WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has fired about 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees who maintain and clean parks, educate visitors and perform other functions as part of its broad-based effort to downsize government.

The firings, which weren’t publicly announced but were confirmed by Democratic senators and House members, come amid what has been a chaotic rollout of an aggressive program to eliminate thousands of federal jobs plan led by billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency, an outside-government organization designed to slash federal spending. Adding to the confusion, the park service now says it is reinstating about 5,000 seasonal jobs that were initially rescinded last month as part of a spending freeze ordered by President Donald Trump.

Seasonal workers are routinely added during the warm-weather months to serve more than 325 million visitors who descend on the nation’s 428 parks, historic sites and other attractions each year.

Park advocates say the permanent staff cuts will leave hundreds of national parks — including some of the most well-known and most heavily visited sites — understaffed and facing tough decisions about operating hours, public safety and resource protection.

“Fewer staff means shorter visitor center hours, delayed openings and closed campgrounds,″ said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group.

Trash will pile up, restrooms won’t be cleaned, and maintenance problems will grow, she predicted. Guided tours will be cut back or canceled and, in the worst cases, public safety could be at risk.

The Trump administration’s actions “are pushing an already overwhelmed Park Service to its breaking point,” Brengel said. “And the consequences will be felt in our parks for years.”

A spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the park service, declined to comment Monday. A separate email to the park service received no answer.

Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees confirmed the firings as part of a larger list of terminations ordered by the Trump administration.

“There is nothing ‘efficient’ about indiscriminately firing thousands upon thousands of workers in red and blue states whose work is badly needed,” said Sen. Patty Murray. D-Wash., vice chair of the Appropriations panel, who blamed both Trump and Musk.

“Two billionaires who have zero concept of what the federal workforce does are breaking the American government — decimating essential services and leaving all of us worse off,” Murray said.

Among other cuts, 16 of 17 supervisory positions at Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park were eliminated, Brengel said, leaving just one person to hire, train and supervise dozens of seasonal employees expected this summer at the popular park where thousands of visitors marvel at grizzly bears and bison.

At Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, meanwhile, fee collectors and trail maintenance employees were laid off, potentially making trails at the popular park near Washington, D.C., unpassable after heavy rains.

“They’re basically knee-capping the very people who need to train seasonal” employees who work as park rangers, maintenance staff and trailer managers, Brengel said in an interview. “It puts the park in an untenable position. You’re going to hurt tourism.″

The firings may force small parks to close visitor centers and other facilities, while larger parks will have to function without cultural resources workers who help visitors interpret the park, fee collectors and even wastewater treatment operators, she said.

Stacy Ramsey, a ranger at the Buffalo National River in Arkansas, wrote on Facebook that she was fired on Friday. She had been a probationary employee in the first year of a four-year position funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the climate law signed by former President Joe Biden.

“Did those who made the decision know or care that the main objective of my position is to provide preventive search and rescue education, to keep park visitors safe?” she asked in a widely shared Facebook post.

Brian Gibbs, who had been an environmental educator at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, was heartbroken after losing what he called his “dream job” on Friday.

“I am the defender of your public lands and waters,” Gibbs wrote on Facebook in another widely shared post. “I am the motivation to make it up the hill…the Band-Aid for a skinned knee” and “the lesson that showed your children that we live in a world of gifts — not commodities. That gratitude and reciprocity are the doorway to true abundance, not power, money or fear.”

A freeze on spending under a five-year-old law signed by Trump also jeopardizes national parks, Brengel and other advocates said. The Great American Outdoors Act, passed with bipartisan support in 2020 and signed by Trump, authorizes $6.5 billion over five years to maintain and improve national parks.

The program is crucial to whittling down a massive maintenance backlog at the parks and is frequently hailed as a success story by lawmakers from both parties. The freeze could slow road and bridge improvements at Yellowstone National Park, which is in the midst of a $216 million project to improve safety, access and experience on park roads. The project is mostly funded by the Great American Outdoors Act.

Democratic senators denounced the job cuts, saying in a letter before the mass firings were imposed that if a significant number of National Park Service workers take an early retirement package offered by Trump or are terminated from their positions, “park staffing will be in chaos. Not only does this threaten the full suite of visitor services, but could close entire parks altogether,″ the senators wrote.

The letter was led by Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Angus King of Maine and signed by 20 other senators.

Gutting staff at national park units “will devastate local ‘gateway’ communities where parks generate significant economic activity – from hotels to restaurants to stores to outfitters,″ the senators wrote. Park visitors supported an estimated 415,000 jobs and $55.6 billion in total economic activity in 2023, they said.

Ramsey wrote on Facebook that she assisted with at least 20 search-and-rescues on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas over the past five years. She said she worked as a river ranger, upper district fee collector, interpreter and even helped out with concessions and maintenance during her time at the park.

The Buffalo, established as the first national river in the U.S. by Congress in 1972, flows freely through the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas for 135 miles of quiet pools, majestic bluffs and churning rapids, it is one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the lower 48 states.

Ramsey stayed in the river ranger job despite opportunities for more permanent positions, she said, “because I loved looking out for the safety of people on the river.”

“I truly loved my job,” she wrote. “The river is home to me.”

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Matthew Daly, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule.

But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.

“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy said, adding that pesticides, food additives, microplastics, antidepressants and the electromagnetic waves emitted by cellphones and microwaves also would be studied.

Kennedy’s remarks, which circulated on social media, were delivered during a welcome ceremony for the new health secretary at the agency’s headquarters in Washington as a measles outbreak among mostly unvaccinated people raged in West Texas. The event was held after a weekend of mass firings of thousands of HHS employees. More dismissals are expected.

In his comments Tuesday, Kennedy promised that a new “Make America Healthy Again” commission would investigate vaccines, pesticides and antidepressants to see if they have contributed to a rise in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and obesity that have plagued the American public. The commission was formed last week in an executive order by Donald Trump immediately after Kennedy was sworn in as the president’s new health secretary.

That directive said the commission will be made up of cabinet members and other officials from the administration and will develop a strategy around children’s health within the next six months. Kennedy said it will investigate issues, including childhood vaccinations, that “were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”

His call to examine the vaccination schedule raises questions about his commitment to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who harbored deep misgivings over the health secretary’s anti-vaccine advocacy. Cassidy ultimately voted to send Kennedy’s nomination to the Senate floor after he said Kennedy gave him assurances that he would not alter the federal vaccine schedule.

“On this topic, the science is good, the science is credible,” Cassidy said during a Senate floor speech earlier this month explaining his vote. “Vaccines save lives. They are safe.”

Rigorous studies of thousands of people followed by decades of real-world use have proven that the vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration for both children and adults safely and effectively prevent diseases.

Cassidy said during his Senate speech last month that Kennedy had made a number of promises that stemmed from “intense conversations” to garner his support. Specifically, Cassidy said Kennedy would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes.”

Those recommendations are what pediatricians around the country use to decide the safest and most effective ages at which to offer vaccinations to children. The committee meets every year to review the latest data on both old and new vaccines to ensure there are no red flags for safety or other issues before publishing its annual schedule.

When contacted about Kennedy’s remarks, Cassidy’s office did not comment.

Kennedy gained a loyal following for his nonprofit by raising objections to COVID-19 protocols and doubts around the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite his work, Kennedy repeatedly told senators that he was not “anti-vaccine” during his confirmation hearings.

Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who sits on a federal vaccine panel, didn’t believe him.

“I think he will do everything he can to make vaccines less available and less affordable because he’s an anti-vaccine activist,” Offit, who developed the rotavirus vaccine that is on the CDC’s childhood immunization schedule, said last week.

Kennedy promised staffers on Tuesday during his speech that he would keep an open mind in his new job and asked them to return the favor.

“A lot of times when I read these articles characterizing myself, I think I wouldn’t want to work for that guy, either,” Kennedy said, eliciting some laughs from the crowd. “Let’s start a relationship by letting go of any preconceived perceptions you may have of me.”

