The NFL’s one-year experiment with the new kickoff rule becomes permanent this season with a new tweak that the league hopes will lead to a bigger increase in the rate of returns.

The league also approved changes to the overtime rule, expanded replay assist and made a few other technical changes for this season. Those were on display during the exhibition opener Thursday night between the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Chargers that also featured the NFL’s Hawk-Eye virtual measuring that replaced the old-time chains to determine first downs.

The league experimented with the so-called dynamic kickoff in 2024 in hopes of more returns while also making the play safer. Owners voted in April to make the change permanent while moving touchbacks on kicks that reach the end zone on the fly from the 30 to the 35, which is expected to lead to more kicks in play and more returns.

There was no change in the tush push play that Philadelphia used so successfully on the way to winning the Super Bowl last season.

Here’s an explanation of some of the new rules that will be in place.

 

What’s new with the kickoff?

The league was mostly pleased with the experimental kickoff put in place for 2024 that led to the rate of kickoff returns increasing from a record-low 21.8% in 2023 to 32.8% last season, while reducing the rate of injuries on what had been the game’s most dangerous play.

The rule made kickoffs more like scrimmage plays by placing the coverage players and blockers close together to eliminate the high-speed collisions that had contributed to so many injuries on the play. The league said the rate of concussions dropped 43% on returns, with a significant reduction as well in lower-body injuries.

The problem last season was many teams still opted to kick the ball in the end zone because the touchback wasn’t punitive enough. The average starting field position on a touchback was only 2.4 yards further than the average starting position after returns, which was the 27.6-yard line.

By moving the touchback to the 35, the league projects that the return rate will rise to somewhere between 60% and 70%, with a similar increase in long returns, adding more excitement to the game.

The league also approved a small tweak to how blockers on the return team are allowed to line up in the setup zone that could lead to longer returns.

In the game Thursday night, there were seven returns on the nine kickoffs — including a lost fumble by Detroit on the opening kick. There was one kick that went for a touchback and another that didn’t reach the landing zone in the air and was spotted at the 40.

How about onside kicks?

Teams will still need to declare their intention to try an onside kick because of the different formation. But a new change will allow trailing teams to try one before the start of the fourth quarter after Kansas City had to kick deep while down 28 points in the final minute of the third quarter in the Super Bowl.

Coverage players will also be allowed to line up one yard closer in hopes of increasing the rate of recovery from about 6% over the past three seasons to at least 10%.

How will overtime change?

The league approved a proposal to make the regular season overtime more like the postseason, with both teams getting a chance at a possession, even if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown.

The NFL added regular season overtime in 1974, adding a 15-minute sudden death period that ended on any score. In 2010, the rule was tweaked to a modified sudden death that required an opening possession touchdown to immediately end the game instead of only a field goal. That was in effect in both the regular season and the playoffs.

Overtime then was shortened for the regular season to only 10 minutes in 2017. A rule change in 2022 for the playoffs only gave both teams the chance to score even with a touchdown on the opening possession.

Now that will be the case in the regular season, after the improved field position on kickoffs made winning in OT on an opening possession TD easier.

According to Sportradar, six of the 16 overtime games last season ended on an opening-drive TD for the most overtime games ended on the first drive since the rule change went into effect in 2010.

In all, teams that won the overtime toss won 75% of the time last season, according to Sportradar, and have a .606 winning percentage in overtime since it was cut to 10 minutes.

The league kept the 10-minute overtime period instead of expanding it back to 15 minutes like was originally proposed by Philadelphia, which could lead to teams opting to go for 2 and a win if they match an opening-drive TD with one of their own since there might not be time for another possession.

Replay assist

The NFL expanded its replay assist system to overturn objective calls if there was “clear and obvious” evidence that a foul didn’t occur. The calls could include facemask penalties, whether there was forcible contact to the head or neck area, horse-collar tackles and tripping. Replay also would be able to overturn a roughing-the-kicker or running-into-the-kicker penalty if video showed the defender made contact with the ball.

The league has been using replay assist in recent years to overturn obvious errors on aspects like whether a pass is caught or where the ball should be spotted without the referee needing to stop the game for a review.

The Competition Committee says there’s no interest in allowing replay assists to call penalties on plays missed by officials on the field.

Other changes

Referees will no longer use the chains to determine first downs, opting instead for a virtual measuring system. This won’t eliminate the officials who manually spot the ball and use chains to mark the line to gain.

That was on display Thursday night for the first time after a 10-yard run by Detroit’s Craig Reynolds in the second quarter. The officials stopped the game for a measurement and instead of the chains coming on the field, everyone looked at the video board and saw that Reynolds got the first down.

There were some procedural rules changed in regards to injured reserve. Teams can place two players on injured reserve with the designation to return when rosters are reduced to 53 players instead of after. Playoff teams also will be granted two additional return from IR designations.

— By JOSH DUBOW, AP Pro Football Writer

By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — They wandered through the museum, listening attentively as their guide explained the antiquities in display cabinets. It could have been any tour group, anywhere in the world. But there was something unusual about this one.

The group of foreigners visiting the National Museum of Afghanistan was made up only of women. Its guide was a woman, too — one of the first Afghan female tour guides in a country whose Taliban rulers impose the severest restrictions on girls and women anywhere in the world.

Somaya Moniry, 24, hadn’t known that tour guides existed, as a profession or even as a concept. But while browsing the internet for help on improving her English language skills, she stumbled upon Couchsurfing, an app where travelers connect with locals and stay in their homes.

After hosting a traveler, “I became very passionate about it and it was very interesting for me,” Moniry said. “It was very unique. I have never heard about it before, so I said: ‘Why not (do) this?’”

Looking for the positive

As she showed that first visitor around her hometown in western Afghanistan, she saw a new side to her country.

“Most of the things that we have heard (about Afghanistan) was just … negativity. The focus of the people, focus of the media, focus of headlines, all of them were just the negativity. And definitely we get influenced by that,” Moniry said.

But for her, Afghanistan is far more nuanced. While there are undoubtedly problems in a place recovering from decades of war and chaos, there is also another side to the complex, stunning country. Her love for her homeland runs deep, and she is eager to share it. She hopes to gradually change people’s perceptions.

“Whenever … I saw all of that natures, all those beauty, all those positivity, it changed my view totally,” Moniry said in her enthusiastic English. “And definitely this can be also for other people.”

One of those visitors is Australian Suzanne Sandral. She originally wanted to see Afghanistan in the 1960s but the pressures of having a family kept her away. Now at 82, she was part of Moniry’s women-only tour group in Kabul.

Afghanistan surprised her.

