A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the country illegally, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution promises citizenship to those born on U.S. soil, a measure ratified in 1868 to ensure citizenship for former slaves after the Civil War. But in an effort to curb unlawful immigration, Trump issued the executive order just after being sworn in for his second term on Monday.

The order would deny citizenship to those born after Feb. 19 whose parents are in the country illegally. It also forbids U.S. agencies from issuing any document or accepting any state document recognizing citizenship for such children.

Trump’s order drew immediate legal challenges across the country, with at least five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups. A lawsuit brought by Washington, Arizona, Oregon and Illinois was the first to get a hearing.

“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is,” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour told a Justice Department attorney. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

___

Hegseth told senator he paid $50,000 to woman who accused him of 2017 sex assault

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers he provided to a senator during his confirmation process that The Associated Press has obtained.

The written answers were provided to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in response to additional questions she had for Hegseth as part of the vetting process.

His attorney, Timothy Parlatore, declined to comment Thursday on the dollar figure, which was previously unknown. In November, Parlatore confirmed that the settlement payment had been made, and Hegseth told senators during his confirmation hearing last week that he was “falsely accused” and completely cleared.

News of the payment came as the Senate advanced Hegseth’s nomination along party lines, with a final vote on his confirmation expected Friday. Democrats — and two Republicans — have raised concerns about Hegseth, who also has faced allegations of excessive drinking and abuse of his second wife, which he denies.

Two days after Hegseth was grilled by senators at this confirmation hearing, Trump’s transition team briefed the two leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee on an additional statement that Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, had provided to the FBI.

___

The Senate confirms John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA, giving Trump his second Cabinet member

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed John Ratcliffe as CIA director, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead America’s premier spy agency and his second nominee to win Senate approval.

Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term and is the first person to have held that position and the top post at the CIA. The Texas Republican is a former federal prosecutor who emerged as a fierce Trump defender while serving as a congressman during Trump’s first impeachment.

The vote was 74-25, with many Democrats voting no.

At his Senate hearing last week, Ratcliffe said the CIA must do better when it comes to using technology such as artificial intelligence to confront adversaries including Russia and China. He said the United States needed to improve its intelligence capabilities while also ensuring the protection of Americans’ civil rights.

Ratcliffe said he would push the CIA to do more to harness technologies such as AI and quantum computing while expanding use of human intelligence collection.

___

Trump orders release of JFK, RFK and MLK assassination records

DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades.

The executive order Trump signed Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “everything will be revealed.”

Trump had promised during his reelection campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, which has transfixed people for decades. Trump made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bent to appeals from the CIA and FBI to withhold some documents.

Trump has nominated Kennedy’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the health secretary in his new administration. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Kennedy has said he isn’t convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963.

___

US active duty troops beginning to arrive in Texas and San Diego to support border security

WASHINGTON (AP) — Active duty military troops will begin arriving in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego on Thursday evening, in what defense officials said is the first batch of the new forces being deployed to secure the southern border.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that about 1,500 troops were being sent to the border this week, as the department scrambles to put in motion President Donald Trump’s executive order demanding an immediate crackdown on immigration.

U.S. officials said they expect additional troops to be ordered to deploy in the next few days as defense and homeland security leaders iron out requests for more support.

The officials said it’s not yet clear how many more service members would get tapped in the near future, but they would include active duty, National Guard and Reserves, and come from land, air and sea forces. Other defense and military officials this week estimated that the additional number deployed could be in the thousands.

The troops announced Wednesday include about 1,000 Army soldiers from a variety of units and 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton in California.

___

Recording captured ex-interpreter impersonating Ohtani to transfer $200,000, prosecutors say

A nearly four-minute audio recording allegedly captured Shohei Ohtani ‘s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara impersonating the baseball star on a call with a bank as he attempted to transfer $200,000 for what he describes as a car loan, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The recording referenced in a court filing and obtained by The Associated Press is being used to back up prosecutors’ push for a nearly five-year sentence for Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing almost $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers star.

