By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Department on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects, the latest attack by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind industry.

Funding for projects in 11 states was rescinded, including $435 million for a floating wind farm in Northern California and $47 million to boost an offshore wind project in Maryland that the Interior Department has pledged to cancel.

“Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little.”

It’s the latest step by the administration against renewable energy sources

The Trump administration has stepped up its crusade against wind and other renewable energy sources in recent weeks, cutting federal funding and canceling projects approved by the Biden administration in a sustained attack on clean energy sources that scientists say are crucial to the fight against climate change.

President Donald Trump has vowed to restore U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market and has pushed to increase U.S. reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.

California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called Duffy’s action “outrageous” and deeply disappointing.

Trump and his Cabinet “have a stubborn and mystifying hatred of clean energy,” Huffman said in an interview. “It’s so dogmatic. They are willing to eliminate thousands of jobs and an entire sector that can bring cheap, reliable power to American consumers.”

The canceled funding will be redirected to upgrade ports and other infrastructure in the U.S., where possible, the Transportation Department said.

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Other wind projects are also being halted

Separately, Trump’s Energy Department said Friday it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee approved by the Biden administration to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure to accommodate a now-threatened offshore wind project in New Jersey.

The moves come as the administration abruptly halted construction last week of a nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Interior Department said the government needs to review the $4 billion Revolution Wind project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are.

Democratic governors, lawmakers and union workers in New England have called for Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse course.

Trump has long expressed disdain for wind power, frequently calling it an ugly and expensive form of energy that “smart” countries don’t use.

Earlier this month, the Interior Department canceled a major wind farm in Idaho, a project approved late in former President Joe Biden’s term that had drawn criticism for its proximity to a historic site where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

Trump blames renewable power for rising energy prices

Last week, with U.S. electricity prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, Trump lashed out, falsely blaming renewable power for skyrocketing energy costs. He called wind and solar energy “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve any wind or solar projects.

“We’re not allowing any windmills to go up unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Energy analysts say renewable sources have little to do with recent price hikes, which are based on increased demand from artificial intelligence and energy-hungry data centers, along with aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events such as wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change.

Revolution Wind’s developer, Danish energy company Orsted, said it is evaluating the financial impact of stopping construction on the New England project and is considering legal proceedings.

Revolution Wind was expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. In addition to hampering the states’ climate goals, losing out on all that renewable power could drive up electricity prices throughout the region, Democratic officials say.

Critics say climate and jobs are at risk

Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Those include reviewing wind and solar energy permits, canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopping work on another offshore wind project for New York, although construction was later allowed to resume.

Some critics say the steps to cancel projects put Americans’ livelihoods at risk.

“It’s an attack on our jobs,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said of the move to stop construction of Revolution Wind. “It’s an attack on our energy. It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”

Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said his union is “going to fight (Trump) every step of the way, no matter how long it takes.”

Under Biden, the U.S. held the first-ever auction of leases for floating wind farms in December 2022. Deep waters off the West Coast are better suited for floating projects than those that are anchored in the seabed, officials said.

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of a number of Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the groups previously have been represented.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that Rubio also had ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials be denied.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives.

The State Department didn’t specify how many visas had been revoked or how many applications had been denied. The department did not immediately respond to a request for more specifics.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be affected.

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The agency’s statement did say that representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the United Nations would be granted waivers under the U.S. host country agreement with the U.N. so they can continue their New York-based operations.

“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the statement said. “Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters Friday that he had just learned of Rubio’s decision and was assessing its impact.

“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.

Mansour said Abbas was leading the delegation to next month’s U.N. meetings and was expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years. He also was expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 about a two-state solution, which calls for Israel living side-by-side with an independent Palestine.

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

By ED WHITE and KENDRIA LAFLEUR, Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — This could buy a lot of Labor Day weekend sunblock: Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is estimated at $1 billion, the sixth-largest prize in the game’s history.

Powerball, which costs $2 per ticket, is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The jackpot has been growing each week because no one has matched all six numbers since May 31.

As ticket sales climbed this week, game officials raised the estimated Saturday night jackpot to $1 billion from $950 million, before taxes. Payments would be spread over 30 years, or a winner can choose an immediate lump sum of $453 million, again before taxes.

“We’re bringing extra excitement to Labor Day weekend,” said Matt Strawn, head of the Iowa Lottery and chair of Powerball.

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The odds of matching all six numbers, of course, are daunting: 1 in 292.2 million. By comparison, the odds of getting a rare shark bite during a last summer dip in the ocean are much lower, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Angela Schwartz, who sells tickets at City Market in downtown Detroit, said the message Friday was consistent: “Give me a lucky Powerball.”

“I don’t know if that’s enough for me,” she said with a laugh, referring to the lump-sum payout a winner could get. “It could pay a few bills.”

At a Fuel City in Dallas, Duran Hargest let the lottery machine spit out four tickets with random numbers.

“It could be a blessing,” he said of winning the jackpot. “It could also be a curse, depending on how you use it. I just wanted to make sure if I get it, you know, take care of my family and then probably help others that probably need it, too.”

Powerball and Mega Millions are lottery games with potentially huge jackpots because they are played in multiple states. The top Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion on Nov. 7, 2022. The largest Mega Millions jackpot was $1.6 billion on Aug. 8, 2023.

