By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says executive orders targeting law firms are being issued in the name of national security, with the White House asserting that the firms don’t deserve access to sensitive U.S. government information.

But the firms fear the orders are being written so broadly as to potentially weaken national security by calling into question the status of security clearances of lawyers who, in addition to their legal practice, serve as military reservists and require their clearances to report to duty.

It’s an example of the sweeping and sometimes unintended consequences of White House efforts to reshape civil society, with those affected in some instances not necessarily being the ones who were top of mind when the Trump administration announced the actions in the first place. Military veterans, for instance, have not been spared from Trump’s ongoing slashing of the federal government.

Trump’s law firm executive orders have generally targeted firms that have associations with prosecutors who previously investigated him or employ, or have employed, attorneys he perceives as political adversaries. The orders have consistently imposed the same consequences, including threatening the suspension of all active security clearances held by employees at the singled-out firms.

Security clearances are issued for government workers and contractors who require access to classified national security information as part of their job. The executive branch and its agencies have wide discretion over who does and who does not obtain a clearance.

It’s unclear how many lawyers at the four firms still subject to executive orders — several others have averted them through settlements with the White House — hold security clearances either through their jobs or other work, or whether the Trump administration would move forward with plans to revoke the clearances of military reservists.

A White House spokesman, asked for comment, pointed to the provision of the order that says the clearances are to be suspended “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.” The response seemed to suggest that clearances of reservists could potentially be spared.

In the meantime, though, the issue was raised during a court hearing Friday in which a lawyer representing WilmerHale, one of the targeted firms, noted that the firm has within its ranks military reservists who have security clearances. Another firm that’s been subject to an executive order, Perkins Coie, also has said that it employs military reservists.

“I don’t think for a minute the government lawyer is going to come up here and tell you that they actually intended to suspend the reservists’ security clearances,” Paul Clement, a prominent Washington appellate lawyer who is representing WilmerHale, told the judge. “But they’re painting with such a broad brush with this thing, they aren’t distinguishing sheep from goats at all.”

He said Friday that “two of those lawyers have to report for their reserve duty next week. Now, I can’t tell you for sure that they’re going to show up and they’re not going to be able to do their job because their security clearance has been suspended.”

Several firms, including WilmerHale and Perkins Coie, have succeeded in winning court orders temporarily blocking enforcement of certain sections of the executive orders. The security clearance provisions, though, have remained in effect, a reflection of a president’s expansive powers when ordering the suspension or revocation of clearances.

Dan Meyer, a lawyer who specializes in security clearances at the Tully Rinckey law firm — which is not among those targeted in the executive orders — said he assumed the number of attorneys at major law firms is small and that it was possible military reservists might be able to keep their clearances, but it could conceivably require a lengthy adjudication.

“It may be that word will go quietly from the White House, ‘Don’t screw with any of these reservists at these law firms,’” Meyer said.

But, he added, “If the cat wants to claw the mouse, there’s an opportunity to do it.”

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Two election watchdog organizations sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday over his executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections through a proof-of-citizenship requirement, new mail ballot deadline restrictions and other sweeping changes.

The lawsuit, filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to declare the order unconstitutional and stop it from being implemented.

It names three nonprofit voter advocacy organizations as plaintiffs that it alleges are harmed by the order: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association.

“The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. “It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Monday’s lawsuit marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the U.S. Constitution and asserts power they say the president does not have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.

It comes as Congress is considering codifying a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration into law, and as Trump has promised more actions related to elections in the coming weeks.

The lawsuit draws attention to the Constitution’s “ Elections Clause,” which says states — not the president — get to decide the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run. That section of the Constitution also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.

“The Constitution is clear: States set their own rules of the road when it comes to elections, and only Congress has the power to override these laws with respect to federal elections,” said Lang, calling the executive order an “unconstitutional executive overreach.”

The lawsuit also argues the president’s order intrudes on Americans’ right to vote.

Trump, one of the top spreaders of election falsehoods, has argued this executive order will secure the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens. Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections, already a felony, is exceedingly rare.

Monday’s lawsuit against Trump’s elections order could be just the first of many challenges. Other voting rights advocates have said they’re considering legal action, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s order has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.

If courts determine the order can stand, the changes Trump is demanding are likely to cause some headaches for both election administrators and voters. State election officials, who already have lost some federal cybersecurity assistance, would have to spend time and money to comply with the order, including potentially buying new voting systems and educating voters of the rules.

The proof-of-citizenship requirement also could cause confusion or voter disenfranchisement because millions of eligible voting-age Americans do not have the proper documents readily available. In Kansas, which had a proof-of-citizenship requirement for three years before it was overturned, the state’s own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during the time it was in effect were U.S. citizens who had been eligible.

Monday’s lawsuit is the latest of numerous efforts to fight the flurry of executive actions Trump has taken during the first months of his second term. Federal judges have partially or fully blocked many of them, including efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, ban transgender people from military service and curb diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives among federal contractors and grant recipients.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of passengers faced flight cancellations at Europe’s busiest travel hub after a fire knocked out power to London’s Heathrow Airport, forcing it to close for the day.

At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, including several from U.S. cities that were canceled, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said.

Here’s the latest:

___

United Airlines offers travel waiver to Heathrow customers

United Airlines says that it is offering a travel waiver to its customers while Heathrow is closed so that they can switch to eligible flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris or Edinburgh. The airline said that all flights scheduled to arrive at Heathrow on Friday are canceled due to the closure.

Eurostar adding trains to help travelers

Eurostar says it is adding two additional trains between London and Paris to accommodate passengers stranded by Heathrow’s shutdown.

The high-speed train that goes beneath the English Channel said it was increasing capacity by 882 passengers per train on Friday.

Heathrow says it doesn’t know when power will be restored

Heathrow Airport says it doesn’t know when power will be restored and expects disruption to last for days after an electrical substation fire nearby.

The airport said in a statement it does not have “clarity on when power may be reliably restored.”

What is known about the fire that brought London’s Heathrow Airport to a standstill

It said it expects “significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”

Heathrow earlier said the airport is not expected to reopen until Saturday.

Analysts say Heathrow closure raises worrying questions

While the cause of the fire that shut down Heathrow Airport is still unclear, analysts say the incident raises concerns about the U.K.’s ability to withstand attacks or natural disasters that damage critical infrastructure such as communications and power networks.

It’s particularly worrisome given recent comments by Britain’s security services that Russia is conducting a reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe, said Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank focused on security and democracy in Europe.

“The U.K.’s critical national infrastructure is not sufficiently hardened for anywhere near the level it would need to be at to give us confidence this won’t happen again,” Mendoza said.

“I mean, if one fire can shut down Heathrow’s primary systems and then apparently the backup systems as well, it tells you something’s badly wrong with our system of management of such disasters,” he added.

European airline shares fall on main indexes

The Heathrow disruption weighed on shares of European airlines, which posted declines that outpaced the fall in broader main stock indexes on Friday.

Shares of International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, were down 1.4% after falling as much as 3% in early trading. Shares of Lufthansa, which operates Germany’s biggest carrier as well as Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and others, fell 1.3%. Air France-KLM, which operates the main carriers in France the Netherlands, slid 1.3%.

German leisure and tourism company TUI, which owns five airlines including one that serves the British market, slid 1.8%. Other European airlines that don’t operate at Heathrow were also dragged down by the negative sentiment. Wizz Air shares declined 1.4%, easyJet was down 0.7% and Ryanair dipped 0.8.

UK prime minister calls for rigorous investigation into fire

The British government says “clearly there are questions to answer” about how a single fire could shut down Europe’s busiest airport.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there must be a rigorous investigation to make sure “this scale of disruption does not happen again.”

Tom Wells said the most pressing task is to extinguish the fire, which is still burning on Friday. He said that “at the moment the priority is to deal with the incident in hand.”

He said “it’s very premature” to speculate on the cause of the blaze.

US flight operations normal as Delta issues waiver for Heathrow passengers

Flight operations remained normal in the United States on Friday despite the Heathrow fire, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Delta Airlines has issued a travel waiver through Sunday for customers who need to rebook their flights due to the Heathrow fire, a spokesperson said in a statement.

The company canceled 10 flights scheduled to depart from Heathrow on Friday.

No indication of foul play in London blaze, police say

Police say there is so far no indication of foul play in blaze that shut Heathrow but counterterror detectives leading the investigation into its cause.

The Metropolitan Police force says that is because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.

The force says counterterrorism command has “specialist resources and capabilities” that can help find the cause quickly.

Starmer thanks emergency services tackling blaze

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is receiving regular updates on the fire that has shut down Heathrow Airport, as he thanked the emergency services tacking the blaze.

Starmer posted on X: “I know the situation in Heathrow is causing distress and disruption, especially for those traveling or without power in their homes. I’m receiving regular updates and I’m in close contact with partners on the ground. Thanks to our emergency workers for keeping people safe.”

Heathrow closure recalls Icelandic volcano disruption

The Heathrow closure is drawing comparisons to the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption that closed much of European airspace for five days out of fears volcanic ash could damage jet engines.

The eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH’-lah-yer-kuhl), after two centuries of silence, spewed an ash cloud that closed Europe’s airspace and grounded millions of travelers. Iceland was briefly infamous as the country that stopped the world.

