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Tag: political news

  • Appeals Court Backs Michigan School in Banning ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Shirts

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    SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Michigan school district in a dispute over free speech and “Let’s Go Brandon” shirts, clothing that took a jab at then-President Joe Biden.

    The mother of two boys, who got the shirts as Christmas gifts, said her sons’ First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the shirts at Tri County Middle School in 2022. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in 2-1 opinion.

    “In the schoolhouse, vulgarity trumps politics. And the protection for political speech doesn’t give a student carte blanche to use vulgarity at school — even when that vulgarity is cloaked in innuendo or euphemism,” said judges John Nalbandian and Karen Nelson Moore.

    In 2021, an obscenity directed at Biden was being chanted at a NASCAR race, though a TV sports reporter said it was “Let’s Go, Brandon.” The line suddenly became popular among Biden’s conservative critics.

    The school said it wasn’t prohibiting political messages, just vulgar ones. There was evidence that some students wore clothing that said, “Make America Great Again,” or had messages supporting President Donald Trump.

    Judge John Bush disagreed with the majority opinion and said the wrong legal standard was applied.

    “The phrase at issue here is a euphemism for political criticism. It contains no sexual content, no graphic imagery, and no actual profanity,” he said. “To the extent that it implies an offensive phrase, it does so obliquely — by design.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Some Airports Refuse to Play Noem Video on Shutdown Impact, Saying It’s Political

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    Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP) — Some airports around the country are refusing to play a video with a message from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in which she blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown and its impacts on TSA operations because of its political content.

    Airports in Las Vegas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle and more say the video goes against their airport policy or regulations which prohibit political messaging in their facilities.

    Various government agencies, in emails to workers and on websites, have adopted language that blames Democrats for the shutdown, with some experts arguing it could be in violation of the 1939 Hatch Act, which restricts certain political activities by federal employees.

    The shutdown has halted routine operations and left airports scrambling with flight disruptions. Democrats say any deal to reopen the government has to address their health care demands, and Republicans say they won’t negotiate until they agree to fund the government. Insurance premiums would double if Congress fails to renew the subsidy payments that expire Dec. 31.

    In the video, Noem says that TSA’s “top priority” is to help make travel pleasant and efficient while keeping passengers safe.

    “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay,” she continues.

    The Transportation Security Administration falls under the Department of Homeland Security. Roughly 61,000 of the agency’s 64,130 employees are required to continue working during the shutdown. The Department said Friday that the video is being rolled out to airports across the country.

    A DHS spokeswoman responded to a request for comment restating some of the message from Noem’s video.

    “It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship. Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.

    The Harry Reid International Airport, in Las Vegas, said it had to “remain mindful of the Hatch Act’s restrictions.”

    “Per airport regulations, the terminals and surrounding areas are not designated public forums, and the airport’s intent is to avoid the use of the facility for political or religious advocacy,” the statement said.

    Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said the county north of New York City won’t play the video at its local airport. In a statement, he called the video “inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials,” and said its tone is “unnecessarily alarmist” as it relates to operations at Westchester County Airport.

    “At a time when we should be focused on ensuring stability, collaboration and preparedness, this type of messaging only distracts from the real issues, and undermines public trust,” he said. ___

    Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • New York Times, AP, Newsmax Among News Outlets Who Say They Won’t Sign New Pentagon Rules

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    News organizations including The New York Times, The Associated Press and the conservative Newsmax television network said Monday they will not sign a Defense Department document about its new press rules, making it likely the Trump administration will evict their reporters from the Pentagon.

    Those outlets say the policy threatens to punish them for routine news gathering protected by the First Amendment. The Washington Post and The Atlantic on Monday also publicly joined the group that says it will not be signing.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reacted by posting the Times’ statement on X and adding a hand-waving emoji. His team has said that reporters who don’t acknowledge the policy in writing by Tuesday must turn in badges admitting them to the Pentagon and clear out their workspaces the next day.

    The new rules bar journalist access to large swaths of the Pentagon without an escort and say Hegseth can revoke press access to reporters who ask anyone in the Defense Department for information — classified or otherwise — that he has not approved for release.

    Newsmax, whose on-air journalists are generally supportive of President Donald Trump’s administration, said that “we believe the requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope that the Pentagon will review the matter further.”

    Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the rules establish “common sense media procedures.”

    “The policy does not ask for them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is,” Parnell said. “This has caused reporters to have a full blown meltdown, crying victim online. We stand by our policy because it’s what’s best for our troops and the national security of this country.”

    Hegseth also reposted a question from a follower who asked, “Is this because they can’t roam the Pentagon freely? Do they believe they deserve unrestricted access to a highly classified military installation under the First Amendment?”

    Hegseth answered, “yes.” Reporters say neither of those assertions is true.

    Pentagon reporters say signing the statement amounts to admitting that reporting any information that hasn’t been government-approved is harming national security. “That’s simply not true,” said David Schulz, director of Yale University’s Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic.

    Journalists have said they’ve long worn badges and don’t access classified areas, nor do they report information that risks putting any Americans in harm’s way.

    “The Pentagon certainly has the right to make its own policies, within the constraints of the law,” the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement on Monday. “There is no need or justification, however, for it to require reporters to affirm their understanding of vague, likely unconstitutional policies as a precondition to reporting from Pentagon facilities.”

    Noting that taxpayers pay nearly $1 trillion annually to the U.S. military, Times Washington bureau chief Richard Stevenson said “the public has a right to know how the government and military are operating.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • FACT FOCUS: With a Truce in Israel, Trump Now Says He’s Ended Eight Wars. His Numbers Are Off

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    “After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm. The guns are silent. The sirens are still. And the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace,” Trump said.

    He then upped the number of wars he claims to have ended in his first eight months in office, saying, “Yesterday I was saying seven, but now I can say eight.”

    But Trump’s claim is exaggerated. Much work remains before an end to the war between Israel and Hamas can be declared. That’s also true in other countries where Trump claims to have ended wars.

    While the ceasefire and hostage deal is a major achievement, it is still an early and delicate moment in the path to a permanent end to the war, let alone a two state solution.

    The first steps of the agreement Trump brokered included the release of hostages in Gaza, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, a surge of humanitarian aid and a partial pullback by Israeli forces from Gaza’s main cities.

    But major elements remain to be worked out.

    After his stop in Israel, Trump gathered with other world leaders in Egypt for a “ Summit of Peace ” to discuss the ceasefire plan. Trump acknowledged that leaders had taken the “first steps to peace” and urged leaders to build on the breakthrough. Trump and other leaders signed a document that he said would “spell out a lot of rules and regulations and lots of other things, and it’s very comprehensive,” though details were not immediately available.

