WASHINGTON (AP) — Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6% instead of rising to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday.

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The agencies said the decision follows recommendations from the FAA’s safety team, after a “rapid decline” in controller callouts. The flight disruptions were implemented during the government shutdown, the longest in history.

The 6% limit will stay in place while officials assess whether the air traffic system can safely return to normal operations, the agencies said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said safety remains their top priority and that all decisions will be guided by data.

Since Friday the restrictions took effect last Friday, more than 10,100 flights have been canceled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. The FAA originally planned to ramp up flight cuts from 4% to 10% of flights at the 40 airports.

The FAA said that worrisome safety data showed flight reductions were needed to ease pressure on the aviation system and help manage worsening staffing shortages at its air traffic control facilities as the shutdown entered its second month and flight disruptions began to pile up.

Unpaid for more than a month, some air traffic controllers have begun calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs — leaving more control towers and facilities short-staffed.

The FAA’s list of 40 airports spans more than two dozen states and includes large hubs such as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. The order requires all commercial airlines to make cuts at those airports.

By JOSH FUNK

California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after the Trump administration raised concerns about people in the country illegally improperly receiving licenses to drive a semitruck or a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn’t the reason.

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Newsom said the revocations are for violations of state law, but he didn’t provide specifics.

Both the Democratic governor’s office and the Republican Trump Administration’s Transportation Department agreed that these licenses violated the existing standard that were in place before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently tightened the rules following a nationwide commercial driver’s license audit launched after a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.

Fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year also highlight questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver last month that killed three more people only added to the concerns.

California state transportation officials didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking more details about why these licenses are being revoked.

Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state had acted improperly even though the state had previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses the state had issued after Duffy raised concerns.

Duffy previously imposed new restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for one of these commercial driver’s licenses. He said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy has taken action against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The reviews in the other states have been delayed by the government shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten up their standards.

Duffy revoked $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English language requirements for truckers, and he reiterated Wednesday that he will take another $160 million from the state over these improperly issued licenses if they don’t invalidate every illegal license and address all the concerns. But revoking these licenses is part of the state’s effort to comply.

″After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said. ”This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose licenses are being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government.

“Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Newsom’s spokesman Brandon Richards said.

The new rules for commercial driver’s licenses that Duffy announced in September make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business. But the rules won’t be enforced retroactively, so those 190,000 drivers will be allowed to keep their commercial licenses at least until they come up for renewal.

Those new requirements were not in place at the time these 17,000 licenses were issued. But these drivers were given notices that their licenses will expire in 60 days.

Duffy said in September that investigators found that one quarter of the 145 licenses they reviewed in California shouldn’t have been issued. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after.

Newsom’s office said the state followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about issuing these licenses to noncitizens.

Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this report from Sacramento, California.

By TIFFANY STANLEY

U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care.

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From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers.

More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities.

Major medical groups and health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender patients.

Most Catholic health care institutions have taken a conservative approach and not offered gender-affirming care, which may involve hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments. The new directives will formalize that mandate. Bishops will have autonomy in making the directives into law for their dioceses.

“With regard to the gender ideology, I think it’s very important the church makes a strong statement here,” said Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese during the public discussion of the revised directives.

The Catholic Health Association thanked the bishops for incorporating much of the organization’s feedback into the directives. It said in a statement, “Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized.”

The new guidelines incorporate earlier documents on gender identity from the Vatican in 2024 and the U.S. bishops in 2023.

In the 2023 doctrinal note, titled “Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body,” the bishops specified: “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex, or take part in the development of such procedures.”

Progressive religious voices respond

The Catholic Church is not monolithic when it comes to transgender rights. Some parishes and priests welcome trans Catholics into the fold, while others are not as accepting.

“Catholic teaching upholds the invaluable dignity of every human life, and for many trans people, gender-affirming care is what makes life livable,” said Michael Sennett, a trans man who is active in his Massachusetts parish.

Sennett serves on the board of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. In 2024, the group arranged a meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the need for gender-affirming care.

New Ways Ministry’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said that for many transgender Catholics he knows, “the transition process was not just a biological necessity, but a spiritual imperative. That if they were going to be living as authentic people in the way that they believe God made them, then transition becomes a necessary thing.”

On the same day that U.S. Catholic bishops were discussing gender identity, the heads of several major progressive religious denominations issued a statement in support of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, at a time when many state legislatures and the Trump administration are curtailing their rights.

The 10 signers included the heads of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

“During a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender – a great many of us do. Let it be known instead that our beloveds are created in the image of God – Holy and whole,” the religious leaders said in a statement.

