By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he’s ready to change the chamber’s rules to allow quick confirmations of dozens of President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees, moving this week to speed up votes after months of Democratic delays.

Thune says he’ll start the process of changing the rules when the Senate goes into session on Monday afternoon, with a final vote likely coming later this week. “We must return to the Senate’s traditional confirmation process that existed before this unprecedented blockade,” Thune said in an op-ed published on Breitbart.com Monday morning.

Republicans have been talking about options for changing the rules since early August, when the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan negotiations over the confirmation process. Democrats have blocked nearly every single one of Trump’s nominees, forcing majority Republicans to spend valuable floor time on procedural votes and leaving many positions in the executive branch unfilled.

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The changes come after both parties have escalated their obstruction of the other party’s nominees for years, and as leaders in both parties have incrementally changed the rules to make the process less bipartisan. The proposal to group nominations is loosely based on legislation introduced by Democrats two years ago as Republicans blocked many of then-President Joe Biden’s picks.

But while Senate Republicans forced similar delays during Biden’s administration, Democrats have blocked almost all of Trump’s nominations. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.

“Democrats have made President Donald Trump the first president on record to not have a single nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent, and they are forcing time-consuming votes on noncontroversial nominees who go on to be confirmed by large bipartisan margins,” Thune said in the op-ed.

The delays have infuriated Trump, who told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” in a social media post after negotiations broke down over the process in early August.

Thune has not yet said how they will change the rules, but Republicans said last week that the leading option was to allow votes on large groups of nominees at once if a majority of senators agree. Currently, one senator’s objection can force days of votes on a single nominee.

If Republicans act quickly, they could confirm more than 100 of Trump’s pending nominations as soon as this week. The rules change is expected to only apply to executive branch nominations, not lifetime judicial appointments, and would exclude the most high-profile positions, such as Cabinet nominees, that require a longer debate time. Some others could also be excluded, such as nominees that are particularly controversial.

The process to change the rules will likely require several floor votes and the support of a simple majority, so at least 51 out of the chamber’s 53 Republicans. But most GOP senators appear to be on board.

The change will be the latest salvo in years of intensifying standoffs over presidential nominations. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats have said the rules change would be a mistake, especially as Senate Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass spending bills and other legislation moving forward.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that Republicans’ proposed plan “guts the Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent, weakens our checks and balances, and guarantees that historically bad nominees will only get worse with even less oversight.”

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission on Monday, the latest in string of high-profile firings allowed for now at the Supreme Court.

Trump moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but lower courts ordered her reinstated after she sued because the law only allows commissioners to be removed for problems like misconduct or neglect of duty.

The Justice Department has argued that the FTC and other executive branch agencies are under Trump’s control and the Republican president is free to remove commissioners without cause.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. commercial flights to Haiti’s capital that expired Monday has been extended to March 7, 2026 because of the risk that powerful gangs might attack flights with drones and small arms.

The FAA noted that Haitian gangs now control 90% of Port-au-Prince as well as nearby strategic routes and border areas.

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“Haitian (foreign terrorist organizations) maintain access to small arms and unmanned aircraft systems capable of reaching low-altitude phases of flight,” the FAA said in a statement Friday.

In May, the U.S. government designated a powerful gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm as a foreign terrorist organization.

The coalition had forced Haiti’s main international airport in Port-au-Prince to close for nearly three months last year after launching coordinated attacks on key government infrastructure.

The Toussaint Louverture International Airport reopened in May, but gang violence in the area persisted.

Last November, gangs opened fire on a Spirit Airlines flight landing in Port-au-Prince, striking a flight attendant who received minor injuries. Other commercial planes on the ground were hit at the time.

The shooting forced Haiti’s main international airport to close for the second time last year and led to a ban on U.S. commercial flights to Port-au-Prince.

The airport reopened in December, but it wasn’t until June that the first commercial domestic flights resumed.

No international commercial flights have resumed.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a civil jury’s finding that President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist after she accused him of sexual assault.

In a ruling issued Monday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s appeal of the defamation award, finding that the “jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable.”

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Trump had argued that he should not have to pay the sum as a result of a Supreme Court decision expanding presidential immunity. His lawyers had asked for a new trial.

A civil jury in Manhattan issued the $88.3 million award last year following a trial that centered on Trump’s repeated social media attacks against Carroll over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996.

That award followed a separate trial, in which Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll and ordered to pay $5 million. That award was upheld by an appeals court last December.

In a memoir, and again at a 2023 trial, Carroll described how a chance encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue in 1996 started with the two flirting as they shopped, then ended with a violent struggle inside a dressing room.

Carroll said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her.

A jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, but concluded he hadn’t committed rape, as defined under New York law.

Trump repeatedly denied that the encounter took place and accused Carroll of making it up to help sell her book.

He also said that Carroll was “not my type.”

The 2023 jury awarded Carroll $5 million to compensate her for both the alleged attack and statements Trump made denying that it had happened.

After that first verdict, the court held a second trial with a new jury for the purpose of deciding damages for additional statements Trump made attacking Carroll’s character and truthfulness.

Trump had skipped the first civil trial but he attended the second, which took place as he was running for president in 2024. Speaking to reporters throughout the trial, Trump portrayed the lawsuit as part of a broader effort to smear him and prevent him from regaining the White House.

His lawyers complained that the judge, in setting rules for the second, damages trial, had barred Trump and his defense team from claiming in front of the jury that he was innocent of the attack. The judge ruled that that issue had been settled by the first jury and didn’t need to be revisited.