    At least some, if not all, of those elements need to be worked out, and negotiations over those issues could break down. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that he and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were “already working” on implementation issues.

    In June, Israel launched attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership, saying it wanted to stop Tehran from building a nuclear weapon. Iran has denied it was trying to do that.

    Trump negotiated a ceasefire after directing American warplanes to strike Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.

    Evelyn Farkas, executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, said that Trump should get credit for ending the war.

    “There’s always a chance it could flare up again if Iran restarts its nuclear weapons program, but nonetheless, they were engaged in a hot war with one another,” she said. “And it didn’t have any real end in sight before President Trump got involved and gave them an ultimatum.”

    Lawrence Haas, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the American Foreign Policy Council who is an expert on Israel-Iran tensions, agreed the U.S. was instrumental in securing the ceasefire. But he characterized it as a “temporary respite” from the ongoing “day-to-day cold war” between the two countries that often involves flare-ups.

    This could be described as tensions at best, and peace efforts, which do not directly involve the United States, have stalled.

    Egypt and Sudan oppose the dam. Although the vast majority of the water that flows down the Nile originates in Ethiopia, Egyptian agriculture relies on the river almost entirely. Sudan fears flooding and wants to protect its own power-generating dams.

    During his first term, Trump tried to broker a deal between Ethiopia and Egypt. He could not get the countries to agree and suspended aid to Ethiopia over the dispute. In July, he posted on social media that he helped the “fight over the massive dam (and) there is peace at least for now.” But the disagreement persists, and negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have stalled.

    “It would be a gross overstatement to say that these countries are at war,” Haas said. “I mean, they’re just not.”

    Trump has claimed that the U.S. brokered the ceasefire, which he said came about in part because he offered trade concessions. Pakistan thanked Trump, recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize. India has denied Trump’s claims, saying there was no conversation between the U.S. and India on trade in regards to the ceasefire.

    Although India played down the Trump administration’s role in the ceasefire, Haas and Farkas believe the U.S. deserves some credit for helping stop the fighting.

    “I think that President Trump played a constructive role from all accounts, but it may not have been decisive. And again, I’m not sure whether you would define that as a full-blown war,” Farkas said.

    The White House lists the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo as one Trump resolved. But there has been no threat of a war between the two neighbors during Trump’s second term or any significant contribution from the Republican president this year to improve relations.

    Kosovo is a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Tensions have persisted since, but never to the point of war, mostly because NATO-led peacekeepers have been deployed in Kosovo, which has been recognized by more than 100 countries.


    Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Trump has played a key role in peace efforts between the African neighbors, but he is hardly alone and the conflict is far from over.

    Eastern Congo, rich in minerals, has been battered by fighting with more than 100 armed groups. The most potent is the M23 rebel group. It is backed by neighboring Rwanda, which claims that it is protecting its territorial interests and that some of those who participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide fled to Congo and are working with the Congolese army.

    The Trump administration’s efforts paid off in June, when the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers signed a peace deal at the White House. The M23, however, was not directly involved in the U.S.-facilitated negotiations and said it would not abide by the terms of an agreement that did not involve it.

    The final step to peace was meant to be a Qatar-facilitated deal between Congo and M23 that would bring about a permanent ceasefire as well as a final agreement to be signed separately between Congo and Rwanda as facilitated by the administration. However, talks have stalled between the different parties amid setbacks, and deadly fighting continues in eastern Congo.

    The agreements were intended to reopen key transportation routes and reaffirm Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s commitment to signing a peace treaty. The treaty’s text was initialed by the countries’ foreign ministers at that meeting, which indicated preliminary approval. But the two countries have yet to sign and ratify the deal.

    Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in a bitter conflict over territory since the early 1990s, when ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Karabakh province, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and nearby territories. In 2020, Azerbaijan’s military recaptured broad swaths of territory. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region.

    In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces launched a lightning blitz to retake remaining portions. The two countries have worked toward normalizing ties and signing a peace treaty ever since.

    Officials from Thailand and Cambodia credit Trump with pushing the Asian neighbors to agree to a ceasefire in this summer’s brief border conflict.

    Cambodia and Thailand clashed in the past over their shared border. The latest fighting began in July after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. Tensions had been growing since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thai politics.

    Both countries agreed in late July to an unconditional ceasefire during a meeting in Malaysia.

    Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pressed for the pact, but there was little headway until Trump intervened. Trump said on social media that he warned the Thai and Cambodian leaders that the U.S. would not move forward with trade agreements if the hostilities continued. Both countries faced economic difficulties and neither had reached tariff deals with the U.S., though most of their Southeast Asian neighbors had.

    According to Ken Lohatepanont, a political analyst and University of Michigan doctoral candidate, “President Trump’s decision to condition a successful conclusion to these talks on a ceasefire likely played a significant role in ensuring that both sides came to the negotiating table when they did.”

    Associated Press writers Michelle Price, Chinedu Asadu, Melissa Goldin, Jon Gambrell, Grant Peck, Dasha Litvinova, Fay Abuelgasim, Rajesh Roy, and Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report. ___

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • A Candidate Disappeared Months Ago After an Ocean Swim. Can He Still Win?

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    LONG BEACH, N.Y. (AP) — A political candidate in the New York City suburbs went for a night swim in the Atlantic Ocean this past spring and never returned.

    Petros Krommidas’ phone, keys and clothes were found on the sands at Long Beach on Long Island. The 29-year-old former Ivy League rower, who was training for a triathlon, had parked his car just off the picturesque wooden boardwalk.

    As the months passed, local Democrats attempted to field a replacement to run for the seat in the Nassau County Legislature.

    But two Republican voters took them to court and won: a state judge recently ordered Krommidas’ name to remain on the November ballot, ruling that he’s still considered missing and not officially deceased.

    Now, as Election Day approaches, voters in Long Beach and other South Shore communities have a curious choice: reelect the Republican incumbent or the Democrat who seemingly vanished at sea.


    Democrats want to elect the missing candidate

    James Hodge is among those calling on residents to cast their ballots for Krommidas regardless — hoping to trigger a special election in which Democrats can put forward another candidate to run against County Legislator Patrick Mullaney.

    The Long Beach resident worked with Krommidas at the Nassau County Board of Elections and had been tapped by Democrats to run in his place.

    “We need to stand by and honor his name and memory,” Hodge told The Associated Press. “Let’s give him that victory. It’s the right thing to do.”

    The Republican voters argued in their lawsuit that Democrats couldn’t claim Krommidas was dead because authorities still considered him a missing person. Under law, someone needs to be missing for at least three years to be legally declared dead, they argued.

    Judge Gary Knobel agreed, writing in his Sept. 29 ruling that “‘missing person’ status does not qualify as a vacancy that can be filled.”


