Japan’s trade minister said this week that he has failed to win assurances from U.S. officials that the key U.S. ally will be exempt from tariffs, some of which take effect on Wednesday.

Yoji Muto was in Washington for last ditch negotiations over the tariffs on a range of Japanese exports including cars, steel and aluminum.

Muto said Monday in Washington that Japan, which contributes to the U.S. economy by heavily investing and creating jobs in the United States, “should not be subject to” 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto exports to America.

His meetings with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett came just two days before the steel and aluminum tariffs are due to take effect. President Donald Trump has also said a possible 25% tariff on imported foreign autos could take effect in early April.

Muto said the U.S. officials acknowledged Japanese contributions and agreed to continue talks, but did not approve his request for Japan’s exemption from the steep import duties.

“We did not receive a response that Japan will be exempt,” Muto told reporters. “We must continue to assert our position.”

As Trump’s tariff threats have triggered tensions and vows of retaliation from Canada, Mexico and China, Japan has been working to firm up ties with other countries.

Last week, the foreign and trade ministers from Japan and Britain gathered in Tokyo for their first “two-plus-two” economic dialogue. They agreed to stand up for “fair, rules-based international trade,” though nobody directly mentioned Trump.

Japan depends heavily on exports and the auto tariffs would hurt, because vehicles are its biggest export and the United States is their top destination.

“Clearly companies in Japan are very concerned,” said Rintaro Nishimura, political analyst and associate at Japan Practice of The Asia Group. “Obviously the auto is the crown jewel for Japan, especially in the context of these tariffs.” He says they are concerned also because the Trump administration is carrying it out in just two months after taking office.

Trump also has criticized Japan’s contributions to the two countries’ mutual defense arrangements, adding to tensions with Tokyo.

Muto said the two sides agreed to keep discussing to find ways to establish a “win-win” relationship that would serve national interests of both countries.

The two sides also discussed energy cooperation, including joint development of liquefied natural gas reserves in Alaska, which Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agreed on during Ishiba’s visit to the White House in February.

Italy’s highest appeals court has ordered the government to compensate a group of migrants who were stranded at sea for days on a coast guard vessel in 2018 due to then-Interior minister Matteo Salvini ’s tough anti-migration policies.

Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday criticized the court decision as “questionable” and “frustrating.”

The Cassation court ruling, which overturns a previous one, ordered the Italian government to pay for damages inflicted to the migrants at the time of the standoff. Judges late on Thursday sent the case back to an ordinary court, asking it to define the exact amount of compensation to be granted.

A group of Eritrean migrants appealed to the Cassation court over the ordeal of 190 migrants by Italy’s Diciotti coast guard ship in August 2018. Thirteen migrants with health problems were first disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, off Italy’s southern coast. The ship then headed to Catania, in Sicily, but was blocked for about 10 days by Salvini’s orders before the remaining 177 migrants were allowed off.

Meloni, who leads a conservative coalition including hardline League leader and vice-premier Salvini, said the ruling won’t help “citizens getting closer to institutions.”

“Due to this decision, the government will need to pay compensation — using money from honest Italian citizens who pay taxes – to people who tried to enter Italy illegally, violating the Italian law,” she wrote in a social media post.

Salvini called the ruling “absurd” in his own post and urged the magistrates to use their own money if they really want to compensate their “beloved migrants.” He has always said that his job was to defend Italy’s borders.

It was the latest chapter of a months-long clash between the Italian magistrates and the Meloni government, which is trying to push forward a radical reform of the judiciary system. Many critics say it puts the judiciary’s independence at risk.

Italian courts have also been challenging Meloni’s flagship initiative to transfer migrants to costly reception centers built in Albania for fast-track processing.

A British court on Friday rejected appeals by most of a group of environmental activists who were jailed for actions including stopping traffic, blocking an oil facility and splashing a Vincent van Gogh painting with soup.

The Just Stop Oil protesters had challenged what they alleged were “manifestly excessive” prison terms of between 15 months and five years for disruptive but peaceful actions. The group argued that the jailed protesters are political prisoners who were “acting in self-defense and to protect our families and communities.”

Three Court of Appeal justices rejected claims by 10 of the activists but reduced the sentences of six others who were jailed over 2022 demonstrations that saw protesters climb gantries above a busy highway. They include Roger Hallam, the co-founder of eco-activist organization Extinction Rebellion and spinoff group Just Stop Oil, who had his five-year sentence reduced to four years.