U.S. bishops united in their concern for immigrants

The Catholic bishops, wrapping up their conference in Baltimore, overwhelmingly approved a “special message” on immigration Wednesday. Such pastoral statements are rare; the last was in 2013 in response to the Obama administration’s mandate for insurers to provide contraception coverage.

Catholic leaders individually have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Fear of immigration enforcement has suppressed Mass attendance at some parishes. Local clerics are fighting to administer sacraments to detained immigrants.

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops’ statement reads. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

In a show of unity, multiple bishops stood up to speak in favor of the statement during the final afternoon discussion, including Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the newly elected president of the conference.

“I’m strongly in support of it for the good of our immigrant brothers and sisters, but also to find a nice balance,” Coakley said, noting that they call “upon our lawmakers and our administration to offer us a meaningful path of reform of our immigration system.”

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich walked to the microphone to recommend stronger language around mass deportation. “That seems to be the central issue we are facing with our people at this time,” he said.

His brother bishops agreed. The updated text now states that U.S. Catholic bishops “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A longtime Mounds View High School teacher was charged Wednesday with criminal sexual conduct of a 16-year-old female student.

Ted Matthew Bennett (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Ted Matthew Bennett, 58, of Minneapolis, has been a teacher at Mounds View High in Arden Hills for 27 years, according to the criminal complaint charging him with one count each of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. Bennett was arrested Tuesday and remains jailed ahead of a first appearance on the charges scheduled for Thursday.

An attorney for Bennett is not listed in the court file.

Bennett was put on administrative leave Monday. In a Wednesday email to parents, principal Rob Reetz said, “We are deeply disturbed by this news, and our foremost concern is for all who may be affected by this distressing situation. We stand with all survivors of sexual assault and abuse, and our school unequivocally condemns any actions that harms or exploits students.”

The complaint said authorities believe there may be other victims and that the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office would be opening a tip line for others to come forward.

According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement responded to the high school Monday on a report of an “inappropriate relationship” between Bennett and the student.

An investigation showed Bennett was involved in a sexual relationship with the girl, and that he provided her with alcohol and narcotics, the charges say.

The teen told law enforcement that they communicated through their personal phones and email since the end of 2024-2025 school year. She described having a “light” conversation with Bennett over the summer and that it continued into the current school year.

The teen said she had been going through some hard times and had no one else to talk to, and that Bennett listened and understood her problems. She initially denied that they engaged in sexual activity and said she didn’t want to get him in trouble and blamed herself.

A forensic search of her phone revealed a “significant amount” of evidence that Bennett had sexual contact with the teen on multiple occasions, the complaint said.

The phone exam also revealed evidence of Bennett providing the teen with alcohol and narcotics. On Nov. 2, she asked Bennett in a text if he would give her Adderall and he replied back, “Maybe…Add on some more illegal behaviors to the list,” the complaint reads.

Four days later, Bennett gave her Adderall and alcohol in the school parking lot. Afterward, he messaged her, “I’m a little high, a little juiced up from add (Adderall), as (sic) maybe a bit tipsy from Jungle Juice and still a bit high from car activities,” the complaint reads.

Bennett again gave the teen alcohol two days later, and they discussed using cocaine, the complaint alleges.

In a follow-up interview Nov. 11, the teen told law enforcement that Bennett had been her English teacher throughout the 2024-2025 school year and that they began communicating through phone and email in spring 2025.

She said throughout her 10th-grade year, Bennett commented on her looks, telling her she was “hot” and commenting on her body. She said texts between them became more sexual as time went on and sexual contact began last month, the complaint said.

She said she and Bennett met in each other’s vehicles to engage in sexual acts. Another incident occurred during the school day in a back room of the theater, she told law enforcement.

She said Bennett also sent her “porn clips” electronically and talked about them recreating what was in the video.

Cellphone evidence showed that on Nov. 10, during a conversation, Bennett told the teen he had just been put on administrative leave and said, “I was fired, lie to them and delete everything,” according to the complaint.

Reetz, the high school’s principal, provided law enforcement with an initial report he received on Nov. 7 from the teen’s friend and her boyfriend who reported concerns to school staff about Bennett’s relationship with the teen.

School officials located a video of Bennett and the teen walking together in school hallways and going into a storage closet together, the complaint said. Officials also located email contact between Bennett and the teen using their school e-mail addresses.

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Mounds View High School teacher arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct

Law enforcement arrested Bennett at his home, where they executed a search warrant of the residence. Electronic devices were seized along with other items, including handwritten notes to Bennett from the teen. Police are still analyzing all the evidence seized.

Bennett declined an interview with law enforcement.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called the case “a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“A teacher using drugs, alcohol and authority to exploit a vulnerable student is abhorrent,” he said in a statement. “Schools must be a safe place for students, and we will not tolerate abuse of power or the sexual exploitation of our youth.”