome in the Louisiana case.