“It is not disputed that each of the appellants was motivated to act as they did by a conscientious desire to communicate their views about the appropriate response to climate change issues,” the judges said in their ruling. But, they added, “conscientious motivation did not preclude a finding that any appellant’s culpability was still high.”

Raj Chada, the claimants’ lawyer, said “the small reduction in the case of Roger Hallam recognizes the extraordinarily excessive sentences that continue to be given out to protesters in England. It is, however, extremely disappointing that many of the other sentences were upheld.”

“No country in Europe gives such draconian sentences for peaceful protests, proving we are out of kilter with the rest of the civilized world,” he said, adding the group was considering taking the case to the U.K. Supreme Court.

The 10 whose appeals failed included protesters sentenced for digging tunnels under the road leading to an oil terminal in southeast England and throwing soup onto the protective glass over Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery.

Activists staged a protest inside the same gallery after the judgement. Video footage showed a protester sitting on the floor in front of “Sunflowers” speaking loudly about the impact of climate change. She wore a shirt bearing a picture of the painting splattered with orange.

As Chief Justice Sue Carr read out the ruling, several campaigners in the courtroom stood and turned their backs, wearing T-shirts that read “Corruption in Court.”

The U.K’s previous Conservative government toughened anti-protest laws in response to eco-activists who blocked roads and bridges, glued themselves to trains, splattered artworks with paint, sprayed buildings with fake blood and doused athletes in orange powder to draw attention to climate change. It said the laws prevented extremist activists from hurting the economy and disrupting daily life.

Civil liberties groups, who argued that the move weakened the right to peaceful protest, have urged the new Labour Party government to ease the restrictions on protest imposed by its predecessor.

“Despite some modest reductions, these sentences are still unprecedented and they still have no place in a democracy that upholds the right to protest,” said Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, which supported the appeals.

A new law in South Dakota prohibiting the use of eminent domain to acquire land for carbon capture pipelines raises questions about the viability of a proposed 2,500 mile (4,023-kilometer) project snaking through five Midwest states.

Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind the estimated $8.9 billion pipeline, vowed to keep pursuing the project despite South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s announcement Thursday that he had signed a bill into law that will make routing the line much more difficult. The law bans Summit from forcing South Dakota landowners to allow the pipeline through their property.

Plans call for the pipeline to carry greenhouse gas emissions from more than 50 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota to a spot in North Dakota, where it would be permanently stored underground.

It’s unclear whether Summit will pursue legal action but the company said in a statement that “all options are on the table” and the project “moves forward” in other states. The company promised it would have more news soon.

Large pipeline projects typically rely on eminent domain, with companies arguing that even if most landowners agree to grant access to their property, a project can be scuttled if only a few refuse.

Summit says the company, which has secured over 2,700 easements across the region, has approval for routes in Iowa and North Dakota and a leg in Minnesota. The current proposed route would cut through nearly 700 miles (1,126.5 kilometers) of South Dakota before entering North Dakota, so rerouting to the east through Minnesota would be a big challenge.

A Summit spokesperson did not respond to questions Friday about whether the company would consider a new route.

The sponsor of the South Dakota bill, Republican Rep. Karla Lems, said Summit could either reroute its pipeline through Minnesota into North Dakota or “negotiate with landowners in South Dakota” and go around opponents.

Gov. Rhoden said the South Dakota law wasn’t intended to kill the project and suggested Summit see it as “an opportunity to reset.”

Minnesota is a relatively small part of Summit’s overall project. The only segment approved in the state is a 28-mile (45-kilometer) leg from an ethanol plant near Fergus Falls to the North Dakota border. Summit’s project also includes two legs in southern Minnesota that would go into Iowa.

The country’s transition to electric vehicles has been slower than many people expected, but most think a shift away from internal combustion engines will eventually happen.

Nearly 40% of the nation’s corn crop is brewed into ethanol, which is blended into most gasoline sold in the U.S. Midwest farmers and the ethanol industry therefore see it as essential to have new markets as less of the fuel additive goes to power cars.

They see passenger jet fuel as a potentially huge new market for ethanol. However, under current rules the process for turning ethanol into aviation fuel would need to emit less carbon dioxide to qualify for tax breaks intended to reduce greenhouses.