Prosecutors are also seeking restitution of the nearly $17 million to Ohtani, as well as a penalty of more than $1 million to the IRS.

Mizuhara is due to be sentenced Feb. 6 after pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return.

His attorney, Michael G. Freedman, did not respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment.

___

Progress is made on a huge fire north of Los Angeles while new fires erupt in Southern California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for tens of thousands as firefighters with air support slowed the spread of a huge wildfire churning through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles, but new blazes erupted in San Diego County, briefly triggering more evacuations.

Southern California is under a red flag warning for critical fire risk through Friday. The area has been facing constant challenges in controlling the fires, as dangerous winds gained strength again Thursday.

The Hughes Fire broke out late Wednesday morning and in less than a day charred nearly 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of trees and brush near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.

Crews made significant progress by late afternoon on the Hughes Fire, with more than one-third of it contained.

Two new blazes were reported Thursday in the San Diego area. Evacuations were ordered but were later lifted after a brush fire erupted in the late afternoon in the wealthy enclave of La Jolla near the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Further south, near the U.S.-Mexico border, another blaze was quickly spreading through the Otay Mountain Wilderness, home to the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly and other unique species.

___

Purdue Pharma and owners to pay $7.4 billion in settlement of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin

Members of the family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and the company itself, agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement to lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, the attorneys general from several states announced Thursday.

The deal, agreed to by Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family members who own the company and lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis, replaces a previous settlement deal that was rejected last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the new one, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and give up ownership of the company, which would pay nearly $900 million. The maximum contribution from family members is $500 million more than the previous deal.

It’s among the largest settlements reached over the past several years in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for a deadly epidemic. Aside from the Purdue deal, others worth around $50 billion have been announced — and most of the money is required to be used to stem the crisis.

The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out. An arm of the federal Department of Justice opposed the previous settlement, even after every state agreed, and took the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court. But under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal.

___

Oscar nominations snubs and surprises, from Daniel Craig to Selena Gomez

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — In one of the more wide-open Oscar fields in recent history, there were plenty of nominations surprises Thursday.

Not too long ago, it seemed that people like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman were destined for best actress nominations, while general audience disinterest in the young Donald Trump movie “The Apprentice” might have indicated its awards chances were dead on arrival.

But the members of the film academy had something different in mind. Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 97th Oscar nominations.

The young Trump movie “The Apprentice” has been one of the bigger awards season question marks, especially after it failed to resonate with moviegoers in theaters. And yet both Jeremy Strong, for his portrayal for Trump lawyer Roy Cohn, and Sebastian Stan (who was also in the conversation for “A Different Man” ), for playing the future two-time president, made it in. Only Strong got nominated by the Screen Actors Guild.

This will forever be one of the more confounding awards season oversights. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivered one of the all-time great performances in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” as the perpetually aggrieved and sharp-tongued London woman Pansy. The general thinking is that it was either going to be Jean-Baptiste or Fernanda Torres, and Torres got in for the equally beloved “I’m Still Here.”

___

Stock market today: S&P 500 climbs to a record

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to a record Thursday as Wall Street regained some of the momentum that catapulted it to 57 all-time highs last year.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to surpass its record set early last month after coming close the day before. It was the seventh gain in eight days for the main measure of Wall Street’s health. The Dow Jones Industrial Average piled on 408 points, or 0.9%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%.

The gains came amid relatively calm moves for Treasury yields in the U.S. bond market. Big swings there in recent months have been shaking the stock market, particularly when rising worries about inflation and the U.S. government’s heavy debt send Treasury yields higher.

Treasury yields took a brief turn upward after President Donald Trump began talking about the prospect of tariffs in a speech by video at the World Economic Forum, saying products made outside of the United States will be subject to a tariff, but they pulled back after he gave few details. Crude prices also sank after Trump called on oil-producing countries to reduce the price of crude, which would ease worries about inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.64% from 4.61% late Wednesday, though it remains below its high from earlier this month. The two-year Treasury yield eased to 4.29% from 4.30% late Wednesday.