Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Nation & World

  • Trump to use Qatari plane for international trip despite security worries

    Trump to use Qatari plane for international trip despite security worries

    President Donald Trump plans to fly to Ireland next week aboard the Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar, a senior White House official said, marking his first international trip on the jet since a security threat in July prompted him to leave Turkey secretly aboard an alternate aircraft.

    The trip underscores Trump’s continued fondness for and reliance on the Qatari jet despite concerns that it lacks some of the security features of the highly customized, heavily fortified Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that have carried presidents for decades.

    Trump said in July that the new plane would be sent away to be “maxed out” to address those concerns. Despite suggestions that the security upgrades would be made this fall, the White House has not announced a schedule for the work, which could slip until after the midterm elections.

    “We don’t comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force One,” said a senior administration official in a statement. “We maintain a consistent posture that ensures a safe, secure, and reliable capability for the President of the United States and routinely evolve the capability as required to maintain that posture.”

    In the absence of those upgrades, Trump is poised to use the Qatari-gifted plane more frequently as he ramps up his campaign-season travel. He is scheduled to travel to Texas next week to headline the Republican miniconvention in Dallas and said this week that he will be traveling to Alaska and other states with tight races before the Nov. 3 elections.

    The Ireland trip, however, is more personal to Trump. He plans to attend the Irish Open, which is being held at his golf course in Doonbeg. Officials say he also will hold some official meetings. The BBC has reported that he plans to meet with Irish President Catherine Connolly and Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

    The United States already has spent $400 million retrofitting the Boeing 747 from Qatar. The administration has not said how much more it will need to pay to improve the jet in the coming months.

    Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told the Washington Post that the modifications would begin in the fall and take about a month to complete, but security experts have been skeptical that the necessary upgrades could be made on that fast a timeline.

    The gift of the plane from the Qatari government and royal family is an unprecedented arrangement largely intended to address Trump’s frustration with delays in replacing the fleet of decades-old planes that are known as Air Force One when ferrying the president. The Air Force awarded a contract to Boeing in 2017 to purchase two 747s for use as presidential transports. It is not clear if they will be ready before Trump’s term ends in January 2029.

    The Government Accountability Office has estimated that the costs to enhance the 747s now exceed $5.6 billion. Lawmakers have questioned why those upgrades have cost so much more than the changes made to the Qatari jet, and whether the jet is as secure as the government-purchased planes.

    In early July, Trump began traveling on the new plane with the red, white, and navy livery to events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, including the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt presidential library in North Dakota.

    But questions about the security of the aircraft emerged just weeks into its use, when the president traveled on it internationally for the first time to the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

    He did not take the jet on his return flight after the government received intelligence about a potential Iranian threat to attack it.

    Trump initially claimed that he departed Turkey on the “former Air Force One,” writing on social media that he took the trip for “old time’s sake” and so that U.S. troops stationed in Britain could see the former Qatari aircraft.

    Reporting by the Post revealed that Trump did not actually take that plane out of Turkey. After boarding the old Air Force One in front of TV cameras, he was secretly shuttled to an Air Force C-32A on a catering truck.

    Trump flew the C-32A to Britain with a few personal aides and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Several other Cabinet members, White House staff, and the traveling pool of reporters scheduled to fly with Trump remained on the old Air Force One, which had become a decoy. The press and at least some of the government officials on board were not aware of the switch.

    After the operation, the White House defended the security of the Qatari plane.

    “The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Post last month.

  • Women gathered in a small Iranian town for a wedding. Then deadly strikes hit

    Women gathered in a small Iranian town for a wedding. Then deadly strikes hit

    KUHESTAK, Iran — Women with their children were gathered in the house and yard, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive to kick off a wedding celebration in this small town in southern Iran. Then an explosion turned the scene to carnage.

