By HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press

The Library of Congress, a 225-year-old Washington institution, has never had a moment like this.

A week ago, the Trump administration fired the longtime librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The man appointed by President Donald Trump to be interim librarian, Todd Blanche, may not actually be the interim librarian. And Hayden’s ouster may not even be legal.

FILE – Todd Blanche, attorney for then-President-elect Donald Trump, departs court, Jan. 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Here’s more about the library, Hayden’s ouster and the mystery of who’s in charge now:

What is the Library of Congress?

The country’s oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.

In addition to its billing as “the largest library in the world,” it could also be called the country’s unofficial memory bank. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill.

Each year, the library’s National Film Registry chooses 25 movies “showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage.” The National Recording Registry selects for preservation sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States.”

The library also manages the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which responds to tens of thousands of requests from Congress each year. Communications are confidential from disclosure under the “speech or debate” clause of the U.S. Constitution. Library of Congress events include an annual book festival, tours, films, exhibits and conferences.

The Library of Congress is not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. No one under 16 can get a reader card to access the collection. Those 16 and 17 require a parent’s permission.

What does the librarian of Congress do?

The librarian has a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing the Library of Congress’ collections to selecting the country’s poet laureate to awarding the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Librarians serve 10-year terms, and Hayden’s was scheduled to end in 2026.

Her predecessors include James Billington, Daniel Boorstin and Archibald MacLeish.

Who was fired? Who was hired?

Late last week, the Trump administration abruptly fired Hayden, the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position. Hayden, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and confirmed 74-18 by the Republican-led Senate the following year, was informed via email that “your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”

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More upheavals quickly followed. The White House fired U.S. Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter, whom Hayden had appointed in 2020. The Justice Department then announced that Blanche, the deputy attorney general, had been named acting librarian of Congress and that Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, was acting director of the Copyright Office.

Blanche was a member of Trump’s defense team in his New York hush money trial, which ended last year in a conviction on 34 felony counts.

Why was Hayden fired?

The White House cited no specific reason in its email to her, although Trump has been purging officials he believes opposed to him and his policies. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had alleged she was promoting children’s books with “radical content,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that she was “putting inappropriate books in the library for children.”

A copy of virtually every book published in the U.S. during a given year is given to the Copyright Office, with the Library of Congress deciding whether to include it in the main collection.

Hayden’s firing was denounced by Democrats, librarians, educators and others, including the outgoing U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón. Appointed by Hayden in 2022, Limón called her the “kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation.”

Did the White House have the legal right to fire her?

Despite being nominated by the president, the librarian of Congress is a legislative branch employee and appoints leaders to other positions under it, such as the assistant librarian and the director of the Copyright Office.

That’s why a dispute between Congress and the White House has erupted as Republican leaders sort out how much authority the president — the head of the executive branch — has in tapping an acting librarian.

Usually, if that position is vacant, an interim librarian is chosen from the current ranks of the Library of Congress.

Who is in charge right now?

Although Blanche was announced as acting librarian, he has yet to turn up at the Library of Congress offices, according to a person with knowledge of internal operations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The library is currently being run by Robert Randolph Newlen, the person says.

Newlen had been principal deputy librarian, and, per library regulations, was in line to succeed the librarian of Congress in case of absence or temporary unavailability.

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington.

LONDON (AP) — Singer Chris Brown was arrested Thursday in England for allegedly hitting someone with a bottle in a London nightclub in 2023.

The Metropolitan Police did not name Brown but said it took a 36-year-old into custody at a Manchester hotel on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Under British law, police cannot name suspects before charges are filed.

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The Sun, which first reported the story, said producer Abe Diaw told them Sunday that he was hospitalized after Brown beat him in an unprovoked attack at the Tape nightclub in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in London in February 2023.

The tabloid said it became aware Brown was in the U.K. on Wednesday and called police to find out if he was under arrest. The newspaper said Met officers then traveled to Manchester and made the arrest.

