AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST
Trump defends pardons for rioters and suggests Proud Boys could have place in politics
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on his first full day in office Tuesday defended his decision to grant clemency to people convicted of assaulting police officers during the 2021 attack on the Capitol and suggested there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.
Trump used his opening hours in his second term to erase the records of more than 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting officers at the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, and free from prison those convicted of trying to overthrow the government, as he granted reprieve to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that was sparked after he refused to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election. At least 140 officers were injured - many beaten, bloodied and crushed by the crowd - when Trump's supporters tried to overturn Trump's 2020 electoral defeat to former President Joe Biden.
Before the Capitol attack, the Proud Boys was a group best known for street fights with anti-fascist activists when Trump infamously told the group to "stand back and stand by" during his first debate in 2020 with then-presidential candidate Biden.
The group´s former top leader, Enrique Tarrio, and three of his lieutenants were convicted of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election. Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison sentence, the longest of any Capitol riot case, before Trump pardoned him on Monday. Some members of the group marched in Washington on Monday as Trump was sworn into another term.
When pressed by a reporter about the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and whether there was a place for them in politics, Trump said, "Well, we have to see. They´ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive."
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Trump pardons upend massive Jan. 6 prosecution by freeing rioters and dismissing cases
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rioters locked up for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were released while judges began dismissing dozens of pending cases Tuesday after President Donald Trump´s sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that shook the foundation of American democracy.
With the stroke of a pen on his first day back in the White House, Trump´s order upended the largest prosecution in Justice Department history, freeing from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss.
The federal Bureau of Prisons by Tuesday morning had released all of the more than 200 people in its custody for Jan. 6 crimes, officials told The Associated Press.
The pardons and commutations cement Trump´s efforts to downplay the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured as the mob fueled by his lies about the 2020 election stormed the Capitol and halted the certification of President Joe Biden´s victory.
Trump´s decision to grant clemency to even rioters who assaulted police - whom his own vice president recently said "obviously" shouldn´t be pardoned - underscores how Trump has returned to power emboldened to take actions once believed politically unthinkable. And it shows how Trump plans to radically overhaul the Justice Department that also brought criminal charges against him in two cases he contends were politically motivated.
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22 states sue to stop Trump's order blocking birthright citizenship
Attorneys general from 22 states sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump's move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents´ status.
Trump's roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he's talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain amid what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle over the president's immigration policies and a constitutional right to citizenship.
The Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates say the question of birthright citizenship is settled law and that while presidents have broad authority, they are not kings.
"The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period," New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said.
The White House said it's ready to face the states in court and called the lawsuits "nothing more than an extension of the Left's resistance."
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A frigid storm drops rare snow on Houston and New Orleans as Florida readies plows in the Panhandle
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow that closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
The storm prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border, and snowplows were at the ready in the Florida Panhandle. Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida. The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
A powdery South made for some head-turning scenes - a snowball fight on a Gulf Shores beach, sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, pool-tubing down a Houston hill.
One of the country´s quirkiest cities, New Orleans, didn´t disappoint under the snowy spotlight. There was an attempt at urban skiing along Bourbon Street; a priest and nuns in a snowball fight outside a suburban church; snowboarding behind a golf cart; and sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.
High school teacher David Delio and his two daughters glided down the levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board.
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Pete Hegseth's former sister-in-law alleges abuse against second wife in affidavit to Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators vetting the nomination of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary received an affidavit Tuesday from a former sister-in-law alleging that the onetime Fox News host was abusive to his second wife, to the point where she feared for her safety. Hegseth denies the allegations.
The sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, was formerly married to the nominee's brother, and in an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, she said she believes that Pete Hegseth is "unfit" to run the Defense Department based on what she witnessed and heard. She said she first relayed her allegations to the FBI in December but was concerned that the information was not shared with Congress as senators consider Hegseth's nomination to lead the Pentagon.
The affidavit describes Hegseth´s treatment of his second wife, Samantha, and alleges repeat drunkenness and a domestic situation where Samantha Hegseth had a safe word to indicate if she was in danger at home. Danielle Hegseth said Samantha texted that safe word to her sometime in 2015 or 2016, which prompted her to call a third party for help.
"I have chosen to come forward publicly, at significant personal sacrifice, because I am deeply concerned by what Hegseth´s confirmation would mean for our military and our country," she said.