    The town of Kuhestak is still reeling from a barrage of strikes that killed five people during an American bombardment of southern Iran on Tuesday evening. Lampposts at the entrance to the town displayed large posters of four of the dead — a 4-year-old boy, a 16-year-old, and two women. Another woman, one of more than 60 people wounded in the blasts, died Thursday at a hospital.

    On Friday, an Associated Press team made a rare visit to the town on the coast overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. Within a densely built neighborhood of houses and unpaved alleys stood the compound of the Mallahi family, which was struck as relatives celebrated their daughter’s wedding.

    A U.S. weapons expert who reviewed images from the scene said the evidence suggests the strikes were carried out with American guided bombs.

    Blast left a gaping hole in the roof

    Ali Mallahi, a cousin of the bride, pointed to a gaping hole in the roof of a room that took a direct hit in one of the compound’s four houses. Big cracks ran through walls decorated with floral designs. Windows were shattered, and twisted sections of roofing and metal framework lay across the courtyard, among carpets and household appliances that the family had pulled out of other damaged rooms.

    Video of the immediate aftermath aired in Iranian media showed colorful decorations and palm fronds strewn across the ground.

    Weddings in the area are traditionally segregated by gender, and on Tuesday evening, roughly 150 women were gathered in the house, while the men held a separate celebration in another building about 50 yards away, Mallahi said.

    A strike hit the room where the women were due to be served dinner, but at the time, celebrations were only just getting started, Mallahi said. The bride and groom had not yet arrived.

    “Thank God, the casualties were not higher,” he said. The father of the bride, his uncle, is also named Ali Mallahi.

    Sasan Zarei, a neighbor, said she rushed to the Mallahis’ home and helped people out of the rubble. “Most of the injured were kids. The scenes were very heartbreaking.”

    Vance says US is investigating

    U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he was briefed on the wedding attack. “We’re investigating it very fully,” he said. He said the U.S. never targets civilians in combat but added, “Sometimes things happen.”

    Residents described to the AP how a series of heavy explosions shook Kuhestak, lighting up the night sky. The blasts came amid the latest round of American bombardment in southern Iran that the U.S. military said targeted air defenses, radar systems, and maritime assets.

    Also hit was a communications tower by Kuhestak’s port, just over 100 yards from the Mallahis’ home. AP footage showed the tower toppled and heavy damage to the neighboring building that houses the town’s telecommunications department.

    Hassan Sayadi, a technician with the department, said the tower had provided telephone and internet connections across the area. The Hormozgan provincial telecommunications department said Wednesday that U.S. attacks had disrupted landlines and mobile phone service in multiple locations, including Kuhestak, and that it was working to restore services. On Friday, mobile phones and data services were operating.

    Town is not far from site where U.S. hit a primary school.

    Kuhestak is about 18 miles from the town of Minab, where more than 100 children were killed in an American missile strike that hit a primary school on Feb. 28, the opening day of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel.

    Following Tuesday’s strikes, residents and Iranian media showed fragments of munitions found at the scene, including a thermal battery unit, a segment of a control fin, and part of the exterior body of the munition.

    Weapons experts told the AP that they believe imagery of fragments found at the site points to an American guided munition. Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and an analyst at Armament Research Services, said the imagery shows remnants of both a JSOW and GBU-39, which are types of guided, air-delivered glide bombs.

    The images were “being evaluated to determine if one of these munitions, or another model, was responsible,” he said.

    Videos released by U.S. Central Command of its operations that night in Iran show aircraft heading on missions, including an F/A-18E loaded with a JSOW.

    The AP could not immediately determine where the remnants were collected or whether they all came from the wedding venue or also from the communication tower.

  • Rescuers pull 2 trapped workers from a hydropower tunnel 9 days after Nepal floods

    Rescuers pull 2 trapped workers from a hydropower tunnel 9 days after Nepal floods

    KATHMANDU, Nepal — Rescuers in Nepal pulled two workers alive from an underground tunnel at a hydropower plant Friday, raising hopes of reaching dozens of others believed to be trapped nine days after deadly floods swept away villages and submerged the Himalayan region in mud and debris.