The carbon capture pipeline is a key part of achieving those goals, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said.

Walt Wendland, who runs an ethanol plant in Onida, South Dakota, said the “ethanol industry is a margin business” and the new state law will put South Dakota ethanol producers at a disadvantage.

Officials in the Western U.S. who warn the public about avalanches are sounding a different type of alarm. They say they’re worried that the Trump administration firing hundreds of meteorologists and other environmental scientists could hinder life-saving forecasts that skiers and mountain drivers rely on.

The forecasting work is crucial for skiers and climbers who flirt with danger when they travel through mountain gullies that are prone to slide. Recovery efforts for three victims of a large avalanche near Anchorage, Alaska, were ongoing Thursday, two days after the accident in mountains where forecasters had warned it would be “easy” to trigger a slide that day because of a weak layer in the deep snow.

The forecasts also are used to protect the general public. Transportation officials use them to gauge the risk on well-traveled roads like one in Colorado where a vehicle got pushed off the highway by a slide earlier this month.

“We save lives and there are people alive today because of the work we do,” said Doug Chabot, who directed the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Montana for almost 24 years. “To take funding and to just randomly cut programs, it will affect our ability to save lives.”

Avalanches kill about two dozen people annually in the U.S. Predicting their likelihood, potential severity and location depends heavily on information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The information comes in two forms: data-driven models and conversations between avalanche forecasters and National Weather Service meteorologists who can help assess the data.

“We have our own numerical model, but we can’t run that without the work that NOAA is doing,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which publishes avalanche forecasts. “Without that work, there’s a lot of pieces that will fall apart.”

So far this winter 18 people had been killed by avalanches, most of them in remote areas in Western states.

Weather models from NOAA are used by 14 avalanche centers run by the U.S. Forest Service. The Colorado center is largely state funded. Chabot said employees at the federal avalanche centers have so far been exempt from cuts, but officials worry that could change.

The Trump administration has not disclosed what positions are being lost at NOAA. Former leaders of the agency have said the firings will have wide-ranging negative impacts on flight safety, shipping safety and warning networks for tornados and hurricanes.

NOAA has about 13,000 employees. The firings come as billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency shrink a federal workforce that President Donald Trump has called bloated and sloppy.

A NOAA spokesperson declined to answer questions from The Associated Press about the potential for the cuts to degrade avalanche forecasting quality.

“We are not discussing internal personnel and management matters,” spokesperson Susan Buchanan wrote in an email. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.”

Greene and Chabot said they don’t anticipate immediate effects. But if NOAA’s data is weaker, Greene said his center’s forecasts will be more uncertain.

The nation’s top public health agency says about 180 employees who were laid off two weeks ago can come back to work.

Emails went out Tuesday to some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention probationary employees who got termination notices last month, according to current and former CDC employees.

A message seen by the AP was sent with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately.” It said that “after further review and consideration,” a Feb. 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday. “You should return to duty under your previous work schedule,” it said. “We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”

About 180 people received reinstatement emails, according to two federal health officials who were briefed on the tally but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It’s not clear how many of the reinstated employees returned to work Wednesday. And it’s also unclear whether the employees would be spared from widespread job cuts that are expected soon across government agencies.

The CDC is the latest federal agency trying to coax back workers soon after they were dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting purge. Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons and national parks.

The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the job cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees.

Last month, Trump administration officials told the CDC that nearly 1,300 of the agency’s probationary employees would be let go. That tally quickly changed, as the number who actually got termination notices turned out to be 700 to 750.

With 180 more people now being told they can return, the actual number of CDC employees terminated so far would seem to stand somewhere around 550. But federal health officials haven’t confirmed any specifics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month pledged “ radical transparency ” at the department, but HHS officials have not provided detail about CDC staff changes and did not respond to emailed requests on Tuesday and Wednesday. An agency spokesman, Andrew Nixon, previously told the AP only that CDC had more full-time employees after the job cuts than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those who received reinstatement emails included outbreak responders in two fellowship programs — a two-year training that prepares recent graduates to enter the public health workforce through field experience and a laboratory program that brings in doctorate-holding professionals.

Mexico’s president said Tuesday the country will respond to the 25% tariffs imposed by the United States with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, with details to come.

