Appeals court throws out massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court on Thursday threw out President Donald Trump’s massive financial penalty while narrowly upholding a judge’s finding that he engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades. The ruling spares Trump from a potential half-billion-dollar fine but bans him and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years.

Trump claimed “TOTAL VICTORY" in the case, which stemmed from a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“They stole $550 million from me with a fake case and it was overturned," Trump said, echoing his earlier social media post as he addressed police in Washington, D.C. “They said this was a fake case. It was a terrible thing.”

James, a Democrat, focused on the parts of the decision that went her way, saying in a statement that it “affirmed the well-supported finding of the trial court: Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud.”

The ruling came seven months after Trump returned to the White House, his political fortunes unimpeded by the civil fraud judgment, a criminal conviction and other legal blows. A sharply divided panel of five judges in the state’s mid-level Appellate Division couldn't agree on many issues raised in Trump's appeal, but a majority said the monetary penalty was “excessive.”

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Netanyahu says he will push ahead with Gaza City takeover and renewed ceasefire talks

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he will give final approval for the takeover of Gaza City while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining hostages and ending the war on Israel's terms.

The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days. Netanyahu’s approval was expected during a meeting with senior security officials late Thursday, but no decision was announced before midnight in Jerusalem. Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, which — if accepted by Israel — could forestall the offensive.

The Israeli military has begun calling medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation. The military plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.

Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed at least 36 Palestinians Thursday across Gaza, according to local hospitals. A renewed offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the territory, where the war has already killed tens of thousands and where experts have warned of imminent famine.

Many Israelis fear the operation could also doom the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

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Russian attack on western Ukraine hits an American factory during the US-led push for peace

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a rare drone and missile attack on western Ukraine overnight, officials said Thursday, striking targets including an American-owned electronics plant and injecting further uncertainty into the U.S.-led efforts to end the 3-year-old war.

The aerial assault on a part of Ukraine that has largely not experienced such focused attacks was one of Russia's biggest this year and came as Moscow objects to key aspects of proposals that could end the fighting.

U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week before hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex," including drone factories, storage depots, missile launch sites and areas where Ukrainian troops were gathered. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas of Ukraine.

But in a post on X, Zelenskyy wrote that “the Russians practically burned down an American company producing electronics — home appliances, nothing military.”

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Trump's crackdown in DC leaves residents on edge as federal agents set up checkpoints

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities have set up checkpoints around the nation's capital, sometimes asking people for their immigration status and detaining them, as President Donald Trump's crackdown ensnares more residents each day.

Trump claimed that a crime crisis required his Republican administration’s intervention in the Democratic-led city this month, brushing aside statistics that showed the problem was already waning. However, immigration enforcement appears to be a priority, as more than a third of people arrested in the last two weeks were in the country illegally, according to the White House.

Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers have surged into Washington, leaving some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets.

A day care center was partially closed Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible.

Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement.

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California Gov. Newsom signs legislation calling special election on redrawn congressional map

SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) — California voters will decide in November whether to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year, after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at President Donald Trump’s urging.

California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for the special election. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has led the campaign in favor of the map, then quickly signed it — the latest step in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle.

“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Newsom said at a press conference, pledging a campaign for the measure that would reach out to Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”

Republicans, who have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan, promised to fight the measure at the ballot box as well.

California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was “wrong” to push for new Republican seats elsewhere, contending the president was just responding to Democratic gerrymandering in other states. But he warned that Newsom’s approach, which the governor has dubbed “fight fire with fire,” was dangerous.

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Illegal immigration hit a record-high of 14 million in the US in 2023, Pew report finds

The number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, a research group said Thursday, a major increase that still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some critics of immigration.

The Pew Research Center's closely watched gauge rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some 6 million who were in the country with some form of legal protection. Trump has stripped many of those protections since taking office in January.

Pew, whose estimates date back to 1990, said that, while 2023 is its latest full analysis, preliminary findings show the number rose in 2024, though at a slower rate after then-President Joe Biden severely restricted asylum at the border in June of that year. The number dropped this year under Trump, but is still likely above 14 million.

