By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.” The plan is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water.

SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration in what critics call an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.

Trump’s administration has stopped construction on major offshore wind farms, revoked wind energy permits and paused permitting, canceled plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopped $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects.

The moves are a complete reversal from the Biden administration, which approved construction of 11 large offshore wind projects to generate enough clean energy to power more than 6 million homes. The projects now face uncertain futures under Trump.

Last week, the Interior Department asked a federal judge in Baltimore to cancel a previous approval by BOEM to build an offshore wind project in Maryland. The ocean agency has concluded that its prior weighing of the project’s impacts was “deficient” and intends to reconsider that analysis to make a new decision, the department said.

Developer U.S. Wind has not yet begun construction, but plans for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project call for up to 114 turbines to power more than 718,000 homes.

BOEM had approved SouthCoast’s operations plan on Jan. 17, 2025, three days before Trump’s second term began.

“Based on its review to date, BOEM has determined that the COP approval may not have fully complied with the law” and “may have failed to account for all the impacts that the SouthCoast Wind Project may cause,” Interior said in its legal filing. The agency asked a federal judge to allow reconsideration of the project.

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In a statement, developer Ocean Winds said the company “intends to vigorously defend our permits in federal court.”

“Stable permitting for American infrastructure projects should be of top concern for anyone who wants to see continued investment in the United States,” the statement said.

Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental groups, said Trump “is threatening good jobs while he pursues his senseless vendetta against offshore wind.”

Pulling energy project permits and canceling lease sales isn’t new. Biden revoked the permit to build the long-disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day in office, halting construction. He canceled scheduled oil and gas lease sales.

But Trump’s efforts to dismantle the offshore wind industry are much more extensive than the way Biden targeted fossil fuels, said Kristoffer Svendsen, assistant dean for energy law at the George Washington University Law School. He thinks offshore wind developers will now see the U.S. as too risky.

“They have plenty of options. They can invest in Europe and Asia. There are good markets to invest in offshore wind. It’s just the U.S. is not a good market to invest in,” he said.

The Trump administration has stopped construction on two major offshore wind farms, so far. One of them, the Empire Wind project for New York, was allowed to resume construction. The Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut is paused, and both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts.

The Danish energy company Orsted is building Revolution Wind. The Danish government owns a majority stake in the company.

Besides SouthCoast, the Trump administration has said it is reconsidering approvals for another wind farm off the Massachusetts coast, New England Wind. It previously revoked a permit for the Atlantic Shores project in New Jersey.

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After suffering a high ankle sprain last weekend in a 22-6 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, young quarterback J.J. McCarthy has progressed enough that he was able to return to the practice field for the Vikings.

Kind of.

Though he wasn’t able to actually participate with his teammates on Friday afternoon at TCO Performance Center, McCarthy stood alongside head coach Kevin O’Connell on the sideline, listening while he delivered the play call to veteran quarterback Carson Wentz in the huddle.

That’s as much as McCarthy will be able to be a part of in the short term.

“He’s handling his responsibilities from a rehab standpoint,” O’Connell said. “We’re kind of through the initial wave of that, as far as getting the swelling down and all those things.”

That’s a step in the right direction for McCarthy after suffering the injury while while being dragged down from behind by linebacker Kaden Elliss on a scramble near the sideline. He finished the game without issue before being diagnosed with a high ankle sprain in the aftermath.

Asked if McCarthy was still wearing a walking boot, O’Connell replied, “I know he was in it on the practice field as a precaution.” In that same breath, O’Connell seemed to indicate that McCarthy had graduated beyond that step when he’s simply walking around the locker room.

When will McCarthy return to the field? That remains to be seen.

Though the Vikings still haven’t provided a timeline for McCarthy’s recovery process, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s on the shelf for the next month.

After the Vikings host the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend, they will travel to Dublin to play the Pittsburgh Steelers, then to London to play the Cleveland Browns. The bye week will come immediately following the international trip across the pond, then Vikings host the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

The good news for the Vikings is that McCarthy won’t land on injured reserve in the meantime.

“I do feel good about where he’s at in the early stages,” O’Connell said. “I can say I feel pretty strongly as of right now that we’re on the daily kind of work to get healthy and get him back to 100% as soon as we can.”

It remains to be seen if McCarthy will be back under center for the Vikings when they play the Eagles on Oct. 19 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Briefly

In addition to McCarthy ruled out for the game against the Bengals, the Vikings have also ruled out center Ryan Kelly (concussion) and left tackle Justin Skule (concussion). Meanwhile, left tackle Christian Darrisaw (knee), safety Harrison Smith (illness), edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel (concussion), and linebacker Austin Keys (groin) are being listed as questionable.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday the U.S. military has carried out its third fatal strike against an alleged drug smuggling vessel this month.

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Trump in a social media posting said the strike killed three and was carried out against a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” He did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike.

The U.S. twice this month carried out strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels that had originated from Venezuela.

After years of planning and construction, the nationally recognized Playwrights’ Center has officially moved to St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone and is ready to open to the public this weekend.

The center, founded in 1971 and previously headquartered in a former Minneapolis church, provides significant economic and creative support for both emerging and established artists. Through a multimillion-dollar campaign launched in 2023, the organization transformed a century-old industrial building just off Raymond and University avenues into a bright, modern creative workspace, said executive director Robert Chelimsky.

“It’s quite something, seeing these rooms come to life,” he said.

A public celebration of the Playwrights’ Center’s new home (710 Raymond Ave.) begins at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, with remarks from the organization’s leaders and others; state Rep. Kaohly Her and City Council member Molly Coleman are scheduled to speak. Guided tours of the building will be offered throughout the afternoon, and new-play readings — it’s the Playwrights’ Center, after all! — will take place at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Food and drinks will also be available.

The center’s 2025–26 season officially begins in October with the PlayLabs Festival, showcasing new plays by JuCoby Johnson, Cristina Luzárraga and Yilong Liu. Tickets to shows (Oct. 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 and Nov. 1) are free and available at pwcenter.org/public-season.

The lobby of the Playwrights’ Center, now open in St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone and shown in Sept. 2025, will be open to the public. (Courtesy of Playwrights’ Center)

In its previous Minneapolis building, Chelimsky said, the only time the Playwrights’ Center was able to open to the public was right before readings, when audience members could stand in the lobby. Now, with more than double the square footage, parts of the space will be open to the public more regularly, which Chelimsky hopes will contribute to a bustling sense of creative energy.

“There are different types of working spaces throughout the building, and it’s wonderful to see artists already using these spaces,” Chelimsky said. “And if people are just in the neighborhood and want a place to sit for a while or meet up with a friend, we’ve got space that they’ll be able to take advantage of, in the midst of this center with artists working on their craft.”

And the Playwrights’ Center is opening in the middle of a busy weekend in the Creative Enterprise Zone. Culminating on Saturday, the Chroma Zone mural festival is showcasing new works of large-scale wall art painted by artists throughout the summer. And on Sunday and Monday at nearby Dual Citizen Brewing, a Catalan-culture nonprofit is hosting a two-day celebration of traditional food and music from Catalonia. FilmNorth’s new hub for local filmmaking opened in the neighborhood earlier this summer, too.

“Being part of the creative and artistic energy of this neighborhood — it feels like such a vital time to be right here, and we’re so grateful to be able to be part of it,” Chelimsky said.

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