    Dead candidates have won elections before

    The justice, in his ruling, noted a similar situation decades earlier in Alaska.

    U.S. Rep. Nicholas Begich Sr. disappeared in a plane crash weeks before the 1972 vote but still won reelection. The Alaska Democrat was eventually declared dead, and his Republican opponent claimed the seat in a special election.

    More recently, Dennis Hof, owner of the Nevada brothel featured on HBO’s “Cathouse” documentary series, died weeks before the 2018 election but still captured a seat in the state Legislature. In 2022, Pennsylvania state Rep. Anthony DeLuca won reelection after dying from lymphoma the month prior.

    Hodge and other Democrats argue that Republicans only sued to assure themselves victory as they seek to bolster their majority in the county legislature. They say the lawsuit has only prolonged the anguish for Krommidas’ family.

    “I understand politics, but there’s a time to stop and be a human being,” said Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco, who met Krommidas through the local Democratic Party. “Petros is someone’s son, brother, friend.”

    Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr., in a statement, vowed the party and its candidates will “show the highest level of sensitivity during these challenging times for the Krommidas family.”

    Krommidas’ family declined to comment when reached by phone, but his mother and sister each took to Facebook recently to share a post calling for residents to “honor and vote” for him.

    “My Peter cared deeply about people and his community and continues to inspire kindness and unity in our community,” his mother, Maria, wrote in her post.

    Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas, his sister, described him in her own post as a first-generation American who loved his country and “believed in equality, education, and the power of unity.”


    Voters weigh in on the beach where he vanished

    In the days after his disappearance, family and friends joined first responders in scouring Long Beach’s broad, more than 3-mile-long (4.8-kilometer-long) swath of sand, which is located just east of the New York City borough of Queens.

    Some of the missing persons fliers they put up with images of Krommidas’ youthful, smiling face are tattered and faded but still visible on telephone poles around Long Beach.

    Meanwhile campaign signs for Mullaney, his opponent, are prominently displayed on fences along the main thoroughfares and on tidy residential lawns. The Republican didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

    Along the Long Beach boardwalk last week, longtime resident Maude Carione was dumbstruck at the choice facing voters in November.

    “It’s insane to leave his name on the ballot. You’ll confuse people,” said the 72-year-old, who supports Republican President Donald Trump but didn’t have plans to vote in the upcoming election, which features mostly local races. “In fairness, you have to give another candidate a chance for the Democrats. You have to.”

    For resident Regina Pecorella, the decision, while grim, was clear.

    “If it’s between those two, I’m voting for the person that’s alive,” said the 54-year old independent, who voted for a straight Republican ticket in the previous election. “I don’t know how else to answer that.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Naked Bike Riders Demonstrate Against Federal Troops in ‘Quintessentially Portland’ Protest

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    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Protesters rallying against the Trump administration in Portland put the city’s quirky and irreverent reputation on display Sunday by pedaling through the streets wearing absolutely nothing — or close to it — in an “emergency” edition of the annual World Naked Bike Ride.

    Crowds that have gathered daily and nightly outside the immigration facility in Oregon‘s largest city in recent days have embraced the absurd, donning inflatable frog, unicorn, axolotl and banana costumes as they face off with federal law enforcement who often deploy tear gas and pepper balls.

    The bike ride is an annual tradition that usually happens in the summer, but organizers of this weekend’s hastily called event said another nude ride was necessary to speak out against President Donald Trump’s attempts to mobilize the National Guard to quell protests.

    Rider Janene King called the nude ride a “quintessentially Portland way to protest.”

    The 51-year-old was naked except for wool socks, a wig and a hat. She sipped hot tea and said she was unbothered by the steady rain and temperatures in the mid-50s (about 12 Celsius).

    “We definitely do not want troops coming into our city,” King said.

    Bike riders made their way through the streets and to the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. Authorities there ordered people to stay out of the street and protest only on sidewalks or risk being arrested.

    The city is awaiting the ruling of an appeals court panel on whether Trump can send out the federalized troops after a federal judge on Oct. 5 ordered a temporary hold on deployment.

    “Joy is a form of protest. Being together with mutual respect and kindness is a form of protest,” the ride’s organizers said on Instagram. “It’s your choice how much or little you wear.”

    Fewer people were fully naked than usual — likely because of the cool, wet weather — but some still bared it all and rode wearing only bike helmets.

    Naked bike rides have thronged the streets of Oregon’s largest city every year since 2004, often holding up traffic as the crowd cycles through with speakers playing music. Some years have drawn roughly 10,000 riders, according to Portland World Naked Bike Ride.

    Weber reported from Los Angeles.

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  • Vance Says ACA Credits Fuel Fraud as Democrats Push for Extension to End Shutdown

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    By Bo Erickson and Ted Hesson

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Vice President JD Vance criticized Affordable Care Act tax credits on Sunday, labeling them vehicles for fraud and calling for regulatory reform, even as Democratic lawmakers seek to extend healthcare subsidies in the standoff over the government shutdown.

    “The tax credits go to some people deservedly, and we think the tax credits actually go to a lot of waste and fraud within the insurance industry. So we want to make sure that the tax credits go to the people who need them,” Vance told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” 

    Vance’s view contrasts with the stance of Senate Democrats who have used their legislative leverage for the past two weeks to withhold votes for a stopgap funding bill to reopen government. 

    Most Democrats in the upper chamber have held out to push for a range of healthcare fixes such as a possible extension of enhanced insurance tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. 

    The shutdown is nearing its third week. Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, have offered a short-term funding plan until November, and the party’s leaders have said that healthcare negotiations can start after Democrats vote to reopen the government.  

    U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that he was open to negotiations on healthcare policy, but only after the shutdown ends. 

    “We also think that Obamacare gave the health insurance industry a lot of ridiculous regulation that if we cut out, we can give people access to better healthcare at a lower cost. That’s what we’re working on,” Vance added on Sunday.

    More than 24 million Americans are enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, meant for people who do not have access to insurance through their jobs.

    U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday defended Democratic opposition to the spending bills ahead of the November 1 start of the annual enrollment period for federal healthcare plans. 

    “You’ve got people who are facing dramatically increased healthcare costs because of the refusal of some of my friends on the other side of the aisle to even have a conversation about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said during a “Fox News Sunday” appearance. “That’s not acceptable in this moment.”

    (Reporting by Bo Erickson and Ted Hesson; Editing by Sergio Non and Mark Porter)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Trump’s Intervention in Washington Prompts Calls for Its 18-Term House Delegate to Step Down

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Troops patrol train stations and streets in the nation’s capital. Masked federal law enforcement agents detain District of Columbia residents. Congress passes bills that further squeeze the city’s autonomy. And the one person who could act as a voice for Washington on Capitol Hill has been a rare sight.