    Search teams first heard voices from inside the tunnel in the morning, allowing them to locate the two men, Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane said. Images showed a rescuer carrying one of the workers, covered in mud, on his back, while soldiers on either side helped.

    One of those rescued said more people are alive inside the tunnel, according to army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, and the search is ongoing.

    “I can’t explain what we are feeling at the moment. We are just grateful to god,” Amir Maharjan, the brother of one of those rescued, told the Associated Press.

    Basnet confirmed the first trapped worker’s rescue, and Neupane posted about the second on his Facebook page shortly after.

    Both men were flown to a hospital in Kathmandu, and Maharjan said his family was on its way there. One of the survivors was in critical condition, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

    Officials identified the men as a mechanical foreman and a mechanical supervisor. They were rescued from a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A plant.

    About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in various tunnels, according to authorities.

    About 115 are believed trapped in the tunnel at Trishuli 3A alone, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.

    Nepal’s Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina wrote on his Facebook page that officials “are waiting for the rescue of more and more people.”

    At least 1,287 people were killed in the Aug. 26 floods, likely caused by a glacier collapse, and more than 5,000 remain missing, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency. China said Friday 31 people were killed and 531 were missing on the Tibet side of the border, according to Chinese official news agency Xinhua.

    Nepal’s disaster agency estimated Friday that flooding caused at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees ($2.5 billion) in damage to infrastructure and property.

  • Mistrial is declared in Lindsay Clancy child killings case after jury deadlocks

    Mistrial is declared in Lindsay Clancy child killings case after jury deadlocks

    PLYMOUTH, Mass. — A judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial declared a mistrial Friday after jurors failed to reach a verdict in a case that sharply divided many Americans over whether the Massachusetts woman should be held criminally responsible for killing her three young children.

    The trial generated intense interest for more than a month, drawing attention to issues around maternal mental health after childbirth.

    Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, never disputed that she killed the children. But her attorney said she had a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids, the youngest just 8 months old, then tried to take her own life in 2023. Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing.

    Friday’s mistrial, on the seventh day of deliberations, leaves the case unresolved. In the end, the decision seemed to surprise no one in the courtroom. Neither Clancy nor her family showed any emotion as the judge announced the trial was ending without a resolution.

    Her parents and her sister were escorted by state police from the back of the courthouse, saying nothing to reporters. Her ex-husband Patrick Clancy, the trial’s first witness, has said in past interviews that he forgives her and believes her actions were the result of mental illness.

    Lindsay Clancy could face another trial

    The prosecutor who originally decided to charge Clancy said there would not be an immediate decision about a second trial. He said public opinion would not influence any decision.

    “This was and has always been about getting justice for those three little babies,” said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. “This case is not about the healthcare system, or about how women are treated in it, or what diagnoses there are.”

    He pointed out that the two trial prosecutors were “both mothers themselves.”

    The deliberations took a dramatic turn when the judge said he was going to declare a mistrial Friday before suddenly changing course and letting her defense attorney appeal that decision to the top court in Massachusetts. But the court declined to stop the judge from declaring a mistrial.

    Prosecutors said Clancy acted deliberately when she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy with exercise bands. They said she contrived to get her husband out of the house on Jan. 24, 2023, by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

    Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said she should not be held criminally responsible because of her postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation, and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

    Trump weighs in on Lindsay Clancy case

    Three times this week, jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. The jury’s foreperson told the judge Thursday that a single juror wouldn’t follow the court’s instructions about reasonable doubt.

    Outside the courthouse Friday, Reddington blasted the juror he believes stood in the way of an acquittal by other jurors.

    “They (the jury) know they were robbed by one man, for whatever his agenda was, who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors that were so attentive, so beautiful, so wonderful,” he said.

