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

Protesting pupils blockade French high schools again, testing a weekslong movement

PARIS (AP) — Protesting pupils blockaded their high schools again Tuesday and adult demonstrators marched in support of the teenagers’ weeks-old nationwide movement demanding more resources for the school system.

At the Hélène Boucher lycée, or high school, in Paris’ 20th district, protesters tipped trash cans and bicycles on their sides to create a makeshift barricade in front of the school.

Like hundreds of others around the country, the school was closed. Authorities began shutting schools last week to take some steam out of the demonstrations after widespread damage to schools and mounting injuries among staff, students and police.

French media reported protests in other cities and towns on Tuesday morning. Flag- and placard-waving demonstrators responded to labor union calls for workers to march in support of the high school movement that is rattling the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

“You say ‘young people are the future’ so listen to them,” read a handwritten placard attached to a metal barrier outside a Paris school.

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Francis Halzen wins Nobel Prize in physics for work on high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and his discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.

“Francis Halzen has led an international team of researchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument. His tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a news release.

Born in Belgium, the 82-year-old scientist is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the U.S. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach him were not immediately successful.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a research facility located at the South Pole in Antarctica, according to its website, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison is its lead institution.

Halzen’s research into capturing neutrinos at the South Pole dates back to the 1980s.

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Trump approves firing squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

The U.S. military has not carried out the death penalty since 1961. The Army secretary will decide a time and place for the execution, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X.

“Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, walked into a medical building where soldiers were getting medical checkups, shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 injured.

He said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims and made almost no effort to defend himself at trial. He told jurors that evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”

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A crowd of students protests Cornell’s response to gang rape complaint

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest the university’s response to allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house, and the school’s main administration building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.

At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the school’s student center, students, faculty members and others wore purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe” — the name by which the woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Other people watched from pathways, windows and a nearby hill.

“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?”

Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should not be inevitable.”

Speakers faulted fraternities, the university trustees and Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, saying he and his administration have prioritized protecting the university’s reputation over students’ safety.

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Much of the world sees tragedy in Gaza. Many Israelis, scarred by Oct. 7, see only a threat

SDEROT, Israel (AP) — One by one, Israelis peered through the tourist-style binoculars at the shattered Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a distance of several football fields away, where buildings tilted in the rubble like broken teeth. The only noticeable movement was dust kicked up by Israel’s military.

The Israelis squinted for a few moments and gestured others over. The lookout is a rare place where they can confront the Palestinian territory firsthand, and some celebrate its devastation.

An Israeli documentary released this year included one onlooker exclaiming, “Wow, destroyed beautifully.” The Associated Press heard similar sentiments there.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251 others, leading to a devastating war and, eventually, a fragile ceasefire.

Three years on, a visit to the communities attacked that day made clear: It’s too soon for many residents to see the Palestinians next door as anything other than a threat.

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Tennessee Republicans consider more execution options after Christa Pike lethal injection fails

Some of Tennessee’s top Republicans said Monday they want to explore alternative ways of executing condemned prisoners after the failed execution of Christa Pike, which relied on a large dose of pentobarbital.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, said Pike’s unsuccessful execution last week “should not be grounds to halt carrying out the death penalty.” Rather, she said, Tennessee needs to reevaluate the way it does executions.

“If it’s lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully,” Blackburn told The Associated Press.

Top legislative leaders have already spoken with Blackburn about potential changes to state execution laws during their 2027 session.

“We want to broaden it, include more methods,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. “What those are as of today, I’m not sure. But I don’t think there’s any method that’s off the table at this point.”

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Exclusive: Soldiers and Gold Star families press Army leadership after deadly Iranian drone strike

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a sunny, cloudless morning on March 1, the day after President Donald Trump started the war against Iran, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan was coordinating critical Army supplies out of Port Shuaiba in Kuwait.

In an instant, a drone crashed through the ceiling and exploded, killing Marzan, who had served in the military for 36 years. The force flung soldiers into the air, fragments of sheet metal and glass shards impaling them. The tin roof was peeled back “like opening up a sardine can,” one soldier recalled.

Six soldiers were killed and dozens were injured in the deadliest known strike on U.S. troops since Operation Epic Fury commenced on Feb. 28.

For many, the attack at Port Shuaiba has receded into memory as the war nears its eighth month. But to those there that day and their families, it showed the cost of a hastily drawn conflict. The planning had apparent flaws, and commanders did not take intelligence reports of the Iranian threat seriously enough, leaving wounded soldiers questioning Army leadership and the military medical system.

In the aftermath, many of the wounded — some with decades of service and combat experience — told The Associated Press that commanders had been warned that the facility, a rectangular building with wooden sides at a working seaport and industrial area south of Kuwait City, was particularly vulnerable to a drone strike.

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Kenya confirms first Ebola case imported from Congo after patient dies in Nairobi

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed the country’s first imported Ebola case from Congo.

Health Minister Aden Duale said a Kenyan citizen who arrived in the country on Saturday from Congo via Uganda had been isolated and treated at Nairobi Hospital. The patient tested positive for the Ebola virus after developing symptoms associated with hemorrhagic fever.

The patient died late Monday while receiving treatment.

Health authorities have placed the country on high alert and are monitoring for possible additional cases.

Duale said 28 contacts, including family members and health workers who cared for the patients, had been identified. Another 23 passengers who traveled on the same flight from Uganda were being traced.

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Rubio begins three-nation NATO tour in Iceland, which is wary of Trump’s Arctic intentions

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has begun a three-nation tour of NATO allies with a stop Tuesday in Iceland, where unease persists about the Trump administration’s Arctic intentions even after a deal was reached to ease the president’s designs on neighboring Greenland.

Rubio called Iceland “a good friend” and offered no hint of tensions with the island that is a NATO member but has no army. Before the Greenland deal was signed last month, Iceland was an occasional feature of Trump’s comments and social media complaints about NATO allies not doing enough to support the U.S.

Rubio, who also will visit Greece and Portugal before returning to Washington on Thursday, has often been called upon to mollify and reassure U.S. partners and allies after undiplomatic comments by Trump, including him referring multiple times to Canada as the 51st state and threatening to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark.

In remarks to reporters Monday before leaving Washington, Rubio gave no indication that his mission was to clean up or clarify the administration’s strategy when it comes to the Arctic, NATO or Europe more broadly. But he did call all three of the countries he will visit “strong allies” that are important for protecting U.S. national interests.

Rubio said on social media that his visit to Iceland was meant to “advance our shared priorities: a secure Arctic, stronger commercial and energy ties, and closer defense cooperation.”

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Bulgarian prime minister says 2 commercial vessels hit by drones in economic zone

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said two commercial vessels were hit Tuesday by drones in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Radev said after a government emergency meeting that the ships were attacked by several drones about 80 miles (128 kilometers) off Bulgaria’s coast.

One of the ships, the Alfa Watan, which flew the flag of Togo, suffered critical structural damage and sank on the spot. There was no immediate information about the fate of the crew, he said.

The second vessel, the Able, which was flying the Palau flag, caught fire after the attack. The entire crew of 18 was evacuated by a Bulgarian ferry. Two of the sailors suffered severe injuries and were flown to a hospital in the port city of Varna, Radev said.

The origin of the drones was not immediately established.