Brown’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Diaw said Brown, who was on a U.K. tour at the time, cracked him on the head with a bottle and punched and kicked him on the floor. The producer has filed a $16 million lawsuit against the singer.

Brown, often called by his nickname Breezy, burst onto the music scene as a teen in 2005 and has become a major hitmaker over the years with notable songs such as “Run It,” “Kiss Kiss” and “Without You.” He won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for “F.A.M.E.” then earned his second gold trophy in the same category for “11:11 (Deluxe)” earlier this year.

The singer is launching an international tour next month with artists Jhene Aiko, Summer Walker and Bryson Tiller, opening with a European leg before starting North America shows in July.

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein’s assistants kept a list of female “friends of Harvey” to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday at the former movie mogul’s sex crimes retrial.

“A ‘friend of Harvey’ was a woman that he’d meet at events or parties or festivals or — somewhere,” said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013.

The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Perz said. It was such common practice that Weinstein’s subordinates had a shorthand: “Might as well add a FOH column,” Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards-season events.

Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein’s now-defunct production company. The names were broken down by geography, such as “LA Friends” or “Cannes/Etc/all invites.”

One “LA Friends” entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial.

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan in New York, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement’s campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he’s never had sexual encounters that weren’t consensual.

During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. But he’s on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. He’s charged with raping Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006.

Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to testify in the coming days or week. The other accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, already have taken the stand.

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At Weinstein’s 2020 trial, Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a yearslong relationship that began consensually but became “degrading” and volatile and eventually exploded into rape. Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she “wasn’t a threat,” she testified.

Weinstein’s lawyers at the time argued that Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions. At one point during his defense’s questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day.

At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Perz had sent to Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013.

“Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you” and a friend, Perz wrote.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Sokola, Haley and Mann have done.

BRIMSON — St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said winds gusting up to 70 mph Thursday afternoon could be a “game-changer” for firefighting efforts if there isn’t rain as well.

The sheriff reported in a Facebook video around 12:15 p.m. that authorities were concerned about high winds from 4-9 p.m. that could fuel the Camp House and Jenkins Creek fires.

A gale warning in effect along the North Shore from 1-8 p.m. is expected to produce 3- to 6-foot waves on Lake Superior, the National Weather Service in Duluth reported.

Ramsay said some firefighters have been reallocated to the Jenkins Creek Fire, which is growing faster than the Camp House and Munger Shaw fires. All three fires were zero percent contained as of early Thursday afternoon.

Crews were monitoring the growth of the Jenkins Creek Fire in the direction of Hoyt Lakes. As of early Thursday afternoon, the tip of the fire was 6.5 to 7 miles from the city, which has a population of around 2,000. Ramsay said there was a very slim chance the fire could reach Hoyt Lakes in the next 24 hours.

Jenkins Creek Fire crews were working Thursday morning to protect the fire from spreading to an AT&T communications tower and the unincorporated community of Fairbanks, located just west of Cadotte Lake and the Superior National Forest’s Cadotte Lake Campground, and 18 miles southeast of Hoyt Lakes.

The Eastern Area Incident Management Team, which manages the Brimson Complex, including the Camp Fire and Jenkins Creek fires, said in an update at 11 a.m. Thursday that a dozen crews were constructing a line on the south side of the Jenkins Creek Fire. Planes dropped water Wednesday to protect the communications tower.

“The fire is fueled by mixed forest vegetation and spruce budworm-infested forest stands,” the update read. “Dead and distressed balsam and aspen prone to ignition pose a significant hazard for firefighters.”

