The city of St. Paul has joined Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Chicago, Denver, Boston and four other jurisdictions in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for allegedly placing “unlawful and unrelated conditions” on more than $100 million in public safety and disaster grants.

Led by the city of Chicago and filed in federal court in Illinois, Chicago vs. Noem centers on grants administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for fire department staffing, port and transit security, flood prevention and counter-terrorism measures.

St. Paul alone is at risk of losing $4 million in pending or awarded funds, including funding covering about half the staffing in the city’s Emergency Management department.

“St. Paul families and businesses pay billions in federal taxes,” said St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, in a written statement. “We deserve support in a crisis, not a government that weaponizes government aid.”

Administration demands cities abandon DEI initiatives

To qualify for grant dollars, the Trump administration has demanded that local governments abandon diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and comply with all executive orders related to grant funding.

The lawsuit, according to a written statement from the city, asks the court to stop DHS and FEMA from “using these life-saving funds as leverage for unrelated political agendas.” The plaintiffs maintain that the conditions are unconstitutional and exceed the executive’s authority, falling outside of parameters authorized by Congress.

“Congress has made federal funding of state and local governments’ emergency-management operations an essential linchpin in the systems that secure the nation,” reads the lawsuit. “Without that funding, people across the country will face greater risk of suffering and death from disasters.”

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include St. Paul, Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Baltimore, Boston, the city and county of Denver, Colo., New York City and New Haven, Conn.

Lawsuit: ‘Force multiplier’ at risk

The lawsuit notes that through mutual aid agreements, the recipient agencies sometimes support surrounding cities and jurisdictions, a “force multiplier” at risk of being eroded.

St. Paul expends approximately $2.5 million annually in funds from DHS to provide firefighting equipment and training, emergency response, paramedic training and terrorism prevention. The city’s Emergency Management department currently has a cumulative award of $2.7 million in active grants from DHS, with another $804,000 pending finalization of grant agreements.

The city has applied for another $3.09 million, and anticipates applying for $2.3 million within the next year, according to a written statement. Federal grant dollars cover five of the nine city employees in the Emergency Management department, as well as their equipment and training for emergency response, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

“These resources are life-saving investments,” said Rick Schute, the city’s director of Emergency Management, in the written statement. “We cannot afford to compromise our ability to respond swiftly and effectively to emergencies.”

Disaster relief funds

The city received about $1.03 million in FEMA-level disaster relief funds for the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and $1.25 million in flood relief for Hidden Falls in 2019, according to Grants Director Lindsay Bacher. Downtown river flooding in 2023 and 2024 did not meet the threshold for FEMA relief.

The legal fight over FEMA and DHS grants is the latest in a series of court battles involving the Trump administration and individual cities, counties or states over access to longstanding federal funding.

In September, a federal judge based in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from making disaster aid to states contingent on their cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

Netflix missed the earnings target set by stock market analysts during the video streamer’s latest quarter, a letdown that the company blamed on a tax dispute in Brazil.

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The results announced Tuesday broke Netflix’s six-quarter streak of posting a profit that eclipsed analysts’ projections.

The Los Gatos, California, cited an unexpected $619 million expense tied to the Brazilian tax dispute for the earnings shortfall while hailing its lineup of distinctive TV series and films for keeping its audience engaged and delivering a mix of subscriber fees and increased ad sales that helped it deliver revenue that matched analyst forecasts.

Investors, though, weren’t placated by the explanation as Netflix’s shares still fell by about 6% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Analysts varied in their interpretation of the third-quarter report.

Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro worries Netflix is using the Brazilian tax hit as a way to mask signs of a slowdown in subscriber growth and advertising amid economy uncertainty. “The truth is that the company failed to deliver the kind of growth we’ve grown used to over the past couple of years,” he said.

But Zacks analyst Jeremy Mullin said he sees little reason for concern, asserting Netflix’s “underlying story remains solid.”

Netflix earned $2.5 billion, or $5.87 per share, in its July-September quarter, an 8% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 17% from last year to $11.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted the Los Gatos, California, company to earn $6.96 per share on revenue of $11.5 billion.

