By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is planning a sweeping transformation that will merge or close headquarters, dump outdated vehicles and aircraft, slash as many as 1,000 headquarters staff in the Pentagon and shift personnel to units in the field, according to a new memo and U.S. officials familiar with the changes.

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In a memo released Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the transformation to “build a leaner, more lethal force.” Discussions about the changes have been going on for weeks, including decisions to combine a number of Army commands.

U.S. officials said as many as 40 general officer slots could be cut as a result of the restructuring. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The changes come as the Pentagon is under pressure to slash spending and personnel as part of the broader federal government cuts pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration and ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

In his memo, Hegseth said the Army must eliminate wasteful spending and prioritize improvements to air and missile defense, long-range fires, cyber, electronic warfare and counter-space capabilities.

Specifically, he said the Army must merge Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into one entity and merge Forces Command, Army North and Army South into a single headquarters “focused on homeland defense and partnership with our Western Hemisphere allies.”

In addition, he called for the Army to consolidate units, including Joint Munitions Command and Sustainment Command, as well as operations at various depots and arsenals.

Officials said that while the mergers will result in fewer staff positions, there won’t be a decrease in the Army’s overall size. Instead, soldiers would be shifted to other posts.

On the chopping block would be legacy weapons and equipment programs, such as the Humvee and some helicopter formations, along with a number of armor and aviation units across the active duty, National Guard and Reserve. The units were not identified.

A key issue, however, will be Congress.

For years, lawmakers have rejected Army and Pentagon efforts to kill a wide range of programs, often because they are located in members’ home districts.

Defense Department and service leaders learned long ago to spread headquarters, depots, troops and installations across the country to maximize congressional support. But those efforts also have stymied later moves to chop programs with such support.

It’s unclear whether the House and Senate will allow all of the cuts or simply add money back to the budget to keep some intact.

Now 14 months in, Khaled El-Ahmad is more comfortable in his role as Minnesota United’s chief soccer officer. He’s worked to enhance the club’s culture on and off the field and believes MNUFC is now better positioned to pursue targets in the summer transfer window.

The Loons added four players in the just-closed primary transfer window, a group headlined by wingback/midfielder Julian Gressel.

MNUFC can have up to three vacant senior roster spots for additions this summer, with the ability to add one Designated Player and one Under-22 Initiative signing. This is possible with the buying down the midfielder Joaquin Pereyra’s DP contract and the likelihood the club puts Hassani Dotson on the season-ending injury list.

Some of their approach will be situational, El-Ahmad said, taking into account other possible injuries or sales of current players to other clubs.

“So, we’re quite open,” he said.

Al-Ahmad also teased some new “really exiting” additions for the club’s developmental team, MNUFC2.

“We have to be good at picking in various pockets (around the world), so we are also exploring the various pockets,” El-Ahmad said. “We do spend time on college and we do try to look international with the young ones.”

Interest in Ramsay

El-Ahmad said he expects head coach Eric Ramsay to be linked to job openings in his native England. That has already happened this year with Ramsay being tied to openings at Swansea City and Southampton.

“There is none of that at this moment (that) is reality,” El-Ahmad said. “It’s a testament to us that we have a young coach that is respected.”

Pending free agents

Loons have a handful of key papers nearing the end of their contracts. Goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and Dotson have expiring contracts at the end of the season.

“We want to provide the best possible situation that is good for the player and the club,” El-Ahmad said. “If we meet, great. If we don’t, then we move on.”

Captain center back Michael Boxall and midfielders Wil Trapp and Robin Lod are under club options for the 2026 season.

GAM use explained

The Loons had the third-highest amount of general allocation money (GAM) as of late February. MNUFC checked in at $3.8 million, behind only San Diego ($4.1 million) and New York City ($4.2 million), according to MLS.

Some fans have been calling on the club to spend more of this resource on the roster.

“I think it’s important that we need to have flexibility,” El-Ahmad explained. “There needs to be flexibility if injuries happen. There needs to be flexibility if the market provides you opportunities that you can take advantage of. And I want to have flexibility to keep improving every window.”

Briefly

El-Ahmad said Joseph Rosales has denied he used discriminatory language toward Vancouver’s Emmanuel Sabbi during Sunday’s match. The club is respecting the MLS process in determining if Rosales said something that would warrant punishment. … Loons have been pursuing U.S. Green Cards for a handful of players, including Sang Bin Jeong, Jefferson Diaz and Pereyra. But uncertainty looms over whether the immigration paperwork will be obtained given the Trump administration policies. … MNUFC2’s Jeremy Hall was named MLS Next Pro coach of the month after a 4-0-0 start in April. The second team’s home opener at 3 p.m. Friday at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

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By OLIVIA DIAZ and BEN FINLEY, Associated Press/Report for America

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Trump administration told a federal judge Thursday that a Georgetown University scholar’s lawsuit against deportation should be moved from Virginia, where it was filed, to Texas, where he’s jailed over allegations of “spreading Hamas propaganda.”

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles seemed skeptical of the government’s request, which would involve her dismissing the case in Virginia. She raised concerns that a dismissal in her court would void her order in March to keep Badar Khan Suri in the U.S. while his First Amendment case plays out.

David Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, told Giles that he would need to talk to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement about the judge’s concern. Byerley said he didn’t see why ICE wouldn’t honor her order against deporting Khan Suri while the case is refiled in a Texas federal court.

“OK,” the judge said. “I’m not going to rely on that. But thank you.”

In a government filing before the hearing, U.S. attorneys argued that Khan Suri’s attorneys filed his suit in Virginia after he was already taken out of state. They said filing his case in Texas is “relatively straightforward application of well-settled law.”