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Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

— 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.

Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press

Nova Scotia provincial politicians are getting a pay raise for the first time in more than a decade. The base salaries for MLAs are being increased to $115,000 from $89,234, the first increase since 2013. 

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for Karen Read on Tuesday asked a federal judge to prevent her retrial on two charges related to the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend.

Read, who is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022, faces a second trial in April on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime.

Her attorneys argue she was framed to protect other law enforcement officers involved in O’Keefe’s death. After a mistrial in June, they have tried to block a second trial on some of the charges based on jurors who later indicated they were deadlocked only on the manslaughter count.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week cleared the way for a new trial on all three charges. But Read’s attorneys filed a motion in federal court Tuesday arguing that a retrial will violate her constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

A federal judge gave the state until Feb. 26 to respond and scheduled a hearing for March 5.

The Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Russia and the U.S. agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, the two countries’ top diplomats said after talks that reflected an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

In an interview with The Associated Press after the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks — which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. officials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done.

Lavrov echoed Rubio’s remarks and told reporters that “the conversation was very useful.”

“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” he said.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff joined Rubio at the table, along with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to the kingdom scheduled for Wednesday.

European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

Improving Russian-US relations

Ties between Russia and the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level in decades in recent years — a rift that has been widening ever since Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and only worsened after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

The U.S., along with European nations, imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia in an effort to damage its economy. And embassies in Washington and Moscow have been hit hard by expulsions of large numbers of diplomats, as well as other restrictions.

Rubio said Tuesday that ending the war in Ukraine could “unlock the door” for “incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and, frankly, economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term.”

His comments were further evidence of the remarkable U.S. reversal on Russia after years in which Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, led international efforts to isolate Moscow.

Tuesday’s meeting was meant to pave the way for a summit between Trump and Putin. After the talks ended, Ushakov and Waltz said no date has been set yet for that summit. Ushakov told Russian television that a meeting was “unlikely” to take place next week, while Waltz said he thought it could be arranged in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lavrov mentioned the same three goals as Rubio and said that Washington and Moscow agreed to appoint representatives to carry out “regular consultations” on Ukraine.

“I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position” the Russian foreign minister said.

Witkoff said the meeting was “positive, upbeat, constructive. Everybody was there to get to the right outcome.”

The meeting marked the most extensive contact between the two countries since Moscow’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India nearly two years ago, but tensions remained high.

Concerns from allies they are being sidelined

The recent U.S. diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Ukraine and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won’t be favorable to them.

Kyiv’s absence at Tuesday’s talks rankled many Ukrainians, and France called an emergency meeting of European Union countries and the U.K. on Monday to discuss the war. Kyiv’s participation in such talks was a bedrock of U.S. policy under Biden.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the talks were aimed at determining how serious the Russians are about achieving peace and whether detailed negotiations can start.

Rubio said Tuesday that there would be “engagement and consultation with Ukraine, with our partners in Europe and others. But ultimately, the Russian side will be indispensable to this effort.”

Rubio also said ending the conflict would require concessions from all sides and that Washington “is not going to predetermine” what those concessions would be.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia — two key items on Putin’s wish list.

Waltz said “the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory, and there’s going to be a discussion of security guarantees.”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he spoke by phone to Trump and Zelenskyy following Monday’s European meeting.

“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine,” Macron wrote on social media platform X. “To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” he said and vowed to “work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians.”

Saudi Arabia’s role

The meeting at the Diriyah Palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh also highlighted de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to be a major diplomatic player, burnishing a reputation severely tarnished by the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi state media described the talks as happening at the prince’s direction. Like the neighboring United Arab Emirates, the prince has maintained close relations to Russia throughout its war on Ukraine, both through the OPEC+ oil cartel and diplomatically as well.

Saudi Arabia has also helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Zelenskyy for an Arab League summit in 2023.

But Zelenskyy postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for this week, suggesting that he wanted to avoid his visit being linked to the talks since Ukrainian officials weren’t invited. His visit was rescheduled for March 10.

War continues

Meanwhile, Russia continued to pummel Ukraine with drones, according to Kyiv’s military. The Ukrainian air force said Russian troops launched a barrage of 176 drones at Ukraine overnight, most of which were destroyed or disabled by jamming.

One Russian drone struck a residential building in Dolynska in the Kirovohrad region, wounding a mother and her two children and prompting an evacuation of 38 apartments, the regional administration reported. Four more residential buildings were damaged by drone debris in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine, according to local officials.

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Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press writers Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

New details are emerging in the crash at Toronto Pearson airport, including an update on the injured passengers and a video showing the Delta Air Lines plane flip over on the tarmac.

Delta Air Lines confirmed that 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals. As of Tuesday morning, 19 have been released. 

“Our most pressing priority remains taking care of all customers and Endeavor crew members who were involved,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “We’ll do everything we can to support them and their families in the days ahead, and I know the hearts, thoughts and prayers of the entire Delta community are with them. We are grateful for all the first responders and medical teams who have been caring for them.”

Toronto Pearson said the incident happened upon landing and involved a Delta Air Lines plane arriving from Minneapolis just after 2 p.m. on Monday.

Ornge says they transported one pediatric patient to Sick Kids, a male patient in his 60s to St. Michael’s Hospital, and a third patient to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. All three suffered critical injuries in the crash but are expected to survive.

Twenty-two of the 78 passengers on board the flight were Canadian.

Images and videos posted on social media show a plane flipped over on the tarmac and passengers fleeing the jet as emergency crews respond to the scene.

An audio recording from the tower at Pearson Airport shows Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 was cleared to land at about 2:10 p.m. local time on Monday. The tower warns the pilots of a possible air flow bump in the glide path as the plane comes into land because of a preceding aircraft in front of it.

Fourth major aviation accident in three weeks

An aviation expert with more than 30,000 flight hours told The Canadian Press that it was “very rare” for an aircraft to end upside down in a crash.

J. Joseph, a 29-year veteran aviator from the United States Marine Corp., says while it’s too early to conclude what happened, conditions were “quite windy” at the time of the crash. He says high winds, especially crosswinds that blow perpendicular to the plane, can be challenging for pilots to navigate a landing.

Video posted to social media showed the aftermath of the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR overturn, the fuselage seemingly intact, and firefighters dousing what was left of the fire as passengers climbed out and walked across the tarmac.

“We are very grateful there was no loss of life and relatively minor injuries,” Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told reporters. Flint said there may be delays for several days due to the plane crash.

The crash marks North America’s fourth major aviation accident within the past three weeks.

On Jan. 29, a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., resulting in 67 fatalities. Two days later, on Jan. 31, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing all six onboard and one person on the ground. Most recently, on Feb. 6, a plane crash in Alaska claimed the lives of 10 people.

The last major crash at Toronto Pearson was on Aug. 2, 2005, when an Airbus A340 landing from Paris skidded off the runway and burst into flames amid stormy weather. All 309 passengers and crew aboard Air France Flight 358 survived.

Councillors should be demanding answers and public accountability.

The post The Bloomfield School fire is a public policy failure; what’s going to burn down next? appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

NEW YORK (AP) — A collection of essays by the late David McCullough, including some never published before, will be released this fall.

“History Matters” is scheduled for Sept. 16, Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday. McCullough’s daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and longtime researcher Michael Hill co-edited the book. Fellow historian Jon Meacham contributed a foreword.

“It has been an honor to work with my father’s writings in the years since his death,” Lawson said in a statement. “My mother, Rosalee, always said that his work was built to last, and it has been reassuring to see how right she was. What comes through most clearly in this collection are the themes of his optimism, integrity, careful study, independence, creativity, hard work, and love of country.”

