SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An estimated 5,000 Venezuelans granted temporary protected status can continue to work and live in the U.S. despite a Supreme Court ruling revoking protections while their lawsuit against the Trump administration is pending.
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U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled Friday that Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was extended to October 2026 are not affected by the Supreme Court’s order and are not eligible for deportation.
The Supreme Court last month gave the go-ahead for the Republican administration to strip TPS from an estimated 350,000 Venezuelans that would have expired in April. In doing so, the court put on hold Chen’s order blocking the administration from revoking protections granted under President Joe Biden.
The justices provided no rationale, which is common in emergency appeals. But they singled out applicants who had received work authorization and other paperwork with new expiration dates of Oct. 2, 2026.
Chen said at a hearing Friday that the justices could have stayed silent as to that subset of people, but didn’t. His court continues to hear the underlying claim that the revocations by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were unlawful.
TPS allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.
President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to deport millions of people, and in office has sought to dismantle Biden administration policies that expanded paths for migrants to live legally in the U.S.
LONDON (AP) — Police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann will carry out fresh searches near the Portuguese holiday resort she was last seen 18 years ago, authorities said on Monday.
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The 3-year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family in the Praia da Luz resort, in southern Portugal, on May 3, 2007. She has not been seen since.
Detectives acting on a request from a German public prosecutor will carry out “a broad range” of searches this week in the area of Lagos, in southern Portugal, a Portuguese police statement said.
The main suspect in the case is a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
He is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case but hasn’t been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, around the time of the child’s disappearance. Brueckner has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, who are responsible for the investigation, didn’t give details of the “judicial measures” taking place in Portugal, according to Germany’s dpa news agency. They said the measures are being carried out by Portuguese authorities with support from officers from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office.
Britain’s Metropolitan Police said it was “aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.”
“The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary,” the force added, without giving more details.
The McCann case received worldwide interest for several years, with reports of sightings of her stretching as far away as Australia as well as books and television documentaries about her disappearance.
Almost two decades on, investigators in the U.K., Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night she disappeared. She was in the same room as her brother and sister — 2-year-old twins — while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
The last time police resumed searches in the case was in 2023, when detectives from the three countries took part in an operation searching near a dam and a reservoir about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Praia da Luz resort.
Madeleine’s family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance last month, and expressed their determination to keep searching.
Barry Hatton in Lisbon and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Northern lights may be visible in parts of the U.S. Monday night following weekend solar storms.
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The sun burped out a huge burst of energy called a coronal mass ejection last week, prompting space weather forecasters to issue a rare, severe solar storm alert on Sunday, though it wasn’t as strong as last year’s record. Another one headed toward Earth on Monday could produce more aurora sightings.
Authorities are monitoring for possible disruptions, though the worst is already over. The weekend’s storms may have caused brief disruptions to high-frequency radio, said Erica Grow Cei, a spokesperson with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Auroras could be visible — especially in darker, rural areas — in Alaska, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine and northern parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Here’s what to know about auroras and how to spot them.
What are northern lights?
The sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making the light displays more common and widespread. Colorful northern lights have decorated night skies in unexpected places and space weather experts say there are more auroras still to come.
Last spring, the strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades slammed Earth, producing light displays across the Northern Hemisphere. And last fall, a powerful solar storm dazzled skygazers far from the Arctic Circle when dancing lights appeared in unexpected places including Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City.
Aurora displays known as the northern and southern lights are commonly visible near the poles, where charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s atmosphere.
Skygazers are spotting the lights deeper into the United States and Europe because the sun is going through a major facelift. Every 11 years, its poles swap places, causing magnetic twists and tangles along the way.
Severe storms are capable of scrambling radio and GPS communications.
The sun’s active spurt is expected to last at least through the end of this year, though when solar activity will peak won’t be known until months after the fact, according to NASA and NOAA.
What do solar storms do?
Solar storms can bring more than colorful lights to Earth.
When fast-moving particles and plasma slam into Earth’s magnetic field, they can temporarily disrupt the power grid. Space weather can also interfere with air traffic control radio and satellites in orbit.
In 1859, a severe solar storm triggered auroras as far south as Hawaii and caught telegraph lines on fire in a rare event. And a 1972 solar storm may have detonated magnetic U.S. sea mines off the coast of Vietnam.
