AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

Conservative Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of Trump’s sweeping unilateral tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical Wednesday about President Donald Trump ’s ability to unilaterally impose far-reaching tariffs, putting at risk a cornerstone of his agenda in the biggest legal test yet of his boundary-pushing presidency.

Three conservative justices raised questions about whether an emergency law gives Trump near-limitless power to set and change duties on imports, with potentially trillion-dollar implications for the global economy.

The court’s three liberal justices also appeared dubious, so at least two conservative votes could limit Trump’s tariff power under the law. It likely would not end it altogether, however.

The case is the first major piece of Trump’s agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape by naming three of the nine justices in his first term. The conservative majority has so far been reluctant to check his extraordinary flex of executive power in short-term orders in cases ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts. That could change with a more detailed ruling in the tariff case, though it will likely take weeks or months to come down.

The Constitution says Congress has the power to levy tariffs. But, in a first, the Trump administration argues that an emergency law allowing the president to regulate importation also includes imposing tariffs.

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Shutdown progress in doubt as Democrats grow emboldened from election wins

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elections this week that energized Democrats and angered President Donald Trump have cast a chill over efforts to end the record-breaking government shutdown, raising fresh doubts about the possibility of a breakthrough despite the punishing toll of federal closures on the country.

Trump has increased pressure on Senate Republicans to end the shutdown — now at 37 days, the longest in U.S. history — calling it a “big factor, negative” in the poor GOP showings across the country. Democrats saw Trump’s comments as a reason to hold firm, believing his involvement in talks could lead to a deal on extending health care subsidies, a key sticking point to win their support.

Trump is refusing to meet with Democrats, insisting they must open the government first. But complicating the GOP’s strategy, Trump is increasingly fixated instead on pushing Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster to speed reopening — a step that many GOP senators reject out of hand. He kept up the pressure in a video Wednesday evening, saying the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to pass legislation should be “terminated.”

“This is much bigger than the shutdown,” Trump said. “This is the survival of our country.”

Senate Democrats face pressures of their own, both from unions eager for the shutdown to end and from allied groups who want them to hold firm. Many see the Democrats’ decisive gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey as validation of their strategy to hold the government closed until expiring health care subsidies are addressed.

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FAA says it will list airports where it is reducing flights during the government shutdown

Travelers through some of the busiest U.S. airports can expect to learn Thursday whether they’ll see fewer flights as the government shutdown drags into a second month.

The Federal Aviation Administration will announce the “high-volume markets” where it is reducing flights by 10% before the cuts go into effect Friday, said agency administrator Bryan Bedford. The move is intended to keep the air space safe during the shutdown, the agency said.

Experts predict hundreds if not thousands of flights could be canceled.

“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said Wednesday. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Most work mandatory overtime six days a week, leaving little time for side jobs to help cover bills and other expenses unless they call out.

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Mamdani announces veteran transition team as he makes plans to carry out an ambitious agenda for NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh off his historic victory in New York City’s mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday announced a slate of seasoned officials to help lead his transition to City Hall, offering an early glimpse at how he intends to turn his ambitious campaign promises into reality.

“In the coming months, I and my team will build a City Hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist, said at his first news conference as mayor-elect. “We will form an administration that is equal parts capable and compassionate, driven by integrity and willing to work just as hard as the millions of New Yorkers who call this city home.”

That transition team will include two former deputy mayors, Maria Torres-Springer and Melanie Hartzog; former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan; and Grace Bonilla, the head of United Way of New York City, a nonprofit focused on low-income residents. Political strategist Elana Leopold will serve as executive director of the team.

Mamdani said the officials would help steer his transition as he adapts from the “poetry of campaigning” to the “beautiful prose of governing,” a winking reference to a phrase used by former Gov. Mario Cuomo, the late father of one of his opponents in the mayoral race, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The incoming mayor said he had not yet heard from Andrew Cuomo since defeating him on Tuesday night in a race that saw the highest turnout for a New York City mayoral election in more than five decades. He said he had spoken by phone with his Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa.

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President Donald Trump, in Miami, brags about the economy despite an election-night rebuke

MIAMI (AP) — President Donald Trump took a victory lap on the economy on the one-year anniversary of his successful election, boasting of cheaper prices and saying the U.S. is the envy of the globe even while the Republican Party faced a rebuke from voters anxious about their own finances in Tuesday’s off-year elections.

Trump, speaking Wednesday at the America Business Forum, said he thinks that communication was the problem, insisting that “we have the greatest economy right now” and that “a lot of people don’t see that.”