    Even longtime allies say Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting delegate in the House, has not risen to the challenge of pushing back against the Trump administration’s intervention into her city. They cite her age, 88, and her diminished demeanor.

    That has raised questions about the 18-term lawmaker’s future in that office and has led to calls for her to step aside and make way for a new generation of leaders. The race to replace her has began in earnest, with two members of the D.C. Council, including a former Norton aide, announcing campaigns for the 2026 contest.

    “D.C. is under attack as at no other time in recent history, and we need a new champion to defend us,” Donna Brazile, a onetime Norton chief of staff, wrote in a Washington Post opinion essay.

    Brazile acknowledged Norton’s legendary service and why she might wish to continue. “As I’ve told her in person,” Brazile said, “retirement from Congress is the right next chapter for her — and for the District.”

    Norton has so far resisted that call. Her office declined to make her available for an interview and her campaign office did not respond to requests for comment. The oldest member of the House, Norton came to office in 1991 and has indicated she plans to run next year.


    Federal intervention created new demands

    Washington is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed by Congress in 1973 that allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council. But federal political leaders retain ultimate control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by that council.

    That freedom came under further restrictions after Republican President Donald Trump issued an emergency order in August. It was meant to combat crime as he federalized the city’s police department and poured federal agents and National Guard troops into the city. Trump’s emergency order expired in September, but the troops and federal officers remain.

    While the D.C. delegate position is a nonvoting one, it grants the people of the district, who have no other representation in Congress, a voice through speechmaking on the House floor and bill introduction.

    Even without a vote in Congress, “there are so many things that the delegate can do from that position, even if it’s just using the bully pulpit,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a voting rights group. “Even if it’s just giving folks encouragement or showing that fight that a lot of people want to see.”

    At public appearances, Norton has seemed unsteady and struggled to read from prepared notes, including at a recent committee hearing focused on stripping some of Washington’s independence on prosecuting crime.

    During Trump’s monthlong security emergency and since, Norton has not been as publicly visible as city officials, who attended protests and held media events denouncing the intervention.

    Without a push for party unity from congressional leaders on Washington’s interests, the delegate’s role has added importance, said George Derek Musgrove, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

    “The delegate really has to be a one-person whip operation to try and hold the caucus in line against this Republican onslaught,” Musgrove said.

    It is unclear what a more energetic delegate could have done, given Trump’s expansive view of executive power and Republican control of Congress. Nonetheless, some critics of her performance have suggested it might have helped the city avoid a recent federal budget plan that created a $1.1 billion budget hole earlier this year. Months later, Congress has yet to approve a fix for the shortfall, even though Trump has endorsed one.

    With Norton quiet, other leaders in the Democratic-run city have filled the void since Trump’s emergency declaration.

    Mayor Muriel Bowser has stepped in as the district’s main mediator with the administration and Congress, joined by the council, although that outreach has been fragmented. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the administration in the most combative stance against the federal government’s actions.

    As she left a recent House hearing about the district, she responded with a strong “no” when asked by reporters whether she would retire.

    Among those seeking to challenge her in next year’s Democratic primary are two council members — Robert White Jr., a former Norton aide, and Brooke Pinto. Many others in the city have expressed interest. Allies, including Bowser and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, have declined to publicly endorse another Norton run.

    Norton’s life is a journey through American history.

    In 1963, she split her time between Yale Law School and Mississippi, where she volunteered for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. One day during the Freedom Summer, civil rights activist Medgar Evers picked her up at the airport. He was assassinated that night. Norton also helped organize and attended the 1963 March on Washington.

    Norton went on to become the first woman to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helps enforce anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. She ran for office when her predecessor retired to run for Washington mayor.

    Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia and a staunch Norton ally who worked with her on a number of bills, said voters should know who she is and what she is capable of, even now.

    “She saved the city,” he said, listing off accomplishments such as the 1997 act that spared the city from bankruptcy, as well as improving college access. “She was a great partner.”

    Davis said both major political parties are yearning for new faces.

    “She’s still very well respected. She’s got a lot seniority,” he said. “I think she’s earned the right to go out on her terms. But that’s gonna be up to the voters.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Partisan Shutdown Standoff Ignores Key Risk to US Stability: Rising National Debt

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The ongoing shutdown debate between Democrats and President Donald Trump’s Republicans is largely avoiding the difficult fiscal issues clouding the country’s future – the rising national debt and the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare.

    The fifteenth partial federal government shutdown since 1981 has been sparked by Democrats’ demand for spending, which would cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, adding to the nearly $38 trillion national debt.

    “We have huge real problems in this country, and we are stuck in a perpetual messaging war between the two parties, instead of real attempts to fix these divisions and divides and do something to deal with our fiscal problems,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit-reduction.

    The Senate has now voted repeatedly on dueling funding packages, including a bill passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and backed by Trump that would reopen federal agencies at recent funding levels through November 21. But Democrats favor their own legislation, which would ramp up spending mainly for healthcare.

    There has been little or no discussion about how to reduce the nearly $2 trillion federal deficit.

    Most government shutdowns over the past 44 years have involved fiscal issues such as spending, deficits and the need for a balanced budget. But since the start of Trump’s first term in 2017, the government has now shut down three times over social issues including immigration and healthcare.

    The current standoff is centered on $1.7 trillion in funds for agency operations, which amounts to only about one-quarter of annual federal spending.

    In the meantime, independent analysts warn that the U.S. finds itself in a deteriorating fiscal position, with debt growing faster than the economy, interest payments on debt crowding out spending for programs and financial weakness threatening social trust funds for the elderly.  

    The national debt has risen from $5.67 trillion to $37.88 trillion over the last quarter-century, increasing steadily regardless of which party held sway in the White House and Congress. Interest on the debt alone now exceeds $1 trillion per year, more than what the U.S. government spends on defense, and Social Security and Medicare are due to run short of funds in 2033, which could trigger across-the-board cuts for beneficiaries.

    Republican leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson have warned about the debt impact of higher spending in the shutdown debate. But most Republican rhetoric has focused on “radical” Democratic priorities, rather than fiscal health, while Democrats have ignored the fiscal issue altogether and blamed Republicans for increasing the deficit by enacting Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill.

    The Trump bill is expected to add $4.1 trillion to the deficit over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which also forecast that the cost could be offset by an estimated $4 trillion in new revenue brought in by Trump’s tariffs.

    “I think Donald Trump would spend any amount for whatever it takes to advance his personal interest,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. 

