AP Top News at 11:56 p.m. EDT

Trump places 25% tariff on imported autos, expecting to raise $100 billion in tax revenues

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports, a move the White House claims would foster domestic manufacturing but could also put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply chains. “This will continue to spur growth,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll effectively be charging a 25% tariff.” The tariffs, which the White House expects to raise $100 billion in revenue annually, could be complicated as even U.S. automakers source their components from around the world. The tax hike starting in April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales, though Trump argues that the tariffs will lead to more factories opening in the United States and the end of what he judges to be a “ridiculous” supply chain in which auto parts and finished vehicles are manufactured across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Atlantic releases the Signal chat showing Hegseth’s detailed attack plans against the Houthis

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Atlantic on Wednesday released the entire Signal chat among senior national security officials, showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen’s Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne. The disclosure follows two intense days during which leaders of President Donald Trump’s intelligence and defense agencies have struggled to explain how details — that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified — wound up on an unclassified Signal chat that included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg,

Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit. Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.” The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.

Palestinians protest Hamas in a rare public show of dissent in Gaza

CAIRO (AP) — Thousands of Palestinians marched between the wreckage of a heavily destroyed town in northern Gaza on Wednesday in the second day of anti-war protests, with many chanting against Hamas in a rare display of public anger against the militant group. The protests, which centered mainly on Gaza’s north, appeared to be aimed generally against the war, with protesters calling for an end to 17 months of deadly fighting with Israel that has made life in Gaza insufferable. But protesters also leveled unusually direct and public criticism of Hamas, which has quashed dissent violently in the past in Gaza, a territory it still rules months into the war with Israel.

North Korea sent 3,000 more troops to Russia, according to South’s assessment

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea sent around 3,000 additional troops to Russia in January and February in continued support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, South Korea’s military said Thursday in its latest assessment. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also been sending more missiles, artillery equipment and ammunition to help Russia and that North Korea could increase its weapons supplies further depending on the war situation. Russia and Ukraine recently agreed on a limited ceasefire, though both sides have accused each other of violations. The military equipment North Korea has sent to Russia includes a “considerable amount” of short-range ballistic missiles, 170 millimeter self-propelled howitzers and around 220 units of 240 millimeter multiple rocket launchers.

South Korea is in an uphill battle to contain massive wildfires as the death toll rises to 26

CHEONGSONG, South Korea (AP) — Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea on Thursday as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 26 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures. Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea’s southeastern regions since last Friday. The government has mobilized thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes, but officials said strong winds are hampering their efforts. Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said “a small amount” — less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) — of rain was expected in the area on Thursday, not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires.

Turkish student at Tufts University detained, video shows masked people handcuffing her

SOMERVILLE, Mass. (AP) — A Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University has been detained by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents without explanation, her lawyer said Wednesday. Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, had just left her home in Somerville on Tuesday night when she was stopped, lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in a petition filed in Boston federal court. Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking away Ozturk’s phone as she yells and is handcuffed. “We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video. A man is heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?” Khanbabai said Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan.

The AP and the Trump administration are due back in court in their fight over White House access

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press is returning to a federal courtroom on Thursday to ask a judge to restore its full access to presidential events, after the White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. In a hearing last month, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden refused the AP’s request for an injunction to stop the White House from barring reporters and photographers from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One. He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its ban before Thursday’s hearing. It hasn’t.

Climate change and overfishing threaten Vietnam’s ancient tradition of making fish sauce

DA NANG, Vietnam (AP) — Bui Van Phong faced a choice when the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago: Stay in his small village, helping his parents carry on the family’s centuries-old tradition of making fish sauce, or join the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing his country for a better life. Phong chose to stay behind and nurtured a business making the beloved condiment, known as nuoc mam in Vietnam, that is now in its fourth generation with his son, Bui Van Phu, 41, at the helm. Fish sauce from the village has been recognized by Vietnam as an indelible part of the country’s heritage and the younger Bui is acutely aware of what that means.

Soto, Snell and Holmes debut for new teams, Skenes makes his first opening-day start

NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Clay Holmes debut for new teams, Paul Skenes makes his first opening-day start at age 22 and Sandy Alcántara returns from Tommy John surgery. A week after the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgersswept an opening two-game series over the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, 26 other teams get underway Thursday on opening day in the U.S. and Canada. One day later the Rays and Rockies become the final clubs to take the field, given extra time while Tampa Bay moved into the New York Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field, its temporary home this season after Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field’s roof.