“It’s not what I expected at all. I expected to feel rather fearful. I expected to be given a lot of … accusatory looks. Not at all,” she said during a pause in sightseeing. “Wherever you go in the streets, if you smile at someone and give them a little nod or say hello, you get a terrific response. So it’s very different.”

Jackie Birov, a 35-year-old independent traveler from Chicago who was not part of the tour group, called the Afghan people “unbelievably hospitable.”

However, “I’m very aware that I have a lot more freedom than local women,” she said.

A fledgling industry

Four decades of war have kept tourists away from Afghanistan. But while the Taliban’s takeover of power in August 2021 sent thousands of Afghans fleeing and shocked the world, the end of its insurgency against the previous U.S.-backed government also marked a sharp drop in violence.

Attacks still occasionally occur, mainly by an Islamic State affiliate, and Western countries advise against all travel to Afghanistan. Still, the improved security is increasingly attracting foreign visitors drawn by the dramatic scenery, millennia of history and a deeply ingrained culture of hospitality.

Tourism is a fledgling industry, with annual visitors in the low thousands. Most are independent adventure travelers. But guided package tours are increasing from countries as diverse as China, Greece, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government is keen to welcome them. Isolated on the international stage — officially recognized only by Russia, which did so in July — the government sees how potentially lucrative tourism could be.

Tourist visas, typically single-entry ones valid for stays of up to 30 days, have become relatively simple to obtain from the few embassies that issue them. Regular flights connect Kabul with major transit hubs such as Dubai and Istanbul.

A question of ethics

For some, the idea of visiting Afghanistan as a tourist is morally abhorrent, particularly given the government’s treatment of women.

Girls are banned from education above primary school level, and women live under myriad restrictions. The government dictates what they can wear in public, where they can go and who they can go with. They cannot walk in parks or eat in restaurants. Beauty salons are banned. A very limited number of professions, such as teaching and carpet weaving, are open to them.

And the rules can change quickly.

But those involved in tourism point to the positive effects that visiting Afghanistan can have.

“I truly believe in ethical tourism,” said Zoe Stephens, 31, a British tour leader at Koryo Tours, a company specializing in unusual destinations. “I believe that you can divide politics and people, and that is the main thing for me. … A country is not a sum of its politics. It’s a sum of so much more, it’s a sum of its culture, its history, its food, and especially in Afghanistan, its people.”

Glimpses into the women’s world

Of the three recent tours Stephens led in Afghanistan, two were women-only. Working with local female guides, including Moniry, they combine key attractions with visits to women’s centers and cooking and embroidery classes from local women — worlds that are closed to male travelers.

“We always try and do something a little bit different that really makes our tours unique, as well as something that kind of gives back to the community,” Stephens said. “So I felt that working with the female tour guides does both of those things really well.”

The groups are small — one had eight women, the other three — but the company is looking to build a network of female guides across Afghanistan.

“What we try and do with this tour, especially the women’s tour, is conquer those ethical concerns,” Stephens said. “The idea is to learn about the lives of Afghan women in context.”

By CALEIGH WELLS, Associated Press

Most of what goes into U.S. landfills is organic waste, ranging from household food scraps to yard trimmings. That’s a problem because in that environment, organic waste is deprived of oxygen, which helps break material down.

The result: the release of a lot of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Consumers can curb their environmental impact by composting, which helps break material down in ways that reduce the release of methane. This can be done whether someone lives in a home with a yard or in an apartment without outside space. Composting also alleviates pressure on landfill space and results in a nutrient-rich substance that help soil.

Robert Reed, with the recycling and composting company Recology, said that applying compost makes soil better at retaining moisture, which makes it resilient against droughts, wildfires and erosion.

For people who want someone else to compost their food scraps, some local governments offer curbside pickup. Otherwise, nonprofits, farmers markets and community gardens often fill that gap. Companies in some areas also will pick up the food waste to be taken away for composting for a fee.

For those who want to try composting at home, here’s how to get started.

If you’ve got a yard

Composting doesn’t necessarily require much space. Even 4 square feet — roughly the size of a standard office desk — can do the trick. Common receptacles include open wooden bins or large barrel-shaped tumblers that you can rotate on a metal rod. Free-standing piles also work.

Some people follow a strict schedule of turning the pile, often with a hoe or shovel, or adding to it regularly. Backyard composting typically relies on microbes to break down the waste, which can bring a pile’s temperature up to 130-160 degrees Fahrenheit (54-71 degrees Celsius). Others follow a more passive approach.

Experts break the composting recipe down into four main ingredients: water, oxygen, nitrogen-rich “greens” (food scraps, grass clippings) and carbon-rich “browns” (cardboard, dead leaves, shredded paper). Typically compost has two or three times as much “brown” material as “green.”

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends against meat, bones, dairy, fats and oils in backyard compost piles because they typically don’t get hot enough to fully break them down, and because they’re more likely to attract pests. The agency also says to steer clear of treated wood, glossy paper, pet waste and compostable dishware or bags.

Experts say composters can experiment with what works and what doesn’t. Rodale Institute Senior Farm Director Rick Carr said he’s tried animal products and just about everything in his household. Hair from the hair brush and fully cotton swabs break down great. Cotton T-shirts? Not at all.

“If you’re unsure if it’ll break down, put it in there and you’ll find out,” he said.

The bacteria and fungi feed on the pile of organic waste and turn it into compost. The finished product looks like moist, dark soil. The EPA says a well-tended pile can produce finished compost in three to five months, while a more passive pile that doesn’t reach high temperatures may take up to a year.

Bob Shaffer, who owns a company called Soil Culture Consulting, said that for him, the process can take closer to nine months, but it’s easy to tell when it’s finished.

“When you look at compost, what you should not be able to see is, oh, there’s a leaf. There’s that carrot top that I put in there 10 months ago. You shouldn’t be able to discern what the material is,” he said.

Common pitfalls

Most composting problems happen when the ingredients get out of whack.

One way to make sure you’ve got the right balance of “greens” and “browns” is a “squeeze test,” by reaching into the pile and grabbing a handful then letting it go, said Nora Goldstein, editor of the organics recycling magazine, Biocycle.

“If it just kind of crumbles off your hand, it’s too dry. If you squeeze and get a little bit of drips, it’s a little wet. But what you want is to squeeze it, let it go, and have kind of a coating on your hand.”

When the pile gets too dry, the composting process slows down or stops. The answer: Hose it down or add more food scraps.

Another common problem is the opposite: there isn’t enough air, or there are too many nitrogen-rich “greens.” The first sign of trouble is when the compost pile smells. That typically means the microorganisms are dying and the pile is releasing methane, like in a landfill. The solution: stir the pile to get more air inside and allow it to cool down. Then add some cardboard or paper. A pile that’s too wet can also attract flies, maggots and rodents.