The Trump administration said it quickly moved Khan Suri from a facility in Farmville, Virginia, because of overcrowding to a detention center in Louisiana and then Texas.

But the judge seemed skeptical of the government’s overcrowding claim. She asked the U.S. to provide details about the number of open beds in Farmville at the time of Khan Suri’s arrest as well as the number of people who’ve been transferred because of overcrowding.

Khan Suri’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union told the judge that once in Texas, Khan Suri slept on the floor of an overcrowded detention center for at the least the first few weeks. However, they said, he now has his own cell in Texas.

Khan Suri’s attorneys said the real reason he was moved to Texas was to bring the case before a more conservative judge. The attorney, Vishal Agraharkar, accused the government of what’s often called “forum shopping.”

Unlike the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, federal district courts in Texas and western Louisiana are dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Win or lose, appeals of such cases go to the reliably conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 5th Circuit is one of 13 federal appellate courts around the nation and has 17 full-time judges. Twelve were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by former President Donald Trump.

Agraharkar’s statements before the judge in Alexandria were echoed by another attorney for Khan Suri, Hassan Ahmad, outside the courtroom after Thursday’s hearing.

“There is a reason why the detention facilities exist there,” Ahmad said, adding, “This kind of rigged game has to stop.”

Ahmad was among a group of people who gathered at the courthouse to show support. They included Khan Suri’s wife, Georgetown students and faculty and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents the northern Virginia district where Khan Suri lives.

Khan Suri’s lawsuit was filed shortly after masked, plain-clothed officers arrested him on March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia.

His attorneys say he was unconstitutionally arrested and jailed because of his wife’s connection to Gaza. He and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh’s father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri’s attorneys say.

The ACLU said in the memo that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.

According to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which Khan Suri “euphemistically refers to as ‘the government of Gaza.’”

Khan Suri’s arrest also stems from his social media posts about the war in Gaza, in which he expressed support of Palestinian people. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on the social platform X that Khan Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and was determined to be deportable.

The ACLU has argued that arrests on such grounds violated his First Amendment rights.

Khan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and Saleh have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.

Before his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.

Seventeen-year-old Agustina Pestel and her classmates don’t know exactly why their teachers nominated them to be student guides for Minnesota Supreme Court justices who visited the school Thursday.

But the junior at Highland Park Senior High School, who is interested in journalism and law, met Chief Justice Natalie Hudson along with other student representatives ahead of oral arguments at the school that morning.

“We just got to ask her a lot of questions about not just her personal life, but her life as chief justice, and what it was like in that position, and kind of the sacrifices she’s had to make throughout her life to get to that,” Pestel said. “And she explained a lot that she still gets those nerves, so she tries to bring a little humor into it sometimes.”

The Minnesota Supreme Court’s seven justices gathered at the St. Paul high school to hear the oral arguments on a civil commitment case.

Students Rosemary Egberg, center and Alice Verbrugge, right, listen to Associate Justice Sarah E. Hennesy of the Minnesota Supreme Court at Highland Park High School in St. Paul on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

30 years of school visits

The state Supreme Court first held oral arguments at schools in Rochester in 1995. Highland Park is the court’s 56th in-school visit for oral arguments.

The court tries to visit schools in all 10 judicial districts over the years, Hudson said. Ramsey County is in the Second Judicial District.

“We want our young people to be engaged citizens, and so this gives them an opportunity to see the judicial system at work,” Hudson said. “But it also (is) … as a service to our community as well. To … educate young people about the importance of the judicial branch, the work that we do in protecting rights, that there is a place for people to bring their grievances and how it is we go about resolving those matters in a democracy.”

High schools typically hear oral arguments for criminal cases, though the one at Highland was a civil case. The focus is on selecting cases that are interesting and accessible for students, Hudson said.

“But we try to find a case that has one issue, you know, no more than two, so that they can focus in on that. So something that we think high school students would be interested in and they care about so that they can see how that would relate to their lives,” Hudson said.

Volunteer lawyers and judges also visit classes ahead of oral arguments in order to help students understand what they will be hearing during arguments, she said.

“…We all love these opportunities, because it gets us out of the Capitol, where we hear most of our oral arguments, and gets us out into the community…Young people will ask and say all kinds of things, and that’s great,” Hudson said. “You want to hear what they’re interested in, or what they know about the court system and don’t know, and they’re always very inquisitive…”

Sen Nesje, 14, listens listen as attorneys make oral arguments during a case before the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Highland Park Senior High School auditorium in St. Paul on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Hearing from students

After oral arguments concluded, students were able to ask justices about their work, work-life balance and their paths to the court. Later, the justices ate lunch with student representatives and visited classrooms.

Student representative and junior Lynex Lee, 16, sees law as something he might be interested in in the future.

“What I found intriguing about the judges were that some of them didn’t choose to go into being a judge in the first place, and they wanted to be like a lawyer or such,” Lee said. “And then I really felt that you don’t have to be set on one thing …”

Even for students who are not interested in studying law, it plays a role in other fields students will decide to go into, said junior and student representative Alfiya Jarso, 16.

“I think it’s cool because it’s important that we hear about things like this,” Jarso said. “But seeing things in real time and getting a better understanding of how the law system works, especially as students who are trying to find out what they want to be in the future, it’s very important to us that we can kind of experience that, see what we like, and watch it all go down.”

To view the event, go to spps.eduvision.tv/directplayer.aspx?q=63qDJvCLgfGNkbUQQdvNzQ%253d%253d.

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