Jenkins Creek Fire status, 8:44 a.m. Thursday

Started: Monday
Acres: 15,570
Location: East of Hoyt Lakes
Cause: Under investigation
Resources: 5 engines, 3 tenders, 3 tracked vehicles, air support
Eastern Area Complex Incident Management Team notes: “The hot, windy weather in recent days led to some extreme fire behavior with crown torching and crown spread. The fire jumped Forest Road 120 (Skibo Road) and pushed north. Unlike the Camp House Fire, the Jenkins Creek Fire was not impacted by lake-effect winds. This fire is burning in mixed boreal forest and grassy ground cover; this area is heavily infested by spruce budworm, so there is an abundance of distressed and dead balsam fir and white spruce. Those ‘snags’ are especially prone to ignition.” Ground access could be limited due to swamps, rivers and a lack of forest roads.

Camp House Fire status, 8:44 a.m. Thursday

Started: Sunday
Acres: 14,979
Location: Brimson
Cause: Under investigation
Resources: 32 engines, 13 tenders, 6 dozers, 3 tracked vehicles, air support
Eastern Area Complex Incident Management Team notes: “Firefighters are engaged in full suppression tactics on the fire and are providing protection to threatened structures and infrastructure around the fire perimeter. The fires have been active, making short runs in the pine overstory — especially in areas with heavy spruce budworm infestation. Fire has proved challenging due to the influence of unpredictable shifting ‘lake turbulence’ winds.” Crews were working to protect an AT&T communications tower.

Munger Shaw Fire status, 11:50 a.m. Thursday

Started: Monday
Acres: 1,600
Location: 2 miles east of Elora Lake
Cause: Undetermined
Resources: 65 personnel
Minnesota Interagency Command Team A notes: “Continue use of aircraft and ground personnel, dozers, and track vehicles to continue establishing an anchor point and containment line.” The fire was “creeping and smoldering.” Sixty-five personnel were on the scene.

Evacuations

St. Louis and Lake counties will contact residents in their respective counties if they need to evacuate.

St. Louis County’s “ready, set, go!” evacuation zone map denotes evacuation status in yellow, orange and red, along with recommended plans to protect residents and their property.
Lake County’s “ready, set, go!” evacuation zone map denotes evacuation status in yellow, orange and red, along with recommended plans to protect residents and their property.

Evacuation centers:

St. Louis County Public Health and American Red Cross shelter at the Fredenberg Community Center, 5104 Fish Lake Road, Duluth.
Old School Lives, 9165 U.S. Highway 53, Cotton.

Weather forecast

A strong low-pressure system moving in Thursday could bring showers and thunderstorms to the Arrowhead by the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Duluth. Severe storms are possible in the afternoon and evening; however, the best chances are in Northwestern Wisconsin.

The forecast for Brimson on Thursday calls for a high of 81 degrees and a chance of showers between noon and 4 p.m. and possible thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Relative humidity was 69%.

The NWS reports that the Camp House and Jenkins Creek fires will continue to spread heavy ground-level smoke Thursday. Winds shifted to the southeast and will push the smoke plumes northwest, affecting portions of St. Louis, Itasca and Koochiching counties through the afternoon.

The NWS lifted the Red Flag Warning for Minnesota on Wednesday, but outdoor burning is discouraged.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an air quality alert for fine particle pollution in Northeastern Minnesota until 4 p.m. Thursday. The Air Quality Index is expected to reach the orange level (unhealthy for sensitive groups, including those with lung disease, asthma, heart disease, children and older adults.

How you can help

United Way of Northeastern Minnesota
For residents impacted in St. Louis County. It is working to establish a wildfire recovery fund. Immediate assistance is offered through its Comforts of Home program, which replaces lost items with referrals from agencies like the Red Cross and St. Louis County. All proceeds go to impacted community members.

Donate online: unitedwaynemn.org/firehelp
Donate via mail: United Way of Northeastern Minnesota, 608 East Drive, Chisholm, MN 55719.

Head of the Lakes United Way
For residents impacted in Lake County. All proceeds go to impacted community members.

Donate online: hlunitedway.harnessgiving.org/campaigns/18236
Donate via mail: Head of the Lakes United Way, 314 W. Superior St. #750, Duluth, MN 55802; include a note indicating “wildfire relief.”

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