Mexico will announce the targeted products and other measures Sunday at an event in Mexico City’s central plaza, a delay that suggests Mexico hopes to de-escalate the trade war set off by U.S. President Donald Trump.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the government is “going to wait” because she had planted to speak to Trump this week. Mexico’s government has said since January it had a plan ready for this scenario.

“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” Sheinbaum added.

China and Canada responded immediately with measures Tuesday.

Hours later, after stock markets took a hit, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a video posted to X that he was on the phone “all day” with Mexican and Canadian authorities.

“It’s not going to be a pause. None of that pause stuff,” he said. “Somewhere in the middle will likely be the outcome.”

Some 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the United States, part of more than $800 billion in trade between the countries last year.

Sheinbaum called “offensive, defamatory and without support” the White House allegations that Mexican drug traffickers persist because of “an intolerable relationship” with the Mexican government. Trump has said he’s targeting Mexico to force it to crack down on migrants and drugs entering the U.S.

She listed the achievements of her young administration against Mexico’s drug cartels, including seizing more than a ton of fentanyl and dismantling 329 methamphetamine labs. She also noted that Mexico sent the U.S. 29 drug cartel figures it requested last week.

“It’s inconceivable that they don’t think about the damage this is going to cause to United States citizens and businesses,” Sheinbaum said. “No one wins with this decision.”

Mexico’s president also noted that Trump on Monday said he respected her, and she said she respected him as well: “The thing is finding a way to collaborate, of coordinating without subordinating anyone for the benefit of our people.”

Trade experts expressed doubt over how long Trump’s tariffs would last, saying they would boost prices for American consumers including Trump’s base.

“It is going to do nothing to help with the food inflation in the U.S.,” said Timothy Wise, an expert on agricultural trade between Mexico and the U.S. “I don’t see it as sustainable. I don’t find it plausible that corporate folks who surround Trump are going to sit back and allow him to destroy their foreign markets.”

Gabriela Siller, economic analyst with Mexican financial group Banco Base, said in the short term, the tariffs could boost inflation, disrupt economic trade flows and slow economic growth for both countries.

But as she watched the gradually falling Mexican peso, she also noted “the exchange rate and volatility have not skyrocketed, as the market speculates that the U.S. government could withdraw the tariffs soon.”

Mexico has the most to potentially lose in a trade war with the U.S., and economists say extended tariffs would plunge Mexico’s economy into a recession.

But for now, Sheinbaum’s approval ratings in Mexico are sky high. She has fanned nationalist sentiment since before Trump took office, frequently invoking Mexico’s sovereignty, promising it will negotiate from a position of equals and pushing back on Trump’s name change of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Sunday’s public event announcing Mexico’s retaliation will look to seize upon Sheinbaum’s popularity and the sense of national unity.

Still, that was little comfort to those whose livelihoods could be most affected.

At the U.S.-Mexico border, 58-year-old truck driver Carlos Ponce drove his truck packed with auto parts from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, as he’s done for decades. But he and many others along the border were holding their breath.

A deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “is still very, very far away,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that he believed Ukraine’s long-term partnership with the U.S. was strong enough that American support would continue despite recent fraught relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I think our relationship (with the U.S.) will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday, referring to Washington’s support for the past three years of war.

“I believe that Ukraine has a strong enough partnership with the United States of America” to keep aid flowing, he said at a briefing in Ukrainian before leaving London.

Zelenskyy publicly was upbeat despite the recent heated Oval Office blow up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance during which they accused him of being “disrespectful” and said he should show more gratitude for America’s help. The turn of events is unwelcome for Ukraine, whose understrength army is having a hard time keep bigger Russian forces at bay.

The Ukrainian leader was in London to attend U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s effort to rally his European counterparts around continuing — and likely much increased — support for Ukraine from the continent amid political uncertainty in the U.S., and Trump’s overtures toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked by a reporter to comment about the outlines of a new European initiative to end Russia’s war, Zelenskyy said: “We are talking about the first steps today, and therefore, until they are on paper, I would not like to talk about them in great detail.”

“An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet. The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable,” he added.

Trump slammed Zelenskyy later Monday for suggesting that the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine is still far off.  “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. — Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” Trump added in his post. “What are they thinking?”