    “You could see how defeated they were sitting there,” he said. “I got a funny feeling they would have gone on for another week if they had to. So I hope that guy can sleep well at night.”

    Millions across the U.S. watched the livestreamed trial. Even President Donald Trump said he was following the coverage.

    “It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing,” Trump said Friday. “Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price — a mental institution or jail or something.”

    The judge acknowledged early during deliberations that the trial had been emotionally and physically exhausting for everyone. Much of the testimony was excruciating to hear, from the heartbreaking 911 call made by the children’s father who found their bodies, to the descriptions of how they died.

    Clancy was brought to tears several times. At one point, the judge called a short break as Clancy’s loud sobs filled the courtroom while the children’s autopsy photos were shown.

    Clancy’s mental health was the focus of the trial

    Over 21 days of testimony, jurors heard how Clancy’s mental health collapsed after Callan’s birth.

    Deeply anxious about a planned return to work, unable to sleep, and experiencing what she described as a disturbing brain fog, Clancy sought care from experts in postpregnancy mood disorders, who prescribed multiple psychiatric medications.

    Clancy’s family members testified that she expressed concern about her mental health decline. Her former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, described her as a “very nurturing, very loving mother” who was “begging for help.”

    In early January, she checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital for more intensive treatment, but her stay was short. She killed the children 19 days after she was discharged, leaving their bodies in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, Mass. Clancy jumped from a second-story window immediately after and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

    Clancy jurors heard differing views from experts

    Prosecutors conceded that Clancy had severe mental illness, but insisted she was able to understand and control her actions. They emphasized that although she claimed to have heard a male voice commanding her to kill the children, she never disclosed hearing voices to her mental health providers before the killings.

    In its latter stages, the trial became a battle of medical experts.

    Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist hired by prosecutors, testified he didn’t believe her story about hearing voices or that she had acute psychosis. He said she took the children’s lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she killed herself.

    Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the defense, said Clancy was “clearly psychotic” and not in control of her actions. “It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings,” he said.

  • U.S. diesel prices hit a record high, pushing up transportation costs for a long list of goods

    U.S. diesel prices hit a record high, pushing up transportation costs for a long list of goods

    CHICAGO — Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Friday, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupts the world’s flow of fuel.

    Because diesel is used for many freight and delivery networks, higher diesel prices mean higher transportation costs for a long list of everyday goods.

    This could add to Republicans’ political challenges ahead of November’s midterm elections, with voters already sour on President Donald Trump’s management of the economy. AP-NORC polling this summer showed 2 out of 3 U.S. adults disapproved of how Trump is handling the economy.

    More expensive fuel is increasing bills for businesses across sectors — some of which have already passed on costs to consumers in the form of added fees on online orders and packages in the mail. And shoppers may see more and more sticker shock trickle down to store shelves.

    One of the most immediate strains is being felt in the grocery aisle, particularly with produce, meat, and other perishable foods that need to be hauled in and restocked frequently — or even harvested using diesel-powered farm equipment. It can take time for all of those costs to trickle down.

    Still, experts warn that price hikes could mount the longer diesel remains expensive. A range of other products are also transported by diesel trucks, trains, and boats, including clothing, cosmetics, furniture, and more.

    The price for regular gasoline has also been going up, although not as fast as the price of diesel. The average price was $4.15 a gallon, compared with $3.20 at this time last year, according to AAA, which says gas has never been above $4 a gallon on Labor Day.

    What’s driving the latest jump for diesel

    Before the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, the national average for a gallon of diesel was about $3.76 in the U.S., per AAA. Prices quickly climbed as the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in diesel, as well as gasoline — soared amid supply chain disruptions and production cuts across the Middle East, notably with most tanker traffic bottlenecked in the key Strait of Hormuz.

    Despite prices cooling some during hopes for peace earlier in the summer, oil has now renewed its climb as fighting once more escalates between the U.S. and Iran. Brent crude, the international standard, rose to $96.28 a barrel Friday, up from roughly $70 before the war. Prices at the pump always follow closely behind.

