By SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will embark on a reconstruction of Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

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“We’re also going to rebuild Dulles airport because it’s not a good airport,” Trump said during a meeting of his Cabinet members at the White House. “It should be a great airport, and it’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport.”

Dulles is one of the three Washington-area airports and its quality is a hotly-debated topic among Washingtonians.

Trump, a former real estate mogul, said the Dulles building was “incorrectly designed.” He nonetheless praised Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed the main terminal at Dulles.

“We’re going to turn that around and we’re going to make Dulles airport — serving Washington and Virginia, Maryland, etc. — we’re gonna make that into something really spectacular. We have an amazing plan for it.”

His motorcade took an unannounced drive through Dulles in early November. At the time, the White House said Trump wanted to take the detour to the airport to assess potential future projects.

During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy singled out the controversial “people movers” that ferry travelers in between concourses. One of the vehicles, which are also called “mobile lounges,” crashed in November.

Still, some experts questioned the substance of Trump’s Dulles remarks.

Sheldon H. Jacobson, an airport security and aviation infrastructure expert whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, called the president’s announcement a “head-scratcher,” noting it comes amid substantial modernization work already underway at Dulles, including a new 14-gate concourse set to open next year that will give passengers direct access to its AeroTrain system.

“I can think of a lot higher priorities right now,” he said, pointing to the long-needed updates to the nation’s aging air traffic control equipment. Trump said Tuesday that his administration was also working on modernizing the air traffic control system.

Jacobson said the airport’s continued reliance on people movers remains a “glaring weakness,” but added that “there are a lot of things actually in very good shape at Dulles right now,” including the AeroTrain.

“I’m not sure what he’s thinking,” Jacobson said of Trump. “His comments are non sequitur to the reality of this airport.”

The Transportation Department announced later Tuesday that it is inviting bids for a Dulles project that would build “completely new terminals and concourses” at the airport. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that it will work with the Transportation Department to build upon the existing $7 billion plan to improve Dulles.

Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Josh Funk in Omaha contributed to this report.

By JOSH FUNK

The Trump administration’s latest move to enforce standards for commercial truck drivers, by flagging nearly half of the driving schools as noncompliant, doesn’t figure to disrupt the industry, experts say. But the heavy scrutiny on immigrant drivers might.

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The bigger, more reputable schools were not included in the list and many of the schools that were appear to have already been idle, leading trucking industry officials to predict minimal turmoil. The self-certification process that has been in place since 2022 allowed questionable schools to gain recognition. Plus, these efforts to enforce training standards — and the previous moves to strengthen licensing particularly for immigrants — will take effect gradually over time as licenses come up for renewal and new drivers graduate from schools.

The fact that there are probably more drivers than needed right now in the midst of a 10% drop in shipments since 2022 because of the economic uncertainty also helps, although trucking companies still struggle to find enough well-qualified drivers with clean records.

Even before a truck driver that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people, the administration focused on making sure truck drivers meet English proficiency standards. The focus on immigrant drivers, who account for about 20% of all truckers, intensified after that August crash as the Transportation Department audited commercial driver’s license programs and Duffy proposed new restrictions that would severely limit which noncitizens could get a license to drive a semi or a bus.

A court put the new rules on hold. But Duffy threatened to withhold millions from California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota after the audits found significant problems under the existing rules like commercial licenses being valid long after an immigrant truck driver’s work permit expired, That pressure prompted California to revoke 17,000 licenses.

Some immigrant drivers are afraid to go on the road

Trucking company owner Dave Atwal said that as a result many of his drivers at Diamond Transportation in Lodi, California, are “just afraid to go to some of these other states where they might get harassed.” Atwal has been able to assign some drivers to in-state routes, but he has lost more than 40 drivers who either walked away from the job or were unable to renew their licenses even though they have several years of safe driving on their records.

Dave Laut said he has had a hard time finding all the drivers he wants to have behind the wheels of his 300 or so trucks at FBT Inc. Immigrant drivers are bearing the brunt of the government enforcement, according to Laut who is Sikh like the driver in the Florida crash and the driver of another fatal crash in California this fall.