Space weather experts aren’t able to predict a solar storm months in advance. Instead, they alert relevant parties to prepare in the days before a solar outburst hits Earth.
Consider aurora-watching in a quiet, dark area away from city lights. Experts recommend skygazing from a local or national park. And check the weather forecast because clouds can cover up the spectacle entirely.
Taking a picture with a smartphone camera may also reveal hints of the aurora that aren’t visible to the naked eye.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tulsa’s new mayor on Sunday proposed a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan to give descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre scholarships and housing help in a city-backed bid to make amends for one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history.
The plan by Mayor Monroe Nichols, the first Black mayor of Oklahoma’s second-largest city, would not provide direct cash payments to descendants or the last two centenarian survivors of the attack that killed as many as 300 Black people. He made the announcement at the Greenwood Cultural Center, located in the once-thriving district of North Tulsa that was destroyed by a white mob.
Nichols said he does not use the term reparations, which he calls politically charged, characterizing his sweeping plan instead as a “road to repair.”
“For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city’s history,” Nichols said Sunday after receiving a standing ovation from several hundred people. “The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments.
“Now it’s time to take the next big steps to restore.”
Viola “Mother” Ford Fletcher, 110 years of age (yellow) is one of the final two survivors sits across the aisle from the other survivor Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle (red hat), 109 years old, as they listen during the Legacy event for the Tulsa Race Massacre on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, one of the final two survivors at 109 years old, listens during the Legacy event for the Tulsa Race Massacre on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols IV speaks during the Legacy event for the Tulsa Race Massacre on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols IV speaks during the Legacy event for the Tulsa Race Massacre on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
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Viola “Mother” Ford Fletcher, 110 years of age (yellow) is one of the final two survivors sits across the aisle from the other survivor Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle (red hat), 109 years old, as they listen during the Legacy event for the Tulsa Race Massacre on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
Nichols said the proposal wouldn’t require city council approval, although the council would need to authorize the transfer of any city property to the trust, something he said was highly likely.
The private charitable trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets, with most of the funding either secured or committed by June 1, 2026. Although details would be developed over the next year by an executive director and a board of managers, the plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing the city’s north side.
“The Greenwood District at its height was a center of commerce,” Nichols said in a telephone interview. “So what was lost was not just something from North Tulsa or the Black community. It actually robbed Tulsa of an economic future that would have rivaled anywhere else in the world.”
Nichols’ proposal follows an executive order he signed earlier this year recognizing June 1 as Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day, an official city holiday. Events Sunday in the Greenwood District included a picnic for families, worship services and an evening candlelight vigil.
Nichols also realizes the current national political climate, particularly President Trump’s sweeping assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, poses challenging political crosswinds.
“The fact that this lines up with a broader national conversation is a tough environment,” Nichols admitted, “but it doesn’t change the work we have to do.”
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Jacqueline Weary, is a granddaughter of massacre survivor John R. Emerson, Sr., who owned a hotel and cab company in Greenwood that were destroyed. She acknowledged the political difficulty of giving cash payments to descendants. But at the same time, she wondered how much of her family’s wealth was lost in the violence.
“If Greenwood was still there, my grandfather would still have his hotel,” said Weary, 65. “It rightfully was our inheritance, and it was literally taken away.”
Tulsa is not the first U.S. city to explore reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, was the first U.S. city to make reparations available to its Black residents for past discrimination, offering qualifying households $25,000 for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city. The funding for the program came from taxes on the sale of recreational marijuana.
Other communities and organizations that have considered providing reparations range from the state of California to cities including Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa; religious denominations like the Episcopal Church; and prominent colleges like Georgetown University in Washington.
In Tulsa, there are only two living survivors of the Race Massacre, both of whom are 110 years old: Leslie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher. The women, both of whom were in attendance on Sunday, received direct financial compensation from both a Tulsa-based nonprofit and a New York-based philanthropic organization, but have not received any recompense from the city or state.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the survivors and the founder of the Justice for Greenwood Foundation, said earlier this year that any reparations plan should include direct payments to Randle and Fletcher and a victims’ compensation fund for outstanding claims.
A lawsuit filed by Solomon-Simmons on behalf of the survivors was rejected by the Oklahoma Supreme Court last year, dampening racial justice advocates’ hopes that the city would ever make financial amends.