“As long as you’re mixing in enough amendment or browns, you’ll stay out of trouble,” Goldstein said.

If you lack outdoor space

Composting indoors is possible through what’s known as vermicomposting, a process that relies on worms. People can buy premade worm bins, make their own out of untreated wood or use plastic storage bins with a few modifications, according to the EPA. The containers should have tight-fitting lids and keep out the light. Only certain types of worms will work, and they can be obtained from a worm grower or a neighbor who’s already started vermicomposting.

Goldstein said that the process isn’t always easy: “You really have to know what you’re doing.”

Instead of relying on microbes, worms feed on the carbon- and nitrogen-rich organic matter. They poop out almost-black castings. That’s the finished product. The EPA says it takes about three to six months, which can be faster than backyard composting. They can create a more nutritious end product than in traditional compost.

But Goldstein said that it can be tricky to ensure conditions are right for the worms.

“You want to make sure those worms are very happy, because if they’re not, they will leave the bin. And they’re not harmful, it’s just a little freaky,” said Goldstein.

Traditional composting, whether indoors or outdoors, is typically a process that takes place over months, not days, Goldstein said. Electric countertop devices that promise to break down food in hours or days don’t use the same process. Goldstein said those devices produce material that can be used in gardens, but it’s “not completely broken down” and should be mixed with soil.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Science Foundation can continue to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from researchers in several states until litigation aimed at restoring it plays out, a federal court ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge John Cronan in New York declined to force the NSF to restart payments immediately, while the case is still being decided, as requested by the sixteen Democrat-led states who brought the suit, including New York, Hawaii, California, Colorado and Connecticut.

In his ruling, Cronan said he would not grant the preliminary injunction in part because it may be that another court, the Court of Federal Claims, has jurisdiction over what is essentially a case about money. He also said the states failed to show that NSF’s actions were counter to the agency’s mandate.

The lawsuit filed in May alleges that the National Science Foundation’s new grant-funding priorities as well as a cap on what’s known as indirect research expenses “violate the law and jeopardize America’s longstanding global leadership in STEM.”

Another district court had already blocked the the cap on indirect costs — administrative expenses that allow research to get done like paying support staff and maintaining equipment. This injunction had been requested to restore funding to the grants that were cut.

In April, the NSF announced a new set of priorities and began axing hundreds of grants for research focused on things like misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion. Researchers who lost funding also were studying artificial intelligence, post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans, STEM education for K-12 students and more.

Researchers were not given a specific explanation for why their grants were canceled, attorney Colleen Faherty, representing the state of New York, said during last month’s hearing. Instead, they received boilerplate language stating that their work “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”

NSF has long been directed by Congress to encourage underrepresented groups like women and people with disabilities to participate in STEM. According to the lawsuit, the science foundation’s funding cuts already halted efforts to train the next generation of scientists in fields like computer science, math and environmental science.

A lawyer for the NSF said at the hearing that the agency has the authority to fund whatever research it deems necessary — and has since its inception in 1950. In the court filing, the government also argued that its current priorities were to “create opportunities for all Americans everywhere” and “not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”

The plaintiff states are trying to “substitute their own judgement for the judgement of the agency,” Adam Gitlin, an attorney for the NSF, said during the hearing.

The science foundation is still funding some projects related to expanding representation in STEM, Cronan wrote in his ruling. Per the lawsuit filed in May, for example, the University of Northern Colorado lost funding for only one of its nine programs focused on increasing participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

The states are reviewing the decision, according to spokespeople from the New York and Hawaii attorney general offices. The National Science Foundation declined to comment.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed on Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under a process known as humanitarian parole — a ruling that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand “expedited removal” for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.

The case “presents a question of fair play” for people fleeing oppression and violence in their home countries, Cobb said in her 84-page order.

“In a world of bad options, they played by the rules,” she wrote. “Now, the Government has not only closed off those pathways for new arrivals but changed the game for parolees already here, restricting their ability to seek immigration relief and subjecting them to summary removal despite statutory law prohibiting the Executive Branch from doing so.”

Fast-track deportations allow immigration officers to remove somebody from the U.S. without seeing a judge first. In immigration cases, parole allows somebody applying for admission to the U.S. to enter the country without being held in detention.

Immigrants’ advocacy groups sued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to challenge three recent DHS agency actions that expanded expedited removal. A surge of arrests at immigration courts highlights the lawsuit’s high stakes.

The judge’s ruling applies to any non-citizen who has entered the U.S. through the parole process at a port of entry. She suspended the challenged DHS actions until the case’s conclusion.

Cobb said the case’s “underlying question” is whether people who escaped oppression will have the chance to “plead their case within a system of rules.”

“Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that — as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges — may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?” she added.

A plaintiffs’ attorney, Justice Action Center legal director Esther Sung, described the ruling as a “huge win” for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their families. Sung said many people are afraid to attend routine immigration hearings out of fear of getting arrested.

“Hopefully this decision will alleviate that fear,” Sung said.

Since May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After being arrested, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.

President Donald Trump sharply expanded fast-track authority in January, allowing immigration officers to deport someone without first seeing a judge. Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.

“Expedited removal” was created under a 1996 law and has been used widely for people stopped at the border since 2004. Trump attempted to expand those powers nationwide to anyone in the country less than two years in 2019 but was held up in court. His latest efforts amount to a second try.

ICE exercised its expanded authority sparingly at first during Trump’s second term but has since relied on it for aggressive enforcement in immigration courts and in “workplace raids,” according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Spagat reported from San Diego.

By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have told more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations.

The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“I’m concerned and distressed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups.

He said the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance, as patients may hear the government say one thing and hear their doctors say another.

One email said the organizations are “special interest groups and therefore are expected to have a ‘bias’ based on their constituency and/or population that they represent.”

A federal health official on Friday confirmed the action, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

The decision was the latest development in what has become a saga involving the ACIP. The committee, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used.

CDC directors have traditionally almost always approved those recommendations, which are widely heeded by doctors and greenlight insurance coverage for shots.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government’s top health official, and in June abruptly fired the entire ACIP after accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers. He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics.

The workgroups typically include not only committee members but also a number of experts from medical and scientific organizations. At workgroup meetings, members evaluate data from vaccine manufacturers and the CDC, and formulate vaccination recommendation proposals to be presented to the full committee.

The structure was created for several reasons, Schaffner said. The professional groups provide input about what might and might not be possible for doctors to implement. And it helped build respect and trust in ACIP recommendations, having the buy-in of respected medical organizations, he said.