Read more about Iceland’s tourism boom in the aftermath of the 2010 eruption.

Scandinavian Airlines cancels 12 round-trip London flights

Scandinavian Airlines has canceled all 12 of its flights to and from London Heathrow on Friday.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and remain in continuous dialogue with Heathrow. Naturally, we hope for a swift resolution,” the company said in a statement.

Known as SAS, it’s considered the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Hopes dashed for family seeking to travel home to Texas

At Heathrow’s Terminal 5, a family of five traveling to Dallas had shown up in the hopes their flight home — still listed as delayed — would take off.

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

“It was a waste of time. Very confusing,” said Sri, who lives in London. “We tried to get in touch with British Airways, but they don’t open their telephone line until 8 a.m.”

Other London-area airports could reroute stranded travelers

Heathrow is one of the world’s biggest airports, but there are five others in the wider London area as well.

Travelers might be able to rebook through the remaining five airports — City, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Southend — in the aftermath of Heathrow’s closure.

However, they aren’t all easy to reach from Heathrow. While City is in inner London, and buses link Heathrow with Gatwick, the others are further out. Southend is about a 78-mile drive from Heathrow, around the congested M25 orbital highway and then out to the eastern coast of England.

Witnesses describe fireball and loud explosion from substation blaze

LONDON — Residents in west London have described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when a blaze ripped through an electrical substation near Heathrow Airport.

Matthew Muirhead, who was working a night shift, said that at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday he saw smoke rising over trees, then “a bright flash of white and all the lights in town went out.”

Delivery driver Adeel Anwar said the heat and billowing smoke from the blaze were “absolutely apocalyptic.” He told Sky News that as he drove past the substation “I just felt the heat … I tried to just get out of the area as quick as possible.”

Firefighters brought the blaze under control after seven hours and were still working to douse the flames on Friday. No injuries were reported.

Electricity supplier National Grid said power was restored to 62,000 customers by Friday morning, with 4,900 still without electricity.

Air India suspends Heathrow flights, with one turning around in midair

NEW DELHI — All Air India flights to Heathrow were suspended until Friday midnight, the carrier said in a statement, adding that it will “update about resumption of operations as soon as we have more information.”

The airline also said one of its flights had to return midair to Mumbai and another was diverted to Frankfurt. The company didn’t specify how many flights were affected in total.

Some passengers at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport said they had been informed of cancellations, while others said they were still waiting for the airline to provide them with alternate flights.

“As soon I went inside to get my boarding pass, they (airline staff) told us that the flight has been canceled and there is no flight for next two, three days,” passenger Vikas Swarup said.

Emma Fulton, who was in India’s Jaipur city for a wedding, said she received a text message en route to the airport.

“We had a text message about 20 mins before we arrived here, but we were already on the road,” she said.

9 flights through Dubai canceled after Heathrow closure

DUBAI — Eight outbound flights from Dubai International Airport to Heathrow, and one inbound from London to Dubai, were canceled Friday, according to Dubai Airports.

Travelers were told to contact their airlines for rebooking options.

What should travelers do?

Any travelers impacted by the Heathrow closure should contact their airline.

If a phone call doesn’t go through, travelers can also try contacting the airline on social media. Several airlines were responding to passengers’ posts on social platform X on Friday. A representative for British Airways, for example, was telling customers on X to send a direct message to the airline’s account so they could assist in rebooking.

For customers who are seeking a refund or other compensation, a European Union regulation known as EU261 could apply. Because the United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU, however, not every flight will be covered under EU261. The regulation covers flights within the EU, as well as flights departing from the EU to a non-EU country.

London flights from Barcelona and Madrid canceled

Spanish airport operator Aena said on Friday morning that 20 flights to and from Madrid and Barcelona had been canceled due to the Heathrow power outage. A total of 54 flights headed to or departing from Spanish airports were affected.

In a post on X, the state-controlled commercial airport operator advised travelers to contact airlines for more information about disrupted flights.

‘An incredibly long day’ for travelers

GLASGOW — Lawrence Hayes was three-quarters of the way to London from John F. Kennedy International in New York when Virgin Atlantic announced they were being diverted to Glasgow.

“It was a red-eye flight and I’d already had a full day, so I don’t even know how long I’ve been up for,” Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. “Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and she’s kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston (railway station in London), but it’s going to be an incredibly long day.”

Ryanair adds ‘rescue flights’ between Dublin and London Stansted

DUBLIN — Ryanair has added eight “rescue flights” between Dublin and Stansted, another London airport, on Friday and Saturday to help travelers impacted by the fire at Heathrow, the budget airline announced.

Ryanair does not operate at Heathrow.

Four of the flights will occur Friday afternoon, and the remaining on Saturday morning.

Lufthansa Group cancels flights to and from Heathrow

BERLIN — All flights by Lufthansa Group to and from Heathrow were canceled on Friday.

The company didn’t specify how many flights were affected in total, but said in an emailed statement that “passengers affected by the flight cancellations have been rebooked on other flights and informed about it.”

Lufthansa Group includes Germany’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, as well as Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and others.

No evidence that substation fire was suspicious, UK officials say

LONDON — British officials working to determine the cause of an electrical substation fire that shut Heathrow Airport have not yet found evidence it’s suspicious.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says “it’s too early to say” what caused the huge blaze, but there’s “no suggestion” of foul play.

London’s Metropolitan Police say the fire brigade is leading the investigation, suggesting it’s not thought to be criminal.

Flights from Tokyo diverted or turned around

TOKYO — The closure of Heathrow forced two Japanese flights that had already departed to return to Tokyo and a third to change its destination, airline officials said.

Japan Airlines said one of its two Heathrow-bound flights Friday returned to Tokyo’s Haneda international airport, and another one diverted to the Finnish capital, Helsinki. A third flight out of Tokyo, operated by All Nippon Airways, another major Japanese carrier, also returned to Haneda.

Airline officials advised passengers to check the latest flight information for Saturday.

Birdsong replaces aircraft noise for Heathrow neighbors

The noise from Europe’s busiest airport is a constant bugbear for those who live nearby, but has temporarily fallen silent.

“Basically living near Heathrow is noisy. There are planes every 90 seconds or so, plus the constant hum of traffic, but you get used to it, to the point of no longer noticing,” said James Henderson, who has lived next to Heathrow for over 20 years.

“Today is different. You can hear the birds singing.”

Qantas diverts Heathrow flights to Paris

Australian airline Qantas diverted its Singapore-London and Perth-London flights to Paris on Friday and then bused the travelers to London, a spokesperson said.

Customers will be contacted directly if their flight is impacted.

Aviation expert compares impact to 9/11 or Icelandic volcano

LONDON — Aviation consultant John Strickland says it will take several days for global airline travel to recover from a daylong closure of Heathrow Airport.

He said: “We’re talking about several days’ worth of disruption to get the planes recovered and start using them again to move planned and disrupted passengers.”

Strickland compared the disruption to “a contained version of 9/11 or, to an extent, the Icelandic volcanic eruption” that shut European airspace in 2010.

“I remembered seeing on those occasions – particularly more so on 9/11 – it happened so quick and then U.S. airspace was closed, they were turning back aircraft and holding planes. That’s the parallel I would make.

“Heathrow being such a busy airport and full, there’s no kind of wriggle room for getting out of these kind of things.”

Heathrow closure has widespread impact on air travel

The closure of Heathrow rippled through global aviation. The long-haul carrier Emirates in Dubai, which has London as one of its top destinations, canceled six round-trip flights to Heathrow on Friday alone.

Etihad in neighboring Abu Dhabi canceled two round-trip flights, while one flight diverted to Frankfurt, Germany. Qatar Airways said at least seven scheduled flights were “impacted,” with its staff working with passengers.

Blaze that shut down Heathrow is unprecedented, UK government minister says

A British government minister says a “catastrophic” fire knocked out a backup generator as well as the electrical substation that supplies power to Heathrow Airport.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC that the blaze is “unprecedented.”

He said it’s too early to know the cause but that lessons will have to be learned about “protection and the resilience that is in place for major institutions like Heathrow.”

Flights from Hong Kong rerouted to Amsterdam, airline says

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways rerouted two overnight flights to Amsterdam and canceled at least two daytime flights to Heathrow, according to the flight status page on its website.

Fire that closed Heathrow is now under control but not out

The London Fire Brigade says the electrical substation blaze closed Heathrow Airport is under control.

The fire caused a widespread power outage, affecting thousands of homes, local businesses, and disrupting thousands of flights.

LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne says the fire was under control just after 8 a.m.

“This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” he said. “Thanks to their efforts and a coordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread.”

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% for the same period last year. January also was the 11th month in a row it averaged over 200,000 passengers a day, with the airport citing trans-Atlantic travel as a key contributor.

Heathrow normally opens for flights at 6 a.m. due to nighttime flying restrictions. It said the closure would last until 11:59 p.m. Friday.

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

Flights turn around as airport closes

Seven United Airlines flights returned to their origin or diverted to other airports and its flights Friday to Heathrow were canceled, the airline said.

The FlightAware website showed more cancellations including two from John F. Kennedy International in New York, a Delta Airlines flight and an American Airlines flight.

Other jets were diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Ireland’s Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.

National Rail canceled all trains to and from the airport.

