Supreme Court rejects Trump administration push to set aside thousands of California ballots
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s push to force California to set aside thousands of ballots from people the federal government claims are noncitizens, a decision that came hours before the final day of voting in the pivotal midterm elections.
The high court refused to immediately intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state’s voter rolls.
The swift rejection capped a string of losses for the president’s effort to intervene in the election before the counting of ballots to decide who controls Congress in the last two years of his second term. No justices publicly dissented.
“The Court rejected Trump’s emergency request without even asking the other side to respond,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, posted on X. “Democracy won.”
Several lower courts also rejected the Justice Department's push to set aside the challenged California ballots until the voters’ citizenship status could be verified. And in a case that revolved around the future certification of Alaska's election results, a judge did not even hold a hearing before dismissing a Trump-ordered suit to prevent a possible Democratic Senate win.
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Parts of a Learjet may have broken off midair before Florida crash that killed 9, investigators say
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A business jet that crashed in Florida and killed all nine people aboard, including a family with two young children, likely started breaking apart before it slammed into the ground and erupted in a fireball, a federal investigator said Monday.
The jet did a steep nosedive, leaving behind a crater and a wide debris field as rain pounded the area. Authorities said weather will be a key initial focus of the investigation, and that the National Transportation Safety Board will also examine the actions of the crew and look for any mechanical problems with the plane.
The plane burst into flames when it crashed in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site and little remained of the plane.
The victims included the 20-year-old co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who made the final radio transmissions, as well as technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, relatives said.
About 600 nearby residents remain displaced, but only one injury was reported on the ground.
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Victims of Florida plane crash include a 20-year-old copilot and tech entrepreneur and his family
A 20-year-old woman who had been a licensed pilot since she was a teenager and a technology entrepreneur and his family were among nine people killed when a small jet crashed and exploded in South Florida, family members said.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was the copilot flying a Learjet from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, on Sunday when it crashed and exploded near West Palm Beach, her mother Camila Corteleti told the New York Post and New York Times.
Filgueiras earned her license in 2023 when she was a 17-year-old senior at West Boca Raton Community High School, according to local news reports at the time.
The crash also killed Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their children, 4-year-old Emma and 2-year-old Charlie, according to a statement from the families of the seven passengers. Anita Maria Cetina, who helped care for the children, also died.
Two more victims were identified as Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. The identity of the other pilot was not immediately disclosed.
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Reflecting Pool vs. the state of the economy: Trump and Dems clash in closing messages
WASHINGTON (AP) — As midterm campaigns careened toward their conclusion, Democrats pushed through intraparty divisions Monday to stay focused on voters’ economic frustrations, while Republicans cast their opponents as dangerous radicals. President Donald Trump, the GOP's most powerful voice, seemed more interested in his plans for beautifying Washington, D.C.
The dueling closing messages came as the nation's two major parties battled for control of Congress and key governors' offices. The outcome could fundamentally reshape Trump's final two years in the White House — and the level of power that comes with it.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots, and the president separately raised the prospect of voter fraud in Alaska.
Interest in the election was high: There were more than 57 million ballots already cast in 47 states and D.C. as of Monday, compared to a little under 44.5 million cast early in 49 states and D.C. in 2022.
Overall, Democrats expressed overwhelming optimism about their party's chances Tuesday, thanks largely to Trump's struggle to control rising prices and the war in Iran, which has already spanned eight months. The U.S. military conducted new defensive strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, even though Trump previously said he wouldn’t launch strikes on Iran before Tuesday’s midterms.
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Far from the campaign trail, Trump promotes his Reflecting Pool makeover before Election Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stood silently Monday while triumphant music played as he held up a poster showing an image of the algae-clogged pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
It was the final moment of his last big speech before Election Day, far away from the campaign trail where Republicans were trying to make their case to voters to hang onto control of Congress.
The president's decision to spend the day before the pivotal midterms showing off his renovations in the nation's capital instead of barnstorming around the country was a puzzling way to pitch America on keeping his party in power.
“It starts just with the setting being bizarre and being very self-focused,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist. “And then you had the pictures and the posters on the easels and all of that — none of which help a single undecided voter in the last day of the elections move to the Republican Party.”