Workgroup members are vetted for conflicts of interest, to make sure than no one who had, say, made money from working on a hepatitis vaccine was placed on the hepatitis committee, Schaffner noted.

Also disinvited from the groups were the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Geriatrics Society, the American Osteopathic Association, the National Medical Association and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

In a joint statement Friday, the AMA and several of the other organizations said: “To remove our deep medical expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible, dangerous to our nation’s health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccines.”

They urged the administration to reconsider the move “so we can continue to feel confident in its vaccine recommendations for our patients.”

Some of the professional organizations have criticized Kennedy’s changes to the ACIP, and three of the disinvited groups last month joined a lawsuit against the government over Kennedy’s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for most children and pregnant women.

In a social media post Friday, one of the Kennedy-appointed ACIP members — Retsef Levi — wrote that the working groups “will engage experts from even broader set of disciplines!”

Levi, a business management professor, also wrote that working group membership “will be based on merit & expertise — not membership in organizations proven to have (conflicts of interest) and radical & narrow view of public health!”

HHS officials have not said which people are going to be added to the ACIP workgroups.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal judge T.S. Ellis III, whose legal scholarship and commanding courtroom presence was evident in numerous high-profile trials, has died after a long illness. He was 85.

Ellis oversaw the trials of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and former U.S. Rep. William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson as well as the plea deal of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh across a judicial career that lasted more than 35 years.

His acerbic wit sometimes drew muted complaints at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where Ellis was based, but his legal reasoning was unquestioned.

Ellis died Wednesday at his home in Keswick, according to the Cremation Society of Virginia.

Thomas Selby Ellis III was born in Colombia in 1940 and frequently found ways in court to utilize his Spanish-language skills. He often told Spanish-speaking defendants who relied on interpreters to speak up as they pleaded for leniency, saying he wanted to hear their words for himself.

He joined the Navy after receiving an undergraduate degree from Princeton, and completed graduate studies at Oxford. He received his law degree from Harvard, graduating magna cum laude.

He was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

In a courthouse known as the “Rocket Docket” for its speedy disposition of cases, Ellis’ courtroom reflected his iconoclastic nature. Rarely did his hearings start on time, though when he presided over jury trials his punctuality improved as he zealously guarded jurors’ time commitments.

He frequently chastised lawyers to cut short long-winded arguments, in what he called “a concession to the shortness of life.” But he was easily coaxed or diverted into telling stories from the bench recalling episodes from his long legal career.

He snapped at lawyers who annoyed him, but would often adopt a more conciliatory tone later in the same hearing, and apologize for his short temper.

His penchant for speaking freely drew raised eyebrows at what was arguably the highest-profile trial over which he presided: the prosecution of Manafort, on charges of tax and bank fraud related to his work advising pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians before managing Trump’s campaign.

Ellis ultimately delivered a 47-month sentence, and said as an aside that Manafort appeared to have lived “an otherwise blameless life,” a phrase he often used at criminal sentencings. Critics who found much to blame in Manafort’s long career working for clients including the tobacco industry and international despots were outraged by the comment.

In 2009, Ellis sentenced Jefferson, a former Louisiana congressman, to 13 years in prison for taking bribes, including $90,000 found hidden in his freezer. The case threw multiple curveballs at Ellis, including a sexual relationship between a key witness and an investigating FBI agent.

In 2017, Ellis reduced Jefferson’s sentence to time served after a Supreme Court case changed the rules for what constitutes bribery of public officials. He made clear, though, that he believed Jefferson’s actions were criminal, and called his conduct “venal.”

“Public corruption is a cancer,” he said at the time of Jefferson’s resentencing. “It needs to be prosecuted and punished.”

Ellis’ sentencing hearings often followed a familiar script in which he invited defendants to explain themselves “by way of extenuation, mitigation, or indeed anything at all” that they wanted to say on their behalf. He invariably told defendants before passing judgment that “you write the pages to your own life story.”

Ellis took senior status as a judge in 2007 but regularly worked an extensive docket. In recent years, with his failing health, his cases were reassigned.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — A stalemate over the pace of confirmations has delayed the Senate’s yearly August recess, for now, as President Donald Trump declares that his nominees “should NOT BE FORCED TO WAIT” and as Democrats slow the process by forcing procedural votes on almost all of Trump’s picks.

Caught in the middle, Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he will keep the Senate in session over the weekend, at least, to hold confirmation votes while also negotiating with Democrats to speed up consideration of dozens of nominees. The two sides haven’t come to agreement yet, and it’s still unclear if Trump, who has been publicly calling on Republicans to cancel their break, would be onboard with any bipartisan deal.

Thune said Friday he was leaving some of the negotiations to Trump and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“That’s how this is going to get resolved,” Thune said. “We’ll see where that leads.”

Senators in both parties are eager to leave Washington for their annual break, when many of them tour their states to talk to constituents. Republicans in particular are eager to return home and sell the massive tax and spending cuts package they passed in July as Democrats vow to use it against them in the 2026 midterm elections. The House, which has no role in the confirmation process, fled Washington a week ago.

But Trump has other plans.

“The Senate must stay in Session, taking no recess, until the entire Executive Calendar is CLEAR!!!” Trump posted on social media Thursday night, after a meeting with Thune at the White House. “We have to save our Country from the Lunatic Left. Republicans, for the health and safety of the USA, DO YOUR JOB, and confirm All Nominees.”

Thune said this week that Republicans are considering changing the Senate’s rules when they get back in September to make it easier to quickly approve a president’s nominations — and to try and avoid a similar stalemate in the future. Democrats have blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any quick unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that takes several days per nominee and allows for debate time.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Friday that Senate GOP leadership was “going back, drafting a specific rule for us to react to” as they try to plot a path forward.

It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations. Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days, and with longer hours, this year to try and confirm as many of Trump’s nominees as possible.

Democrats have little desire to give in, even though they too are eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over legislation. Schumer has said Democrats have blocked quick votes because, “historically bad nominees deserved historic levels of scrutiny.”

There are more than 150 nominations on the Senate calendar, and confirming them all would take more than a month even if the Senate does stay in session, if Democrats draw out the process.

The standoff is just the latest chapter in an ever-escalating Senate fight over nominations in the last two decades. Both parties have increasingly used stalling tactics to delay confirmations that were once quick, bipartisan and routine. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s judicial nominations. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Still, Thune says, the Democrats’ current delays are a “historic level of obstruction.”

In his first year as leader, Thune has worked with Trump to quickly confirm his Cabinet and navigated complicated internal party dynamics to pass the tax and spending cuts package, which Trump sees as his signature policy achievement.