“A lot of (Sikhs) are quitting truck driving,” he said. “They feel people target them, and they feel insulted and they are quitting jobs. They are hardworking guys. They stand out more.”

Laut said his company underwent a Homeland Security audit of his drivers’ immigration statuses about two weeks ago. It passed that review, which many trucking firms in California are undergoing.

But Duffy’s announcement Monday that as many as 7,500 trucking programs could soon be decertified will threaten the ongoing effort to attract and train new drivers — particularly if any schools doing things the right way get caught up with schools not playing by the rules.

But many of the schools that would be forced out of business were already idle before the Transportation Department took action, so decertifying them may not have a dramatic impact. The vast majority of the schools at risk either failed to submit a required biannual report or hadn’t submitted any certificates verifying that a student had completed their course in the past year.

Trucking industry can likely absorb the changes

Logan Cooper, who arranges for trucks to deliver containers of imported goods from ports and rail yards for OEC Group, said “there’s some room to absorb this in the industry” but there will likely be some impact over time.

But Blair Robbins, who advises companies about their transportation needs as a partner with EisnerAmper, said that even if all these efforts do lead to higher rates, they would be increasing off the current lower shipping rates that are depressed because of the decline in the number of shipments in recent years. Robbins said he has seen estimates that only about 5% to 10% of the workforce might be affected, and that will happen gradually over time.

Tougher standards should mean safer drivers

Dane Rogers, CEO of Western Pacific Truck School in California and the national Commercial Vehicle Training Association, supports the federal government’s efforts to enforce the 2022 driver training standards. Rogers’ school, which trains hundreds of drivers every year, was not found out of compliance.

“We’ve been highlighting this for years,” Rogers said. “There’s so many truck schools that just pop up, and they don’t adhere to the rigorous standards set forth by either California or the FMCSA – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.”

Jeffery Burkhardt, who is chair of the national trucking schools group, said established schools don’t have any problem complying with the standards. Burkhardt is also is senior director of operations at Ancora, which provides CDL training at colleges, community colleges and companies.

“For the legitimate schools it’s not a problem. We welcome it. For the illegitimate schools, it’s a bad thing for them,” Burkhardt said.

Decertifying nearly half of all trucking schools could limit the number of new drivers and create monthslong waiting lists at the remaining schools. But Rogers and major trucking groups, including the American Trucking Association and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, think it is a good idea to ensure schools are meeting the standards to prepare drivers to handle 80,000-pound trucks on highways across the country.

“Do you want more truck drivers that are dangerous, or do you want less truck drivers that are more competent?” Rogers said. “I would go with the latter.”

But this may extend wait lists at trucking schools

Antonio Yates said classes at the 100 Placement Truck Driving School he works at in Detroit are already full for the next two to three months, and he expects the wait time will get worse if all these schools close. He said the number of immigrants willing to pay $5,000 to learn how to operate a semitrailer truck or $3,000 to learn to drive a bus has increased over the past year or so.

“They’re from all over, South America, Africa. They’re from everywhere,” said Yates, who added that most are paying for the training themselves.

Yates acknowledged that understanding the English language can be tough for some.

“If I can’t communicate with you, I can’t even train you properly,” he said. “We turn people away all of the time.”

Associated Press writers Corey Williams, Audrey McAvoy and Sophie Austin contributed to this report.

By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military would have committed a crime if it killed the survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat, legal experts say.

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It doesn’t matter whether the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels as the Trump administration asserts. Such a fatal second strike would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict, the experts say.

“I can’t imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water,” said Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College. “That is clearly unlawful.”

The White House confirmed Monday that a second strike was conducted in September against a vessel accused of trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela and insisted it was done “in self-defense” and in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.

A news report about that attack spawned a new level of scrutiny from lawmakers and added to a growing debate about whether service members can refuse to follow illegal orders, which some Democratic lawmakers recently encouraged.

Here’s what to know about the strikes and laws of armed conflict:

What set off the debate

The Washington Post reported last week that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a spoken directive to “kill everybody” on a boat targeted on Sept. 2, the first vessel hit in what the Trump administration calls a counterdrug campaign that has grown to over 20 known strikes and more than 80 dead.