The White House wants Zelenskyy to show more openness to potential concessions in order to bring the fighting to an end, but Zelenskyy resisted that idea while pressing for security guarantees from Washington during last Friday’s meeting.

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next leader after the recent election, said Monday that he didn’t think last Friday’s Oval Office blow-up was spontaneous.

He said that he had watched the scene repeatedly. “My assessment is that it wasn’t a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelenskyy, but apparently an induced escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz said.

He said that he was “somewhat astonished by the mutual tone,” but there has been “a certain continuity to what we are seeing from Washington at the moment” in recent weeks.

A Michigan woman is asking a judge to declare her three missing sons dead, nearly 15 years after their father didn’t return them after Thanksgiving. The disappearance has tormented a small town near Ohio and remains unsolved.

Authorities believe the brothers are deceased and they clearly suspect John Skelton is responsible, though he has not been charged with killing his sons. By November, he is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to give the boys back to Tanya Zuvers, the sole conviction in the saga.

A Lenawee County judge will begin hearing testimony Monday at an unusual hearing. The witness list includes Zuvers, as well as police investigators who will publicly discuss the yearslong effort to find any trace of Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton.

Since November 2010, Zuvers has prayed someone “would cure her broken heart” with news about their whereabouts or that John Skelton would explain what really happened, attorney R. Burke Castleberry said in a court filing.

“Heartbreakingly, none of that has occurred,” he wrote.

Nathan Piwowarski, a lawyer in Cadillac, Michigan, who specializes in probate and estate law, said there can be many reasons to have someone declared dead, including “personal closure for the family.”

A court declaration also could “give someone authority to pursue a wrongful death claim or other civil claim,” said Piwowarski, who is not involved in the case.

Castleberry declined to comment ahead of the hearing. Skelton, 53, did not respond to an email sent to him in prison about the petition filed by Zuvers.

The brothers, ages 9, 7 and 5, lived in Morenci, a small community next to the Ohio border, 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Detroit. Zuvers was seeking a divorce from Skelton in fall 2010 and the boys were with him, a few doors away, on Thanksgiving.

They were supposed to return to Zuvers the next morning. Instead, they were gone. Police later determined Skelton’s phone was in Ohio at 4:30 a.m. before it was turned off and then turned back on at 6 a.m. in Morenci.

Skelton denied harming his sons and said they were with an underground group for their safety, among other murky explanations, according to investigators.

People spent weeks searching woods and waters in Michigan and Ohio. While in prison, Skelton told authorities that a man who helps people leave Amish communities might know about the boys, but Castleberry said it was “another lie.”

Investigators at the court hearing “will detail the farfetched, unfathomable yarns John Skelton spun, leading authorities on one wild goose chase after another,” Castleberry said.

President Donald Trump signed on Saturday an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.

The order allows government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in language other than English.

It rescinds a mandate from former President Bill Clinton that required the government and organizations that received federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.

“Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,” according to the order.

“In welcoming new Americans, a policy of encouraging the learning and adoption of our national language will make the United States a shared home and empower new citizens to achieve the American dream,” the order also states. “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”

More than 30 states have already passed laws designating English as their official language, according to U.S. English, a group that advocates for making English the official language in the United States.

For decades, lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to designate English as the official language of the U.S., but those efforts have not succeeded.

Within hours of Trump’s inauguration last month, the new administration took down the Spanish language version of the official White House website.

Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion and frustration at the change. The White House said at the time it was committed to bringing the Spanish language version of the website back online. As of Saturday, it was still not restored.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message about whether that would happen.

Trump shut down the Spanish version of the website during his first term. It was restored when President Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021.

A group of American citizens and immigrants is suing the Trump administration for ending a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there’s war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the U.S.

The lawsuit filed late Friday night seeks to reinstate humanitarian parole programs that allowed in 875,000 migrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have legal U.S. resident as sponsors.

President Donald Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S. and implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally.

The plaintiffs include eight immigrants who entered the U.S. legally before the Trump administration ended what it called the “broad abuse” of humanitarian parole. They can legally stay in the U.S. until their parole expires, but the administration stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.

None are identified by their real names because they fear deportation. Among them are Maksym and Maria Doe, a Ukrainian couple; Alejandro Doe, who fled Nicaragua following the abduction and torture of his father; and Omar Doe, who worked for more than 18 years with the U.S. military in his home country of Afghanistan.