    The last time U.S. businesses and drivers saw sky-high fuel prices was in June 2022, when diesel reached as high as nearly $5.82 a gallon on average, months after the Ukraine war began and world leaders imposed sanctions against Russia, a leading oil producer.

    When adjusted for inflation, however, prices have been higher in the past. Ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, for example, diesel peaked at about $4.74 a gallon — equivalent to $7.20 in 2026, according to the government’s latest data. And 2022’s record of nearly $5.82 would be about $6.56 this year when accounting for inflation.

    That doesn’t take the pain away from today’s steep prices, which are already bringing ripple effects for the economy and wider costs of living. Drivers are feeling the pain each time they fill up gasoline, too.

    The average $4.15 for a gallon of regular unleaded is up from $2.98 before the Iran war, although still well below the 2022 peak of nearly $5.02 a gallon nationwide.

    Diesel has been more expensive than gasoline for decades, and its price has risen at a faster pace during recent energy crises. Some reasons include tighter supply, less flexibility in demand, and diesel’s position in global commerce overall. Individual households may find ways to drive less when gas prices are high, for example, but there’s fewer immediate substitutes for networks that rely on diesel to help produce and haul goods worldwide.

    All eyes on food

    Diesel is integral to every part of the food supply chain. It powers farm equipment and fishing boats as well as the trains and trucks that get food to grocery stores.

    Fuel accounts for roughly 15% to 30% of the total cost of food, according to the Independent Grocers Alliance, a grouping of 7,500 global supermarkets. Because of this, higher diesel costs often result in more expensive food, although it can take a while for energy shocks to wind their way through the supply chain.

    Items that need to stay refrigerated while they’re transported are often the first to see prices rise, according to David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University. In July, for example, overall U.S. grocery prices were up 2.7% compared with last July, but seafood prices were up 7% and fresh fruit prices were up 4.9%.

    Ortega cautioned that there can be other factors at play when food prices go up or down. Lettuce also faced higher transportation costs in July, but a drop in demand due to the cyclospora outbreak caused prices to fall.

    Still, consumers could feel more of a squeeze the longer diesel prices remain high.

    “Early on, much of the cost increase gets absorbed along the supply chain through existing freight contracts and retailer margins,” Ortega said. “But as contracts reprice and fuel surcharges take hold, more of that cost makes its way to the grocery store.”

    More fuel shocks

    Back in April, e-commerce giant Amazon rolled out a temporary 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on some third-party sellers. And United Parcel Service, FedEx, and the United States Postal Service also moved to add fees on some of the packages they ship earlier in the war, citing rising operational costs for fuel overall.

    Ajesh Kapoor, CEO and founder of trucking technology company SemiCab, said trucking and transportation can adapt to rising diesel prices — but at some point there is a limit.

    “Diesel price has a very, very direct impact on everything that moves on pretty much any mode,” Kapoor said.

    The ramifications extend beyond the movement of consumer goods. Some public transit buses and trains also run on diesel — and diesel generators are often used for backup or emergency power, if not central electricity sources in some remote parts of the world.

    Experts warn that the consequences could continue to deepen — particularly in countries in Africa and Asia, which rely more heavily on imports from the Middle East and have already been hit the hardest by energy shocks over the course of the war.

    Neil Atkinson, energy analyst and senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics, said refined oil products like diesel are becoming more expensive as supplies get stretched.

    “This is gradually becoming a major crisis because A) the prices themselves are very high — but the physical stocks of these products are dwindling,” he said in a weekly briefing with maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, pointing to the strain on the global refining system. “This cannot go on forever.”

  • Trump taps Army engineering official as acting secretary

    Trump taps Army engineering official as acting secretary

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was appointing Adam R. Telle, the official overseeing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to take over as the acting Army secretary, following the resignation of Daniel P. Driscoll earlier this week.