Yet the president is applying increasing pressure on Thune and his conference, trying to control the Senate’s schedule and calling out three Republican senators in social media posts this week — including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the senior-most Senate Republican who worked closely with Trump to confirm his picks for Supreme Court in his first term.

Trump criticized Grassley for keeping with Senate tradition and working with home state Democrats on some judicial confirmations, saying that he got Grassley re-elected “when he was down, by a lot.”

Opening a committee hearing on Thursday, Grassley defended the practice and added that he was “offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults.”

Trump also criticized Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley for working with Democrats on a stock trading ban for lawmakers. And in a post late Thursday, he counseled Republicans to “vote the exact opposite” of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, a moderate who has worked with Democrats on spending bills this year and frequently opposes Trump.

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributedto this report.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called for the firing of the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.

Trump in a post on his social media platform alleged that the figures were manipulated for political reasons and said that Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should be fired.

“I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on Truth Social. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”

Friday’s jobs report showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated.

McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and became the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in January 2024. Commissioners typically serve four-year terms but since they are political appointees can be fired. The commissioner is the only political appointee of the agency, which has hundreds of career civil servants.

Trump focused much of his ire on the revisions the agency made to previous hiring data. Job gains in May were revised down to just 19,000 from 125,000, and in June they were cut to 14,000 from 147,000. In July, only 73,000 positions were added. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2% from 4.1%.

“No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” Trump wrote. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

The monthly employment report is one of the most closely-watched pieces of government economic data and can cause sharp swings in financial markets. The disappointing figure sent U.S. market indexes about 1.5% lower Friday.

While the jobs numbers are often the subject of political spin, economists and Wall Street investors — with millions of dollars at stake — have always accepted U.S. government economic data as free from political manipulation.

By STEVE PEOPLES, AP National Politics Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats are launching a nationwide summer blitz designed to force vulnerable Republicans to defend President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill — especially Medicaid cuts that will leave millions of Americans without health care coverage.

Republican leaders in Washington, meanwhile, have encouraged their members to promote more popular aspects of the bill during smaller controlled appearances where GOP officials are less likely to face difficult questions or protests.

The Democratic National Committee’s “Organizing Summer” will feature events in all 50 states, beginning with Alaska, Texas, Colorado and California over the coming week. The party’s message will be reinforced by online advertising and billboard trucks at state and county fairs in the coming days targeting vulnerable House Republicans in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey, among other states.

“As Democrats, our job is to ensure that every American across the country understands the devastating impacts of this bill,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said. “Democrats will be holding events, highlighting Republican hypocrisy, and ensuring Americans across the country know exactly who is responsible for taking away health care, food, construction jobs, and nursing homes in order to give massive handouts to billionaires.”

The massive Republican-backed tax and spending package that Trump called “big, beautiful” and signed into law on July 4 may ultimately become the defining issue of next year’s midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress for Trump’s final two years in office.

Republicans are touting the bill as a tax cut for all Americans, but polling suggests that U.S. adults have been slow to embrace the GOP’s message. The new law will add $3.4 trillion to federal deficits through 2034, leave more than another 10 million people without health insurance and leave millions of others without food stamps, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

For much of the year, Republican officials have avoided town hall meetings with constituents or public appearances where they might face protesters or unscripted questions from voters. GOP members of Congress may be slightly more visible this summer, however, according to a memo distributed this week by the House Republican campaign arm.

The memo encourages Republicans to be proactive in selling Trump’s bill during the August recess, although the National Republican Campaign Committee suggests its members focus on tax cuts in smaller settings they can control.

Among the NRCC’s suggestions outlined in the memo: “Visit a local hospital and discuss how you voted for no tax on overtime,” “stop by a restaurant to highlight your vote on no tax on tips” and “work the counter at a local store and chat about your work to lower costs.”

The monthlong August break “is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering,” the Republican memo says.

Democrats are planning a decidedly more public campaign this month than their Republican rivals, although they’ll also offer “multi-day intensive bootcamps” as part of a training program for political operatives and community leaders.

Events are being planned for all 50 states with special focus on 35 of the most competitive congressional districts in the country. Current and former Democratic officials will be featured, including former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who emerged as a leader against gun violence since her 2011 assassination attempt.

As part of the new effort, the Democratic National Committee is also launching a new digital advertising campaign initially targeting vulnerable Republicans in Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. That’s in addition to the DNC sending mobile billboard trucks to county fairs in the districts of Republicans in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“Trump’s big ugly bill: $4 trillion giveaway to billionaires. The rest of us pay the price,” read the billboards, which will feature the name and face of each Republican congressman.

And as Republicans search for an effective message to sell Trump’s bill, Democrats are increasingly confident.

“The big, ugly law is a political disaster,” said Viet Shelton, spokesman for the House Democrats campaign arm. “Everyone hates it and vulnerable House Republicans know it, which is why they’re scared to face their constituents in person during the August recess.”

By LORNE COOK and JOHN LEICESTER

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration says it is weighing what to do with family planning supplies stockpiled in Europe that campaigners and two U.S. senators are fighting to save from destruction.

Concerns that the Trump administration plans to incinerate the stockpile have angered family planning advocates on both sides of the Atlantic. Campaigners say the supplies stored in a U.S.-funded warehouse in Geel, Belgium, include contraceptive pills, contraceptive implants and IUDs that could spare women in war zones and elsewhere the hardship of unwanted pregnancies.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said Thursday in response to a question about the contraceptives that “we’re still in the process here in terms of determining the way forward.”

“When we have an update, we’ll provide it,” he said.

Belgium says it has been talking with U.S. diplomats about trying to spare the supplies from destruction, including possibly moving them out of the warehouse. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Florinda Baleci told The Associated Press that she couldn’t comment further “to avoid influencing the outcome of the discussions.”

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which managed foreign aid programs, left the supplies’ fate uncertain.

Pigott didn’t detail the types of contraceptives that make up the stockpile. He said some of the supplies, bought by the previous administration, could “potentially be” drugs designed to induce abortions. Pigott didn’t detail how that might impact Trump administration thinking about how to deal with the drugs or the entire stockpile.

Costing more than $9 million and funded by U.S taxpayers, the family planning supplies were intended for women in war zones, refugee camps and elsewhere, according to a bipartisan letter of protest to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from U.S. senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski.

They said destroying the stockpile “would be a waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars as well as an abdication of U.S. global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths — key goals of U.S. foreign assistance.”

They urged Rubio to allow another country or partner to distribute the contraceptives.

Concerns voiced by European campaigners and lawmakers that the supplies could be transported to France for incineration have led to mounting pressure on government officials to intervene and save them.

