Trump to order a plan to shut down the US Education Department

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday calling for the shutdown of the U.S. Education Department, according to a White House official, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that's been a longtime target of conservatives.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity before an announcement.

Trump has derided the Department of Education as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, finalizing its dismantling is likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.

A White House fact sheet said the order would direct Secretary Linda McMahon “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The Trump administration has already been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

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Legal showdown as Justice Department resists judge's demand for more details on deportation flights

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

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

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

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

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

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Zelenskyy and Putin have agreed to a limited ceasefire, but implementation is work in progress

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle to a limited ceasefire after President Donald Trump spoke with the countries' leaders this week, though it remains to be seen when it might take effect and what possible targets would be off limits to attack.

The tentative deal to partially rein in the grinding war came after Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuffed Trump’s push for a full 30-day ceasefire. The difficulty in getting the combatants to agree not to target one another's energy infrastructure highlights the challenges Trump will face in trying to fulfill his campaign pledge to quickly end to the war.

After a roughly hourlong call with Trump on Wednesday that both leaders said went well, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that “technical” talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend would seek to resolve what types of infrastructure would be protected under the agreement.

But it was immediately clear that the three parties had different views about what the pact entailed, with the White House saying “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin saying the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure,” and Zelenskyy saying he'd also like railways and ports to be protected.

“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said on social media following his call with Trump, which came a day after the U.S. president held similar talks with Putin. “I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it.”

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Israeli troops advance in Gaza to retake part of a corridor dividing north from south

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Wednesday its troops retook part of a corridor that bisects Gaza, and its defense minister warned that attacks would intensify until Hamas frees dozens of hostages and gives up control of the territory.

The military said it had retaken part of the Netzarim Corridor that divides northern Gaza from the south, and from where it had previously withdrawn as part of a ceasefire that began in January. That truce was shattered Tuesday by Israeli airstrikes that killed more than 400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The advances on the ground by Israel on Wednesday — which included sending more troops to southern Gaza — threatened to drag the sides into all-out war again. The ceasefire had given war-weary Palestinians some respite, allowed a much-needed surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza — and led to the release of dozens of hostages who had been held for more than 15 months.

Early Thursday, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, the military said. Air raid sirens and several explosions were heard in Jerusalem, apparently the sounds of the interceptors in use. No injuries were reported. Yemen’s Houthi rebels did not immediately claim the attack Thursday morning.

Within Israel, the resumption of airstrikes and ground maneuvers in Gaza has raised concerns about the fate of roughly two dozen hostages held by Hamas who are believed to still be alive. Thousands of Israelis took part in anti-government demonstrations in Jerusalem, with many calling for a deal to bring the captives home.

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Federal Reserve sees tariffs raising inflation this year, keeps key rate unchanged

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday and signaled that it still expects to cut rates twice this year even as it sees inflation staying stubbornly elevated.

The Fed also now expects the economy to grow more slowly this year and next than it did three months ago, according to a set of quarterly economic projections also released Wednesday. It forecasts growth falling to just 1.7% in 2025, down from 2.8% last year, and 1.8% in 2026. Policymakers also expect inflation will pick up slightly, to 2.7% by the end of this year from its current level of 2.5%. Both are above the central bank’s 2% target.

Even though the Fed maintained its forecast for two cuts, economists noted that under the surface there were signs that the central bank could stay on hold for some time. That is likely to keep borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards unchanged in the coming months.

Eight of the 19 Fed officials said they see only one or zero rate reductions this year, up from just four in December.

“It will be harder for them to cut rates this year with inflation moving sideways,” said Michael Gapen, an economist at Morgan Stanley.

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Greenpeace must pay over $660M in case over Dakota Access protest activities, jury finds

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Environmental group Greenpeace must pay more than $660 million in damages for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction in North Dakota, a jury found Wednesday.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts. Greenpeace USA was found liable for all counts, while the others were found liable for some. The damages owed will be spread out in different amounts over the three entities.

Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the organization. Following the nine-person jury’s verdict, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser said the group’s work “is never going to stop.”

“That’s the really important message today, and we’re just walking out and we’re going to get together and figure out what our next steps are,” Deepa Padmanabha told reporters outside the courthouse.

The organization later said it plans to appeal the decision.

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Newly released JFK assassination files reveal more about CIA but don't yet point to conspiracies

DALLAS (AP) — Newly released documents related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 gave curious readers more details Wednesday into Cold War-era covert U.S. operations in other nations but didn't initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK.

Assessments of the roughly 2,200 files posted by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on its website came with a huge caveat: No one had enough time as of Wednesday to review more than a small fraction of them. The vast majority of the National Archives’ more than 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination have previously been released.

An initial Associated Press review of more than 63,000 pages of records released this week shows that some were not directly related to the assassination but rather dealt with covert CIA operations, particularly in Cuba. And nothing in the first documents examined undercut the conclusion that Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

“Nothing points to a second gunman,” said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the assassination. “I haven't seen any big blockbusters that rewrite the essential history of the assassination, but it is very early."

Kennedy was killed on a visit to Dallas, when his motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown and shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested the 24-year-old Oswald, a former Marine who had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days later Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television.

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Researchers find a hint at how to delay Alzheimer's symptoms. Now they have to prove it

An experimental treatment appears to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms in some people genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s, according to new findings from ongoing research now caught up in Trump administration funding delays.

The early results — a scientific first — were published Wednesday even as study participants worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

“It’s still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having,” said Jake Heinrichs of New York City.

Now 50, Heinrichs has been treated in that study for more than a decade and remains symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer’s-causing gene that killed his father and brother around the same age.

If blocked funding stops Heinrichs’ doses, “how much time do we have?” asked his wife, Rachel Chavkin. “This trial is life.”

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How will the universe end? A changing understanding of dark energy may provide a new answer

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists are homing in on the nature of a mysterious force called dark energy, and nothing short of the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.

The force is enormous — it makes up nearly 70% of the universe. And it is powerful — it is pushing all the stars and galaxies away from each other at an ever faster rate.

And now scientists are getting a little closer to understanding how it behaves. The big question is whether this dark energy is a constant force, which scientists have long thought, or whether the force is weakening, a surprising wrinkle tentatively proposed last year.

Results presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society Wednesday bolster the case that the force is weakening, though scientists are not yet certain and they still haven't worked out what this means for the rest of their understanding of the universe.

The updated findings come from an international research collaboration that is creating a three-dimensional map to see how galaxies have spread and clustered over 11 billion years of the universe’s history. Carefully tracking how galaxies move helps scientists learn about the forces that are moving them around.

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Can AI help you win your March Madness bracket? One disruptor bets $1 million on 'yes' (and Houston)

DENVER (AP) — Perhaps the surest sign that artificial intelligence really is taking over the world will come the day it wins your favorite March Madness bracket pool.

The day could be coming soon.

In an experiment that a) was bound to happen, b) might actually make us all look smarter and c) should probably also scare the daylights out of everyone, a successful CEO-turned-disruptor is running a $1 million March Madness bracket challenge that pits his AI programmers' picks against those belonging to one of the world's best-known sports gamblers.

“We're not a crystal ball,” says Alan Levy, whose platform, 4C Predictions, is running this challenge. “But it's going to start to get very, very creepy. In 2025, we're making a million-dollar bet with a professional sports bettor, and the reason we feel confident to do that is because data, we feel, will beat humans.”

Levy isn't the only one leveraging AI to help people succeed in America's favorite pick 'em pool — one that's become even more lucrative over the past seven years, after a Supreme Court ruling led to the spread of legalized sports betting to 38 states.

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