McCullough, who died in 2022 at age 89, was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and among the beloved and influential historians of his time. His books include biographies of President Harry Truman and President John Adams, “1776″ and an acclaimed work on the Brooklyn Bridge, “The Great Bridge.”

“Over the course of his distinguished storytelling career, David McCullough emphatically showed the public why history matters,” Simon & Schuster’s announcement reads in part.

“Now, at a time of self-reflection in America following an election that has left the country divided, his essays explore core American values to which we all subscribe, regardless of which region we live in, which political party we identify with, or how our backgrounds differ — values like optimism, determination, and character. The book also shares McCullough’s advice about writing along with his own early influences and inspirations.”

Hillel Italie, The Associated Press

Around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, officers were called to a residence on Birch Bark Rd. in Millbrook, where they found a 31-year-old man suffering from multiple injuries. After a brief investigation, it was determined that he had been stabbed. The victim was taken from the scene and transported to the hospital for treatment.

Police located a suspect in another room in the residence and took him into custody.

29-year-old Brenton Joseph Arsenault now faces charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon.

Arsenault remains in police custody and is scheduled for a court hearing later Tuesday.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services. But the number of civilians killed has also soared, along with fears that these tools are contributing to the deaths of innocent people.

Militaries have for years hired private companies to build custom autonomous weapons. However, Israel’s recent wars mark a leading instance in which commercial AI models made in the United States have been used in active warfare, despite concerns that they were not originally developed to help decide who lives and who dies.

The Israeli military uses AI to sift through vast troves of intelligence, intercepted communications and surveillance to find suspicious speech or behavior and learn the movements of its enemies. After a surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, its use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed, an Associated Press investigation found.

The investigation also revealed new details of how AI systems select targets and ways they can go wrong, including faulty data or flawed algorithms. It was based on internal documents, data and exclusive interviews with current and former Israeli officials and company employees.

Israel’s goal after the attack that killed about 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages was to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a “game changer” in yielding targets more swiftly. Since the war started, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon.

“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.”

Israel’s Use of AI and Cloud Computing Soared During War

Among U.S. tech firms, Microsoft has had an especially close relationship with the Israeli military spanning decades.

That relationship, alongside those with other tech companies, stepped up after the Hamas attack. Israel’s war response strained its own servers and increased its reliance on outside, third-party vendors, according to a presentation last year by Col. Racheli Dembinsky, the military’s top information technology officer. As she described how AI had provided Israel “very significant operational effectiveness” in Gaza, the logos of Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services appeared on a large screen behind her.

The Israeli military’s usage of Microsoft and OpenAI artificial intelligence spiked last March to nearly 200 times higher than before the week leading up to the Oct. 7 attack, the AP found in reviewing internal company information. The amount of data it stored on Microsoft servers doubled between that time and July 2024 to more than 13.6 petabytes — roughly 350 times the digital memory needed to store every book in the Library of Congress. Usage of Microsoft’s huge banks of computer servers by the military also rose by almost two-thirds in the first two months of the war alone.

Microsoft declined to provide any comment for this story and did not respond to a detailed list of written questions about the cloud and AI services it provides to the Israeli military.

In an expansive statement on its website, the company says “respecting human rights is a core value of Microsoft″ and it is committed “to champion the positive role of technology across the globe.” In its 40-page Responsible AI Transparency Report for 2024, Microsoft pledges to “map, measure, and manage generative AI risks throughout the development cycle to reduce the risk of harm,” and does not mention its lucrative military contracts.

Advanced AI models are provided through OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, where they are purchased by the Israeli military, the documents and data show. Microsoft has been OpenAI’s largest investor.

OpenAI said it does not have a partnership with Israel’s military, and its usage policies say its customers should not use its products to develop weapons, destroy property or harm people. About a year ago, however, OpenAI changed its terms of use from barring military use to allowing for “national security use cases that align with our mission.”

The Israeli military declined to answer detailed written questions from The AP about its use of commercial AI products from American tech companies, but said its analysts use AI-enabled systems to help identify targets and independently examine them together with high-ranking officers to meet international law, weighing the military advantage against the collateral damage.

“These AI tools make the intelligence process more accurate and more effective,” said an Israeli military statement to the AP. “⁠They make more targets faster, but not at the expense of accuracy, and many times in this war they’ve been able to minimize civilian casualties.”

Other U.S. Tech Firms Also Work With Israel’s Military

Google and Amazon provide cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli military under “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021, when Israel first tested out its in-house AI-powered targeting systems. The IDF has used Cisco and Dell server farms or data centers. Red Hat, an independent IBM subsidiary, also has provided cloud computing technologies to the Israeli military, while Palantir Technologies, a Microsoft partner in U.S. defense contracts, has a “strategic partnership” providing AI systems to help Israel’s war efforts.

After OpenAI changed its terms of use last year to allow for national security purposes, Google followed suit earlier this month with a similar change to its public ethics policy to remove language saying it wouldn’t use its AI for weapons and surveillance.

Google said it is committed to responsibly developing and deploying AI “that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

What Is Commercial AI Used For?

The Israel Defense Forces uses Microsoft Azure to compile information gathered through mass surveillance, which it transcribes and translates, including phone calls, texts and audio messages, according to an Israeli intelligence officer who works with the systems. That data can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house targeting systems and vice versa.

He said he relies on Azure to quickly search for terms and patterns within massive text troves, such as finding conversations between two people within a 50-page document. Azure also can find people giving directions to one another in the text, which can then be cross-referenced with the military’s own AI systems to pinpoint locations.

The Microsoft data AP reviewed shows that since the Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military has made heavy use of transcription and translation tools and OpenAI models, although it does not detail which. Typically, AI models that transcribe and translate perform best in English. OpenAI has acknowledged that its popular AI-powered translation model Whisper, which can transcribe and translate into multiple languages including Arabic, can   make up text that no one said, including adding racial commentary and violent rhetoric.

Are Israel’s AI Systems Reliable?

Errors can happen for many reasons involving AI, said Israeli military officers who have worked with the targeting systems and other tech experts. Intercepted phone calls tied to a person’s profile include the time the person called and the names and numbers of those on the call. But it takes an extra step to listen to and verify the original audio, or to see a translated transcript.

The Israeli military says a person who knows Arabic is supposed to check translations. Still, one intelligence officer said he had seen targeting mistakes that relied on incorrect machine translations from Arabic to Hebrew.

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Biesecker reported from Washington and Burke from San Francisco. AP reporters Abby Sewell and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Julia Frankel and Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem, Dake Kang in Beijing and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/

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The Associated Press receives financial assistance from the Omidyar Network to support coverage of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. 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.

Sam Mednick, Garance Burke, And Michael Biesecker, The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A painting by street artist Banksy with an environmental message and an estimate of up to 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) is going up for auction, with some of the proceeds helping victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

Sotheby’s auction house said Tuesday that “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is being sold in London next month from the collection of Mark Hoppus, bassist with California skate-punk band Blink-182, who sees Banksy as a kindred spirit.

Hoppus said he was drawn to the subversion, humor and intelligence of Banksy’s work and the similarities between “skateboarding, punk rock and art.”

“I feel like street art and punk rock have the same core,” Hoppus said. “The left-out and overlooked making their own reality. … Just go make art. It’s the same spirit. And I’ve loved art and especially street art ever since realizing that.”

“Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is part of a 2005 series of works in which Banksy put a satirical spin on famous paintings — withering Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and smashing the diner window in Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” The artist said his aim was to show that “the real damage done to our environment is not done by graffiti writers and drunken teenagers, but by big business.”

The work going under the hammer is based on “The Singing Butler,” a painting by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano showing a couple in evening dress dancing on a beach as servants proffer sheltering umbrellas. Banksy has added a sinking oil liner and two figures lugging a barrel of toxic waste.

“We loved this painting since the moment we saw it,” said Hoppus, who bought the artwork with his wife Skye in 2011. He said the painting – “unmistakably Banksy, but different” – has hung in the family’s homes in London and LA ever since.