    SOME DEFICIT HAWKS REMAIN

    A handful of Republican fiscal hawks have voiced the need to rein in federal spending. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has voted repeatedly against the Republican funding bill, saying the measure – like the Democratic version – would add to the debt.

    Others agree but view the government shutdown as part of an organized effort by party leaders and appropriators to maintain control of spending decisions and avoid the politically difficult choices that come with deficit-reduction. 

    “To the outside world, this looks dysfunctional. But this is a very well-honed process,” said Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who has proposed legislation to end shutdowns and wants federal spending reduced to levels seen before the COVID pandemic.

    “What you’re seeing right here, the shutdown showdown, this is the magician’s shiny object. Look over here! Look at this! Don’t look at the $37 trillion we’re in debt,” the Wisconsin Republican told reporters. 

    Republican Senator Roger Marshall said he hopes that Republican control of the White House and both chambers of Congress can eventually facilitate a reduction in federal spending to about $6.4 trillion as a first step toward balancing the budget. 

    “It’s a political shutdown,” the Kansas Republican told Reuters. “My goals, Republicans’ goals, are to keep the government open and work towards a responsible budget. But nobody wants to hear that.” 

    What it could take to make the debt and deficit center-stage is unclear, with some Republicans thinking that mounting economic pressure from the debt could eventually turn the tide.  

    “We’re sleepwalking into a debt crisis,” said Jessica Riedl, senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. “The real pain may not be felt for several years, but the decisions made today all but guarantee that we will not avert the debt crisis.”

    (Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Appeals Court Rejects Trump Request to Deploy National Guard in Chicago Area

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    (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Saturday rejected the Trump administration’s request to immediately allow the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, leaving in place a lower court’s order that blocked the mobilization temporarily.

    In a brief order, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the federal government remains barred from deploying troops but that any out-of-state Guard members in Illinois do not need to return to their home states for now. The mobilization had included hundreds of soldiers called up from the Texas National Guard.

    U.S. District Judge April Perry had issued an order blocking the National Guard deployment on Thursday after expressing skepticism about the administration’s assertions that the soldiers were needed to protect federal agents from violent protesters.

    A separate federal judge in Oregon has also blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to send troops to Portland, though another appellate court appeared poised to overrule that decision during arguments earlier this week.

    In both cases, the Democratic governors of the states sued Trump, arguing that the administration deliberately miscast mostly peaceful demonstrations as violent to justify further deployments.    

    Perry’s order is set to remain in effect until at least October 23, though she could extend it.

    Trump has threatened to expand his campaign to other Democratic-led cities, after sending Guard troops this year to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., despite objections from their mayors.

    A trial court in Los Angeles ruled the deployment of Guard troops there during the summer was illegal, though an appeals court later granted a stay of that ruling while the administration’s appeal is pending.

    While the National Guard is part of the U.S. military, during domestic deployments it is usually controlled by governors in response to events such as natural disasters.

    (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)

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  • Trump’s Indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James Stirs Concerns for Black Women Leaders

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The coalition of New York NAACP chapters had just begun its annual state convention when Letitia James, a longtime member and the state’s attorney general, canceled her appearance.

    For the New York convention’s organizers, the moment was alarming and underscored the gathering’s importance, which featured multiple sessions on building political power at the state level in response to what NAACP leaders called federal attacks on social welfare, civil rights and the rule of law.

    “It was through our collective action that a democracy was built,” said NAACP New York State Conference President L. Joy Williams. “What we have to do is not only defend against what is happening now, but we have to push further past where we were before, to build a system to build a better American democracy that we all deserve.”

    The indictment of James, who had previously prosecuted the Trump Organization for business fraud, immediately sparked debate over whether the justice system had been politicized for President Donald Trump’s personal grievances. It also drew many parallels with the recent effort by Trump to remove a Federal Reserve Board governor, Lisa Cook, from her post over similar allegations.


    Claims against James and Cook carry symbolic weight

    Advocates see some of Trump’s recent moves as exceptionally targeted at Black women leaders.

    “This is something that we’ve been grappling with since the start of this administration,” said Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, the country’s oldest civil rights organization for Black women.

    The claims also have symbolic weight to Black families, Arline-Bradley said, where property ownership has historically been restricted by the legal system through outright and implicit discrimination.

    “When you attack someone’s home, you attack their ability to own, you attack their ability to have choice, you have attacked their ability to make a statement about their economic future,” Arline-Bradley said. “This is a consistent pattern that has highlighted what they think is an Achilles’ heel in the Black community.”

    Black women, Arline-Bradley added, “feel very targeted” because of the president’s words and actions, which she said was rooted in “a misunderstanding about the accomplishments and leadership of these women.”


    ‘One tier of justice for all Americans’

    The Trump administration contends its prosecution of James over alleged mortgage fraud is justified and impartial.

    “No one is above the law,” Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”

    And Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, “One tier of justice for all Americans” shortly after James’ indictment in a post on X.

    Critics of the administration have countered that the administration’s actions amount to political retribution and an attempt to unlawfully consolidate power. Black leaders have further argued that the administration’s actions have come at the expense of trailblazing Black leaders and Black communities.

    “President Trump has made clear through his own public comments against Attorney General James that the goal of this indictment is simply to exact retribution against his political opponents,” Yvette Clark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement.

    “The American people see this corrupt prosecution for what it is — a desperate attempt by President Trump to weaponize the justice system. It will not withstand public or legal scrutiny,” she added.


    Case against James ‘very uncommon,’ legal expert says

    In addition to James, the Trump Justice Department has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for making a false statement and obstruction of justice related to a 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony.

    The Justice Department is also investigating Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, for mortgage fraud. Trump has called for Schiff, who was the lead manager of Trump’s first impeachment, to be jailed.

    Experts question the merits and motives of the mortgage fraud inquiries.

    “It is very uncommon for prosecutors to bring these sorts of claims absent a pattern of malicious activity or evidence that the individual has actually harmed the bank by not paying their mortgage or if it’s part of a much larger fraudulent scheme,” said Paul Schiff Berman, a professor of law at the George Washington University School of Law.

    For James, Berman said, “the claim is that she said that the house was going to be used as her second home but she also used it as a rental property sometimes,” which Berman said could be argued as a reasonable use for a second home and likely not in violation of a typical mortgage contract.

    Regardless of the ensuing legal debates, allies of James say they are ready to support her in whatever manner is needed. Organizers at the New York conference say she is welcome to return to the event when ready.

    “While we are responding in this moment, this is also happening to her, and so we want to give her space,” said Williams, the New York NAACP leader. “And the thing about home is you can always go there. So we know she’ll always come back.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Directs the Pentagon to Use ‘All Available Funds’ to Ensure Troops Are Paid Despite Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has directed the Defense Department to use “all available funds” to ensure U.S. troops are paid Wednesday despite the government shutdown.