    Driscoll, formerly the civilian leader of the Army, resigned Monday after clashing repeatedly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the purge of top generals in the Army. Under the nominal chain of command, Michael Obadal, the undersecretary of the Army and principal deputy to Driscoll, would have become acting secretary in Driscoll’s place.

    Trump has elevated Telle, the assistant secretary for civil works, which oversees the Army’s public engineering and construction projects. The Army Corps of Engineers is one of the principal agencies involved in building dams, sea walls and other structures meant to reduce flooding. Earlier in the summer, Army engineers erected miles of temporary barriers to protect Juneau, the capital of Alaska, from flooding.

    Last year, the Trump administration directed the Army Corps of Engineers to fast-track approval of fossil fuel projects such as pipelines, mines and power plants as part of Trump’s demand to increase U.S. oil, gas and coal production.

    Before his Army post, Telle was the chief of staff to Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn. In Trump’s first term, Telle served as the president’s chief liaison to the Senate as the head of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs’ Senate team.

    This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

  • Trump officials say work will start on triumphal arch within two weeks

    Trump officials say work will start on triumphal arch within two weeks

    Administration officials Thursday announced they would soon begin work to build President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, his most significant change to Washington’s skyline.

    “We are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X.

    The announcement comes three days after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to keep building his planned White House ballroom, with a 5-4 ruling that historical preservationists who sought to block that project lacked legal standing to bring their case to court.

    That decision created new hurdles to other court challenges of Trump’s projects, legal experts warned, and Justice Department lawyers invoked it Thursday as they sought to dismiss a legal challenge to the arch.

    The administration plans to build the arch in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries near Arlington National Cemetery. Trump has said that the arch will honor the nation’s 250th anniversary, vowing that it will be the largest triumphal arch in the world — about 86 feet taller than France’s famed Arc de Triomphe.

    Historical preservationists, Democratic lawmakers, and some Washington residents have opposed the project, calling it an oversize and inappropriate structure that will disrupt the historically solemn corridor between the military cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.

    It is also the subject of a lawsuit brought by several military veterans who say the towering structure would alter their experience when visiting the nearby military cemetery.

    Administration lawyers Thursday asked a federal court to throw out the military veterans’ challenge to the arch, citing the Supreme Court ruling on the ballroom as precedent.

    “Plaintiffs’ distaste for the perceived symbolism of the proposed arch does not establish a concrete and particularized injury,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

    Administration officials have laid out an aggressive timeline to potentially complete the arch within two to three years, saying that crews would work 20 hours per day, year-round. Trump and his deputies also contend that they do not need approval from Congress because lawmakers authorized a somewhat similar project a century ago that was never built.

    “It was meant to be built for many years,” Trump said in the Oval Office in May. “The land is owned by secretary, by the Interior Department. We don’t need anything from Congress.”

    The project already has received approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that reviews local design projects. The National Capital Planning Commission, a second federal panel that has been reviewing the project, has yet to issue final approval.

    Democratic lawmakers have said that the arch must go through congressional review.

    Lawyers for Public Citizen, a watchdog group that is representing the military veterans, have urged a federal judge to halt the project, too.

    “Frankly, I’m befuddled as to what sort of legal authority the administration thinks it has behind it,” Nicolas Sansone, Public Citizen’s lead attorney on the case, said Thursday, citing the lack of final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission.

    Trump administration lawyers had told the judge that the project should not be halted because it had not officially begun. Officials also told the judge that they would provide the public at least 14 days’ notice before beginning construction.

    Fifty-two percent of Americans are against the planned arch, compared with 21% who favor it, according to a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll conducted in April.

    Trump has prioritized construction of the arch, along with the ballroom and other Washington-area projects.

    “When completed, it will be, without question, the Greatest Arch of them all!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform in June.

  • Cassandra Wilson, the 2-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, dies at 70

    Cassandra Wilson, the 2-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, dies at 70

    NEW YORK — Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer has died. She was 70.