The overall U.S. immigrant population, regardless of legal status, reached an all-time high of more than 53 million in January 2025, accounting for a record 15.8% of the U.S. population. The number has since dropped, which Pew said would be the first time it has shrunk since the 1960s.

While the findings are unlikely to settle debate, Pew's report is one of the most complete attempts to measure illegal immigration. Nearly all the increase came from countries other than Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and India accounted for the largest numbers after Mexico. Totals from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Ukraine and Peru each more than doubled in two years.

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James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder and key leader on the Christian right, dies at 89

James Dobson, who founded the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family and was a politically influential campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.

Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson was a child psychologist who launched a radio show to counsel Christians on parenting and started Focus on the Family in 1977. Alongside fundamentalist giants like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he became a force in the 1980s for pushing conservative Christian ideals in mainstream American politics.

At its peak, Focus on the Family had more than 1,000 employees and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation and serve as an adviser to five presidents. His broad reach includes authoring more than 70 books, being translated into 27 languages, and airing on 4,000 radio stations, according to the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.

His death was confirmed by his institute. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley, as well as their two children, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

Dobson interviewed President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office in 1985, and Falwell called him a rising star in 1989. Decades later, he was among the evangelical leaders tapped to advise President Donald Trump. in 2016.

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California parole board denies release for Erik Menendez due to misbehavior in prison

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Erik Menendez was denied parole Thursday after serving decades in prison for murdering his parents with his older brother in 1989.

A panel of two California commissioners denied Menendez parole for three years, after which he will be eligible again, in a case that continues to fascinate the public. A parole hearing for his brother Lyle Menendez, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, is scheduled for Friday morning.

The two commissioners determined that Menendez should not be freed after an all-day hearing during which they questioned him about why he committed the crime and violated prison rules. They rejected parole despite strong support from family members who have advocated for the brothers’ release for months.

“Two things can be true. They can love and forgive you, and you can still be found unsuitable for parole," commissioner Robert Barton said.

Barton said the primary reason for the decision was not the seriousness of the crime but Menendez's behavior in prison.

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Hurricane Erin still stirring up dangerous waves while it moves away from the East Coast

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin kicked up big waves Thursday along the mid-Atlantic coast and began a slow march out to sea after pelting North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and swells that flooded a few places on the barrier islands.

The storm will continue to bring the threat of dangerous rip currents and coastal flooding into the weekend from the Carolinas to New England even as forecasters predict it will gradually weaken. Despite being twice the size of an average hurricane, Erin so far has managed to thread the needle through the Atlantic between the East Coast and several island nations, limiting its destructiveness.

Damage assessments were still underway on the Outer Banks and more flooding could come during high tide Thursday evening. But it appeared the low-lying islands dodged widespread trouble during its initial brush with Erin on Wednesday.

A tropical storm warning remained active on the island of Bermuda, where residents and tourists were told to stay out of the water through Friday. The tropical storm warning along the coast of North Carolina was changed to a storm surge warning to reflect the threat of rising water, while the one along Virginia's coast had been discontinued.

Coastal communities along the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coast may see tropical-storm-force wind gusts through early Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

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Walmart helps pull Wall Street to its 5th straight loss

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street fell to a fifth straight loss on Thursday, hurt by a drop for Walmart and dampened hopes for coming cuts to interest rates.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%. All its losses have been relatively modest, but it has not risen since setting an all-time high last Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 152 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

Walmart was one of the market’s heaviest weights and dropped 4.5% after reporting a profit for the spring that came up short of analysts’ expectations, while Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks held a bit steadier following two days of sharp swings.

The moves were stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields rose after a report forced Wall Street to scale back hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon deliver relief by cutting interest rates.

The report suggested growth in U.S. business activity is accelerating and hit its fastest rate so far this year. That’s good news for the economy, but the preliminary data from S&P Global also said tariffs helped push up average selling prices at the fastest rate in three years. That’s a discouraging sign for inflation.

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