The executive branch of the European Union, through spokesman Guillaume Mercier, said Friday that “we continue to monitor the situation closely to explore the most effective solutions.”

The U.S. branch of family planning aid group MSI Reproductive Choices said it offered to purchase, repackage and distribute the stock at its own expense but “these efforts were repeatedly rejected.” The group said the supplies included long-acting IUDs, contraceptive implants and pills, and that they have long shelf-lives, extending as far as 2031.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders said incineration would be “an intentionally reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere.”

Charles Dallara, the grandson of a French former lawmaker who was a contraception pioneer in France, urged President Emmanuel Macron to not let France “become an accomplice to this scandal.”

“Do not allow France to take part in the destruction of essential health tools for millions of women,” Dallara wrote in an appeal to the French leader. “We have a moral and historical responsibility.”

Leicester reported from Paris. Matthew Lee contributed from Washington, D.C.

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate confirmed Andrea Lucas to another term as commissioner of the country’s workplace civil rights agency, demonstrating firm Republican support for her efforts to root out diversity programs, roll back protections for transgender workers and prioritize religious rights in the workplace.

Democratic lawmakers and prominent civil rights groups fiercely opposed Lucas’ confirmation, saying she has subjected the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the whims of the president, who elevated her to acting chair in January and, in an unprecedented act, fired two of the agency’s Democratic commissioners before their terms expired.

Lucas, who was first appointed to the EEOC in 2020, secured another five-year term with a 52-45 party-line Senate vote on Thursday night, but it will be up to President Donald Trump if she continues as chair.

Lucas has firmly aligned the EEOC with Trump’s civil rights agenda, declaring during her confirmation hearing last month that she doesn’t consider the agency to be independent, a position she acknowledged was a shift from her previously stated views.

In compliance with Trump’s executive order declaring two unchangeable sexes, the EEOC dropped lawsuits on behalf of transgender workers and stalled progress on others. Lucas has also leveraged the EEOC’s enforcement powers to help the Trump administration target private institutions over their DEI programs or allegations of antisemitism. Her confirmation came a week after the EEOC secured a $21 million settlement with Columbia University over allegations of harassment against Jewish employees, part of a broader agreement with the Trump administration to restore federal research money.

“I look forward to continuing the historic progress this agency has made since the start of the second Trump Administration under my leadership — from securing multiple settlements with some of the world’s largest law firms to disavow DEI and embrace merit-based hiring and other employment practices, to obtaining the largest EEOC settlement to date for victims of antisemitism on behalf of Jewish employees at Columbia University,” Lucas said in a statement following her confirmation.

Democrats have assailed Lucas’ leadership as part of the Trump administration’s wider attempts to increase his authority by politicizing agencies long considered to be independent.

“In just a few short months as Acting Chair, Andrea Lucas has warped the mission of the EEOC beyond recognition and weaponized the agency to green light discrimination, roll back protections for people who are sexually assaulted at work, and intimidate anyone who challenges President Trump,” Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement.

Last week, legal and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against the EEOC claiming that is has unlawfully refused to enforce federal protections for transgender workers.

But Republican senators and some business groups and religious institutions have praised Lucas’ leadership, especially her commitment to rolling back Biden-era guidance and regulations strengthening protections for transgender workers and women seeking abortions, birth control and fertility treatments.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported Lucas’ confirmation, saying in a statement that she “believes in finding balance in EEOC policies and decisions.”

The EEOC, which investigates employment discrimination in the private sector, was created by Congress under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The dismissals of the commissioners left the EEOC without the quorum needed to make some major decisions. That will change if the Senate confirms a second Trump nominee, Britanny Panuccio.

By LINDSEY BAHR, Associated Press

The best of the internet’s cat videos are coming to the big screen this weekend. Cat Video Fest is a 73-minute, G-rated selection of all things feline —silly, cuddly, sentimental and comedic—that’s playing in more than 500 independent theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

A portion of ticket proceeds benefit cat-focused charities, shelters and animal welfare organization. Since 2019, it’s raised over $1 million.

The videos are curated by Will Braden, the Seattle-based creator of the comedically existential shorts, Henri, le Chat Noir. His business cards read: “I watch cat videos.” And it’s not a joke or an exaggeration. Braden watches thousands of hours of internet videos to make the annual compilation.

“I want to show how broad the idea of a cat video can be so there’s animated things, music videos, little mini documentaries,” Braden said. “It isn’t all just, what I call, ‘America’s Funniest Home Cat Videos.’ It’s not all cats falling into a bathtub. That would get exhausting.”

Now in its eighth year, Cat Video Fest is bigger than ever, with a global presence that’s already extended to the UK and Denmark, and, for the first time, to France, Spain, Japan and Brazil. Last year, the screenings made over $1 million at the box office.

In the early days, it was a bit of a process trying to convince independent movie theaters to program Cat Video Fest. But Braden, and indie distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories, have found that one year is all it takes to get past that hurdle.

“Everywhere that does it wants to do it again,” Braden said.

Current theatrical partners include Alamo Drafthouse, IFC Center, Nitehawk, Vidiots, Laemmle and Music Box. The screenings attract all variety of audiences, from kids and cat ladies to hipsters and grandparents and everyone in between.

“It’s one of the only things, maybe besides a Pixar movie or Taylor Swift concert, that just appeals to everybody,” Braden said.

And the plan is to keep going.

“We’re not going to run out of cat videos and we’re not going to run out of people who want to see it,” Braden said. “All I have to do is make sure that it’s really funny and entertaining every year.”

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors said they now expect music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs could face a prison sentence “substantially higher” than the four to five years they once thought he was likely to face after his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.

They made the observation late Thursday in a Manhattan federal court written submission in which they also opposed Combs’ request this week to be released on $50 million bail while he awaits an Oct. 3 sentencing.

In early July, Combs, 55, was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges carrying potential life prison terms but was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for arranging for girlfriends and male sex workers to travel to engage in sexual encounters that he filmed.

Each prostitution-related charge carries a potential maximum 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors said after the verdict that they thought federal sentencing guidelines meant to prevent wide disparities in sentencings for the same crimes would likely call for a prison term of four to five years. But they said Thursday they believe the guidelines range “will be substantially higher,” raising the risk Combs will flee.

Judge Arun Subramanian will have wide latitude in determining a sentence and can choose to ignore the guidelines, which are not mandatory. Combs’ lawyers have said they believe the guidelines, if properly calculated, will call for 21 to 27 months in prison.

On the day of the verdict, prosecutors won a bail fight after defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo argued Combs should be freed immediately on bail.

Subramanian denied the defense request, saying Combs had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community.” But he said Agnifilo could renew the request.