Fire cuts off power to Heathrow and thousands of homes

Flames soared into the sky when a transformer at an electrical substation caught fire in west London late Thursday night. The fire continued to smolder after daybreak.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X the power outage affected more than 16,300 homes. About 150 people were evacuated.The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

By DANICA KIRKA The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Flights to and from London’s Heathrow Airport were canceled Friday after a fire at a nearby substation knocked out power to Europe’s busiest airport, disrupting travel plans for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Here’s a look at what’s happening and its impact on air travel.

What happened?

A fire at an electrical substation in west London, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the airport, knocked out power to Heathrow Airport just before midnight on Thursday.

The “significant power outage” forced officials to shut the airport until 11:59 p.m. on Friday “to maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues.”

The London Fire Brigade said 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters responded to a fire at the substation that was reported at 11:23 p.m. on Thursday. The fire has been contained but firefighters will remain at the scene throughout Friday, the fire brigade said.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the “catastrophic” fire appeared to have knocked out a backup generator as well as the electrical substation that supplies power to Heathrow Airport.

National Grid, which maintains energy infrastructure in Britain, said the fire damaged equipment at the substation and crews are working to restore power supplies as quickly as possible. Power had been restored to 62,000 customers by 6 a.m. local time, but 4,900 were still without electricity.

What caused the fire?

The cause is still under investigation, and officials said there was “no suggestion” of foul play.

But the Metropolitan Police said counterterror detectives were leading the investigation into its cause because of the fire’s impact on critical national infrastructure.

“We don’t know the cause of this fire. It’s obviously an unprecedented event,” Miliband said, adding that the fire and subsequent shutdown of Heathrow raises questions about the resilience of the country’s key infrastructure.

How was Heathrow affected?

The disruption disrupted travel plans of the roughly 200,000 people who were expected to travel through Heathrow on Friday. Heathrow advised passengers not to travel to the airport and to contact their airlines to rebook flights.

With all take offs and landings canceled, the first impact was on dozens of long-haul flights from North America and Asia that were in the air when the airport was shutdown. Some were forced to turn around, while others were diverted to airports around the U.K. and Europe.

Heathrow-bound aircraft have landed at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam; Shannon Airport in western Ireland; Glasgow, Scotland; Manchester, England; Charles de Gaulle in Paris; Lyon, France; and Frankfurt, Germany, among others.

The impact on short-haul flights was delayed until Friday morning because flight operations at Heathrow are severely limited between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. every day to minimize overnight noise in surrounding communities. Even so, thousands of people will be unable to travel to and from airports around Europe and the U.K. on Friday.

Some 4,000 tons of cargo have also been stranded by the closure, according to Anita Mendiratta, an aviation consultant.

How long will the disruptions last?

Even if the airport reopens on Saturday, the disruptions are expected to last for days as airlines move stranded aircraft and flight crews back into position and work to accommodate passengers whose flights were canceled.

Mendiratta estimated that it would take two to four days to clear all the backlogs.

“This is an extreme situation where the entire aviation ecosystem is impacted,” Mendiratta said.

“There will be two things that will be happening as a priority number one shall we say. First is airport operations and understanding, from an electrical system point of view, what has been impacted, if anything,” she added. “Did anything short out, for instance? What needs to be reactivated? And then how do you literally turn the airport back on again? Passenger and cargo.

“On top of that, there’s the issue of actually managing the human component of it. You have passengers that are impacted, crew are impacted and operations — so being able to re-mobilize everything.”

How big is Heathrow?

Heathrow was Europe’s busiest airport last year, with 83.6 million passengers traveling through the airport. Its closure will have far-reaching impacts because it is a major hub for connecting flights to cities throughout Britain and around the world, as well as for travel to London.

Does London have other airports?

Yes. Five other air hubs in southeastern England identify themselves as London airports, but they are much smaller than Heathrow. Gatwick, Britain’s second-biggest airport, handled 43.2 million passengers last year. It is in the town of Crawley, 28 miles south of London.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is resisting a federal judge’s demand for more information about flights that took deportees to to El Salvador, arguing on Wednesday that the court should end its “continued intrusions” into the authority of the executive branch.

It’s the latest development in a showdown between the Trump administration and the judge who temporarily blocked deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration. President Donald Trump has called for the judge’s impeachment as the Republican escalates his conflict with a judiciary after a series of court setbacks over his executive actions.

U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg, who was nominated to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, had ordered the Trump administration to answer several questions under seal, where the information would not be publicly exposed. There were questions about the planes’ takeoff and landing times, and the number of people deported under Trump’s proclamation.

The judge has questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his court order on Saturday to turn around planes with deportees headed for the Central American country, which had has agreed to house them in a notorious prison.

In court papers filed hours before the deadline to respond Wednesday, the Justice Department said the judge’s questions are “grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority relating to national security, foreign relations and foreign policy.” The department said it was considering invoking the “state secrets privilege” to allow the government to withhold some of the information sought by the court.

“The underlying premise of these orders … is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security. The Government disagrees,” Justice Department lawyers wrote. “The two branches are co-equal, and the Court’s continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end.”

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. and claimed there was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport, through that 1798 law, anyone in its custody.

Told there were planes in the air headed to El Salvador, Boasberg said Saturday evening that he and the government needed to move fast. “You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg told the government’s lawyer.

Hours later, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said the deportees had arrived in his country. “Oopsie…too late” he said in a social media post, above an article referencing Boasberg’s order.

The administration contends that a judge lacks the authority to tell the president whether he can determine the country is being invaded under the act, or how to defend it.

Boasberg’s new order for answers came after the administration provided limited information in response to a sharp questioning from the judge at a Monday hearing.

The administration said in a filing Tuesday that two planes took off before Boasberg’s order went into effect, and a third plane that took off after the ruling came down did not include anyone deported under the law. The administration declined, however, to provide estimates about the number of people subject to the proclamation.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a Monday briefing that about 261 people were deported, including 137 under the law.

Max Reinhart, The Detroit News

State officials said they’ve almost exhausted the 313 area code and Detroiters will have to start dialing the full 10-digit phone number, even for local calls, starting in October.

Beginning Oct. 7, all local calls made within the 313 area code footprint must use all 10 digits. Calls placed with only seven digits won’t be completed and callers will receive a message asking them to disconnect and try their call again, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) said in a press release Monday.

Telephone service providers can begin issuing an “overlay area code,” 679, to new phone customers in the 313 area, which includes Detroit and several of its closest suburbs, starting Nov. 7. This means callers must dial all 10-digits in order for their call to go through, MSPS said.

To give customers time to get used to the change, a six-month “permissive dialing” period will begin April 7. From then until Oct. 7, local calls can be made by dialing either the seven- or 10-digit number.

New phone lines or services will only be assigned numbers using the new 679 area code after all 313 numbers are exhausted, which isn’t projected to happen until late in 2027. However, MPSC said that timing is subject to change depending on demand, and new lines could be assigned the 679 area code as early as Nov. 7, 2025.

Customers who currently have a number with a 313 area code will be able to keep their existing phone number, MPSC said.

All calls currently considered local will remain so, MPSC said, and callers will continue to dial 1, plus the area code, for long-distance calls.

The price of a call, coverage area or other rates and services will not change due to the overlay, the commission said.

Special three-digit numbers like 911 and 988 will be unchanged.

Phone customers are encouraged to identify their telephone number as a 10-digit number and include the area code when giving the number to friends, family, business associates, customers and others.

Callers should also ensure that all services, automatic dialing equipment, applications, software or other types of equipment are reprogrammed to dial 10 digits if they are currently programmed to dial seven digits and to recognize the new 679 area code as a valid area code. Examples include life-safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, gates, speed dialers, mobile phone contact lists, call forwarding settings and voicemail services.

“Be sure to check your business stationery, advertising materials, personal checks, and your personal or pet ID tags to ensure the area code is included in your telephone number,” MPSC said.

Important safety and security equipment like medical alert devices, alarms and security systems may also need to be reprogrammed, between April 7 and Oct. 7, to use 10-digit dialing. Many systems use 10 digits by default, but older equipment may not, the state said. Anyone unsure about this should contact the service provider.

mreinhart@detroitnews.com

Charles Ramirez, The Detroit News

Two Ypsilanti men were arrested over the weekend for trying to steal a vehicle after leading Southfield police on car chases, officials said.

Both have been charged, Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren said Monday.

Tyree Pitts, 21, and James Harris, 18, both of Ypsilanti, were arraigned Friday in 46th District Court, the police chief and court records said.

Barren announced their arrests and charges against them at a midday news conference Monday at police headquarters. He was joined by Southfield Deputy Police Chief Aaron Huguley, Southfield Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Jagielski, and Southfield Police Lt. Mostapha Bzeih.

Pitts is charged with third-degree fleeing and eluding police, a 5-year felony, unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle, a 5-year felony, and receiving and concealing a stolen vehicle, also a 5-year felony.

A judge set his bond at $50,000 and scheduled his next court hearing for March 28.

Court records did not list an attorney for Pitts on Monday.

Barren said Pitts has prior convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, receiving and concealing stolen motor vehicles, felony assault, and malicious destruction of property.

Harris is charged with unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle and receiving and concealing a stolen vehicle, Barren said.

