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.

Related Articles

Stocks tick higher as Wall Street drifts near its record levels

Shortage of homebuyers forces many sellers to lower prices or walk away as sales slump drags on

Today in History: September 8, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ debuts

Unabashed California liberal and former US Rep. John Burton dies at 92

Chicago churches urge calm resistance ahead of expected federal intervention

“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.”

Related Articles

Trump asks Supreme Court for emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen

Noem says roundup of Koreans at Hyundai plant in Georgia won’t deter investment in the US

South Koreans feel betrayed over detainment of hundreds of workers at plant raid in Georgia

Republicans in Congress are eager for Trump to expand his use of the military on US soil

Chicago churches urge calm resistance ahead of expected federal intervention

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.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are ticking higher on Monday, ahead of a week with several data reports that could dictate by how much or even whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting in a week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was sitting just below its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 11 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

Related Articles

Shortage of homebuyers forces many sellers to lower prices or walk away as sales slump drags on

Business People: Adair Mosley to lead GroundBreak Coalition

Real World Economics: Farmers always on the cutting edge

A guide to earning and redeeming frequent flyer miles

Working Strategies: Pursuing two careers at once

AppLovin and Robinhood Markets helped lead the market after learning they will join the S&P 500 index later this month, along with Emcor Group. Many investment funds directly mimic the index or at least compare their performance against it, so a stock’s joining the list of the 500 largest companies can draw investor dollars immediately.

AppLovin climbed 10.8%, Robinhood jumped 11.9% and Emcor added 0.4%. They will replace three companies that have shrunk enough in size to get demoted to S&P’s index of small stocks, the SmallCap 600.

Those stocks, MarketAxess Holdings, Caesars Entertainment and Enphase Energy, slipped by between 0.1% and 2.3%.

EchoStar jumped 20.5% after saying it agreed to sell spectrum licenses to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $17 billion in cash and stock. SpaceX also agreed to fund roughly $2 billion of interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

Trading across the broad market, though, was relatively quiet ahead of several updates coming later this week on the economy and inflation. They could alter expectations among traders, who at the moment are unanimously forecasting the Fed will cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its meeting two Wednesdays from now.

Investors tend to love such cuts because they can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments. The downside of them is that they can also push inflation higher.

So far this year, the Fed has been more worried about the potential of inflation worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market. But a slew of recent reports showing the U.S. job market is slowing may be changing minds.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government will release preliminary revisions for the job growth numbers it reported through March, and it could show that hiring was weaker than earlier thought.

Reports on inflation will follow on Wednesday and Thursday, showing how much prices rose last month at the wholesale and at the consumer levels. Bigger rises there than expected could tie the Fed’s hands. Officials would need to decide which problem is more pressing, either the job market or inflation, because they have only one tool to fix either. And helping one tends to hurt the other in the short term.

In the bond market, Treasury yields continued to ease as expectations remain high for the Fed to cut interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.05% from 4.10% late Friday and from 4.28% last Tuesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% for one of the larger gains after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he plans to resign.

Analysts said Ishiba’s announcement was expected for some time and welcomed it as moving things forward, although uncertainty remains as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will need to hold an election to choose a new leader. Ishiba will remain prime minister until his successor is chosen and approved by parliament.

Also Monday, Japan’s Cabinet Office said the economy expanded at a stronger rate in the fiscal first quarter than previously estimated, at a seasonally adjusted 2.2% annualized rate, better than the earlier 1.0% rate as solid consumer spending and inventories lifted growth more than previously thought.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.

The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

Related Articles

South Koreans feel betrayed over detainment of hundreds of workers at plant raid in Georgia

Republicans are eager for President Trump to expand his use of the military on US soil

Chicago churches urge calm resistance ahead of expected federal intervention

Bessent says Russian economic woes can bring Putin to table

‘Never seen anything like it’ — what Trump’s favorite phrase says about his presidency

Last week, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold the funding was likely illegal.

Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter on Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.

He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That is when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent.

Ali said Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal for the administration to withhold the money.

The law is “explicit that it is congressional action — not the President’s transmission of a special message — that triggers rescission of the earlier appropriations,” he wrote.

The administration turned to the high court after a panel of federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.

Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The case has been winding its way through the courts for months.

Nonprofit organizations that sued the government have said the funding freeze breaks federal law and has shut down funding for even the most urgent lifesaving programs abroad.