A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to end its monthslong deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that President Donald Trump’s military takeover in Washington, D.C., illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow for an appeal, however.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to challenge the Guard deployments. He asked the judge to bar the White House from deploying Guard troops without the mayor’s consent while the lawsuit plays out.

Dozens of states took sides in Schwalb’s lawsuit, with their support falling along party lines.

Cobb found that while the president does have authority to protect federal functioning and property, he can’t unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he sees fit or call in troops from other states.

After her ruling, Schwalb called for troops to be sent home. “Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the President can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants — with no check on his military power,” Schwalb said.

The White House, though, stood by the deployment.

“President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks,” said spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of DC residents — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”

In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist in patrols.

The administration has also deployed Guard troops to Los Angeles and tried to send troops into Chicago and Portland, Oregon, prompting other court challenges. A federal appeals court allowed the Los Angeles deployment, and the administration is appealing a judge’s decision in Portland that found the president did not have the authority to call up or deploy National Guard troops there.

The Supreme Court is weighing the administration’s emergency appeal to be allowed to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area in support of an immigration crackdown. A lower court has indefinitely prevented the deployment.

In Washington, It’s unclear how long the deployments will last, but attorneys from Schwalb’s office said Guard troops are likely to remain in the city through at least next summer.

The acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency left his job Monday after just six months, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the latest disruption in a year of mass staff departures, program cuts and policy upheaval at the agency charged with managing federal disaster response.

David Richardson, who in his brief term remained largely out of public sight, is leaving the post after he faced a wave of criticism for his handling of the deadly Texas floods earlier this year. He replaced previous acting head Cameron Hamilton in May.

DHS did not comment on the details of Richardson’s departure, but a FEMA employee familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Richardson resigned. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the changes with the media.

The Washington Post first reported the news about Richardson’s resignation.

A former Marine Corps officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and also led the DHS Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office, Richardson had no previous emergency management experience when he assumed the role of “senior official performing the duties of administrator” in May.

After replacing Hamilton, who was fired one day after telling a House appropriations committee that he did not think FEMA should be eliminated, Richardson vowed to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s goal to push more disaster recovery responsibilities to the states and told FEMA employees he would “ run right over ” anyone who tried to obstruct that mission.

A bill that would allow judges to sentence women who get abortions to decades in prison and could restrict the use of IUDs and in vitro fertilization goes before a small group of South Carolina senators Tuesday.

This would be the first of at least a half-dozen legislative steps for the proposal that includes the strictest abortion prohibitions and punishments in the nation.

The subcommittee of the state Senate’s Medical Affairs Committee can change it Tuesday afternoon and even if it’s approved, its prospects are doubtful at best.

But even at this stage, the bill has gone further than any other such proposal across the U.S. since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, opening the door for states to implement abortion bans.

The proposal would ban all abortions unless the woman’s life is threatened. Current state law bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected, which is typically six week into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. Current law also allows abortions for rape and incest victims up to 12 weeks.

The proposal would also do things that aren’t being done in any other state. Women who get an abortion and anyone who helps them could face up to 30 years in prison. It appears to ban any contraception that prevents a fertilized egg from implanting, which would ban intrauterine devices and could limit in vitro fertilization.

Providing information about abortions would be illegal, leaving doctors worried they couldn’t suggest places where the procedure is legal.

Republican Sen. Richard Cash, who sponsors the bill and is one of the Senate’s most strident voices against abortion, will run Tuesday’s subcommittee. He acknowledged problems last month with potentially banning contraception and restricting the advice doctors can give to patients. But he has given no indication what changes he or the rest of the subcommittee might support. Six of the nine members are Republicans.

Abortion remains an unsettled issue in conservative states and how much more to restrict it is fracturing anti-abortion groups.
South Carolina Citizens for Life, one of the state’s largest and oldest opponents of abortion, issued a statement last month saying it can’t support Cash’s bill because women who get abortions are victims too and shouldn’t be punished.

On the other side, at least for this bill, are groups like Equal Protection South Carolina. “Abortion is murder and should be treated as such,” founder Mark Corral said.