A judge set his bond at $1,500 and scheduled his next court hearing for March 28.

Court records did not list an attorney for Harris on Monday.

Barren said Harris does not have a documented criminal history.

Two other people were arrested in connection with the attempted theft, police said.

One, an 18-year-old Atlanta, Ga., man, was given a ticket for giving police officers a false name when questioned, they said.

The other, a 17-year-old Detroit resident, was processed and turned over to his parents, the chief said. The 17-year-old will be prosecuted in Wayne County Juvenile Court. Barren explained juveniles accused of crimes in Michigan are prosecuted in the counties of their residence not where the crimes allegedly happened.

He also said police continue to investigate and determine if any others may be charged in connection with the crime.

Authorities said the incident happened at about last Thursday in the 27000 block of Berkshire Drive near West Eleven Mile and Evergreen roads.

Barren said dispatchers received a 911 call at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday from the car’s owner. She reported her home’s security camera alerted her to a man trying to get inside her parked 2017 Dodge Charger, Barren said.

After checking the video, she told police she saw multiple suspects near her car and gave a description of them.

Officers arrived within minutes and saw a suspect run to get into a white 2015 Mazda sedan, according to the Southfield police chief. They then saw the Mazda and a green Ford Fusion that had been reported stolen earlier in the day in Southfield traveling one behind the other through the neighborhood.

“Based on the officers’ observations, it was apparent that both vehicles were involved and acting in concert with one another,” Barren said. “Both vehicles were observed leaving the subdivision at the same time. Both vehicles turned in unison onto northbound Evergreen Road.”

The chief said the Ford was in front with the Mazda behind it. Officers followed the vehicles as they reached Villa Pointe Condominiums where they drove off in separate directions, he said.

Officers following the Ford shone their vehicle’s spotlight on the car and saw multiple occupants inside wearing masks.

“The Ford Fusion immediately accelerated away from officers,” Barren said. “As the driver fled, he drove over grass, and rocks, and the vehicle became disabled. The occupants got out and ran.”

Simultaneously, officers were pursuing the Mazda. Barren said the car turned onto northbound Evergreen Road, made an abrupt turn at Kingswood Place Condominiums, and continued to flee.

Police then used a so-called PIT Maneuver — using a police car to strike a fleeing vehicle’s rear quarter panel — to disable it, officials said.

“That resulted in the vehicle spinning out and becoming disabled,” Barren said.

He said the occupants remained in the car until officers ordered them out and took them into custody. Police later identified the driver as Pitts and his front seat passenger as Harris, the chief said.

No injuries were reported, he added.

On Monday, Southfield police released the 911 call reporting the attempted car theft as well as officers’ dash cam video of one of the car chases and body camera footage of the arrest of a couple of suspects.

Car thefts have become such a growing problem for law enforcement and car owners, that the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said last month it was expanding its auto insurance fraud task force to include stolen vehicles as thefts spike in the state.

“Southeast Michigan is experiencing a crisis when it comes to individuals stealing vehicles,” Barren said. “It’s also a national crisis. It’s a multi-million dollar industry and that’s what keeps individuals committing these crimes.”

Barren said the city of Southfield is attractive for car thieves because of the three freeways — Interstate 696, the Lodge and the Southfield — that run through it. It also has a lot of hotels and apartment complexes, he added.

“It can become a target for individuals who are planning auto theft crimes because the cars are on display,” he said.

Southfield police officers and the task force have arrested 43 auto theft suspects since October 2024, the chief said. Southfield police have arrested 21 people, which resulted in 47 felony charges so far in 2025, he said.

The Southfield Police Department houses the Oakland County Auto Theft Task Force, which includes officers from Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and the Southfield, Hazel Park, Farmington Hills and Detroit police agencies.

Pitts and Harris are the latest Michigan residents to be accused of auto theft.

Last week, a Warren man was charged with conducting a criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony, after authorities linked him to an alleged auto theft ring that targeted Cadillacs in a carmaker’s lot.

Earlier this month, three Detroit men were ordered to stand trial for allegedly being part of a ring that stole hundreds of vehicles in southeast Michigan.

Last month, two Detroit were charged for allegedly being part of an auto theft ring that targeted dealerships in Macomb, Oakland, and Genesee counties.

cramirez@detroitnews.com

The Long Island brush fires that startled communities across Suffolk County over the weekend were likely caused by a person attempting to cook s’mores in their backyard, officials said Monday.

One person was using cardboard while attempting to make s’mores in the backyard of a Center Moriches home, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said Monday.

The person struggled to create a flame for the toasted marshmallow dessert due to the winds but accidentally set their backyard on fire, Catalina said at a press conference. Firefighters doused the flames at the home by around 10:30 a.m.

However, embers from the initial blaze were blown southeast by strong winds out of the northwest, sparking the fires that eventually sent smoke soaring into the sky, Catalina said. The first 911 calls about the larger brush fires came in just before 1 p.m.

“All of those fires are in a direct line with the strong northwest wind that was blowing that day,” Catalina said. “We feel very, very strongly that this is an accidental fire.”

A massive response from local firefighters kept the brush fires south of Sunrise Highway, part of which was closed on Saturday as crews battled the flames.

By Monday morning, all visible flames had been extinguished and smoke-eaters were taking preventative measures to stop new fires from sparking. Conditions on Long Island are expected to remain dry throughout the week.

“This was a fire that could’ve been far more serious than it was,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said.

 

Two firefighters were injured battling the flames but released from the hospital by Sunday afternoon. Two commercial buildings were damaged, but no residential structures were harmed.

Gov. Hochul instituted a burn ban for New York City and Long Island on Sunday, one week earlier than usual. Romaine had his own blunt advice at Monday’s press conference: “Don’t cook s’mores.”

OMAHA, Neb. — Looking forward to more evening sunlight thanks to daylight saving time this weekend?

Many in the golf industry like the time change, too, and they are pushing to make that annual switch permanent.

The move is intended to encourage more evening golf and to stave off efforts to establish permanent standard time, which would leave less time for an evening on the links. And it is those late afternoon players who tend to buy food and drinks in the clubhouse.

“We would lose 100 tee times a day if daylight saving time goes away,” said Connor Farrell, general manager of Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Nebraska. “Switching to permanent standard time would cost us $500,000 a year.”

Golf played a big role in daylight savings time

Golf has deep roots in the history of daylight saving time, which begins for most states at 2 a.m. Sunday when clocks “spring forward” by one hour. Some credit goes to William Willett, a British builder and avid golfer who in 1905 published a pamphlet advocating for moving clocks ahead in April and returning them back to their regular settings in September. The U.S. adopted a version of that during World War I and again in World War II.

Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 that set up the biannual time change, and lobbying efforts by the golf industry are largely credited for Congress expanding daylight saving time by a month in the mid-1980s.

Lawmakers try to make standard time permanent

But for as long as it has been around, the constant clock adjusting has drawn the ire of Americans weary of losing an hour of sleep in the spring only to be faced with the early onset of darkness in the fall. That exhaustion has led to hundreds of bills introduced in nearly every state over the years to halt the practice.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that in the last six years, 20 states have passed measures calling for a switch to year-round daylight saving time, many at the cajoling of golf industry lobbyists. But while states could switch to permanent standard time — as Arizona and Hawaii have done — Congress would need to change the law to allow permanent daylight saving time.

That hindrance — along with arguments that permanent standard time would improve sleep quality and foster safer morning commutes — has seen more states consider opting out of daylight saving time. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills this year to make standard time permanent.

Nebraska is among several states considering competing bills to make either standard time or daylight saving time permanent. That drew Joe Kohout, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Golf Alliance, to testify in favor of year-round daylight saving time.

Late afternoon golf leagues account for up to 40% of the annual revenue of some Nebraska courses, Kohout said, while a majority of golf instructors reported that nearly 50% of their lessons are taught after 4 p.m.

Under permanent standard time, “Nebraska’s golf courses will lose revenue, be forced to raise prices, and in some cases could be driven out of business,” he said.

The Utah Golf Association is also fighting a bill to make standard time permanent.

“The argument that changing clocks twice a year is an inconvenience does not outweigh the year-round benefits of having more usable daylight hours in the evenings,” it posted on social media.

In Indiana, golf course owner Linda Rogers succeeded in lobbying the Legislature to institute daylight saving time in 2006. Now a state senator, Rogers is fighting an effort to return to permanent standard time.

“Daylight savings time allows someone that, you know, worked until 5 o’clock to come out and still play at least nine holes,” she said. “And it’s not just golf. There are so many outdoor activities that people want to be outside for and enjoy later in the summertime.”

Golf course owners like the status quo

The National Golf Course Owners Association, which has about 4,000 members, recently polled stakeholders on the matter. The vast majority favored either permanent daylight saving time or the status quo of changing the clocks, said CEO Jay Karen. Only about 6% backed a change to permanent standard time.

“If standard time was to be made permanent, thousands of courses would be harmed by that,” Karen said.

Even so, Karen’s group is not advocating for a change to permanent daylight saving because it could hurt hundreds of courses that cater to early morning golfers, he said. Those include courses in retirement communities, vacation resorts where late tee times interfere with dinner plans and Sun Belt courses where extreme late-day heat sees golfers favoring early tee times.

