Iran strikes near Israeli nuclear research center as Trump threatens attacks on Iranian power plants

CAIRO (AP) — Iranian missiles struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research center, while President Donald Trump warned the U.S. will “obliterate” Iranian power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

The developments signaled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.

Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home.

Trump said he’s giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks. He said the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

Iran warned early Sunday that any strike on its energy facilities would prompt attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets in the region, according to a statement carried by Iran’s state media and semiofficial outlets, citing an Iranian military spokesperson.

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Cuba’s power grid collapses leaving it without electricity for the 3rd time this month

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s power grid collapsed Saturday leaving the country without electricity for a third time in March as the communist government battles with a decaying infrastructure and a U.S.-imposed oil blockade.

The Cuban Electric Union, which reports to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, announced a total blackout across the island without initially giving a cause for the outage.

The union later said the blackout was caused by an unexpected failure of a generating unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province.

“From that moment, a cascading effect occurred in the machines that were online,” said a report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which activated “micro-islands” of generating units to provide power to vital centers, hospitals and water systems.

Authorities said they were working to restore power.

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Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia-Trump campaign ties, dies

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI director who transformed the nation's premier law enforcement agency into a terrorism-fighting force after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and who later became special counsel in charge of investigating ties between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign, has died. He was 81.

“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away” on Friday night, his family said in a statement Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”

At the FBI, Mueller set about almost immediately overhauling the bureau’s mission to meet the law enforcement needs of the 21st century, beginning his 12-year tenure just one week before the Sept. 11 attacks and serving across presidents of both political parties. The cataclysmic event instantaneously switched the bureau’s top priority from solving domestic crime to preventing terrorism, a shift that imposed an almost impossibly difficult standard on Mueller and the rest of the federal government: preventing 99 out of 100 terrorist plots wasn’t good enough.

Later, he was special counsel in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. His investigation concluded that Russia interfered in the election on Trump's behalf and that the Trump campaign welcomed the help, but Mueller and his team ultimately found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy and did not make a prosecutorial decision about whether Trump had obstructed justice.

Mueller was maligned throughout the two-year investigation by Trump, who regularly derided it as a “witch hunt.” But the patrician Princeton graduate and Vietnam veteran who walked away from a lucrative midcareer job to stay in public service remained silent throughout the criticism, exhibiting an old-school, buttoned-down style that made him an anachronism during a social media-saturated era.

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Trump's mixed messages on Iran: 'Winding down' the war and easing sanctions but adding more troops

President Donald Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post or even sentence. Within the space of a few hours Friday, he sent a torrent of mixed signals about the Iran war that raise more questions about the direction of the conflict and his administration's strategy.

During this time, Trump said he was considering winding down the war, his administration confirmed it was sending more troops to the Middle East and, in an effort to lessen the economic impact on global energy markets, the United States lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for the first time in decades — relieving some of the pressure that Washington traditionally has used as leverage.

The confusing combination of actions deepens a sense among Trump's critics that there is no clear, long-term strategy for the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran. Now in its fourth week, the war remains on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear even as the global economy is being roiled.

Just 24 hours after saying the U.S. was thinking of walking away from the conflict, Trump issued another contradictory statement Saturday evening, threatening to escalate the conflict by targeting Iran's power plants unless the country lets oil shipments pass through the Persian Gulf.

After another rough day in the financial markets, Trump said Friday afternoon on his social media network: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”

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ICE officers soon will help with airport security unless Democrats end shutdown, Trump says

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday he will order federal immigration officers to take a role in airport security starting Monday unless Democrats agree on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

In a series of social media posts, Trump said he was making plans to put officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in airports if the congressional standoff continues. After the Senate failed to find a resolution at a rare weekend session, Trump appeared resolute in his plan: “ICE is ready to go on Monday,” he said.

He made the announcement as a partial shutdown contributes to long lines to pass through screening at some of the nation's largest airports.

The Republican president said ICE agents would bring the administration’s immigration crackdown into the nation’s airports, promising to arrest “all Illegal Immigrants."

“I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” Trump wrote while spending the weekend in Florida.

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Congress looks for Trump's exit plan as the Iran war drags on

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.

Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is becoming apparent. At least 13 U.S. military personnel have died, and more than 230 have been wounded. A $200 billion request from the Pentagon for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking and thousands of U.S. troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.

“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told The Associated Press.

“I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are."