Hoppus said he would use the proceeds of the sale to buy work by upcoming artists. Some will go to the California Fire Foundation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Cedars Sinai Hematology Oncology Research,

Banksy, who has never confirmed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two male police officers kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.”

Several of his works have sold for multiple millions at auction. The record is almost 18.6 million pounds ($25.4 million at the time) paid at Sotheby’s in October 2021 for “Love is in the Bin” – an image of a girl with a balloon that partially self-destructed during an auction three years earlier thanks to a shredder hidden in the frame.

The painting is on display at Sotheby’s in New York until Thursday and in London Feb. 26-March 4.

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

The wind warning that has been in effect for much of the weekend continues today.

Environment Canada says some areas in the region could experience wind gusts as high as 90 km/h through the morning, with the wind expected to subside later in the afternoon.

As for the weekend weather, cleanup efforts are ongoing after the latest winter storm hit the area on Sunday.

95-7 Weather Specialist Allister Aalders says the region saw a little bit of everything from this latest storm.

“It started out with snow and ice pellets, about 2-10 cm depending on where you were in the province,” said Aalders. “That was followed up by 7 hours of freezing rain.”

Aalders says temperatures then rose, and the area saw about 4 hours of rain, followed by a drop in temperature, which has created ice across the municipality.

While all schools with HRCE were open on Tuesday,
All schools in Tri County RCE, South Shore RCE, Chignecto Central RCE schools in Colchester County, Cumberland County, Pictou County, and the Municipality of East Hants, all schools in the Annapolis Valley and Strait RCE were closed for the day.

HRM enforced a winter parking ban on both Sunday and Monday mornings to assist crews in removing ice and snow from area streets.
Nova Scotia Power is reporting scattered power outages across the province this morning, with the majority of interruptions occurring in the Minas Basin area.

Richmond County council wants provincial measures recently introduced for victims of the 2023 wildfires to extend across Nova Scotia to assist people like a local man who recently lost his home to a fire.

Halifax-based landlord Killam Apartment REIT has released its 2024 year-end financial results. The company reported its largest net operating income increase for its Halifax apartments in the last five years.

Victoria County's chief administrative officer says the new treatment plant will handle existing residential and commercial properties in the northern Cape Breton community and it's already attracting interest from other developers.

Areas north and southwest of Toronto are bracing for more wintery conditions.

Environment Canada has issued an extreme cold warning for communities in the peninsula southwest of Toronto, with wind chills expected to be around minus 30.

North of the Ontario capital, a snow squall warning has been issued, with communities seeing anywhere from 15 to 70 centimetres of snow.

In Nova Scotia, Environment Canada has issued wind warnings, with much of the province expected to see westerly winds gusting around 90 kilometres an hour.

On the Prairies, extreme cold warnings have been issued for all of Saskatchewan, as well as much of Alberta and Manitoba.

Wind chills around minus 40 are expected throughout the three provinces, with Environment Canada saying things could get even colder in Saskatchewan and Manitoba at times.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government is presenting its post-election budget today amid economic uncertainty created by tariff threats from United States President Donald Trump.

The budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year comes after Premier Tim Houston’s party won an expanded majority on Nov. 26, campaigning on promises to cut taxes and limit electricity rate hikes.

But that was before Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods in March — a move that will likely lead to Canadian retaliatory tariffs — and the budget is being watched to see how the province will respond.

Nearly 70 per cent of Nova Scotia’s exports from January to September 2024 went to the United States, leaving the province’s economy vulnerable to a trade war.

The premier’s message has shifted recently to calling for a “resource-focused” economy, with the Tories pledging to work harder to develop hydrogen, offshore wind, and critical minerals.

As well, the province’s steady population growth in recent years, which has helped fill government coffers, has started to slow.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Ontario’s main party leaders are heading back out on the campaign trail today after squaring off in their second and final debate before election day.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is set to stop in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., this morning for an announcement, before heading to Sudbury, Ont.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles is scheduled to make a morning announcement in Toronto and then hold a rally in the city this evening.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is set to make an announcement this morning in Hamilton before heading back to her home turf of Mississauga.

Meanwhile, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is set to make stops in Toronto and Flesherton, Ont.

The snap vote is scheduled for Feb. 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — There is no magic solution to homelessness, Montreal’s public consultation office heard Monday as it began a series of hearings on how the city can more successfully integrate services for vulnerable people into neighbourhoods.

Montreal announced the public consultations last year, as city officials grappled with the complex realities of rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness, and public opposition toward services such as shelters and supervised injection sites.

On Monday, the consultation committee heard from the first group of more than 50 people and organizations registered to speak, including from those who have experienced homelessness and had poignant stories to tell. However, it also heard testimony from witnesses to crime, drug use, disruptive behaviours and even death in areas that became gathering places for homeless people.

“These is no magic or universal solution to issues of homelessness or social cohabitation,” said Jeanne Archambault, who spoke on behalf of Action Autonomie, a group that defends the rights of people who use mental health services. “Just as medication isn’t the only response to mental health, housing isn’t the only solution to homelessness.”

At the hearings in a community centre in the Village district, she said authorities should work directly with homeless populations to create “diversified and long-lasting” solutions, including resources that are adapted to couples, people with pets, people who are intoxicated and those whose behaviour might be considered disruptive.

Archambault and her colleague, Diane Dupuis, were two of several presenters who spoke out against increasing the presence of police or security guards around places such as homeless shelters. Police and security guards, they said, make some unhoused people feel unsafe and contribute to the mistaken belief that they’re dangerous.

Dupuis noted the public needs to learn to show openness.

“We’re aware that poverty disturbs people, and nobody likes to see its effects, even though we rub shoulders with it every day in public spaces,” she said, noting that the issues of mental health and homelessness can mean people exhibit behaviours that make those around them feel uncomfortable “without necessarily being dangerous.”

Several people shared experiences with homelessness, including a woman who described losing her job and then her apartment and finally, at age 50, ending up in a shelter with only a backpack. “I had lost everything,” said Chantal Rail. “Everything I worked so hard for, for so many years, ended up at the city pound and was destroyed. Photos, clothes, books, personal papers … all gone.”

Rail, who now helps to educate others on female homelessness, said her story proves that not everyone who is homeless struggles with drugs and alcohol, and that anyone can become homeless.

A dance teacher and former homeowner, Julie Rivest, described falling behind on mortgage payments after a serious of misfortunes including her partner’s death and an employer who paid her late. Eventually, she lost the home and also a car on which she had only four payments left. She suggested there needs to be more help available for people who are struggling, so they don’t become homeless in the first place.

“It’s like I’m obligated to be totally finished, in bad mental health before I can get help,” said Rivest, adding that she has struggled to access benefits because of her self-employed status.

The consultation also heard from two people representing residents of the city’s Chinatown neighbourhood, who described issues of crime, drug use and disorder that they tied to the opening of an emergency homeless shelter. Last year, residents also discovered the body of a woman who had died, they said.

One speaker, Phil Chu, said he recently decided to move his family out of the city. “At one point, you don’t know what to say to your children,” he said. “My daughter is six years old now, and someone injecting themselves at the street corner, someone defecating outside your door … and it’s not something that happened once in a while, it was almost every day.”

Glenn Castanheira, the head of an association representing downtown businesses, said commerces have always served as unofficial shelters, first responders and food banks, and were often happy to help. However, he said, the rising number of unhoused people with increasingly complex conditions has created an “intolerable” situation, resulting in physical and verbal abuse of workers and lost business.

“Downtown has always had homelessness in its backyard, but we feel like the backyard is full, or at least starting to overflow,” he said.

Both Castanheira and the Chinatown residents noted that the effects of homelessness are disproportionately borne by their downtown neighbourhoods, and called for resources such as shelters and supportive housing to be more equally distributed around the city.