“We feel like status quo is no harm, no foul,” Karen said.

Republican Iowa state Rep. John Wills introduced a bill this year to make the change to permanent daylight savings. But he has been under pressure to amend the bill to permanent standard time.

Wills was considering it until he heard arguments on how that change could affect golf.

’“I think I might push back in the future and say, you know, the golf industry needs this,” he said.

By Mallory Carra, Ollie

While deployed in Kosovo in May 2024, U.S. Army Reserve physical therapy assistant Elvia Azuara saw many stray cats running around one of the bases — including a sweet little black and white female kitty, known mostly as Fent.

Azuara noticed her one day during lunch and she fed fries to Fent. Soon, this became a regular bonding activity for them. “I guess she knew my routine,” Azuara said in an interview with Stacker. “Whenever I was there, she would just pop up out of nowhere and she would wait for her fries.”

But four months later, in October, Azuara got word that her deployment was ending — and she was devastated to leave the kitty, especially as winter approached. And that’s where Paws of War’s “War Torn Pups & Cats” program stepped in.

Ollie profiled the work of the U.S. nonprofit, which reunites military personnel with the animals they bonded with while serving overseas. Founded by Robert Misseri in 2014, Paws of War has helped rescue over 5,000 dogs and cats for nearly 1,000 veterans. The organization filled an increasing need for officers in the Air Force, Marines, Army, Coast Guard, and Army Reserves who served overseas, bonded with a dog or a cat, and didn’t want to leave them behind in an uncertain situation.

The organization serves a dual purpose by reuniting service members grappling with the aftermath of war with animals needing care. And for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, their furry companions not only bring joy but also help them heal.

“We have troops all over the world and the sacrifices that those people make is pretty great,” said Paws of War volunteer Gary Baumann, who volunteers with the “War Torn Pups & Cats” program. “We feel like asking them to leave these animals behind is a sacrifice they shouldn’t have to make,” he told Stacker.

High costs but high rewards

Azuara heard about the program from service members who had previously been deployed at the base. After she bonded with Fent, she submitted her application to bring the kitty home to the U.S.

“I was a little skeptical at the beginning, to be honest, because I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know why would they do it for free,’” she said, “but I don’t lose anything by just checking it out.”

The “War Torn Pups & Cats” program costs nothing for service members—donors primarily fund it. In 2023, Paws of War raised over $4 million from contributions and grants.

After a soldier like Azuara applies, Paws of War volunteers and staff members all around the world team up to work on the logistics, exploring how possible it is to bring the pet to the United States. Dogs and cats need to see a qualified veterinarian for documentation and rabies vaccines before traveling internationally, but sometimes that vet is located hours away. The care can also vary in cost, depending on local currency and pricing.

“Recently we had a dog in Africa and we’ve done a few from bases there,” Baumann said. “It literally takes a donkey cart, a boat, couple cars and then, usually a motorcycle, something that can go through a little bit of brush to get these the dogs or cats to the city where we can get them to a vet and start processing them.”

The most expensive part of the process is transporting animals to the U.S. It often involves flying them in a plane as cargo, which can cost around $4,000 or more. The pet also must enter the country at a government-authorized airport.

For instance, cats from other countries can enter the U.S. through several airports, but the CDC only allows dogs from high-risk rabies countries to enter through six, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Los Angeles International Airport.

Helping heroes

Paws of War accepts direct donations on its website to help support its programs, which include providing PTSD service dogs and a mobile veterinary clinic in Long Island, New York.

For the “War Torn” program, the expense is worth it for the organization, its soldiers, and the animals. Dogs and cats are believed to be capable of more complex emotions than most people realize and their reunions with the officers they bonded with may mean just as much to them as it does to the human.

For Azuara, the bond was as strong as ever. Three weeks after she put in her application, the program contacted her in November 2024 with good news: Fent was ready to travel to the U.S. and live with her.

The cat flew from Kosovo and entered the U.S. through JFK airport, eventually making it to Azuara’s home in Austin, Texas. Their reunion at the airport meant a lot to Azuara, who worried the kitty might forget her or not get along with her two dogs. But Fent — who Azuara renamed Frenzy — adjusted to her new home right away. Frenzy doesn’t get to eat fries anymore, but enjoys her proper cat food.

Now, Azuara is training to join the Travis County EMS. Having Frenzy, a major part of her overseas experience, in Texas has helped her readjust to the U.S.

“She’s definitely one of my huge grounding tools, when I was over there,” Azuara said. “When the situations were really stressful, she was something that would brighten up my day. And when I came back it’s really hard to transition and acclimate back into civilian life, but having her, it was kind of like having a little piece of where I was and a little reminder that, hey, it’s going to be okay.”

Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Elisa Huang. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.

This story originally appeared on Ollie and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org

The cost of child care now exceeds the price of college tuition in 38 states and the District of Columbia, according to a new analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute.

The left-leaning think tank, based in Washington, D.C., used 2023 federal and nonprofit data to compare the monthly cost of infant child care to that of tuition at public colleges.

The tally increased five states since the pandemic began. EPI’s last analysis relied on 2020 data, which showed child care costs outstripped college costs in 33 states and Washington, D.C., said EPI spokesperson Nick Kauzlarich.

The organization released a state-by-state guide on Wednesday showing the escalating cost of child care. Average costs range from $521 per month in Mississippi to as much as $1,893 per month in Washington, D.C., for households with one 4-year-old child, EPI found.

The analysis also found child care costs have exceeded rent prices in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

EPI leaders said child care is unaffordable for working families across the country, but especially for low-wage workers, including those who provide child care.

“This isn’t inevitable — it is a policy choice,” Katherine deCourcy, EPI research assistant, said in a news release. “Federal and state policymakers can and should act to make child care more affordable, and ensure that child care workers can afford the same quality of care for their own children.”

The organization highlighted New Mexico as a case study on the growing challenge facing families.

There, the average annual cost of infant care exceeds $14,000 — or nearly $1,200 a month, the group said. Care for a four-year-old costs nearly $10,000 per year — or over $800 a month.

While experts often consider housing as a family’s single largest expense, EPI found New Mexico’s annual infant care costs outpace rent by over 10%. Child care is out of reach for about 90% of New Mexico residents, according to the federal government’s definition of affordability, which is no more than 7% of a family’s income.

Advocates often call for universal preschool programs as a way to provide quality, free child care. EPI noted a 2022 constitutional amendment approved by New Mexico voters guaranteeing a right to early childhood education. That created an annual fund of about $150 million to help subsidize early childhood programs.

“New Mexico’s investments mark an important step toward affordable child care, but investments like this are needed across the country,” EPI argued in a Wednesday blog post.

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

A Los Angeles County grand jury indictment unsealed Monday revealed 30 Probation Department employees, ranging from detention service officers to at least one supervisor, have been charged with allowing — and even encouraging — 69 fights, including “gladiator”-style fight clubs involving multiple youth, at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.

The indictment stems from a California Department of Justice investigation that began after a video was leaked depicting one of the “gladiator fights.” The charges include 69 counts of child abuse, one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and one count of battery. The fights, which occurred from June to December 2023, involved 143 victims ranging in age from 12 to 18, according to the DOJ.

The indictment asks for harsher punishments because the victims were “particularly vulnerable” and the accused took advantage of “a position of trust or confidence to commit the offense.”

A recording of the first-known incident in December 2023, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, showed multiple youth attacking a 17-year-old, one at a time, as each entered a dayroom at Los Padrinos. At least four officers stood by during the assaults, while two others halfheartedly attempted to break it up. Some could be seen laughing and even shaking hands with the attackers.

As investigators uncovered more fights, they found “striking similarities” between the leaked footage and other incidents, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who said the officers “looked more like referees or audience members at a prize fight, not adults charged with the care or supervision of young people.”

“Officers at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall have a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of those under their care. Instead, the officers charged today did just the opposite — overseeing ‘gladiator fights’ when they should have intervened,” Bonta said in a statement. “The indictment — and the filing of criminal charges — is an important step toward holding these officers accountable and addressing shortfalls at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.

“Let today’s charges be a warning for all those who abuse their power: the California Department of Justice is watching, and we will hold you accountable.”

Bonta alleged officers engaged in a criminal conspiracy by setting up the fights in advance.

“We believe this was planned, it was intended, there was a desire on the part of the juvenile probation officers for these fights to occur,” he said during a news conference. “They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, at a certain time, a certain place.”

Last year, after the first footage became public, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa placed 14 officers on leave and referred the incident to the Department of Justice to investigate. In a statement, probation officials applauded the indictment and indicated that all of the officers named have been placed on unpaid leave.

“Accountability is a cornerstone of our mission, and we have zero tolerance for misconduct of any peace officers, especially those dealing with young people in our system,” the statement reads. “While these incidents are deeply troubling, we believe this marks an important step toward rebuilding trust and reinforcing our commitment to the meaningful changes we are proposing in our juvenile facilities.”

The indictment alleges two officers in particular, Shawn Smyles and Taneha Brooks, allowed up to nine combatants to engage in fights that occurred at least five times over the six-month period. The pair allegedly told new officers about fights in advance and warned them “not to say anything, write down anything and just watch when youth fights occurred,” the indictment states.