An attorney for Pete Hegseth vehemently denied the allegations. Tim Parlatore said the affidavit was filled with "belated claims" by an ex-relative with "an axe to grind against the entire Hegseth family."
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Israel's top general resigns over Oct. 7 failures, adding to pressure on Netanyahu
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's top general resigned Tuesday, taking responsibility for security failures tied to Hamas' surprise attack that triggered the war in Gaza and adding to pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has delayed any public inquiry that could potentially implicate his leadership.
While a fragile new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip held, Israel launched a "significant and broad" military operation in the occupied West Bank, killing at least nine people and injuring 40, Palestinian officials said.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi is the most senior Israeli figure to resign over the security and intelligence breakdown on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led militants carried out a land, sea and air assault into southern Israel, rampaging through army bases and nearby communities.
The attack - the single deadliest on Israel in its history - killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the militants abducted another 250. More than 90 captives are still in Gaza, around a third believed to be dead.
Halevi's resignation, effective March 6, came days into the ceasefire with Hamas that could lead to an end to the 15-month war and the return of remaining captives. Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, head of Israel's Southern Command, which oversees operations in Gaza, also resigned.
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Palestinians confront a landscape of destruction in Gaza's 'ghost towns'
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinians in Gaza are confronting an apocalyptic landscape of devastation after a ceasefire paused more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Across the tiny coastal enclave, where built-up refugee camps are interspersed between cities, drone footage captured by The Associated Press shows mounds of rubble stretching as far as the eye can see - remnants of the longest and deadliest war between Israel and Hamas in their blood-ridden history.
"As you can see, it became a ghost town," said Hussein Barakat, 38, whose home in the southern city of Rafah was flattened. "There is nothing," he said, as he sat drinking coffee on a brown armchair perched on the rubble of his three-story home, in a surreal scene.
Critics say Israel has waged a campaign of scorched earth to destroy the fabric of life in Gaza, accusations that are being considered in two global courts, including the crime of genocide. Israel denies those charges and says its military has been fighting a complex battle in dense urban areas and that it tries to avoid causing undue harm to civilians and their infrastructure.
Military experts say the reality is complicated.
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The ash left behind by the Los Angeles wildfires might be toxic, experts warn
Toni Boucher threw up the first time she saw the charred remains of her home and neighborhood after this month´s deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires. Now she wonders if it´s worth it to go back to sift through the ashes and try to find her grandmother´s wedding ring.
It´s not just that she´s worried about the trauma she experienced from seeing the destruction in Altadena, where Boucher, 70, has lived for decades. She is also concerned about possible health risks.
"They talk about asbestos and they´re talking about lead and they´re talking about all of the things that have burned in the loss of the homes and the danger of that," Boucher said.
Experts warn that the blazes unleashed complex chemical reactions on paint, furniture, building materials, cars, electronics and other belongings, turning ordinary objects into potentially toxic ash that requires protective gear to handle safely. The ash could include harmful lead, asbestos or arsenic, as well as newer synthetic materials.
"Ash is not just ash. Go back to the garage or what´s in your home. What is your furniture made out of? What are your appliances made out of? What is your house made out of?" asked Scott McLean, a former deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's communications bureau. "A lot of it´s petroleum product and different composites that are extreme hazards due to fire when they combust."
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At least 76 people killed in a hotel fire at a ski resort in Turkey
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A fire raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey early Tuesday during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people - at least two of them when they jumped from the building to escape the flames, officials said.
At least 51 people also were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province´s Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Istanbul, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. The fire occurred near the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed.
"Our hearts are broken. We are in mourning, " Yerlikaya told reporters outside the hotel. "But you should know that whoever is responsible for causing this pain will not escape justice."
Atakan Yelkovan, a hotel guest staying on the third floor, told the IHA news agency there was chaos on the upper floors as other guests tried to escape, including by trying to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets.
"People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down sheets ... Some tried to jump," Yelkovan said.
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Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
NEW YORK (AP) - Used to leading off, Ichiro Suzuki got antsy when he had to wait.
Considered a no-doubt pick for baseball's Hall of Fame and possibly the second unanimous selection, he waited by the phone for the expected call Tuesday. Fifteen minutes passed without a ring.
"I actually started getting kind of nervous," he said through a translator. "I was actually relieved when I first got the call."
Suzuki became the first Japanese player chosen for the Hall, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.
Quite the journey for a 27-year-old who left the Pacific League's Orix BlueWave in November 2000 to sign with Seattle as the first Japanese position player in Major League Baseball.