President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks.

Before signing the legislation, Trump said the government should never shut down again, adding, “This is no way to run a country.”

Trump’s signature draws to a close the second government shutdown he’s overseen in the White House, one that magnified the partisan divisions in Washington as his administration took unprecedented unilateral actions -- including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers -- to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands.

The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222-209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday.

In lengthy remarks before affixing his name, Trump said, “It’s an honor now to sign this incredible bill.”

He said the government should never shut down again, adding, “This is no way to run a country.”

Trump was surrounded in the Oval Office by Republican lawmakers and some former members of Congress who are now heading powerful business lobbying groups.

His signature drew applause, but Trump didn’t answer questions on the Epstein scandal or any other topic before the press was hustled out.

Trump signed the government funding bill Wednesday night, drawing to a close the second government shutdown he’s overseen in the White House.

The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222-209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday.

Congress has taken a major step toward reopening the government, but there’s still uncertainty about when all 42 million Americans who receive SNAP food aid will have access to their full November benefits.

One provision in the bill that would reopen the government calls for restarting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but even that doesn’t resolve when the benefits will be loaded onto the debit cards beneficiaries use to buy groceries.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available “upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states.” The department didn’t immediately answer questions about where it might take longer.

Wander Franco’s attorneys pushed to have the suspended Tampa Bay Rays shortstop’s sexual-abuse conviction and sentencing overturned Tuesday.

Franco in June was convicted of sexually abusing a minor, and he then received a two-year suspended sentence. Meanwhile, prosecutors are seeking a five-year sentence.

The court of appeals in Puerto Plata, where the case was heard, said it would issue a ruling on Dec. 9 after hearing arguments from prosecutors and Franco’s lawyers.

Franco was arrested last year after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time, and of transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.

Franco was once Tampa Bay’s star shortstop, signing an 11-year, $182 million contract in November 2021.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic announced in August 2023 they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor.

In January 2024, Franco was arrested in his home country. Six months later, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list.

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a close Republican ally of President Donald Trump, announced Friday that she’s running for governor of New York, a place she depicted in a campaign launch video as being “in ashes” because of lawlessness and a high cost of living.

In her video, a narrator declares “The Empire State has fallen” as it painted a grim picture of crime and economic crisis in New York City, though her message appeared to be aimed at other, more conservative parts of the state that she will need to win over next year.

“Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery prices crushing hardworking families,” Stefanik said in a statement.

Stefanik, who represents a conservative congressional district in upstate New York, has for months teased a run, leveling heavy criticism at incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul and more recently toward Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City.

Last year, Trump picked Stefanik to be the administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, but later rescinded the nomination over concerns about Republicans’ tight margins in the House.

Though any Republican faces long odds of winning the governor’s mansion in New York, Stefanik’s campaign will bring solid name recognition, fundraising prowess and deep ties to the White House. Her campaign announced Friday that she has received the backing of nearly three-quarters of the state’s county Republican chairs.

In a statement, Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika called Stefanik “Donald Trump’s number one cheerleader in Congress.”

“Apparently, screwing over New Yorkers in Congress wasn’t enough — now she’s trying to bring Trump’s chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state,” Chitika said.

The Republican primary field remains unclear ahead of the 2026 race. U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler had been contemplating a run and was considered a potentially strong candidate, but said earlier this year that he would instead seek reelection in his battleground House district in the New York Hudson Valley.

Hochul faces a contested primary, with her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, running against her.

Stefanik, a Harvard graduate, was 30 when she was first elected to the House in 2014. She entered Congress as a moderate Republican but soon attached herself to Trump, reshaping her persona into more of a brash, outspoken MAGA disciple.

Her national profile got a big boost after she aggressively questioned a group of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses, leading to two of their resignations and winning praise from the Republican president.

Democrats have a major voter registration edge in New York. The last Republican governor in the state was former Gov. George Pataki, who left office about two decades ago. Still, Republican Lee Zeldin, a former Long Island congressman and current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, made a serious run for the office in 2022, coming within striking distance of upsetting Hochul.