    Dubbed America’s best singer by Time magazine in 2001, Ms. Wilson was best known for her genre-bending voice, which expanded the boundaries of traditional blues-based jazz and worked effortlessly across folk, pop, R&B, country, and beyond. At the heart of all her work was her idiosyncratic contralto, a soulful sound distinctly tied to her roots.

    As Jon Batiste put it in a eulogy on Wednesday, Ms. Wilson sounded like the South.

    She died in her native Jackson, Mississippi, on Tuesday morning, the Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard confirmed.

    “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist. Cassandra Wilson transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager,” said a statement from her manager to jazz radio station WBGO.

    From Jackson to the world

    Born and raised in Jackson to musician Herman B. Fowlkes and teacher Mary Fowlkes, Ms. Wilson showed an early love of music listening to Motown, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk. At 6, she started piano lessons. She played clarinet in marching bands. She performed at coffeehouses and in cover bands while studying at Millsaps College and Jackson State University.

    In the early ‘80s, she mentored under jazz greats in New Orleans before moving to New York City and joining Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective — eventually becoming its main vocalist.

    Her instantly recognizable voice earned her four Grammy nominations and two wins for best jazz vocal album. Those were in 1997 for New Moon Daughter and 2009 for Loverly.

    In 2015, it was Ms. Wilson who gave a special concert at the famed Apollo Theater to commemorate the 100th birthday of blues singer Billie Holiday, the legendary American jazz vocalist who died in New York City at age 44. That same year, Ms. Wilson released her last album, Coming Forth by Day, an homage to Holiday.

    In 2022, Ms. Wilson was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, one of the highest honors awarded to jazz musicians in the United States.

    Tributes pour in

    “She had an unmistakable vocal tone, phrasing, and her approach of weaving folkloric, R&B, and diasporic music together with experimental and popular genres had a major impact on me,” Batiste said in his tribute to Ms. Wilson on Instagram.

    “Her Mississippi heritage was always present in everything no matter how expansive her artistry evolved,” he wrote in the caption of a clip showing them together on Brazilian TV in 2009. “She was one of the first people to take me on tour around the world, the great Cassandra Wilson.”

    Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the city “has lost an extraordinary native daughter, and the world has lost a singular musical voice.”

    “Cassandra Wilson carried the sound, spirit and history of Mississippi with her wherever her music reached,” said the mayor’s statement, shared with WJTV. “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations.”

  • U.S. Forest Service closing 23 research facilities as part of reorganization under Trump

    U.S. Forest Service closing 23 research facilities as part of reorganization under Trump

    BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. Forest Service is closing 23 research and development stations in more than a dozen states as part of an organizational overhaul under President Donald Trump that is intended to trim costs and concentrate the agency’s resources in Western states, officials said Thursday.

    The work being done at the research stations will continue at other sites, Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French said in an interview. An additional 41 research facilities that faced possible closure will remain open after local officials and members of Congress raised concerns about the reorganization, which was announced in March.

    “Our primary goal was to get our facilities costs under control,” French told The Associated Press. “We’re not closing any ongoing science activities. We’re not closing any of the experimental forests that are important to our researchers.”

    Research by forest service employees ranges from studies on invasive species and protecting water resources to how wildfires are changing as climate change dries out and heats up forests.

    Bill Avey of the National Associated of Forest Service Retirees, an advocacy group, said the forest service has long struggled to pay for all its facilities and some opportunities for consolidation exist. But Avey, who worked at the service for four decades, said its current leaders including Chief Tom Schultz need to defend the importance of forest research more vocally.

    “He should be doing a much better job of pushing back and justifying and explaining some of the research work,” Avey said. He added that the 41 facilities being retained likely would have closed as well if not for pushback from his group and others.