Delivering solid financial growth has become more important than ever for Netflix as management has steered investors from fixating on how many subscribers its service gains from one quarter to the next. As part of that process, Netflix stopped disclosing its subscribers at the end of last year.

The shift has paid off so far, with Netflix’s stock price rising about 40% so far this year, although the downturn in extended trading signaled some of those gains are about to evaporate.

Although Netflix no longer reveals the specific, this year’s revenue growth signals that its worldwide subscriber count has increased from the roughly 302 million it had at the end of last year – by far the most among video streamers, even as rivals with deeper pockets such as Amazon and Apple expand their programming selections.

In the company’s quarterly conference call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming service’s total worldwide audience — including multiple people living in the same subscriber household — is approaching 1 billion.

“We have a better understanding of the streaming business than any of our competitors,” Greg Peters, Netflix’s other co-CEO, boasted during the call.

Netflix has maintained its lead by adding more live sports and video games to supplement its wide array of scripted programming – a diversification effort that will expand into video podcasts from Spotify next year.

And now Netflix may have another opportunity to add even more compelling programming with Warner Bros. Discovery announcing it may sell all or part of its holdings, which include HBO, DC Studios and CNN. Analysts are already speculating that Netflix may join the bidders looking to grab a piece of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In response to a question about Netflix’s acquisition strategy, Sarandos noted that the company traditionally has been “more builders than buyers” without ruling out a potential bid for some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s properties other than cable TV networks like CNN and TBS. “We can be and will be choosey,” Sarandos said.

The company has also mining a new vein of revenue by selling commercials as part of a low-priced option of its service it introduced three years ago.

Although the advertising business still isn’t large enough to require the company to disclose its sales, management expects its revenue to more than double from last year. A recent analyst by S & P forecast $1.1 billion in ad sales for Netflix this year — a figure that would represent about 2% of its projected total revenue.

It’s getting to the point that Netflix may be in danger of trying to juggle too many ball at once, said Forrester Research analyst Mike Proulx. “If the company goes too broad to become all things entertainment, it risks diluting its core.”

By JALAL BWAITEL and NATALIE MELZER

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries.

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The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at growing risk while gathering olives.

“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released Tuesday. “Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists.”

In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club, including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.

This Oct. 19, 2025, image taken from video shows what appear to be masked settlers beating activists and Palestinian farmers in Turmus Ayya, West Bank. (AP Photo)

The woman was hospitalized with serious injures, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him.

A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman “kept him up at night” and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice.

Israel’s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack.

Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American, has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war. It’s nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts. Since the killing of a 14-year old Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the town in April protests against settler violence and the military’s perceived failure to curb it have provoked regular clashes with settlers.

More broadly,  settler violence is surging across the West Bank. The U.N. says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage — a 13% increase compared with the same period last year.

The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than 150 settler attacks and over 700 olive trees uprooted, broken or poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an office in the Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an important say over the West Bank.

Melzer reported from Tel Aviv.

An group that includes activist investor Jana Partners and NFL player Travis Kelce says it has accumulated one of the largest ownership stakes in Six Flags Entertainment and intends to press the company’s leadership on ways to improve the struggling amusement park operator’s business.

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Jana said Tuesday that the investor group now owns an economic interest of approximately 9% in Six Flags. The group plans to “engage” with Six Flags’ management and board of directors to discuss ways to enhance shareholder value and improve visitors’ experience.

Shares in the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Six Flags surged 17.7% on the news. The shares added another 5.1% gain in after-hours trading. Even with Tuesday’s rally, the company’s shares are down about 47% so far this year.

Six Flags reported a loss of $319.4 million for the first half of the year. The company said attendance fell 9% in the three months ended June 29, due partly to bad weather and a “challenged consumer” in most of the markets it operates in.

The investor group also includes consumer executive Glenn Murphy and technology executive Dave Habiger.

Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, said in a statement that he grew up going to Six Flags amusement parks.

“The chance to help make Six Flags special for the next generation is one I couldn’t pass up,” he said.