In doing so Tuesday, Agnifilo cited other cases he said were comparable to Combs’ conviction in which defendants were granted bail. And he cited severe conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Combs has been held since his September arrest at a New York hotel.

He also said Combs was being treated unfairly for engaging in a “swingers” lifestyle in which he and his girlfriends sometimes invited male sex workers to join them in multiday marathon sex performances.

Prosecutors said in their filing Thursday that Combs’ conviction on the prostitution-related counts carried a mandatory requirement that he remain in jail prior to sentencing, unless he could prove exceptional circumstances, which they said he cannot.

They said he should also remain in prison as a danger to the community, a claim that Agnifilo disputed in his papers.

“Sean Combs will not be violent to anyone. As we said in court, this jury gave him his life back, and he will not squander his second chance at life, nor would he do anything to further jeopardize his seven children not having a father, and four of his children not having a parent at all,” Agnifilo wrote earlier this week.

Prosecutors also said conditions at the federal lockup had improved considerably before Combs was arrested. A federal judge in January 2024 had blasted conditions at the jail, including its extensive lockdowns and inadequate medical care.

Prosecutors said cases cited by Agnifilo in which other defendants received bail were not comparable to the crimes Combs was convicted of carrying out, particularly because of his propensity for violence.

“The defendant’s extensive history of violence — and his continued attempt to minimize his recent violent conduct — demonstrates his dangerousness and that he is not amendable to supervision,” they wrote. “The defendant utterly fails to establish by clear and convincing evidence, as required, that he does not pose a danger to the community.”

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump.

Dr. Vinay Prasad “did not want to be a distraction” and was stepping down from his role as the FDA’s top vaccine regulator “to spend more time with his family,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.

Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Prasad was ousted following several recent controversies. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters. Prasad did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning.

Prasad joined the FDA in May after years as an academic researcher at the University of California San Francisco, where he frequently criticized the FDA’s approach to drug approvals and COVID-19 vaccines.

His contrarian approach appeared to match FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who repeatedly praised Prasad’s work and intellect.

But in recent weeks Prasad became a target of right-wing activists, including Laura Loomer, who flagged Prasad’s past statements criticizing Trump and praising liberal independent Senator Bernie Sanders.

“How did this Trump-hating Bernie Bro get into the Trump admin???” Loomer posted on X last week.

Trump previously fired several national security officials a day after Loomer raised concerns about their loyalty.

Prasad also attracted scrutiny for his handling of a recent safety issue surrounding the only approved gene therapy for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy.

Under his direction, shipments of the therapy were briefly halted after a series of patient deaths, then resumed late Monday following vocal pushback from families of boys with the fatal muscle-wasting disorder.

Prasad has long been skeptical of the therapy and other muscular dystrophy drugs sold by the drugmaker, Sarepta Therapeutics. As an academic, Prasad gained prominence by attacking the FDA for being too lenient in its standards for approving cancer drugs and other new therapies.

That approach is at odds with Trump’s Republican supporters, who generally favor speedier approvals and unfettered access to experimental treatments. During Trump’s first term he signed the “ Right to Try ” law, a largely symbolic piece of legislation that won popular support from conservatives seeking to give dying patients expanded access to unproven drugs.

Prasad’s decision to pause Sarepta’s therapy was criticized last week by a columnist and the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

Separately, Prasad’s division issued rejection letters this month to three small biotech firms seeking approval for new gene therapies.

Those therapies have been vigorously embraced many of the anti-abortion groups in Trump’s base for their potential to address intractable diseases that sometimes lead parents to terminate pregnancies.

Prasad’s predecessor in the role, Dr. Peter Marks, oversaw a dramatic rise in approvals for new gene therapies, which aim to treat or prevent disease by replacing or modifying a portion of patients’ genetic code.

Prasad has been an outspoken critic of Marks’ leadership at FDA, which included overseeing the approval of the first COVID vaccines and therapies.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, causing tsunami waves to wash ashore in Japan and Alaska and calls for people around the Pacific to be on alert or move to higher ground.

The 8.8 magnitude temblor set off warnings in Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand, with officials warning that the potential tsunami danger may last for more than a day.

Here’s a glance at some of the most powerful earthquakes recorded previously, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

1. Biobío, Chile

A 9.5 magnitude earthquake struck in a central region of Chile in 1960. Known as the Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean earthquake, the largest ever recorded temblor resulted in more than 1,600 deaths in the country and beyond, most of which were caused by resulting large tsunami. Thousands of people were injured.

2. Alaska

In 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the Alaska’s Prince William Sound, lasting for almost 5 minutes. More than 130 people were killed in the largest recorded earthquake in the U.S. and subsequent tsunami. There were huge landslides and towering waves that caused severe flooding. The event was followed by thousands of aftershocks for weeks after the initial quake.

3. Sumatra, Indonesia

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated Southeast and South Asia and East Africa in 2004, killing 230,000 people. Indonesia alone recorded more than 167,000 deaths as entire communities were wiped out.

4. Tohoku, Japan

A magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan in 2011, triggering a towering tsunami that smashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant. It knocked out power and cooling systems and triggered meltdowns in three reactors. More than 18,000 people were killed in the quake and tsunami, some of whom have never been recovered.

5. Kamchatka, Russia

In 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake caused significant damage but no reported deaths despite a tsunami that hit Hawaii with 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves.

6. Biobío, Chile

A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit central Chile in 2010, shaking the capital for a minute and half and setting off a tsunami. More than 500 people were killed in the disaster.

7. Esmeraldas, Ecuador

In 1906, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami killed about 1,500 people. Its effects were felt for miles along the Central American coast and as far as San Francisco and Japan.

8. Alaska

In 1965, a magnitude 8.7 quake struck Alaska’s Rat Islands, causing an 11-meter (35-foot) -high tsunami. There was some relatively minor damage, including cracks in buildings and an asphalt runway.

9. Tibet

At least 780 people were killed when a magnitude 8.6 earthquake struck in 1950. Dozens of villages were destroyed, including at least one that slid into a river. There were also major landslides that jammed the Subansiri River in India. When the water eventually broke through, it resulted in a deadly 7-meter (23-foot) wave.

10. Sumatra, Indonesia

In 2012, a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia. Though the quake caused little damage, it increased pressure on a fault that was the source of the devastating 2004 tsunami.

Tsunami warnings fading after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Here’s what to know

By DANICA KIRKA and AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — One of this century’s most powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia and generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a broad section of the Pacific, including Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast and as far south as New Zealand. Warnings are being downgraded in most areas, though advisories remain in place as more aftershocks are possible. Chile upgraded its tsunami warning to the highest level for most of its 4,000-mile Pacific coastline.