In December 2023, Smyles, Brooks and another officer, Nancy Sostre, allowed one youth to participate in “eight one-on-one fights” that led to him sustaining a broken nose, according to the indictment. Smyles allegedly told the youth involved to “refuse treatment” from the facility’s nurses.

That month, Smyles gave a “briefing” to new detention service officers and told them the fights were “how they operated and controlled the youths and the unit,” the court filing states.

Smyles also is accused of a misdemeanor count of battery for a willful and unlawful use of force against a youth in October 2023.

The series of fights described in the indictment mention only Smyles, Brooks and Sostre by name. It is unclear how the other 27 employees were involved.

All 30 defendants appeared in court Monday afternoon for arraignment. Eight, however, had their arraignments rescheduled because they did not have legal representation. None of those who appeared was required to post bail.

Attorney Tom Yu, who is representing Ramses Patron, a director at Los Padrinos, accused Bonta of bringing the charges for political gain and to further efforts to shut down Los Padrinos. Patron served as a supervisor at the Downey detention center in the same way a watch commander oversees shifts at a police department, Yu said. The director was not present for any of the fights, he said.

“I’m deeply concerned about the overreach of this prosecution,” Yu said following the hearing.

State regulators have been attempting to shut down Los Padrinos for months. The facility was declared “unsuitable” due to a severe staffing shortage and ordered to close by the Board of State and Community Corrections last year, but the probation department refused to comply once the deadline hit.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza has been weighing what should happen to Los Padrinos since December. Espinoza, who expressed concerns about creating more chaos if he forces Los Padrinos to close, has delayed a decision three times so far. The question of Los Padrinos’ future, raised in a juvenile murder case, will come before Espinoza again in April.

The Board of Supervisors declared a “local emergency” in December and maintained that emptying Los Padrinos would put communities in “extreme peril.” Viera Rosa, the probation chief, unveiled his “global plan” for the county’s juvenile facilities in February, but the proposal, pitched during a Board of Supervisors’ meeting, was met with sharp criticism.

In a statement, Supervisor Janice Hahn pointed to the indictments as “further proof that the culture in our probation department needs to change dramatically.”

“The young people in Los Padrinos are not only in our custody, they are in our care,” she said. “It is unacceptable that probation officers who were entrusted with this responsibility would use their power to abuse these kids.”

Recent large-scale immigration raids in Colorado — and the potential for more under the new Trump administration — have left Coloradans with questions about how such raids work and what their rights are.

Immigrant rights advocates and lawyers have sounded alarms about potential legal violations in the aftermath of Feb. 5, when federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies descended on Denver and Aurora to conduct immigration raids in the early morning hours at apartment complexes.

Reports put the number of detained people at around 30, far short of their publicly stated goals. But ICE hasn’t confirmed the size and scope of those operations. It also hasn’t responded to questions about where detainees are being held and whether they had criminal records or ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Since then, smaller enforcement actions have occurred locally, including near a downtown courthouse, an incident that raised additional legal concerns.

Here’s what you should know about the legal process behind an immigration raid — and immigrants’ rights.

What are the laws ICE is supposed to follow?

John Fabbricatore, a former ICE Denver field office director, described the agency’s intensive training process on immigration law, which takes about 20 weeks. Officers learn constitutional, immigration, visa, removal and naturalization law, he said.

Like other law enforcement agencies, ICE is bound by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments: the right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to remain silent, respectively.

ICE must follow immigration-specific laws and agency regulations, which include those governing the use of force during enforcement activities, said Elizabeth Jordan, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law who directs its immigration clinic. And Hans Meyer, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Denver, said ICE’s federal statutory obligations set “limits on their authority to be able to conduct certain investigations.”

His example: Agents are prohibited from detaining people if they don’t have reasonable suspicion based on facts learned through an investigation.

“Law enforcement officers — and ICE — cannot use things like race as a justification to detain somebody,” Meyer said. “They can’t use the fact that somebody’s speaking Spanish.”

He points to instances of detaining or arresting people en masse as federally and constitutionally unauthorized without reasonable suspicion that the people are in the country without proper legal status.

Fabbricatore said the development of reasonable suspicion and probable cause applies to all law enforcement officers — not just those at ICE.

During an operation, “they normally would have targets that they’ve already identified as being in the country unlawfully,” he said. And if officers encounter other people on site who they also suspect of lacking legal status, he said, “you have to develop your probable cause through an on-site investigation.”

Determining whether a person is lawfully in the U.S. typically involves conversation, documentation and technology, Fabbricatore added.

What charges does ICE usually use for arrests?

ICE typically investigates and detains people for civil immigration violations.

“Not having (legal) status is a civil matter in the U.S. It’s not a criminal matter,” Meyer said.

But Fabbricatore asserted that ICE has both civil and criminal arrest authority, and the charges depend on how the investigation is structured. A person who is present in the U.S. unlawfully may be subject to a civil charge, particularly if they entered legally first, he said. So overstaying a visa counts as a civil immigration violation.

However, certain cases can be elevated to criminal status. Entering the country illegally, such as by crossing the border undetected, can be considered a misdemeanor. ICE can detain a person for a misdemeanor. Fabbricatore said the law that bars “improper entry by (an) alien” is most often used at the U.S. border, where ICE agents issue that charge and send the person back out of the country.

In some cases, if a person has been deported and reenters the U.S., then it is a felony. Fabbricatore said that would allow the agency to obtain a criminal warrant to arrest the individual.

What role do warrants play in detainment?

A warrant is a document that allows law enforcement officers to arrest a person, perform searches of property or people, and more. A judicial warrant is issued by a judge.

But judicial warrants “very rarely exist in the immigration space,” Meyer said. That’s a key difference between the standard criminal justice system and the immigration system, he added.

“In the immigration space, there are no warrants for arrests really issued by immigration courts because it’s a civil matter,” Meyer said.

Instead, ICE officers collect enough information to justify an administrative warrant. Those are signed by ICE supervisors, Fabbricatore confirmed. But since those warrants aren’t signed by judges — who would have to review them independently — “there’s no checks and balances,” Meyer argued.

An administrative warrant doesn’t grant ICE officers the ability to enter private property like a home or a car. Instead, they must obtain consent.

“What we saw happen, I believe, (on Feb. 5) is ICE showing up in full battle armor with AR-15s and banging down doors and essentially coercing consent for people to open them,” Meyer said of the recent raids.

He described an alternative scenario: “When a person that they’re looking for isn’t there, (they) contact everybody else in that place … and coerce them into speaking, and then use the information against them to justify their arrest.”

Those are referred to as collateral arrests.

Depending on the case, Fabbricatore said ICE can pursue criminal warrants. His example was a prior gang member who committed gun violence and was deported but then reentered the country.

“We would ask for (a warrant) to go looking for any firearms that they may have currently,” he said, “and also for any documentation that they may have in their house on how they entered the country illegally.”

What is a “ruse” used by law enforcement?

A ruse — defined by Meyer as “using a false pretense to … bait somebody into something” — is generally considered a legitimate law enforcement tool, including by undercover cops. ICE is allowed to use ruses, he said.

Fabbricatore explained that he used ruses to lure someone away from a house where children or other family members were present.

However, Meyer said, “when you have officers or law enforcement threatening that ‘If you don’t talk, this is what I’m gonna do to you’ — that’s a different question. That’s where we move into intimidation and coercion, as opposed to a ruse.”

Jordan, the DU visiting professor, pointed to a 2020 federal class action lawsuit filed in California by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and others related to ICE ruses. It claimed that immigration officers violated the Constitution by misrepresenting themselves as police and probation officers and sometimes trespassing.

What are a person’s constitutional rights?

During an immigration enforcement operation, the Fourth Amendment still stands, regardless of a person’s immigration status.

“We don’t allow the government to engage in unreasonable searches, unreasonable seizures,” Jordan said. “Anybody present in the U.S. enjoys the benefit of the Fourth Amendment.”

During a raid, a person can ask officers to identify themselves through a closed door or window, Meyer said. Officers aren’t constitutionally obligated to respond.

“But generally speaking, when officers are executing a warrant, they need to identify who they are,” Meyer said. “Otherwise, for a person, it feels like they’re being kidnapped.”

A person can also ask if officers have a judicial warrant and if they can see it to confirm their name is on it. If the judicial warrant is valid, then law enforcement officers can make an arrest.

However, if an officer refuses to show the warrant or explain whether it’s judicial or administrative, Meyer said, he would advise “that person probably should not open the door. ICE is not entitled to come in if they do not have a judicial warrant.”

But he said ICE officers may force entry anyway.

Fabbricatore noted that, if federal officers infringe upon a person’s constitutional rights, that individual can file a lawsuit called a Bivens action.

How have Denver-area raids been carried out?

Jordan referred to the large-scale raids on Feb. 5 as “showy.” The agency’s objective of picking up individuals for civil immigration violations, in her view, did not gel with “the excessiveness of their conduct” that day.

“We don’t often see armored vehicles rolling through the streets of our city,” she said.

Meyer’s opinion is that “it seems like most of the operations that have been conducted by ICE have a kernel of legitimacy to them.” That’s because officers may have obtained a limited judicial warrant to search for one or two people, he said, or documents that allowed them to enter a specific area.