Heye, a former communications director at the Republican National Committee, said Trump’s Reflecting Pool speech was the “last thing” Republican candidates needed and added, “Maybe it doesn’t register, but it sure doesn’t help.”
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Rain clears but flood risk remains high after destructive storms swamp normally arid US Southwest
The skies were clearing, but the risk of flooding remained over parts of the U.S. Southwest after powerful downpours sent massive amounts of water surging over the usually dry landscape, forcing hundreds to evacuate and keeping swift-water rescue teams busy.
Officials said cleanup and repair efforts could take weeks. One person died in the floodwaters and police suspect a second death was weather-related.
The National Weather Service said Monday that isolated cloudbursts were still possible across the Four Corners region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — as the phenomenon stoked by warming Pacific waters known as El Niño disrupts weather patterns.
Damage was widespread in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a town of about 2,000. Officials feared the San Juan River that flows through it would top a level that nearly wiped out the town in 1911. The river reached 16.81 feet (5.1 meters) Sunday — a foot lower than the historic level — flooding downtown streets before receding Monday, the weather service said.
An entire home was lifted from its foundation and floated down the river before crashing into a pedestrian bridge. A section of a road bridge west of town crumbled under raging waters, said Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Vicki Shaffer.
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Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against Harvard over federal demand for admissions data
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against Harvard University over its alleged failure to provide admissions records that the Justice Department had demanded to ensure the Ivy League school stopped using affirmative action in admissions.
The Justice Department said Harvard had “thwarted” efforts to investigate potential discrimination. It accused Harvard of refusing to comply with a federal investigation and asked a judge to order the university to turn over the records.
But U.S. District Judge Myong Joun concluded that the Justice Department didn't take the necessary procedural steps to obtain the data before filing the lawsuit. “Before taking enforcement action under the statutory framework, the agency must advise the recipient of its failure to comply and determine that compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means,” Joun wrote.
But Joun also said the ruling does not end the dispute over the data.
“I decide a limited question: whether the Government has adequately established, at this stage and on the materials properly considered, that it satisfied the prerequisites to judicial enforcement invoked in this complaint,” he wrote. “The ruling does not determine whether Harvard has discriminated, whether the agencies may lawfully seek appropriately defined applicant-level data, or whether Harvard may ultimately be required to provide such data.”
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Russia bombs aid center and shelter in southern Ukraine, killing 26, officials say
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombed an aid distribution center and neighboring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 26 people, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that strikes first targeted a school building used to distribute humanitarian aid and then took aim at a nearby shelter.
“This is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation,” Zelenskyy said.
The attacks in the village of Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, occurred as a limited ceasefire expired Monday in Kherson, a different region in the country's south. The limited ceasefire agreement had allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into front-line areas in Russian-occupied territory.
“There was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward peace was possible,” Zelenskyy said. “With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings.”
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Judge cites 'weaponization' in tossing charges for ex-FBI agents accused of lying about Hunter Biden
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden, citing what he said was the “weaponization” of President Donald Trump's Justice Department just before the midterm elections.
In a scathing, hourlong ruling read from the bench, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said the investigation that produced the charges against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides was rushed, conducted at the behest of Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel and dogged by “critical mistakes" that require the dismissal of the case.
“I am deeply troubled by what has happened here," Faruqui said. “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization.”
The ruling may not bring a permanent end to the matter because the Justice Department still has the option of pursuing an indictment, even though it has struggled during the Trump administration to persuade grand juries in the nation’s capital to deliver criminal charges in politically sensitive prosecutions like this one.
In the meantime, though, it amounts to a resounding rebuke of a department the judge said could have sought an indictment at any time but instead opted for political purposes to file a criminal complaint in the immediate run-up to Tuesday's midterm voting.
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US strikes Iranian targets in Strait of Hormuz, and other Mideast news
The United States has conducted defensive strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said Monday, on the eve of crucial midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging the Trump administration to carry out another wave of strikes on Iran, regional officials in the Middle East told The Associated Press.
Iran said Monday it had a two-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks with the United States. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels accused Saudi Arabia of striking a shipping port.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Read our full coverage here.
A U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. conducted defensive strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz. “Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets” were targeted, he said Monday.