LaFleur reported from Dallas.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grand jury refused to indict a man who was captured on video hurling a sandwich at a federal agent. Prosecutors dropped another case after complaints that police illegally searched a man’s satchel and found a gun. Judges, too, have balked at keeping several defendants in jail, citing weak evidence and dubious charging decisions.

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital has generated a torrent of charges against people caught up in a surge of street patrols. Judges, defense attorneys and even grand jurors are already poking holes in many cases.

“I’ve seen things over the past 72 hours that I’ve never seen in federal court,” U.S. District Judge Zia Faruqui said Wednesday during a hearing for a man who was jailed for five days on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. Later, he added: “It feels like some sort of bizarre nightmare.”

People rally against President Donald Trump’s use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops along the U street corridor in northwest Washington Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Civil liberties are at stake, legal figures say

Trump has framed the three-week-old operation as a campaign to eradicate rampant crime and “take our capital back.” The judges and lawyers adjudicating the criminal cases say they’re striving to strike a delicate balance between protecting public safety and preserving civil liberties.

Teams of federal agents and troops are patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., helping police arrest hundreds of people. The courts are struggling to keep up with the burgeoning caseload. Some people have been held in jail for days while waiting to appear before a federal judge in district court.

Edwin Jonathan Rodriguez, a 25-year-old recent college graduate, has a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Maryland. But he spent eight days in jail after police stopped his car near The Wharf neighborhood in Washington on Aug. 19 and said they found his registered gun, around 20 ounces of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey wasn’t buying the government’s contention that Rodriguez is a dangerous drug dealer.

“The cases in which drug dealers register their guns are exceptionally rare,” Harvey said as he ordered Rodriguez’s release. “The government’s case has got some challenges.”

Police officers and unspecified “federal partners” stopped Rodriguez because he was driving a Lexus with a license plate on the back but not the front of the vehicle, prosecutors said in a court filing. Defense attorney Joseph Scrofano accused law enforcement of jumping to baseless conclusions about the contents of the car.

“We don’t hold people based on assumptions,” Scrofano said. “We hold people based on evidence.”

Rodriguez, a budding architect who graduated from Morgan State University in December, doesn’t have a criminal record. But he faces a charge that carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years if he’s convicted.

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The number of those arrested is rising

The White House says over 1,200 people have been arrested and 135 firearms have been seized since the surge started on Aug. 7. The city’s police department says crime rates have plunged in the district, including a 60% decrease in carjackings, a 56% drop in robberies and a 58% reduction in violent crimes as of Wednesday compared to the same one-week period in 2024.

Over 30 people arrested during the crackdown have been charged in district court, where the most serious crimes are prosecuted. Approximately half of them are charged with assaulting officers, agents or National Guard members, according to an Associated Press review of court records. The rest are charged with illegally possessing guns, drugs or both.

The volume of cases in district court pales in comparison to the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, which led to charges against nearly 1,600 people in the same courthouse. But the riot arrests were staggered across four years and all 50 states, easing the burden on the court.

Former federal prosecutor Michael Romano, who spent more than 17 years at the Justice Department and helped supervise Capitol riot prosecutions, said he never had a grand jury refuse to return an indictment in one of his cases. He said the Trump administration’s efforts to appear tough on crime may have backfired with many D.C. residents, who serve on federal grand juries.

“Sometimes when you arrest people with scant evidence and you overcharge them, the community doesn’t like it and the evidence won’t support it,” said Romano, who resigned from the department earlier this year. “This illustrates the danger of having a Justice Department where attorneys can’t do their job and can’t properly evaluate whether cases are going to be good or not.”

‘We will not simply go along with the flow’

At least three people have been arrested on assault charges for spitting on federal agents or troops on patrol. A viral video captured a Justice Department attorney hurling a “sub-style” sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent. But a grand jury refused to indict him on a felony charge — an extraordinarily rare failure for prosecutors.

“Grand juries, judges, we will not simply go along with the flow,” Faruqui said.

He questioned why people have been locked up for days for relatively minor offenses that typically aren’t handled in district court. Faruqui said he shared his concerns with the leadership of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office and hopes they can reduce the waits for detention hearings and initial court appearances.

Earlier this week, Pirro and Faruqui verbally sparred over her office’s handling of a case against a man who was arrested at a Trader Joe’s supermarket last month. Police officers said they followed Torez Riley into the grocery store and found two unregistered guns inside his satchel. He was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms, but Pirro’s office dropped the case a week later.

During a hearing Monday, Faruqui said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” that Riley was jailed for a week before his case was dismissed. He said it was “without a doubt the most illegal search I have ever seen in my life.”

Pirro, a former Fox News host whom Trump appointed in May to lead the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office, responded with a statement accusing Faruqui of having “a long history of bending over backwards to release dangerous felons in possession of firearms.”

On Thursday, Harvey ordered the release of a man who was arrested on Aug. 16 after a traffic stop by members of the U.S. Park Police and U.S. Marshals Service. The magistrate pressed a prosecutor to explain why the driver, Amarian Langston, was charged with illegally possessing a handgun that officers found beside a road after he crashed the vehicle. The prosecutor, Kyle McWaters, acknowledged that nobody saw Langston toss the weapon.

Prosecutors separately charged Langston’s girlfriend in D.C. Superior Court, which hears less serious cases and is handling the bulk of the surge-related arrests. McWaters said the law allows the government to charge both with illegally possessing the same gun even though it allegedly belonged to the girlfriend.

Said McWaters: “I’m not saying it’s an easy hill to climb, your honor.”