But from there, Meyer said, “they use that pretext to then sort of knock and talk or kick down or force their way into a bunch of other apartment buildings (and) contact a bunch of other people.” At times, he said, he thinks ICE operations “are clearly violating the Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections.”

Fabbricatore, for his part, believes “the operational tempo has been pretty fast lately,” compared to the slower pace for ICE under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

“It’s just going to take a little bit of time for the men and women of ICE to reach that operation tempo that is being required of them at this time,” he said.

By JILL LAWLESS and AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday extended a state visit invitation to President Donald Trump on behalf of King Charles.

Trump accepted the invitation, which came at the start of a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Starmer at the White House.

Starmer called the invitation for a second state visit to Trump, who already received the honor during his first term, as “historic” and “unprecedented.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is visiting the White House on Thursday to try to convince President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.

Starmer’s trip, coming a few days after French President Emmanuel Macron’s own visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump’s aggressive push to find an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump said Wednesday as he held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. “For Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much (land) back as possible.”

But the Republican president’s rapprochement with Russia has unsettled America’s historic allies in Europe. They have found themselves on their heels with Trump returning to the White House with a determination to dramatically make over U.S. foreign policy to correspond with his “America First” world view.

The Trump administration held talks last week with Russia without Ukrainian or other European allies represented. And this week, the U.S. refused to sign on to resolutions at the United Nations blaming Russia for the war, which began three years ago when Moscow invaded. The drifting White House view of Ukraine under Trump is leading to a tectonic shift in transatlantic relations.

His administration is pushing back on the notion that Trump is ignoring Europe or is too eager in his push for settlement talks with Putin.

“He hasn’t conceded anything to anyone,” Vice President JD Vance said. “He’s doing the job of a diplomat.”

Trump’s meeting with Starmer comes a day before a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two leaders are expected to sign off Friday on a contentious agreement that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, which are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. Zelenskyy had chafed at signing off on an agreement without specific security guarantees from Washington.

Trump was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees. “I’m not going to make security guarantees … very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”

If a truce can be reached, Starmer and Macron have agreed to send troops for a potential peacekeeping mission to Ukraine to ensure that fighting between Ukraine and Russia doesn’t flare up again.

But White House officials are skeptical that Britain and France can assemble enough troops from across Europe, at least at this moment, to deploy a credible peacekeeping mission to Kyiv.

It will likely take a “consensual peace settlement” between Russia and Ukraine before many nations would be willing to seriously providing such forces, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

Zelenskyy, while en route to Washington, met on Thursday with Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, who said he told Zelenskyy that Ireland is open to helping, including sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy and European officials have no illusions about U.S. troops taking part in such a mission. But Starmer and others are trying to make the case that the plan can only work with a U.S. backstop for European forces on the ground — through U.S. aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case of breaches of a truce.

Trump is also looking at the moment as an opportunity to potentially reopen economic relations with Russia after three years of U.S.-led sanction efforts to punish Moscow for the invasion.

“I think there’ll be plenty of of economic cooperation opportunities between the two countries,” Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said in an appearance Thursday on Fox News.

Starmer is hosting a Sunday meeting in the United Kingdom of international leaders that will focus on Ukraine. Zelenskyy is expected to attend. The prime minister also announced plans this week for the U.K. to bolster defense spending. That should sit well with Trump, who has been critical that European allies are spending too little on defense.

Starmer’s government will increase military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, years earlier than expected, and aim to reach 3% by 2035.

Beyond the war in Ukraine, Starmer said the talks will home in on “a stable economy, secure borders and national security,” as well as cooperation on AI and other cutting-edge technology. He will stress that Europe must “play its part on global defense and step up for the good of collective European security.”

“The world is becoming ever more dangerous, and it is more important than ever that we are united with our allies,” Starmer said.

Starmer is also keen to discuss “the opportunities that further technology and AI partnerships could deliver,” his office said, including ambitious but vague “shared moonshot missions across top technologies including quantum and AI, and a deeper partnership on space.”

Britain has signaled it aims to eschew the European Union’s high-regulation approach to AI as it seeks to become a leader in the field.

The U.K. joined the U.S. in refusing to sign a joint declaration at an artificial intelligence summit hosted by Macron in Paris this month in what was seen as an attempt to curry favor with Washington and seek investment from American tech companies. Starmer’s office said the prime minister “will make the case for further integration between the two countries’ tech sectors to make them the most efficient, ambitious technology sectors in the world.”

Peter Mandelson, Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., said the two allies should stand “shoulder to shoulder” at “a very, very significant moment for our lives, between our two countries and indeed for all the freedom-loving democracies in the world.”

“We share people, we share cultures, we share a lot of intelligence, we share technologies, and … we also share some of the fighting of our adversaries as well,” Mandelson said.

Associated Press writer Panagiotis Pylas in London contributed to this report. 

An Alabama city suspended its entire police department Thursday after most of its officers were indicted on corruption charges brought to light in part by the overdose death of a dispatcher.

The move came a day after a grand jury indicted five Hanceville Police Department officers, including the chief, and one of their spouses, citing a “rampant culture of corruption” and recommending that the entire force be abolished.

Jim Sawyer, mayor of the 3,200-population city about 45 miles north of Birmingham, temporarily handed law enforcement duties over to the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, placing all department employees on leave as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Chief Jason Marlin, 51, was charged with two counts of failure to report ethics crime and tampering with evidence, reported WBRC.

Charges against Cody Alan Kelso, 33; Jason Scott Wilbanks, 37; William Andrew Shellnutt, 39, and Eric Michael Kelso, 44, included evidence tampering, distribution of controlled substances, and a variety of other felonies. Kelso’s wife, 63-year-old Donna Reid Kelso, faced similar charges.

Especially concerning was the “unfettered access” people had to the department’s evidence room, Cullman District Attorney Champ Crocker said in a news conference Wednesday, illustrating his point with photos of a hole in the wall and a green broomstick that people would use to force the door open.

Such access may well have led to the death of 49-year-old dispatcher Christopher Michael Willingham, who had been found in his office on Aug. 23, 2024. The Cullman County Coroner’s Office ruled his death accidental, caused by a toxic combination of fentanyl, gabapentin, diazepam, amphetamine, carisoprodol and methocarbamol, according to WBRC.

The grand jury called his death a “direct result of Hanceville Police Department’s negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence, and disregard of human life.”

“With these indictments, these officers find themselves on the opposite end of the laws they were sworn to uphold,” Crocker said Wednesday in announcing the indictments, calling it “a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time it is a good day for the rule of law.”

With News Wire Services

By MICHELLE GUMEDE

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticizing host South Africa’s policies as anti-American.

Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America’s chief diplomat after leading a U.S. delegation in talks with Russia in Riyad over the war in Ukraine.

Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union’s foreign policy chief to brief them immediately after Tuesday’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department said.

Top European diplomats, as well as Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are all expected at the Group of 20 meeting in Johannesburg while the U.S. will be represented by a lower-level delegation.

A G20 meeting would normally be an opportunity for a U.S. secretary of state to push for support on U.S. positions, especially at the start of a new administration.

Analysts say Rubio’s absence reflects the Trump administration’s indifference to organizations promoting international cooperation, but Rubio has also directly rejected South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency. The hosts have picked “solidarity, equality, sustainability” as the theme of the G20 this year.

South Africa, the first African nation to hold the group’s presidency, says it will try to advance the interests of poor countries, especially with debt refinancing and helping them mitigate the impacts of climate change, where the developing world is asking rich countries to pay more.

Rubio posted on X this month that he would also not attend the main G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, saying South Africa was using the gathering to promote diversity, equality and inclusion frameworks, “In other words: DEI and climate change.”

“My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism,” Rubio wrote.

Rubio’s decision to skip the G20 meeting also underscores a major deterioration in U.S. relations with South Africa, one of its key trade partners in Africa.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month stopping U.S. aid and assistance to South Africa over a land law that he says discriminates against some of the country’s white minority. The order also called South Africa’s foreign policy anti-American and criticized its ongoing case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the United Nations’ top court, and what it said was the country’s closeness to the Communist Party in China.

South Africa is due to hand over the presidency of the G20 to the U.S. at the end of this year, and the two countries are expected to work together under G20 protocols.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Wednesday that the U.S. would be represented in Johannesburg this week “in one form or shape or another” and stressed that Rubio’s decision was “not a complete boycott of South Africa’s G20” by the U.S.

Analysts in Africa says they still see a way for the G20 to make progress under South Africa’s presidency, even with limited U.S. interest. The EU, Russia and China have expressed support for South Africa’s G20 leadership.

“No one wants to be on the wrong side of the United States,” said Oscar van Heerden, senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre of African Diplomacy and Leadership. “But I think everyone also realizes that what drives the foreign policy of the United States is not necessarily what drives the foreign policy of the European Union or the other members of the G20.”

While European allies have their own concerns over future cooperation with the Trump administration after they were sidelined by its move to hold bilateral talks this week with Russia, the G20 meeting was still an opportunity for the EU to promote inclusivity.

“Multilateralism is under threat right now,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in South Africa, “We also need to use this opportunity to develop the international system further to be more inclusive for all countries in the world.”

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg and Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, contributed to this report.

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Since his election, President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for a major natural gas pipeline in Alaska — comments that have drawn fresh attention to a project that’s floundered for years despite support from state leaders.