Yvan Michaud, of the Chinatown residents group, said no new homeless resource should open without formal consultations with surrounding residents; although upon questioning by the commissioners, he noted that there was a strong possibility that residents would not grant approval if consultations were held.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada is expected to release its January consumer price index report this morning.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the annual inflation rate for January to tick up to 1.9 per cent, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

Inflation has moderated significantly from recent highs, stabilizing around the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target.

StatCan reported last month that Canada’s inflation rate fell to 1.8 per cent in December, thanks in large part to the federal government’s temporary two-month tax break.

The agency noted that without the tax break, which came to an end this past weekend, the annual inflation rate for December would have risen to 2.3 per cent.

Late last month, the Bank of Canada delivered its sixth straight interest rate cut, reducing its policy rate by a quarter-percentage point to three per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

The Canadian Press

OVER THE SCARBOROUGH SHOAL, South China Sea (AP) — A Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet (3 meters) of a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday in a disputed area of the the South China Sea, as the Filipino pilot warned by radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.”

The helicopter was attempting to force a Cessna Caravan turbo-prop plane belonging to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources out of what China claims is its airspace over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines.

An Associated Press journalist and other invited foreign media representatives on the plane witnessed the tense 30-minute standoff as the Philippine plane pressed on with its low-altitude patrol around Scarborough with the Chinese navy helicopter hovering close above it or flying to its left in cloudy weather.

“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and endangering the lives of our crew and passengers,” the Philippine pilot told the Chinese navy helicopter by radio at one point. “Keep away and distance your aircraft from us, you are violating the safety standard set by FAA and ICAO.”

The pilot was referring to the standard distance between aircraft required by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disasters.

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries said in a statement that they remain “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China.”

They referred to the Philippine name for the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Philippines’ western coast.

Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, but in past encounters they have steadfastly asserted China’s sovereign rights over the Scarborough and surrounding waters and warned that its forces would protect the country’s territorial interests at all costs.

Tuesday’s encounter, which is expected to be protested by the Philippine government, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long territorial standoff in one of the world’s busiest trade routes, which involves China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan .

Confrontations on the high seas have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guards in the last two years at Scarborough, a traditional fishing area, and the Second Thomas Shoal, where a grounded Philippine navy ship has served as a territorial outpost since 1999 but has since been closely watched by Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships.

China deployed its coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships around Scarborough after a tense standoff with Philippine ships in 2012.

The following year, the Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration. A 2016 decision by a United Nations-backed arbitration panel invalidated China’s expansive claim in the South China Sea based on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China, a signatory to the UNCLOS like the Philippines, refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected its outcome and continues to defy it.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.

Joeal Calupitan, The Associated Press

The union that represents firefighters in the Halifax area is asking the municipality to cover the cost of cancer screenings.

Last week, Brendan Meagher, President of the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters Association, spoke to the HRM budget committee during discussions about the Halifax fire budget.

Meagher stated that members have been denied preventative cancer screenings at private clinics through the provincial system and are now turning to the municipality for support.

He mentioned that while the province is aware of the coverage gap, he would like to see HRM step in for now, suggesting that the coverage could cost around $200,000 per year in total.

Meagher also highlighted that the rates at which firefighters experience cancer, compared to the general population, are significantly higher.

The union’s request is not part of the proposed Halifax fire budget, so a councillor will need to raise the issue during budget discussions, which will continue until early April.

DEIR MIMAS, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli forces withdrew from border villages in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, under a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

Lebanese soldiers moved into the areas from where the Israeli troops pulled out and began clearing roadblocks set up by Israeli forces and checking for unexploded ordnance. They blocked the main road leading to the villages, preventing anyone from entering while the military was looking for any explosives left behind.

Most of the villages waited by the roadside for permission to go and check on their homes but some pushed aside the roadblocks to march in. Many of their houses were demolished during the more than year-long conflict or in the two months after November’s ceasefire agreement when Israeli forces were still occupying the area.

The Israeli troops, however, have remained in five strategic overlook points inside Lebanon — a sore point with Lebanese officials and the militant Hezbollah group, who have maintained that Israel is required to make a full withdrawal by Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli army “will stay in a buffer zone in Lebanon in five control posts” to guard against any ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. He also said the army had erected new posts on the Israeli side of the border and sent reinforcements there.

“We are determined to provide full security to every northern community,” Katz said.

For the first time since October 2023, hundreds of villagers were gathered near the Lebanese villages of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila on Tuesday morning as an Israeli drone flew overhead as they waited.

Atef Arabi, who had been waiting with his wife and two daughters before sunrise, was eager to see what’s left of his home in Kfar Kila.

“I am very happy I am going back even if I find my home destroyed,” said the 36-year-old car mechanic. “If I find my house destroyed I will rebuild it.”

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war last September.

More than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced at the height of the conflict. Some 100,000 of them have not been able to return home.

Hussein Fares left Kfar Kila in October 2023 for the southern city of Nabatiyeh. When the fighting intensified in September he moved with his family to the city of Sidon where they were given a room in a school housing displaced people.

Kfar Kila saw intense fighting and Israeli troops later detonated many of its homes.

“I have been waiting for a year and the half to return,” said Fares who has a pickup truck and works as a laborer. He said he understands that the reconstruction process will take time.

“I have been counting the seconds for this day,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

OTTAWA — Google denies abusing its market power in a written response to the Competition Bureau’s lawsuit over the tech giant’s advertising practices in Canada.

In court documents filed Friday, Google and its Canadian arm argued that the company does not have a “substantial degree of market power.”

The Competition Bureau is suing Google over alleged anticompetitive conduct in its online advertising business. It wants Google to sell two of its services and pay a penalty.

The bureau alleges that Google has abused its dominant position in the web advertising market, discouraging competition, inhibiting innovation, inflating advertising costs and reducing publisher revenues.

In its response, Google denies engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct.

The company accuses the bureau and the Competition Bureau of violating its constitutional rights.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.

The Canadian Press

The Halifax Mooseheads fell 3-1 to the Moncton Wildcats on Monday afternoon at the Scotiabank Centre, the second 3-1 loss the Herd faced against Moncton over the long weekend.

The Mooseheads scored the lone goal of the first period. After a massive save from Jacob Steinman, Liam Kilfoil powered up the ice before finding Shawn Carrier who ripped a shot from the left-wing face-off circle past Rudy Guimond 13:58 into the period.

Moncton returned fire in the second, tying up the game at the 14:07 mark as Vincent Collard tapped Juraj Pekarcik’s shot past Jakob Steinman on the powerplay. Both teams lost a player for the rest of the game as Mooseheads rookie Danny Walters and Wildcats Maxime Côté dropped the gloves and were both handed a game misconduct 7:11 into the period.

The Wildcats continued pressure in the third, Dylan Gill firing the go-ahead goal through traffic and into the Mooseheads net for Moncton’s first lead of the game with just two minutes remaining in the game. Markus Vidicek sent an insurance marker into an empty Mooseheads net to secure victory for the Wildcats.

With the loss the Herd fall to 17-29-7 while the Wildcats improve to 41-9-2.

Jakob Steinman earned first star for Halifax, making 26 saves in the loss. Second star went to Mooseheads captain Brady Schultz, and third star was awarded to Moncton defenceman Dyllan Gill who scored the game winner for the Wildcats.

The Herd will be back in action on Friday, Feb 21st as the welcome the Charlottetown Islanders to the Scotiabank Centre. Puck drop is 7 p.m., and you can catch all the action here on 95.7 NewsRadio.

Nova Scotians are grabbing their shovels and salt buckets for the second time in the last week after snow, ice pellets and freezing rain peppered much of the province on Sunday.

Emergency crews are responding to a plane crash at Toronto Pearson Airport, Peel Regional Police confirm.

Toronto Pearson said they are aware of an incident upon landing involving a Delta Airlines plane arriving from Minneapolis. The airport said all passengers and crew are accounted for.

