NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of Hollywood and Broadway stars — including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — are urging Americans “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights” in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
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More than 430 movie, TV and stage stars as well as comedians, directors and writers added their names to an open letter Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
The move comes less than a week after ABC suspended Kimmel’s late-night talk show following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. After a group of ABC-affiliated stations said they wouldn’t air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The Walt Disney Co. pulled the show Wednesday just before air, prompting a firestorm of debate over free speech.
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter says. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power — because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
The list of signatories includes newly crowned Emmy-winner Noah Wyle, Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh, comedian David Cross, Tony-winner Kelli O’Hara and veteran actor Molly Ringwald. Pedro Pascal, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, Kerry Washington and Kevin Bacon also signed.
“This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights,” the letter concludes.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine swapped accusations of deadly drone strikes on civilian areas of their countries Monday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy anticipated “a very intense week” of diplomacy at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where the Security Council was due to discuss the more than three-year war.
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Zelenskyy has tried to give momentum to a U.S.-led peace effort, offering a ceasefire and a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has taken issue with some of the proposals, however, and an end to the bloodshed appears no closer.
Additionally, international concerns have mounted recently that the fighting could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders as European countries rebuked Russia for what they said were provocations. The incidents have included Russian drones landing on Polish soil and Russian fighter aircraft entering Estonian airspace, which prompted an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna called the airspace intrusion a “dangerous escalation,” in comments to the Security Council, adding that “Russia’s dangerous behavior cannot be tolerated.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry denied any Estonian airspace violation by its planes. Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, dismissed the outcry, telling the Security Council it was part of an effort to “blame Russia for everything.”
The Security Council was to discuss the war in a scheduled session on Tuesday.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on social media that Russia was testing NATO’s political and military response and aiming to reduce Western support for Ukraine by compelling countries to redirect resources toward the defense of alliance countries.
Calibrating how to respond to Russia was not easy, Rinkevics said Sunday. Russia was doing just enough not to cross a red line, but things could still spiral, he added.
Zelenskyy was due to attend the annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly, where he planned to recruit support for efforts to stop Russia’s invasion.
“The schedule already includes nearly two dozen meetings with leaders from different countries, from all parts of the world,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram late Sunday.
Zelenskyy said he also planned to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose drive for a peace deal after taking office in January has yielded no progress.
“It is vital that this week strengthen the world’s resolve for robust action — for without strength, peace will not prevail,” Zelenskyy said.
A relative, center, mourns by a dead body after a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Rescuers work at a building destroyed during a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Relatives mourn by a dead body after a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha attends a Security Council meeting at the United Nations Headquarters, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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A relative, center, mourns by a dead body after a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
He said that over the past week Russia fired more than 1,500 strike drones, 1,280 glide bombs and 50 missiles of various types at Ukraine. More than 132,000 foreign components were found in those weapons from dozens of countries, he said.
Ukraine has campaigned for tighter sanctions on Russia.
Meanwhile, at least seven Russian aircraft bombarded the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing three people and wounding two others, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.
The attack started around 4:20 a.m. and lasted about 40 minutes, Fedorov said. Residential buildings, shopping malls, a parking lot and “critical infrastructure” were targeted, he said.
“None of the sites had anything to do with military infrastructure,” Fedorov said.
The Ukrainian air force said it stopped 132 out of 141 strike and decoy drones launched by Russian forces overnight.
The map above shows the state of the battlefield in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as Russia intensifies its campaign to seize the eastern region. (AP Digital Embed)
Russia made similar claims. The Moscow-appointed head of Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Crimea peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, said three people were killed and 16 others were wounded late Sunday by Ukrainian drones that struck the popular vacation resort of Foros.
The Russian Defense Ministry said there are no military facilities there.
In Russia’s Belgorod border region, three people were killed and another 10 were wounded by Ukrainian drone attacks on Sunday, according to the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Defense Ministry said 114 Ukrainian drones were downed early Monday over several Russian regions.
Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw and Jennifer Peltz at the United Nations contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status.
Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military.
Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn’t want to seek approval from the school’s leadership prior to its publication because “it is very likely such approval will be withheld.”
The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point’s civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees.
Bakken’s lawsuit said the school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to “carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions.”
In February, the military academy at West Point issued a policy preventing faculty members from using the schools’ “affiliation or branding” in connection with any public comments or writings without the academy’s approval, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the policy was “to control, chill and suppress faculty speech.”
The lawsuit said the academy in the spring withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members’ syllabi, eliminated courses and majors and threatened or punished faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school.
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During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members’ published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members’ webpages on the school’s website, the lawsuit said. It also directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom, it said.
“As a professor of law, Plaintiff’s inability to express opinions on the subject matter being taught is stifling and disruptive to the educational process,” the lawsuit said. It added that he no longer would be able to express to students whether a major or dissenting opinion is persuasive and why.
The military academy did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bakken, a civilian professor of law in the academy’s Department of Law and Philosophy for the last 25 years, is the longest-serving law professor in West Point’s history and has written extensively, including books, articles and essays, along with appearances on podcasts, radio and television, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, he traveled with U.S. soldiers to Kabul in 2007 during the war in Afghanistan and created the Department of Law at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan.
He seeks class action status for West Point’s faculty and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech.
WASHINGTON — A White House announcement about autism is expected Monday afternoon after President Donald Trump’s weekend comment that “I think we found an answer” to the developmental disorder.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism by September. That baffled brain experts who say there is no single cause and that the rhetoric appears to ignore decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.
Here’s what we know about autism.
What is autism?
Autism isn’t a disease. It’s a complex developmental condition better known as autism spectrum disorder that affects different people in different ways.
It can include delays in language, learning or social and emotional skills. For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having intellectual disabilities, but the vast majority of people with autism experience far milder effects.
Autism rates have been going up for decades
There are two main reasons. First, the definition of autism broadened as scientists expanded their understanding of its wide range of traits and symptoms. That led to changes in the criteria doctors use to diagnose autism and improvements in screening.
At the same time, parents increasingly sought a diagnosis as autism became better known and schools began offering educational services they hoped could help their kids.
As late as the 1990s, only children with the most profound symptoms were considered to have autism. In the early 2000s, as the definition began changing, the autism rate was estimated to be 1 in 150 children. The latest count found 1 in about 31 children are affected by autism spectrum disorder.
The increase isn’t among the profound cases; it’s an increase in the milder cases that weren’t historically considered autism, said expert Helen Tager-Flusberg of Boston University.
There is no single test for autism, which is diagnosed mostly through developmental and behavioral assessments.
It’s hard to tell if there may be additional factors behind the increase.
What’s the state of autism research?
Science has shown autism is mostly rooted in genetics, with discovery of several hundred genes that play a role. Those genes can be inherited, even if the parent shows no signs of autism, or mutations can occur as the brain is developing and its rapidly dividing cells make mistakes.
Experts say different combinations of genes and other factors can all affect how a fetal brain develops.
What about environmental effects?
Researchers have identified other factors that can interact with genetic vulnerability to increase the risk of autism. They include the age of a child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had certain health problems during pregnancy such as fevers, infections or diabetes.
Any concern that measles vaccine — or other vaccines — could be linked to autism has been long debunked, stress scientists and leading advocacy groups for people with autism.
What about Tylenol?
The Washington Post reported Monday that the Trump administration plans to link autism to the use of the painkiller Tylenol, or acetaminophen, in pregnancy.
Some studies have raised the possibility that taking the over-the-counter pain medicine in pregnancy might be associated with a risk of autism, but many others haven’t found a connection, said autism expert David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania.
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One big caution: Untreated fevers in pregnancy, particularly the first trimester, increase the risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Tylenol’s label advises women to ask their doctor about use in pregnancy, and the society continues to advise that it’s an appropriate option to treat fever and pain during pregnancy.
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.