    Trump said in a social media post that he was acting because “our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th.”

    He said he was using his authority as commander in chief to direct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.” The Republican president added, “We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS.”

    Troops were in danger of not receiving their next paycheck on Wednesday after the government shut down on Oct. 1, the start of the federal budget cycle.

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  • Biden Is Receiving Radiation and Hormone Therapy to Treat His Prostate Cancer

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden is receiving radiation and hormone therapy as part of a new phase of treating the aggressive form of prostate cancer he was diagnosed with after leaving office, a spokesperson said Saturday.

    “As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” said Biden aide Kelly Scully.

    In May, Biden’s postpresidential office announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bone. The discovery came after he reported urinary symptoms.

    Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what is known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Battle Lines Drawn Over Confederate Tribute at Georgia’s Stone Mountain

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    ATLANTA (Reuters) -The heroic images of three Confederate leaders carved into the granite face of Georgia’s Stone Mountain have towered over the countryside outside Atlanta since the 1970s, paying silent homage to the Southern cause in the U.S. Civil War.

    Its supporters say the monument – often compared with Mount Rushmore – honors those who fought and died for the Confederacy in the 1861-65 war between the states. But detractors have long viewed it as a defiant symbol of white supremacy. They say its messaging needs to be openly acknowledged and put into historical context in the interest of racial justice.

    To accomplish that, the Republican-controlled state government authorized $14 million to redesign the museum at the base of the mountain. The aim is to present a more balanced view of what the gigantic bas-relief carving represents.

    “The past is ugly,” said Reverend Abraham Mosley, the first Black chairman of Stone Mountain Park’s governing board, referring to the links between the Confederacy, slavery and the South’s legacy of racism, which the museum currently obscures.

    But the project is now facing a lawsuit that could stop it cold just months before it is due to open. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that says it is committed to the “vindication” for the Southern cause, argues that state law stipulates that Stone Mountain must stand as a “tribute to the bravery and heroism” of those who suffered and died for the Confederacy. The redesign, the SCV says, would dishonor that memory and violate the law.

    Featuring images of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, all on horseback, the monument implicitly portrays the Southern “lost cause” as noble and just. The museum currently presents the war as the South’s struggle to protect the rights of the states against encroachment on the federal government.

    The redesign, approved in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer, runs counter to President Donald Trump’s efforts to purge schools and museums – including the Smithsonian Institution – of content that highlights the role played by racism in shaping U.S. history and culture.

    A spokesperson from the White House deferred questions about Stone Mountain to authorities in Georgia.

    While there are no plans to alter the monument itself, the new exhibits would highlight the issue of slavery as driving the dispute between the industrial North and the agrarian South that led to the formation of the Confederacy and the Civil War.

    Some displays would explore the links between Stone Mountain, once the site of the Ku Klux Klan cross-burnings, and the struggle for Civil Rights, which was at its height when the carving was commissioned.

    “It’s a challenge to reinterpret Stone Mountain, and I salute the idea, but the devil will be in the details,” said W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a historian and professor who focuses on race and the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    The SCV’s lawsuit is still in its early stages. Martin O’Toole, spokesperson for its Georgia division, said the park’s governing board was pandering to “woke ideology.”

    “They can take it all down to Atlanta, if they want,” O’Toole said, referring to the new exhibits. “But it doesn’t belong there.”

    The lawsuit, filed in Georgia’s DeKalb County, calls for an injunction to stop the work, which will “radically revise” the museum and run counter to its purpose as defined by Georgia law.

    Mosley, who also serves as pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Athens, Georgia, said the idea was to make the park accessible to everyone. He declined to talk in specific terms about the new exhibits.

    “It’s challenging but we want to make it for all people,” he said.

    (Reporting by Rich McKay; Editing by Frank McGurty and Patricia Reaney)

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  • A Look at How Venezuelans in the US Are Reacting to Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel Prize Win

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    DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Venezuelans in “Little Venezuela” — the largest home for the country’s natives in the United States — are welcoming the news that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize with bittersweetness as deportation threats loom.

    The Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole programs that together allowed more than 700,000 Venezuelans to live and work legally in the U.S, putting them at risk of deportation. The Republican government has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, claiming that they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang and were “invading” the U.S.

    Millions of Venezuelans had been forced to leave their country in the last decade due to its prolonged economic and political instability; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates more than 7.7 million have left since 2014 in the largest exodus in Latin America in recent history. Most have settled in the Americas, and more than 1 million came to the U.S.

    While Machado’s Nobel win is being met with joy, there’s also acknowledgement that it will do little to improve the situation Venezuelans at risk of deportation face in the U.S., as the former opposition presidential candidate has aligned herself with President Donald Trump’s policy on Venezuela.

    In February, after Trump announced he was ending TPS for Venezuelans, Machado told reporters her team had been in contact with members of Congress to “find a type of effective protection” for law-abiding Venezuelans. But after the Supreme Court on Oct. 3 allowed the Trump administration to end the program, she expressed no concerns of progress in her effort for an alternative protection for migrants.

    Machado, honored for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in Venezuela as President Nicolás Maduro took power, wrote on X hours after her win dedicating her prize to “the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”

    Frank Carreño, the former president of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce who has lived in Doral, the city known as “Little Venezuela,” for 18 years, was pleased with the news that Machado won the Nobel Prize but warned that Machado will not pressure Trump to protect Venezuelans living in the U.S.

    “She sees the United States government as part of her strategy to restore democracy to Venezuela,” the Venezuelan American said. “She’s in that camp, not in this camp.”

    José Antonio Colina, a retired Venezuelan military officer who arrived in South Florida in 2003, said the Nobel Prize represents a recognition to Machado’s fight for democracy and liberty in Venezuela.

    “We hope that the award can give impetus or strength to remove Nicolas Maduro from power,” said Colina, a refugee in the U.S.

    Iris Wilthew, a Venezuelan American retiree, came to Doral with her husband expecting a large crowd celebrating at one of Venezuela’s most popular restaurants. But business carried on as usual in the city, and she was surprised to find almost no one in the restaurant at noon.

    Before leaving, she placed a poster with Machado’s name, her photo and the title “The Nobel Prize 2025″ and the message “#VenezuelaLibre” in one of the restaurant’s windows.

    “She is a tireless fighter,” said Wilthew, who has lived in the U.S. since 1998. “She has achieved this through his extraordinary effort.”

    Associated Press reporter Regina Garcia Cano contributed from Mexico City.

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  • AstraZeneca Agrees to Lower Drug Prices for Medicaid Under Trump Administration Deal

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — AstraZeneca on Friday became the second major pharmaceutical manufacturer to announce it had agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid under a deal struck with the Trump administration that avoided its threats of steep tariffs.