Peel Paramedic Services say at least eight people are injured following an incident with a plane. There were reportedly close to 80 people on board.

Data from Flightradar24 shows an Ornge Air ambulance helicopter landing at the airport.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

At least 100 Paladin employees' applications to become permanent residents of Canada are now in jeopardy.

The post Paladin Security’s paperwork screwup dashes hopes for hundreds of temporary foreign workers appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Acadia University says the cost to fix its aging pool in Wolfville, N.S., is roughly twice what it thought a week ago and would require shutting the pool down for two years to complete repairs.

Coun. Becky Kent called out Fillmore's absence, saying, "let’s make a deliberate choice to ask him when he returns.”

The post Where’s Andy? Halifax Regional Council is in the 2025-26 budget process, but Mayor Andy Filmore is on vacation appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

The Associated Press

One building was destroyed in a fire at the site of the old Bloomfield school in Halifax, bringing 49 firefighters to the scene Sunday.

Fire crews were called to the property on Agricola Street around 1:35 a.m. Feb. 16 for a three-alarm fire. They found a blaze on the first floor and the basement, fighting through barricaded doors and windows.

Fire crews reported that the fire was brought under control around 5:45 a.m. One building at the site was destroyed, but the fire did not spread to other sections of the former school thanks to a coordinated and efficient response.

No injuries were reported.

Here are some photos submitted to the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters of the incident:

Nearly 4,000 customers are without power at 11:00 a.m. Monday morning due to high winds tormenting the eastern province.

As of 11:09 a.m. Nova Scotia Power reported 65 active outages impacting 3,840 customers.

In Cumberland County over 800 have the lights out after a tree fell on a power line. That power is expected to be restored by 7:47 p.m. this evening. Another 1,550 in the county have gone dark from high winds.

Approximately 1,300 customers are experiencing outages alone the southeastern coast from Sheet Harbour to Lunenburg. Annapolis County also has approximately 1,400 customers without power. Power restoration is expected this evening.

Country Harbour, Tancook Island, Englishtown and LaHave ferry services have all been suspended due to the weather.

Roads within HRM are mostly cleared with the remainder of roads across the province partially snow covered. Roads up in Cape Breton have more snow making driving more difficult. High winds also pose the threat of whiteout conditions so drivers are reminded to take precautions when on the roads.

An overnight winter parking ban will also remain in place from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Tuesday across Halifax.

Nova Scotia is honoring Nora Bernard today. Bernard was a Mi’kmaw activist and a member of Millbrook First Nation who survived the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.

Nova Scotia is stepping closer to the development of offshore wind farms in its open waters, but the success of the province’s pursuit is far from certain.

Many businesses and services will be closed on Monday for Heritage Day in Nova Scotia. Here's a list of what's open and what's not across the Halifax region. A storm in the region may alter the schedules.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Foreign Ministry took issue Monday with a revised U.S. government fact sheet that removed a line on American opposition to independence for Taiwan.

The United States has “gravely backpedaled” on its position on Taiwan and sent the wrong message to “separatist forces” on the island, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 during the civil war that brought the communists to power in China. The defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a rival government there. Taiwan has its own government and military but has never declared formal independence from China.

“We urge the U.S. to … stop emboldening and supporting Taiwan independence and avoid further damaging China-U.S. relations and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” Guo said when asked about the revision at a daily media briefing.

The Taiwan Strait is a narrow waterway that separates the island of Taiwan from China’s east coast.

The U.S. State Department removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” from the fact sheet last week. The document on America’s relations with the self-governing island is posted on its website.

Taiwan’s government welcomed the move, though a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday did not mention the language specifically.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that the U.S. State Department updated the ‘Current State of U.S.-Taiwan Relations’ page … with text that is positive and friendly toward us, reflecting the close and amicable partnership between Taiwan and the United States,” it said.

It’s not the first time the State Department has removed the phrase. It did so in May 2022 but restored it a few weeks later after a strong protest from China.

It’s unclear why the State Department changed the language again and whether it signals any shift in policy under President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House last month.

The government in Taiwan is worried that Trump might not be as steadfast a supporter of the island as his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

The U.S. does not recognize Taiwan as a country but is its strongest backer and biggest arms supplier.

Trump said last week that Taiwan, a leading maker of semiconductors, had taken the chip business away from the U.S. and that he wants it to come back.

China, which says that Taiwan must come under its control, has stepped up military exercises around the island of 23 million people in recent years. The U.S. government fact sheet says that it expects “differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides.”

The Associated Press

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

The Associated Press

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

The Associated Press

With freezing rain and high winds in the forecast, it’s a good thing that many people have an extra day off tomorrow. Monday Feb. 17 is Heritage Day and each year Nova Scotia honours a particular person, place or event in its history. This year honours Nora Bernard a Mi’kmaw activist and leader.

Heritage Day is a provincial holiday so expect service changes and closures.

Shopping and food

• The Halifax Shopping Centre is closed.
• The Mic Mac Mall is closed.
• The County Fair Mall is closed.
• All NSLC stores are closed.
• Major grocery stores including Atlantic Superstore, Sobeys, Walmart and Costco are closed
• Gateway Meat Market in Dartmouth is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Agricola Street Books is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• ABC: Antiques, Books and Collectables is open 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• Most drugstores are open.
• Most restaurants remain open.

Municipal services

There will be changes to municipal services offered Monday Feb. 17. There will be no waste collection on Monday. In addition, all Halifax Public Library branches are closed. HRM’s 311 contact centre is also closed.

Most municipally operated recreation facilities are also closed on Monday. The one exemption is the Emerald Oval which will be open for skating, weather permitting.

All transit services will operate on a holiday schedule.

Museums and attractions

If you are looking for something to do on the holiday there are some attractions that are open.

• The Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is open 9:30 a.. to 4:30 p.m.
• The Museum of Natural History is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Following another heavy snowfall, the winter weather isn’t over yet for Nova Scotia.

Environment Canada issued two weather warnings for the province just after 3:00 p.m.; one for freezing rain and another for high winds.

Freezing rain is expected to start southwest of the province later Sunday afternoon spreading northward into the evening, reaching Cape Breton by overnight. By Monday some areas could see total ice accumulation of five to 10 mm.

“Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become icy and slippery,” the Environment Canada statement reads. It says ice build-up can cause tree branches to break and to be prepared for any utility outages that may occur.

There were no major outages at the time of this articles publication but residents can check the Nova Scotia Power outage map online.

Strong wind also have the potential to cause outages across the province.

Beginning Monday morning and lasting throughout the day, the southeastern coast of the province can expect winds up to 90 km/h.

Any loose objects should be brought inside or tethered down. Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may also occur.

Mitch Fong went to a few stores on Dartmouth Crossing to get salt ahead of the snowstorm on Sunday but came away empty-handed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s approach to ending Russia’s war against Ukraine has left European allies and Ukrainian officials worried they are being largely sidelined by the new U.S. administration as Washington and Moscow plan direct negotiations.

With the three-year war grinding on, Trump is sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian counterparts, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the upcoming diplomatic efforts and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It is unclear whether Ukraine or European officials will be represented in discussions expected to take place in Riyadh in the coming days. The official said the United States sees negotiations as early-stage and fluid, and who ultimately ends up at the table could change.

The outreach comes after comments by top Trump advisers this past week, including Vice President JD Vance, raised new concerns in Kyiv and other European capitals that the Republican administration is intent on quick resolution to the conflict with minimum input from Europe.

“Decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyin an address Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. “From now on, things will be different, and Europe needs to adjust to that.”

White House officials on Sunday pushed back against the notion that Europe has been left out of the conversation. Trump spoke by phone in recent days with French President Emmanuel Macron and is expected to consult with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week.

During his visit to Munich and Paris, Vance held talks with Macron, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte as well as Zelenskyy.