Trump said late Friday that he was considering “winding down” the military operations even as he outlined new objectives and goals.

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Hawaii’s worst flooding in 20 years threatens dam, prompts evacuations, as more rain looms

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii officials urged people in hard-hit areas to evacuate Saturday due to the state's worst flooding in more than 20 years, after heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago with still more expected over the weekend.

Muddy floodwaters smothered vast stretches of Oahu's North Shore, a community world-renowned for its big-wave surfing. Raging waters lifted homes and cars and prompted evacuation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu, though they were later lifted. Authorities cautioned that a 120-year-old dam could fail.

On the island of Maui, authorities upgraded an evacuation advisory to a warning for some parts of Lahaina, which is still reeling from a deadly 2023 wildfire, because of retention basins nearing capacity.

North Shore Oahu residents who did not evacuate were heartened in the morning by receding waters and moments of blue skies, but more rain was on the way.

“Don’t let your guard down just yet,” said Tina Stall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu, “there’s still potential for more flooding impacts.”

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For airline travelers, the shutdown answer is simple: Pay TSA officers

ATLANTA (AP) — Regardless of politics or destination, American air travelers were unified by one desire Saturday: It's time to pay Transportation Security Administration employees.

“Everybody got bills they have to pay, and it’s horrible," said Patrice Clark, whose trip to Las Vegas began Saturday with a nearly four-hour wait in a security line at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. "Times are hard for everybody at this point. Working and not getting paid and gas prices are extremely high — like everybody needs their money. They need to pay them.”

TSA officers haven't gotten a paycheck since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security partly shut down on Feb. 14. Democrats balked at funding the agency, while other departments are unaffected, demanding changes to immigration enforcement by federal agents following the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Christian Childress is a private flight attendant, so when he is working, he doesn’t wait in TSA lines. But the Redwood City, California, resident frequently goes through a checkpoint when flying commercial to get to his job.

Childress said shutdown effects have been “hit or miss” thus far. He came to the Atlanta airport nearly three hours before his 1:30 p.m. Saturday flight to Nashville, Tennessee, for a leisure trip. Some passengers have been arriving even earlier in Atlanta — one of the world’s busiest airports — spooked about missing flights because of delays.

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Senate blocks amendment on transgender athletes during weekend session on voting bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Saturday blocked an amendment that would ban transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports, rejecting one of President Donald Trump’s priorities as he pressures Congress to act on a broad voting bill.

Senators were holding a rare weekend session to debate the voting legislation, which would put in place strict new requirements for voter registration and require photo IDs at the polls in an effort to prevent people in the country illegally from casting ballots.

The House passed the bill earlier this year, but the Republican president has since said he wants additional priorities added to the legislation, including the sports ban for transgender athletes and a ban on all mail-in voting.

Democrats are expected to eventually block the broader legislation, arguing that it would make voting more difficult for large groups of people. Despite Trump's pressure, Republican senators have said repeatedly that they do not have enough support to jettison the legislative filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the bill. Republicans hold 53 seats.

Still, Republicans put the legislation — the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE America Act or the SAVE Act — on the Senate floor this week for a lengthy debate as Trump has said he will not sign other bills until they pass the voting measure. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D, said Saturday morning that Republicans “haven’t made any final decisions about how to conclude this.”

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Detained immigrant children still face concerning conditions at Texas facility, lawyers say

Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months without enough food, medical care or mental health services, as their time inside stretched beyond court-mandated limits, according to court documents filed Friday.

Children and families held in the Dilley detention facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were sent earlier this year also faced virus outbreaks and lasting lockdowns in December and January, although the total number of children held at Dilley has fallen in recent weeks, according to the attorney’s reports and site visits.

The case of Ramos, a preschooler who was wearing a blue bunny hat when he was picked up in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stirred protest over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including among detainees who gathered and held up signs in the yard inside Dilley’s chain-link fences.

Last week about 85 children remained detained at Dilley, but concerning conditions continued, said Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, who visited in mid-March. In early February, a legal advocate for the children observed about 280 children.

The filings cited numerous poignant cases, including that of a 13-year-old girl held at Dilley who tried to take her own life after staff withheld prescribed antidepressants and denied her request to join her mother, as reported by The Associated Press. The government reported there had been “no placements on suicide watch,” according to the filing. The AP obtained Dilley discharge documents that described a “suicide attempt by cutting of wrist” and “self-harm."

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