    The 95 employees at the research stations slated for closure will be shifted to other sites within their commuting areas, Forest Service Communications Director Chad Douglas said. The closures — along with previously announced plans to shut regional offices in Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Portland — will save about $16 million, officials said.

    The reorganization also includes moving the agency’s headquarters from Washington to Salt Lake City. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the move, expected to be completed by next summer, will bring leaders closer to the landscapes they manage and the people who depend on them.

    Conservation groups have criticized the changes, warning that they could reduce access to forests and threaten wildlife habitat and clean air and water.

    Federal data shows that the Forest Service has lost about 6,000 employees, or about 15% of its workforce, during Trump’s second term as part of the Republican administration’s sweeping cuts to agencies that oversee the nation’s natural resources.

    During Trump’s first term, he moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, citing many of the same reasons, including a desire to put top officials closer to the public lands they oversee. Former President Joe Biden’s administration reversed course, returning the bureau’s headquarters to Washington after two years.

  • ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in the shooting of Venezuelan man, AP source says

    ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in the shooting of Venezuelan man, AP source says

    WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

    Christian Castro, the officer who authorities say shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in January, has been charged with making false statements to federal investigators, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The federal charges, which remain under seal, follow Castro’s release from jail last week after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities, who have charged him separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.

    Federal authorities had initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the confrontation. But federal prosecutors dropped charges against the men after video evidence showed the officers may have lied about the encounter, and officials opened an investigation.

    Charges stem from nonfatal shooting during Operation Metro Surge

    Castro is the first federal immigration officer to be prosecuted by the Trump administration related to actions taken during the massive Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities that began in January 2026. No attorney is listed for Castro in the case brought by Minnesota, and it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

    Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area by the Department of Homeland Security in what was its largest immigration enforcement operation ever. The shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers drew condemnation and raised questions over officers’ conduct, prompting changes to the operation.

    Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor working on the case told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims that Justice Department officials blocked the prosecutor’s push to bring a more serious civil rights charge against the officer for the shooting, ProPublica reported on Wednesday.

    But the person familiar with the investigation disputed the prosecutor’s characterization, saying the civil rights probe is continuing and there has been no final decision on whether to bring additional charges. The prosecutor, Matthew Evans, has been fired and is under investigation for alleged obstruction of a grand jury probe, the person said.

    An automatic email response from Evans’ Justice Department account said he was on leave. Other attempts to reach him were not immediately successful.

    An attorney for Sosa-Celis said the Justice Department has “grossly undercharged this case,” adding that Castro’s statements were made to “cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification.”

    “Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes,” said the attorney, Robin Wolpert. The American Liberties Union of Minnesota said Thursday that Sosa-Celis also plans to seek damages from the federal government.

    Castro is also facing charges from Minnesota authorities

    Castro was initially arrested in May in the Minnesota case, and he was held in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico, while Minnesota officials sought his extradition. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to immediately sign off, citing continuing investigations of fraud in government social service programs in Minnesota, which Trump used to justify his immigration crackdown there.

    Minnesota officials had sought to stop the sheriff in Cameron County, Texas, from releasing Castro, out of fear that he would flee to Mexico. According to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota, Castro had a conversation with a woman, while he was incarcerated, where he spoke about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico after his release.

    But Castro was released a week ago after a federal judge refused to order Texas to extradite him.

    The Department of Homeland Security previously called Minnesota’s prosecution of Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt,” saying only federal authorities have jurisdiction in the case.

    Castro was placed on leave during the federal probe

    Castro was suspended from ICE without pay in February while federal authorities conducted the investigation.

    “The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct,” ICE’s acting director at the time, Todd Lyons, said then. “Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated. ICE remains fully committed to transparency, accountability, and the fair enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws.”

    Minnesota officials alleged that Castro, 52, fired through the front door of a home and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

    Castro and another officer had chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Minnesota prosecutors said the officer then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

    Attorneys for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna didn’t immediately respond to emails Thursday from the AP.