“Now they may not like some of this sequencing that is going on in these negotiations but I have to push back on this … notion that they aren’t being consulted,” Waltz told “Fox News Sunday.”

“They absolutely are and at the end of the day, though, this is going to be under President Trump’s leadership that we get this war to an end,’’ Waltz said.

Rubio, who was in Israel on Sunday before heading to Saudi Arabia, said the U.S. is taking a careful approach as it reengages with Moscow after the Biden administration’s clampdown on contacts with the Kremlin following the February 2022 invasion.

Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and the two leaders agreed to begin high-level talks on ending the war. They were initially presented as two-way, but Trump later affirmed that Ukraine would have a seat — though he did not say at what stage.

It was not immediately clear whether any Ukrainians would take part in the upcoming Riyadh talks. A Ukrainian delegation was in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to pave the way for a possible visit by Zelenskyy, according to Ukraine’s economy minister.

“I think President Trump will know very quickly whether this is a real thing or whether this is an effort to buy time. But I don’t want to prejudge that,” Rubio said told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t want to foreclose the opportunity to end a conflict that’s already cost the lives of hundreds of thousands and continues every single day to be increasingly a war of attrition on both sides,” he said.

Heather Conley, a deputy assistant secretary of state for Central Europe during Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, said that with Trump’s current approach to Moscow, the U.S. appears to be “seeking to create a new international approach based on a modern-day concert of great powers.”

“As in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it is only for the great powers to decide the fate of nations and to take — either by purchase or force — that which strengthens the great powers’ economic and security interests,” Conley said. “Each of these powers posit claims or coerce countries in their respective regional spheres of influence.”

There is some debate inside the administration about its developing approach to Moscow, with some more in favor of a rapid rapprochement and others wary that Putin is looking to fray the Euro-Atlantic alliance as he aims to reclaim Russian status and wield greater influence on the continent, according to the U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump said last week that he would like to see Russia rejoin what is now the Group of Seven major economies. Russia was suspended from the G8 after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

“I’d like to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia,” Trump told reporters. “I think Putin would love to be back.”

The anticipated Saudi talks also come amid tension over Trump’s push to get the Ukrainians to agree to give the U.S access to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals in exchange for some $66 billion in military aid that Washington has provided Kyiv since the start of the war, as well as future defense assistance.

Zelenskyy, who met on Friday with Vance and other senior U.S. officials in Munich, said he had directed Ukraine’s minister to not sign off, at least for now.

Zelenskyy said in an interview the deal as presented by the U.S. was too focused on American interests and did not include security guarantees for Ukraine.

The White House called Zelenskyy’s decision “short-sighted,” and argued that a rare-earth’s deal would tie Ukraine closer to the United States — something that Moscow doesn’t want to see.

European officials were also left unsettled by some of Vance’s remarks during his five-day visit to Paris and Munich last week in which he lectured them on free speech and illegal migration on the continent. He warned that they risk losing public support if they don’t quickly change course.

Vance also met while in Munich with Alice Weidel, the co-leader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party in this month’s election.

Throughout Europe, officials are now looking to recalibrate their approach in the face of the Trump administration’s unfolding Ukraine strategy.

Macron will convene top European countries in Paris on Monday for an emergency “working meeting” to discuss next steps for Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Sunday.

“A wind of unity is blowing over Europe, as we perhaps have not felt since the COVID period,” Barrot told public broadcaster France-Info.

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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina.

Aamer Madhani And Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press

Snowmobiler Dave Metcalfe had almost given up hope when help finally arrived Saturday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian delegation has arrived in Saudi Arabia for meetings in preparation for a possible visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Ukrainian minister said Sunday, at a time of intense speculation over planned U.S.-Russia talks in the kingdom to end Moscow’s war on its neighbor.

It also comes as a top U.S. envoy revealed that he and a fellow negotiator appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump were heading to Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who also serves as first deputy prime minister, didn’t clarify whether there is a link between Zelenskyy’s possible trip and the previously announced U.S.-Russia talks. In a Facebook post, she said that the Ukrainian delegation’s focus is on strengthening economic ties, as Kyiv “prepares to sign important economic agreements with countries in the region.”

Svyrydenko didn’t say anything about when Zelenskyy might go to Saudi Arabia and who he might meet with. No further details were immediately available.

Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, said earlier Sunday that there was no possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly in the immediate future. In a Telegram post, Yermak said the Ukrainians weren’t planning to do so “until we develop a plan” to end the war and bring about a “just peace.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, another Zelenskyy adviser, on Saturday denied that Ukraine will participate in any planned U.S.-Russia meetings in Saudi Arabia.

“There is nothing on the negotiating table that would be worth discussing,” Podolyak said on Ukrainian television.

But Svyrydenko’s remarks came within hours of an announcement by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s close ally and special envoy to the Middle East, that high-level meetings were imminent in Saudi Arabia to discuss a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Witkoff said that he and national security adviser Mike Waltz will be “having meetings at the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”

Witkoff didn’t specify who they would be meeting and what they would discuss, but he said that he was leaving for Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening.

Following a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Trump noted that they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on ending the fighting. The president appointed Witkoff and Waltz to lead those talks, alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Earlier this week, Russian officials and state media took a triumphant tone after Trump jettisoned three years of U.S. policy and announced that he would likely meet soon with Putin to negotiate a peace deal in the almost three-year war in Ukraine.

Trump’s announcement created a major diplomatic upheaval that could herald a watershed moment for Ukraine and Europe.

Zelenskyy said that he wouldn’t accept any negotiations about Ukraine that don’t include his country. European governments have also demanded a seat at the table.

Putin has been ostracized by the West since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, didn’t directly respond to the question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory as part of any negotiated settlement.

“Those are details, and I’m not dismissive of the details, they’re important. But I think the beginning here is trust-building. It’s getting everybody to understand that this war does not belong continuing, that it should end. That’s what the president has directed us to do,” he said.

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even as he’s vowed to push the United States ahead in artificial intelligence research, President Donald Trump’s threats to alter federal government contracts with chipmakers and slap new tariffs on the semiconductor industry may put new speed bumps in front of the tech industry.

Since taking office, Trump has said he would place tariffs on foreign production of computer chips and semiconductors in order to return chip manufacturing to the U.S. The president and Republican lawmakers have also threatened to end the CHIPS and Science Act, a sweeping Biden administration-era law that also sought to boost domestic production.

But economic experts have warned that Trump’s dual-pronged approach could slow, or potentially harm, the administration’s goal of ensuring that the U.S. maintains a competitive edge in artificial intelligence research.

Saikat Chaudhuri, an expert on corporate growth and innovation at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, called Trump’s derision of the CHIPS Act surprising because one of the biggest bottlenecks for the advancement of AI has been chip production. Most countries, Chaudhuri said, are trying to encourage chip production and the import of chips at favorable rates.

“We have seen what the shortage has done in everything from AI to even cars,” he said. “In the pandemic, cars had to do with fewer or less powerful chips in order to just deal with the supply constraints.”

The Biden administration helped shepherd in the law following supply disruptions that occurred after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — when a shortage of chips stalled factory assembly lines and fueled inflation — threatened to plunge the U.S. economy into recession. When pushing for the investment, lawmakers also said they were concerned about efforts by China to control Taiwan, which accounts for more than 90% of advanced computer chip production.

As of August 2024, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the U.S. to produce 30% of the world’s most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Trump’s first term.

The administration promised tens of billions of dollars to support the construction of U.S. chip foundries and reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, which Washington sees as a security weakness. In August, the Commerce Department pledged to provide up to $6.6 billion so that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. could expand the facilities it is already building in Arizona and better ensure that the most advanced microchips are produced domestically for the first time.

But Trump has said he believes that companies entering into those contracts with the federal government, such as TSMC, “didn’t need money” in order to prioritize chipmaking in the U.S.