“These are the things you have to talk about,” Trump told a packed arena at Miami’s Kaseya Center that included top business executives, global athletes and political leaders. “If people don’t talk about them, then you can do not so well in elections.”

It marked a significant effort from Trump to put a positive spin on the economy at a time when Americans remain uneasy about the cost of living and their own financial security — and when major campaigns in Tuesday’s elections — from New York to Virginia — were centered on affordability and the economy.

Trump’s comments echoed sentiments from his predecessor, Joe Biden, whose White House insisted that the Democrat’s political standing would improve if they better communicated his economic accomplishments.

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Officials scour charred site of Kentucky UPS plane crash for victims and answers

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The grim task of finding victims from the firestorm that followed the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, entered a third day Thursday as investigators gather information to determine why the aircraft caught fire and lost an engine on takeoff.

The inferno consumed the enormous plane and spread to nearby businesses, killing at least 12 people, including a child, and leaving little hope of finding survivors in the charred area of the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub.

The plane with three people aboard had been cleared for takeoff Tuesday when a large fire developed in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. But determining why it caught fire and the engine fell off could take investigators more than a year.

The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman said. The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder have since been recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, he said.

The crash and explosion had a devastating ripple effect, striking and causing smaller blasts at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and hitting an auto salvage yard. The child who was killed was with a parent at the salvage yard, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.

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Judge orders improvements at a Chicago-area immigration facility after claims of inhumane conditions

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered authorities to improve a Chicago-area immigration facility after a group of detainees sued, alleging they were being kept in “inhumane” conditions.

The order will be in effect for 14 days. It requires officials to provide detainees at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview with a clean bedding mat and sufficient space to sleep, soap, towels, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, menstrual products and prescribed medications.

“People shouldn’t be sleeping next to overflowing toilets,” U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said. “They should not be sleeping on top of each other.”

The temporary restraining order says the holding rooms at the facility must be cleaned twice a day. Detainees must be allowed to shower at least every other day and should have three full meals and bottled water upon request.

Advocates have raised concerns about Broadview’s conditions for months, and the facility has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress. Lawyers and relatives of people held there have called it a de facto detention center, and tense demonstrations have been held there for several weeks.

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Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after street groping incident

MEXICO CITY (AP) — What should have been a five-minute time-saving walk from Mexico’s National Palace to the Education Ministry for President Claudia Sheinbaum has become a symbol of what Mexican women face every day after a video captured a drunk man groping the country’s first woman president.

On Wednesday, gender violence catapulted to the highest-profile platform, and Sheinbaum used her daily press briefing to say that she had pressed charges against the man.

She also called on states to scrutinize their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults and said Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear, no, women’s personal space must not be violated.”

Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges for all Mexican women. “If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?”

Indeed, if Mexico’s president is not exempt from street harassment, then it’s not difficult to imagine what women with hourslong commutes on public transportation are experiencing daily.

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Israel identifies latest hostage remains returned by Hamas from Gaza as Tanzanian student

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities confirmed Thursday that the remains of a hostage returned the previous day from Gaza are of a Tanzanian agricultural student in Israel who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 in the Hamas-led attack that started the war.

The development was the latest step forward under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains were identified as those of Joshua Loitu Mollel and that his family has been notified.

Mollel, 21, had arrived at kibbutz Nahal Oz only 19 days before the attack, after finishing agricultural college back home and looking to gain experience in Israel he could apply in Tanzania. He is survived by two parents and four siblings in Tanzania.

“Joshua’s return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said in a statement.

There are now six bodies of hostages that remain in Gaza. Militants have released 22 bodies of hostages since the ceasefire began last month. Among the six bodies still in Gaza is that of Sudthisak Rinthalak, agricultural worker from Thailand, the only non-Israeli.

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After battering the Philippines, deadly Typhoon Kalmaegi moves toward Vietnam

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead and more than 100 missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.

The deaths were mostly from drowning in flash floods and 127 people were still missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu. The tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago on Wednesday into the South China Sea.

Authorities in Vietnam, meanwhile, braced Thursday as Kalmaegi approached. The country’s financial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, faces a heightened risk of severe flooding as high tides would coincide with the expected heavy rainfall from the typhoon, forecasters warned.

High tides are expected on the Saigon River, while parts of the city could see up to 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain, which authorities warned could inundate low-lying areas.

In the Philippines, the typhoon’s onslaught affected nearly 2 million people and displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters, the Office of Civil Defense said.