“They didn’t do anything illegal. They followed the rules,” Kyle Varner, a 40-year-old doctor and real estate investor from Spokane, Washington, who sponsored 79 Venezuelans and is part of the lawsuit, told The Associated Press. “They have done nothing but work as hard as they can. ... This is just such a grave injustice.”

Almost all of the immigrants sponsored by Varner have lived in his house for some time. He paid their plane tickets. He helped them learn English and get driver’s licenses and jobs. He had 32 applications that were awaiting approval when the Trump administration ended the program in January.

Other plaintiffs include two more U.S. citizens who have sponsored immigrants, Sandra McAnany and Wilhen Pierre Victor, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a California-based organization that assists immigrants with legal advice.

“The Trump administration is trying to attack parole from all angles,” said Esther Sung, an attorney from the Justice Action Center, which filed the lawsuit with Human Rights First in federal court in Massachusetts and provided the AP a copy in advance. “The main goal, above all, is to defend humanitarian parole. These have been very, very successful processes.”

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Parole authority began in 1952 and has been used by Republican and Democratic presidents to admit people unable to use standard immigration routes because of time pressure or because their home country’s government lacks diplomatic relations with the U.S.

A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions may proceed, a federal appeals court ruled.

The Eighth Circuit Court’s decision on Thursday reverses Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr.'s dismissal of the case in June after he found that the states lacked standing to sue. Eighth Circuit Chief Judge Steven M. Colloton, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2003, wrote in Thursday’s opinion that the states do have standing since they are subject to the federal rules.

Led by Republican state attorneys general in Tennessee and Arkansas, the 17 states sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April challenging its rules on how to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a 2022 bipartisan law requiring employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant or postpartum employees.

In addition to more routine pregnancy workplace accommodations like time off for prenatal appointments, more bathroom breaks, or permission to carry snacks, the rules say that workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure.

“The Biden-era EEOC’s attempt to turn a good law into an ideological weapon to force broad elective abortion accommodations is illegal,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in an emailed statement. “The EEOC’s unlawful regulations undermine the constitutional authority of the people’s elected representatives and we are vindicated by the Court’s decision to let our suit proceed.”

The lawsuit — joined by state attorneys in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia — is one of several legal challenges to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act rules. One case in Texas seeks to overturn the law in its entirety.

The Eighth Circuit Court’s decision to revive the case comes after a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the door to state abortion bans, and as bills to track and charge women who get abortions with murder have gotten attention in Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma state legislatures this month.

The EEOC, which enforces U.S. anti-discrimination laws, during former President Joe Biden’s administration published regulations that provide guidance for employers and workers on how to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. In them, the agency said that workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure, along with pregnancy-related medical conditions like miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation. Citing numerous court rulings, the EEOC in its regulations said it was conforming to decades of legal precedent establishing that pregnancy-related discrimination laws include abortion.

But many Republican lawmakers, including Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who co-sponsored the bill, were furious when the EEOC stated that the law covered abortions. Both Republican EEOC commissioners voted against the rules at the time. A spokesperson for the EEOC said the agency will “refrain from discussing litigation” but referred The Associated Press to Acting Chair Andrea Lucas’ position on the Commission’s PWFA regulations, which she voted against.

“I support elements of the final rule. However, I am unable to approve it because it purports to broaden the scope of the statute in ways that, in my view, cannot reasonably be reconciled with the text,” she wrote in a statement at the time explaining her decision to vote against the rules.

The EEOC has undergone significant change since President Donald Trump took office last month. After naming Lucas, a Republican, as acting chair, Trump fired two Democratic commissioners of the five-member bipartisan EEOC before their terms expired in an unprecedented move. Had the commissioners been allowed to carry out their terms, the EEOC would have had a Democratic majority well into Trump’s term. The administration also dismissed Karla Gilbride as the EEOC’s general counsel, replacing her with Andrew Rogers as acting counsel.

Without a quorum, the EEOC cannot rescind its own rules, although Lucas in the statement said she intends for the EEOC to reconsider portions of the rules she believes are unsupported by law once a quorum is re-established.

The Department of Justice represents the EEOC in court, and under Trump, it remains to be seen whether it will continue to fight the states’ lawsuit.