“They needed an incentive. And the incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay at 25, 50 or even 100% tax,” Trump said.

TSMC held board meetings for the first time in the U.S. last week. Trump has signaled that if companies want to avoid tariffs they have to build their plants in the U.S. — without help from the government. Taiwan also dispatched two senior economic affairs officials to Washington to meet with the Trump administration in a bid to potentially fend off a 100% tariff Trump has threatened to impose on chips.

If the Trump administration does levy tariffs, Chaudhuri said, one immediate concern is that prices of goods that use semiconductors and chips will rise because the higher costs associated with tariffs are typically passed to consumers.

“Whether it’s your smartphone, whether it’s your gaming device, whether it’s your smart fridge — probably also your smart features of your car — anything and everything we use nowadays has a chip in it,” he said. “For consumers, it’s going to be rather painful. Manufacturers are not going to be able to absorb that.”

Even tech giants such as Nvidia will eventually feel the pain of tariffs, he said, despite their margins being high enough to absorb costs at the moment.

“They’re all going to be affected by this negatively,” he said. “I can’t see anybody benefiting from this except for those countries who jump on the bandwagon competitively and say, ‘You know what, we’re going to introduce something like the CHIPS Act.’”

Broadly based tariffs would be a shot in the foot of the U.S. economy, said Brett House, a professor of professional practice at Columbia Business School. Tariffs would not only raise the costs for businesses and households across the board, he said — for the U.S. AI sector, they would massively increase the costs of one of their most important inputs: high-powered chips from abroad.

“If you cut off, repeal or threaten the CHIPS Act at the same time as you’re putting in broadly based tariffs on imports of AI and other computer technology, you would be hamstringing the industry acutely,” House said.

Such tariffs would reduce the capacity to create a domestic chip building sector, sending a signal for future investments that the policy outlook is uncertain, he said. That would in turn put a chilling effect on new allocations of capital to the industry in the U.S. while making more expensive the existing flow of imported chips.

“American technological industrial leadership has always been supported by maintaining openness to global markets and to immigration and labor flows,” he said. “And shutting that openness down has never been a recipe for American success.”

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

Sarah Parvini, The Associated Press

On the heels of the late-week system that impacted the Maritimes, another storm is rolling in Sunday and into Monday. Our latest storm will again bring a wide variety of conditions, with heavy snow and a messy mix of ice pellets, freezing rain and rain.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pam Bondi had insisted at her Senate confirmation hearing that as attorney general, her Justice Department would not “play politics.”

Yet in the month since the Trump administration took over the building, a succession of actions has raised concerns the department is doing exactly that.

Top officials have demanded the names of thousands of FBI agents who investigated the Capitol riot, sued a state attorney general who had won a massive fraud verdict against Donald Trump before the 2024 election, and ordered the dismissal of a criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams by saying the charges had handicapped the Democrat’s ability to partner in the Republican administration’s fight against illegal immigration.

Even for a department that has endured its share of scandals, the moves have generated great upheaval and tested its independence. Recent firings and resignations have rattled the foundations of an institution that has prided itself on being driven solely by facts, evidence and the law, and led to this question: Will a president who raged against his own Justice Department during his first term succeed in bending it to his will entirely in his second?

“We have seen now a punishing ruthlessness that acting department leadership and the attorney general are bringing to essentially subjugate the workforce to the wishes and demands of the administration, even when it’s obvious” that some of the decisions have all the signs “of corrupting the criminal justice system,” said retired federal prosecutor David Laufman, a senior department official across Democratic and Republican administrations.

He spoke not long after Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, resigned in protest following a directive from Emil Bove, the Justice Department’s acting No. 2 official, to dismiss the case against Adams.

In a letter foreshadowing her decision, Sassoon accused the department of acceding to a “quid pro quo” — dropping the case to ensure Adams’ help with Trump’s immigration agenda. Though a Democrat, Adams had for months positioned himself as eager to aid the administration’s effort in America’s largest city, even meeting privately with Trump at Trump’s Florida estate just days before the Republican took office.

Multiple high-ranking officials who oversaw the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which prosecutes corruption cases, joined Sassoon in resigning.

On Friday, a prosecutor involved in the Adams case, Hagan Scotten, became at least the seventh person to quit in the standoff, telling Bove in a letter that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet his demand to drop the charges. (Bove and department lawyers in Washington ultimately filed paperwork Friday night to end the case).

Though the circumstances are significantly different, the wave of resignations conjured memories of the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” when multiple Justice Department leaders quit rather than carry out President Richard Nixon’s orders to fire the Watergate special prosecutor.

“Even though there may not be more resignations, a clear message has been sent about the objectives and the expectations of the department,” said Alberto Gonzales, who served as attorney general under Republican President George W. Bush until his 2007 resignation in the wake of the dismissal of several U.S. attorneys.

“The purpose of the department is to ensure that our laws are carried out, that those who engage in criminal wrongdoing are prosecuted and punished,” Gonzales said. And to some it may appear “that if you have some kind of relationship with the White House, there may not be consequences for doing something that ordinary Americans engaged in similar conduct would be punished.”

Bove, a former New York federal prosecutor himself who represented Trump in his criminal cases, pointedly made no assessment about the legal merits of the case against Adams. Bove cited political reasons, including the timing of the charges months before Adams’ presumed reelection campaign and the restrictions the case had placed on the mayor’s ability to fight illegal immigration and violent crime.

In a letter to Sassoon, Bove said case prosecutors would be subject to internal investigations.

Bondi defended the decision to drop the case, asserted in a Fox New interview Friday that Adams was targeted after he criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said prosecutors who refused the dismissal order have “no place at DOJ.”

“The decision to dismiss the indictment of Eric Adams is yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts,” Mizelle said in a statement that accused prosecutors without evidence of “disordered and ulterior motives.”

At the White House on Friday, Trump said he was “not involved” in the Adams case and knew “nothing” about it.

The New York showdown follows a separate dispute between Bove and the acting FBI leadership over his demands for a list of agents involved in the investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol so the Justice Department could determine whether personnel action was warranted.

The request was seen by some as a precursor to possible mass firings, but it was also consistent with Trump’s fury over those criminal cases, which he erased with sweeping pardons soon after his inauguration.

Bove referred to the acting FBI director’s resistance to his directive as an act of “insubordination” and said agents who “simply followed” orders would not lose their jobs but those who acted with “partisan intent” were at risk.

In between White House terms, Trump and his allies pressed the case that the Justice Department had become “weaponized” against conservatives and him in particular, citing separate indictments that were later dismissed after Trump won back the presidency in November.

On her first day on the job, Bondi announced the creation of a “Weaponization Working Group,” to scrutinize the prosecutors who brought criminal and civil cases against Trump and to examine the Jan. 6 prosecutions. She wrote in a memo that the department “must take immediate and overdue steps to restore integrity and credibility” and to ensure that personnel were “ready and willing” to implement the president’s agenda.

The group, notably, was not tasked with examining other politically sensitive matters more favorable to Trump, including a special counsel’s investigation of Democratic President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information or the prosecution of Biden’s son Hunter, who was convicted of gun and tax charges before receiving a pardon from his father in December.

Among the prosecutors singled out by the working group was special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose civil fraud suit against Trump led to a nearly $500 million judgment.

A frequent target of Trump’s ire, James would surface again days later when Bondi, in her first news conference, announced a lawsuit against the state of New York over a law that allows people who might not be in the U.S. legally to get a driver’s license. Bondi opened her remarks by saying she had “filed charges” against James and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, before later clarifying that she was referring to a lawsuit.

More departures — and more turmoil — could be ahead.

“The prospect of the hollowing out of the Justice Department and the (FBI) is now a live and dangerous risk being played out,” said Laufman, the retired prosecutor. “Where it goes from here, we just can’t currently assess.”

Eric Tucker And Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press