Trump mentioned the pipeline at a news conference with Japan’s prime minister earlier this month, drawing praise from Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, both Republicans. As proposed, the nearly 810-mile pipeline would funnel gas from Alaska’s vast North Slope to port, with an eye largely on exports to Asian countries.

Critics, however, see this as a repackaged version of a decades-old effort that has struggled to gain traction. Hurdles include the cost — an estimated $44 billion for the pipeline and related infrastructure — competition from other projects and questions about its economic feasibility. One state senator said Alaska has put around $1 billion over the years into trying to get a pipeline built.

What is liquefied natural gas?

It’s natural gas that’s been cooled to a liquid form for shipping and storage. Natural gas, a fossil fuel, is extracted from underground.

The Alaska project calls for a pipeline from the gas fields of the North Slope to south-central Alaska. A liquefaction facility in Nikiski, southwest of Anchorage, would process and export the liquefied natural gas.

What has Trump said?

Trump, following his election, said his administration would ensure the project gets built “to provide affordable energy to Alaska and allies all over the world.” He highlighted it as a priority in an Alaska-specific executive order aimed at spurring resource development he signed on his first day in office. And during a recent news conference with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan, Trump touted the Alaska project’s relative proximity to that country and said there were talks “about a joint venture of some type.” He did not elaborate.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, said the meeting between the leaders “was carried out in a way that would be beneficial to both sides and confirmed that the two nations will cooperate bilaterally toward strengthening energy security, including increasing LNG exports to Japan.” It did not specifically reference the Alaska project.

Trump was a booster of the project during his first term. In 2017, he was there for the signing in Beijing of an agreement between then-Alaska Gov. Bill Walker and representatives of Chinese companies that called for the parties to work together on elements of the project. That effort ultimately fizzled: Walker, an independent, left office in 2018, and his successor, Dunleavy, took the project in a different direction. The project has a history of new governors taking a different tack than their predecessors; Walker did it, too.

Walker called Trump’s recent actions significant: “What he has done is a tremendous boost to the awareness of the project worldwide.”

What have been some challenges?

Currently, there is no way to bring Alaska’s large gas reserves to market. The focus for decades by major companies on the North Slope has been on producing more profitable oil. The 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline — which began operating in 1977 — is the state’s economic lifeline. Gas that occurs with deposits of oil is reinjected into the fields.

Changing markets and costs have been major obstacles, too.

What’s next?

State leaders are facing the likelihood that Alaska could have to import gas to help meet the needs of its most populous region due to production constraints in the aging Cook Inlet basin in south-central Alaska, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the North Slope. Cook Inlet is Alaska’s oldest producing oil and gas basin, dating to the 1950s.

Even a year ago, the idea of importing gas was widely seen by lawmakers as a humiliating possibility. But it’s now being met with resignation and hopes by some that it might simply be a short-term solution until a gas line is built.

Alaska House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, a Republican, said Alaskans “need to be hopeful” and cautioned against negative thinking.

“We need to watch how we talk because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and an energy project of this size, if it was successful, would be transformative to the economic security of our state,” he said.

Roger Marks, an oil and gas economist in Alaska, said he can’t see the pipeline project happening and said more energy should be devoted to preparing for possible imports. “Creating these false expectations has just been a big distraction from what needs to be done,” he said.

Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — Four top deputies to New York City Mayor Eric Adams are resigning in the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s push to end a corruption case against Adams and ensure his cooperation in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — a bargain that has raised questions about the mayor’s political independence and ability to lead the city.

In a statement Monday, Adams confirmed the departures of First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker.

“I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” said Adams, who faces several challengers in June’s Democratic primary. “But let me be crystal clear: New York City will keep moving forward, just as it does every day.”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams became the latest Democrat to call on the mayor to resign, saying that with the deputy mayor resignations it’s clear he “has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers.”

Speaker Adams is not related to the mayor.

Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom told agency heads and staff in a memo that they were exiting because of “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks.”

They did not give a date for their departures, but Adams said they and Parker will remain “for the time being to ensure a seamless transition.”

Adams has faced increasing scrutiny since the Justice Department’s second-in-command ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week to drop the mayor’s corruption case. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the case had “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.”

That directive touched off firestorms within the Justice Department and New York political circles, with seven federal prosecutors quitting in protest — including the interim U.S. attorney for Manhattan — and fellow Democrats calling on Adams to resign.

On Friday, after a week of recriminations and resignations, Bove and a pair of Justice Department officials from Washington stepped in and filed paperwork asking Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho to dismiss the case. Ho has yet to take action on the request.

Adams, a former police captain, pleaded not guilty last September to charges that he accepted more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from foreign nationals looking to buy his influence while he was Brooklyn borough president campaigning to be mayor.

The Justice Department said in its filing Friday that it was seeking to dismiss Adams’ charges with the option of refiling them later, which critics see as a carrot to ensure his compliance on the Republican president’s objectives. In his memo ordering prosecutors to ditch the case, Bove said the new, permanent U.S. attorney would review the matter after the November election.

“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Rev. Al Sharpton, an Adams ally, said Tuesday. “I have supported the mayor, but he has been put in an unfair position — even for him — of essentially political blackmail.”

Political leaders, including Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Nydia Velázquez, and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, have called on Adams to step down. But Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she’s taking a more deliberative approach.

“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she told MSNBC on Thursday. “I’ve got to do it smart, what’s right and I’m consulting with other leaders in government right now.”

The drama over Adams’ legal case played out as the mayor met with Trump’s border czar in New York on Thursday and announced increased cooperation on the Trump administration’s efforts to remove immigrants, including reestablishing an office for immigration authorities at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail.

In their memo to staff announcing their exits, Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom wrote: “Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Danielle Sassoon had served just three weeks as interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York when she penned a letter to recently confirmed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she could not follow a directive to drop the office’s corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Sassoon wrote in her letter obtained by The Associated Press that the directive to drop the charges issued by Bove would violate her sworn duty to uphold the law.

The directive, “raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” she wrote.

Sassoon did not return a message seeking comment. But in her letter, she alluded to some details of her 10 years of public service that shed light on how she came to the decision to resign and who the now-former federal prosecutor who made headlines for defying the new DOJ is.

What are Sassoon’s credentials?

Sassoon, 38, graduated from Harvard College in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011, according to her biography on the Department of Justice website, which was taken down Thursday.

Sassoon served as a foreign law clerk to Justice Hanan Melcer of the Israel Supreme Court in 2009, according to a biography attached to an essay she wrote while on a legal scholarship in London. Sassoon wrote in an editorial while at Harvard about her grandmother’s journey as a Jewish teenager fleeing persecution from Syria to Lebanon and eventually Italy in 1947.

Sassoon also clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III in the Fourth Circuit in Charlottesville, Virginia, and for late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a 2016 tribute to the late justice, who was an outspoken stalwart for the court’s conservative wing, Sassoon, a Republican, called Scalia “the real deal.”

“Sometimes, when you peek behind the curtain of power, you suffer a rude awakening. What you find is corruption, ego, or a lack of ideals and intellectual heft. Stepping behind closed doors with Justice Scalia elevated my faith in the judiciary and deepened my love of the law,” she wrote in the tribute posted to the SCOTUS blog.

Sassoon also cited Scalia in her letter objecting to the directive to drop charges against Adams, a Democrat who has curried favor with President Donald Trump’s administration partly based on immigration issues.

Sassoon cited her objections to what she called a political “quid pro quo” with Adams’ legal team for the mayor to enforce Trump’s immigration policies only if he was freed from the looming prosecution. Attorneys for Adams, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, denied any offer or suggestion of a quid pro quo.

What is Sassoon’s track record at the U.S. attorney’s office?

After clerking for Scalia, Sassoon was a litigation lawyer and an adjunct law professor at New York University before being hired in 2016 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. She focused on murder and racketeering cases as part of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit, according to the now-defunct DOJ biography.

She worked on a handful of high-profile cases including the case against Lawrence Ray, who was convicted of trafficking and other offenses after living in his daughter’s college dorm room and coercing a group of college students to engage in prostitution. Sassoon also conducted the cross-examination of Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency executive convicted of defrauding customers out of billions of dollars. Both men are appealing their convictions.

The DOJ biography notes she was most recently co-chief of the Criminal Appeals division in the office. It also notes numerous awards from the department in recent years, including the FBI Director’s Award in 2024 for Outstanding Criminal Prosecution.

She was appointed as the interim U.S. Attorney for the district on Jan. 21 and had not brought the initial charges against Adams. Those charges were brought by former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, a Democrat who resigned after Trump won reelection.

What happens next?

After a stunning dayslong standoff, Sassoon’s resignation was accepted in a scathing letter Thursday from acting Attorney General Emil Bove. Bove placed case prosecutors on paid administrative leave and said they and Sassoon would be subject to internal investigations.

It was unclear what agency would do that investigation and what sanctions would be at stake since Sassoon is no longer employed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Meanwhile, Matthew Podolsky, who has spent a decade in the office, was named the new acting U.S. attorney after Sassoon’s departure. Trump’s ultimate pick for the office, Jay Clayton, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, has not yet been confirmed.

As of Friday afternoon, motions to dismiss the charges against Adams had not been filed and a handful of employees from the department’s public integrity section have also left.