    President Donald Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, who said that during tough negotiations to reach a deal, Trump and his team of officials had “really kept me up at night.”

    Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will charge most-favored-nation pricing to Medicaid, while guaranteeing such pricing on newly launched drugs, Trump said. That involves matching the lowest price offered in other developed nations.

    “For many years, Americans have paid the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, by far,” Trump said, adding that the new deal may cut prices to “the lowest price anywhere in the world. That’s what we get.”

    AstraZeneca’s deal follows a similar agreement Pfizer announced late last month. Advocates have generally praised the administration’s efforts to cut drug prices, though some have expressed concerns that too much onus is being placed on the manufacturers to lower costs without implementing U.S. policy safeguards to ensure such outcomes.

    Both agreements, however, build on an executive order Trump signed in May that set a deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices or face new limits on what the government will pay. Trump had suggested that a series of deals with drug companies would subsequently be coming.

    “The tariffs were a big reason he came here,” Trump said of Soriot.

    Cambridge, United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca makes a range of cancer treatments. Its products include the lung cancer drug Tagrisso; Lynparza, an oral treatment for ovarian cancer, and Calquence, which treats chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

    Those drugs brought in a total of more than $7.5 billion in U.S. sales last year.

    AstraZeneca announced Thursday that it would spend $4.5 billion on a new manufacturing plant near Charlottesville, Virginia, and its Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, spoke during Friday’s Oval Office announcement to cheer groundbreaking on the new facility.

    The drugmaker said that project was the centerpiece of $50 billion in investments the company plans to make in the U.S. by 2030.

    AstraZeneca said it plans to reach $80 billion in total revenue by then, half of which will be generated in the United States.

    Trump predicted the investment’s could lead to 3,600 jobs domestically “just to begin with.”

    One of the AstraZeneca drugs was already subject to price reductions due to a Medicare negotiating strategy implemented under President Biden. Still, Trump insisted that Democrats shouldn’t “get credit” and suggested the party’s key leaders may try.

    The announcements came months after AstraZeneca said it was scrapping plans to expand a vaccine manufacturing plant in its home country. The company blamed several factors, including reduced government financial support.

    The Trump administration has put up a landing page for its new website, TrumpRX.gov, where people will be able to buy drugs directly from manufacturers, according to officials. Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca will offer medications through the site, according to the administration.

    The website’s landing page features two very large pictures of Trump and a promise that the site is “Coming Soon” in January 2026.

    It says at the bottom of the page that the site was “Designed in DC by The National Design Studio,” the new government website design hub that Trump created by executive order in August, which is being led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia.

    Associated Press writers Tom Murphy and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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  • What to Know About National Guard Deployments in Memphis and Other Cities

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    National Guard troops started patrolling in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday, even after judges stalled President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy troops to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in other states.

    The troops, dressed in Guard fatigues and protective vests, with guns in their holsters, patrolled at a Bass Pro Shops store at the Pyramid, a Memphis landmark beside the Mississippi River. The patrols — part of Trump’s federal task force, were being escorted by a Memphis police officer.

    The Associated Press saw at least nine Guard members on Friday, but it was unclear how many troops in total were on the ground in Memphis or were expected to arrive later.

    A federal judge on Thursday blocked the deployment of troops in Chicago for at least two weeks, citing no significant evidence of a “danger of rebellion.”

    Trump has insisted that crime in Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and other Democrat-led cities is rampant and that federal intervention is needed to bring them under control, despite statistics not always backing up his claims.

    A separate court battle in Oregon has delayed a similar troop deployment to Portland.

    Here’s where things stand:


    Violent crime a problem in Memphis

    Trump announced Sept. 15 that he intended to deploy the Guard to Memphis. At the time, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, embraced the plan as part of broader law enforcement operations in the city.

    Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat who did not request the deployment, said he and other officials hope the task force will target violent offenders rather than scare, harass or intimidate residents.

    The city has recorded a high rate of violent crime for years, including assaults, carjackings and homicides. While this year’s statistics show improvement in several categories, including murders, violence remains a problem.

    Federal officials say agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, ICE and the U.S. Marshal’s service have made hundreds of arrests and issued more than 2,800 traffic citations since the task force began operating in Memphis on Sept. 29.


    Illinois deployment blocked

    Since the start of his second term, Trump has sent or discussed sending troops to many cities, including Portland; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

    A legal challenge disrupted — for now — the Republican president’s troop deployment plan for Chicago.

    U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago ruled Thursday that the Trump administration violated the 10th Amendment, which grants certain powers to states, and the 14th Amendment, which assures due process and equal protection, when he ordered National Guard troops to the city.

    Perry said her order would expire Oct. 23 at 11:59 p.m. and set an Oct. 22 hearing by telephone to determine if the order should be extended for another 14 days.

    State and city leaders celebrated the decision, including Gov. JB Pritzker, who said: “The court confirmed what we all know: There is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the National Guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago.”

    Officials at U.S. Northern Command directed questions to the Department of Defense, which declined to comment because it is barred from commenting on ongoing litigation.


    Troops arrive in Illinois and patrol outside Chicago

    Guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 are under the U.S. Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days.


    Judge restricts federal agents’ use of force

    Also Thursday, another federal judge in Illinois temporarily ordered federal agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists outside the Broadview facility, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago.

    Judge Sara Ellis’ preliminary injunction restricts agents’ use of force, including pepper balls, rubber bullets and physical force such as pulling, shoving or tackling on protesters and journalists who don’t pose a serious threat to law enforcement.

    That order covers all of northern Illinois and also requires federal agents to wear “visible identification” such as badges, the subject of heated debate as viral footage has surfaced of masked, plainclothes officers involved in immigration enforcement in several U.S. cities.

    A lawsuit filed by a coalition of news outlets, media associations and protesters accuses ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol of unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation against peaceful protesters and journalists during weeks of protests outside the Broadview facility.

    Associated Press reporters across the U.S. contributed, including Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Jack Brook in New Orleans; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Josh Boak and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, D.C.

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  • China Hits US Ships With Retaliatory Port Fees Before Trade Talks

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    HONG KONG (AP) — China has hit U.S.-owned vessels docking in the country with tit-for-tat port fees, in response to the American government’s planned port fees on Chinese ships, expanding a string of retaliatory measures before trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    Vessels owned or operated by American companies or individuals, and ships built in the U.S. or flying the American flag, would be subjected to a 400 yuan ($56) per net ton fee per voyage if they dock in China, China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday.