Two men survived that first attack, which killed nine others, and were clinging to the wreckage, the newspaper reported. The commander in charge, Adm. Frank Bradley, ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, killing the two men, the Post reported.

Hegseth called it “fake news” on social media, saying the boat strikes are “in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the administration “will look into” it but added that “I wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike.” He noted that Hegseth told him “he did not order the death of those two men.”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that Bradley had ordered the second strike and “was well within his authority to do so.” She denied that Hegseth said to leave no survivors.

The administration has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, similar to the war against al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 attacks.

What the law allows during armed conflict

A second strike killing survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not, Schmitt said.

He said the U.S. is not in a legitimate armed conflict with drug cartels, which would have to be committing high levels of violence against the country, not just trafficking drugs that kill Americans.

Even if it was, “it has been clear for well over a century that you may not declare what’s called ‘no quarter’ — take no survivors, kill everyone,” Schmitt said.

Whether an armed conflict is taking place likely would not be settled by an international body like the International Criminal Court, to which the U.S. is not a party, said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was a national security official in the George W. Bush administration.

The U.S., however, could face blowback from allies, which may decline to share information for military operations that are illegal under their own laws or international law, said Waxman, who served in the State and Defense departments and on the National Security Council under Bush.

America’s armed conflict against al-Qaida received support from the U.N. Security Council, NATO and U.S. allies, he said.

The legal threat posed to US military personnel

If the U.S. is not in an armed conflict, that means it violated international human rights law, which governs how countries treat individuals, Schmitt said.

“You can only use lethal force in circumstances where there is an imminent threat,” Schmitt said. “And that wasn’t the case.”

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and a former State Department lawyer, agreed that the U.S. is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels.

“The term for a premeditated killing outside of armed conflict is murder,” Finucane said, adding that U.S. military personnel could be prosecuted in American courts.

“Murder on the high seas is a crime,” he said. “Conspiracy to commit murder outside of the United States is a crime. And under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 118 makes murder an offense.”

The Pentagon’s own manual on the laws of war describes a scenario similar to the Sept. 2 boat strike when discussing when service members should refuse to comply with unlawful orders.

“For example,” the manual says, “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”

What Congress has said about what comes next

Leaders of the Armed Services committees in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate’s committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

Concern about the second strike comes after a group of Democratic lawmakers — all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community — released a video calling on U.S. military members to defy “illegal orders.”

Among them was Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy fighter pilot who has questioned the use of the military to attack the alleged drug boats. The Pentagon says it’s investigating Kelly over possible breaches of military law tied to the video.

Kelly said Monday that “if what seems to have happened, actually happened, I’m really concerned about our service members.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has defended the boat strikes as stopping the flow of narcotics into the U.S. and said to wait for the outcome of the reviews.

“Obviously, if there was a direction to take a second shot and kill people, that’s a violation of an ethical, moral or legal code. We need to get to the bottom of it,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison in connection with the November 2024 murder of a 24-year-old man who authorities said was shot dead after being followed and “hunted.”

Jehovah M. Nelson, 20, was sentenced Tuesday under terms of a plea agreement. He was ordered to submit a DNA sample as part of the deal. He and another man, Kenneth E. Terry, who was 18 at the time, were charged in connection with the shooting death.

Jehovah M. Nelson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Dejaun Hemphill, 24, was with two cousins when he was shot near University Avenue and Rice Street on Nov. 5, 2024. Authorities said he and his cousins were being followed by two men, but were unaware they were being “hunted.”

A woman who was previously in a relationship with Terry reported that she had been hanging out with one of Hemphill’s cousins’ younger brothers, which was making Terry jealous. She said Terry had been bragging about Hemphill’s murder on social media, according to a criminal complaint.

Hemphill died at the hospital on Nov. 15.

Surveillance video showed the shooter was wearing a white Michael Myers mask — the killer character in the “Halloween” movies who wears a mask. A similar mask was later found in a vehicle associated with the two men, the complaint said.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Nelson with second-degree murder and Terry with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Nelson was also charged with two counts of attempted murder of Hemphill’s cousins who were with him.

Nelson pleaded guilty to second degree murder without intent; the other charges were dismissed.

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