The quake registered a magnitude of 8.8 and was centered off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck early Wednesday local time, which was still Tuesday in the U.S.

Here’s what to know:

What a tsunami is

Tsunamis are waves triggered by earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions and submarine landslides. After an underwater earthquake, the seafloor rises and drops, which lifts water up and down. The energy from this transfers to waves.

Many people think of tsunamis as one wave. But they are typically multiple waves that rush ashore like a fast-rising tide.

“Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour — as fast as a jet airplane — in deep water,” said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. “But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up.”

It could take minutes for waves to hit land next to the site of a major quake. It could take hours for tsunamis to cross the Pacific Ocean. The speed of tsunami waves also depends on ocean depth. They travel faster over deep water and slow down in shallow water.

People were urged to stay away from coastlines until any wave surges passed in places as far away as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands.

Some tsunamis are small and don’t cause damage. Others can cause massive destruction. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia caused waves that leveled remote villages, ports and tourist resorts along the Indian Ocean across Southeast and South Asia. Some 230,000 people died. A 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami ravaged parts of Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, 2011, killing about 20,000 people and triggering a nuclear meltdown.

The power of this quake

The 8.8-magnitude quake was among the four strongest earthquakes this century, according to the USGS.

It was also the sixth-biggest quake ever recorded, said Simon Boxall, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Southampton’s Physical Oceanography Research Center.

The regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Ministry on Kamchatka warned that scientists expect aftershocks at magnitudes of up to 7.5.

The earthquake occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where more than 80% of the world’s largest quakes occur. Several tectonic plates meet there. The ring gets its name from the volcanoes that surround it.

While not all earthquakes lead to tsunamis, this one generated a series of them spreading outward from the epicenter off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

“It’s a bit like throwing a very, very large rock into the sea and then watching the waves propagate away from that rock, that splash,’’ Boxall said. “And so that’s what’s happened in this case. And that’s why this particular one has generated a tsunami. It’s not huge. It’s not one that’s going to cause mass devastation. But it will cause coastal flooding and it will cause damage, and it does put lives at risk if people don’t move to high ground.’’

The effects of this earthquake so far

A tsunami height of 10 to 13 feet was recorded in Kamchatka, while tsunami waves about 2 to 5 feet high reached San Francisco early Wednesday, officials said. Other areas have seen smaller waves.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said initial reports showed there had been no safety impact on nuclear power plants along Japan’s Pacific coast. Damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake’s epicenter, and officials declared a state of emergency in several areas. Several people were injured, but none gravely, and no major damage has been reported.

Additional aftershocks are possible, putting the entire Pacific Rim on tsunami watch. A tsunami warning remained in effect for parts of the northern California coast.

Much of the Pacific coast of North America, spanning from British Columbia in Canada to down the U.S. West Coast and into Mexico was under a tsunami advisory.

How tsunami warnings are issued

In Hawaii, emergency authorities blast alerts to people’s cellphones, on TV and radio and sound a network of sirens. In Alaska, some communities have sirens, and information is available on weather radio or public radio broadcasts.

In the U.S., the National Weather Service has different levels of alerts:

• A warning means a tsunami that may cause widespread flooding is expected or occurring. Evacuation is recommended and people should move to high ground or inland.
• An advisory means a tsunami with potential for strong currents or dangerous waves is expected or occurring and people should stay out of the water and away from beaches and waterways.
• A watch means that a tsunami is possible and to be prepared.

Kirka reported from London.

Some facts about the strongest earthquakes ever recorded

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has acknowledged that President Donald Trump now meets with candidates for promotion to the rank of four-star general, in a break with past practice.

A White House spokesperson said the Republican president has the meetings because he wants to make sure the U.S. military retains its superiority and its leaders focus on fighting wars.

“President Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star-general nominees directly to ensure they are war fighters first — not bureaucrats,” assistant press secretary Anna Kelly said.

The meetings, however, are a departure from past practice, and knowledge of them has raised concerns about politicization of the military’s top ranks. Trump has not always respected the long-standing tradition of walling off the military from partisan politics.

In June, Trump took the rare step of mobilizing the National Guard and then the Marines, sending hundreds of them into Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with whom the president has feuded politically.

Trump followed up with a campaign-style rally at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where uniformed soldiers cheered as he criticized former President Joe Biden, Newsom and other Democrats — raising concerns that Trump was using the military as a political prop.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Army veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meetings “very welcome reform.”

“I’ve long advocated for presidents to meet with 4-star nominees. President Trump’s most important responsibility is commander-in-chief,” Cotton wrote in a post on X. “The military-service chiefs and combatant commanders are hugely consequential jobs” and “I commend President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for treating these jobs with the seriousness they deserve.”

The New York Times, which first reported on the practice, said it had been initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pressing for a deal with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League school to pay far more than the $200 million fine agreed to by Columbia University to resolve multiple federal investigations, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Harvard would be expected to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as part of any settlement to end investigations into antisemitism at its campus, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Harvard leaders have been negotiating with the White House even as they battle in court to regain access to billions in federal research funding terminated by the Trump administration.

The White House’s desire to get Harvard to pay far more than Columbia was first reported by The New York Times, which said the school has signaled a willingness to pay as much as $500 million.

Harvard did not immediately comment.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as a staple for future agreements. Last week, Columbia leaders agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

Columbia had been in talks for months after the Trump administration accused the university of allowing the harassment of Jewish students and employees amid a wave of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Harvard faces similar accusations but, unlike Columbia, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school challenged the administration’s funding cuts and subsequent sanctions in court.

Last week, President Donald Trump said Harvard “wants to settle” but he said Columbia “handled it better.”

The Trump administration’s emphasis on financial penalties adds a new dimension for colleges facing federal scrutiny. In the past, civil rights investigations by the Education Department almost always ended with voluntary agreements and rarely included fines.

Even when the government has levied fines, they’ve been a small fraction of the scale Trump is seeking. Last year, the Education Department fined Liberty University $14 million after finding the Christian school failed to disclose crimes on its campus. It was the most the government had ever fined a university under the Clery Act, following a $4.5 million fine dealt to Michigan State University in 2019 for its handling of sexual assault complaints against disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.

The University of Pennsylvania agreed this month to modify school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, but that school’s deal with the Trump administration included no fine.

The Trump administration has opened investigations at dozens of universities over allegations of antisemitism or racial discrimination in the form of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Several face funding freezes akin to those at Harvard, including more than $1 billion at Cornell University and $790 million at Northwestern University.

Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the Columbia deal a “roadmap” for other colleges, saying it would “ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.”

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