    The fees would be applied on the same ship for a maximum of five voyages each year, and would rise every year until 2028, when it would hike to 1,120 yuan ($157) per net ton, the ministry said. They would take effect on Oct. 14, the same day when the United States is due to start imposing port fees on Chinese vessels.

    China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday in a statement that its special fees on American vessels are “countermeasures” in response to “wrongful” U.S. practices, referring to the planned U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels.

    The ministry also slammed the United States’ port fees as “discriminatory” that would “severely damage the legitimate interests of China’s shipping industry” and “seriously undermine” international economic and trade order.

    China has announced a string of trade measures and restrictions before an expected meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea that begins at the end of October. On Thursday, Beijing unveiled new curbs on exports of rare earths and related technologies, as well as new restrictions on the export of some lithium battery and related production equipment.

    The port fees announced by Beijing on Friday mirrors many aspects of the U.S. port fees on Chinese ships docking in American ports. Under Washington’s plans, Chinese-owned or -operated ships will be charged $50 per net ton for each voyage to the U.S., which would then rise by $30 per net ton each year until 2028. Each vessel would be charged no more than five times per year.

    China’s new port fee is “not just a symbolic move,” said Kun Cao, deputy chief executive at consulting firm Reddal. “It explicitly targets any ship with meaningful U.S. links — ownership, operation, flag, or build — and scales steeply with ship size.”

    The “real bite is on U.S.-owned and operated vessels,” he said, adding that North America accounts for roughly 5% of the world fleet by beneficial ownership, which is still a meaningful figure although not as huge as compared to Greek, Chinese and Japanese ship owners.

    However, the United States has only about 0.1% of global commercial shipbuilding market share in recent years and built fewer than 10 commercial ships last year, Reddal added.

    While shipping analysts have said that the U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels would likely have limited impact on trade and freight rates as some shipping companies have been redeploying their fleets to avoid the extra charge, shipping data provider Alphaliner warned last month in a report that the U.S. port fees could still cost up to $3.2 billion next year for the world’s top 10 carriers.

    This story has been corrected to show that the Alphaliner report was from last month, not this month.

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  • Trump’s Quest for Nobel Peace Prize Falls Short Despite High-Profile Nominations

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday despite jockeying from his fellow Republicans, various world leaders and — most vocally — himself.

    Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honoring her “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

    Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious prize, has been outspoken about his desire for the honor during both of his presidential terms, particularly lately as he takes credit for ending conflicts around the world. He has expressed doubts that the Nobel committee would ever grant him the award.

    “They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives,” Trump said Thursday.

    The Hostages Families Forum in Israel issued a statement Friday continuing to support Trump. “President Trump’s unprecedented achievements in peacemaking this past year speak for themselves, and no award or lack thereof can diminish the profound impact he has had on our families and on global peace,” they said.

    Although Trump received a number of nominations for the prize, many of them occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award, which fell just a week and a half into his second term. His name was, however, put forward in December by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.

    Nevertheless, Trump and his supporters are likely to view the decision to pass him over for the award as a deliberate affront to the U.S. leader, particularly after the president’s involvement in getting Israel and Hamas to initiate the first phase of ending their devastating two-year-old war.


    A long history of lobbying for the prize

    Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, said the committee has seen various campaigns in its long history of awarding the peace prize.

    “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace,” he said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”

    The peace prize, first awarded in 1901, was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts. Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the prize should go to someone “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

    Three sitting U.S. presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Barack Obama in 2009. Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002, a full two decades after leaving office. Former Vice President Al Gore received the prize in 2007.

    Obama, who was a focus of Trump’s attacks well before the Republican was elected, won the prize early in his tenure as president.

    “He got the prize for doing nothing,” Trump said of Obama on Thursday. “They gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country.”


    Wars in Gaza and elsewhere

    As one of his reasons for deserving the award, Trump often says he has ended seven wars, though some of the conflicts the president claims to have resolved were merely tensions and his role in easing them is disputed.

    But while there is hope for the end to Israel and Hamas’ war, with Israel saying a ceasefire agreement with Hamas came into effect Friday, much remains uncertain about the aspects of the broader plan, including whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. And little progress seems to have been made on the war between Russia and Ukraine, a conflict Trump claimed during the 2024 campaign that he could end in one day — he later said he made that remark in jest.

    Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska in August — but not Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — for a summit aimed at reaching peace, but he left empty-handed, and the war started by Russia’s invasion in 2022 has since raged on.

    As Trump pushes for peaceful resolutions to conflicts abroad, the country he governs remains deeply divided and politically fraught. Trump has kicked off what he hopes to be the largest deportation program in American history to remove immigrants in the U.S. illegally. He is using the levers of government, including the Justice Department, to go after his perceived political enemies. He has sent the military into U.S. cities over local opposition to stop crime and crack down on immigration enforcement.

    He withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming. He touched off global trade wars with his on-again, off-again tariffs, which he wields as a threat to bend other countries and companies to his will. He asserted presidential war powers by declaring cartels to be unlawful combatants and launching lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that he alleged were carrying drugs.

    The full list of people nominated is secret, but anyone who submits a nomination is free to talk about it. Trump’s detractors say supporters, foreign leaders and others are submitting Trump’s name for nomination for the prize — and, specifically, announcing it publicly — not because he deserves it but because they see it as a way to manipulate him and stay in his good graces.

    Others who formally submitted a nomination for Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — but after this year’s deadline — include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Pakistan’s government, all citing his work in helping end conflicts in their regions.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • President Donald Trump Is Headed to Walter Reed for a ‘Semiannual Physical’

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is undergoing what he has described as a “semiannual physical” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday.

    The visit, which the White House announced earlier this week, comes as Trump is preparing to travel to the Middle East on the heels of a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had described it as a “routine yearly check up,” although Trump had gotten his annual physical in April.

    The White House declined to explain why he was getting a yearly checkup six months after his annual exam. But in an exchange with reporters Thursday, Trump said it was a “semiannual physical.”

    “I’m meeting with the troops and I’m also going to do a, sort of, semiannual physical, which I do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think I’m in great shape, but I’ll let you know.”

    The president is scheduled to return to the White House after his visit to Walter Reed, which is located in Bethesda, Maryland.

    His April physical found that he was “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief. The three-page summary of the exam done by his doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, said Trump has lost 20 pounds since a medical exam in June 2020 and said Trump has an “active lifestyle” that “continues to contribute significantly” to the well-being of the president, 79.

    In July, the White House announced that Trump recently had a medical checkup after noticing “mild swelling” in his lower legs and was found to have a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins. Tests by the White House medical unit showed that Trump has chronic venous insufficiency, which occurs when little valves inside the veins that normally help move blood against gravity gradually lose the ability to work properly.

    At the April physical, Trump also passed a short screening test to assess different brain functions.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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