AP Top News at 11:51 p.m. EDT

Trump announces travel ban and restrictions on 19 countries set to go into effect Monday

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions. The ban takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m., a cushion that may avoid the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when a similar measure took effect with virtually no notice in 2017. Trump, who signaled plans for a new ban upon taking office in January, appears to be on firmer ground this time after the Supreme Court sided with him. Some, but not all, 12 countries also appeared on the list of banned countries in Trump’s first term.

Trump orders investigation into Biden’s actions as president, ratcheting up targeting of predecessor

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed his administration to investigate Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline” and casting doubts on the legitimacy of his use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents. The order marked a significant escalation in Trump’s targeting of political adversaries and could lay the groundwork for arguments by the Republican that a range of Biden’s actions as president were invalid. Biden responded in a statement Wednesday night: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations.

Trump says Putin told him that Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” in a phone call Wednesday that he will respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airfields as the deadlock over the war drags on. Trump said in a social media post that his lengthy call with Putin “was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.” It’s the first time Trump has weighed in on Ukraine’s daring attack inside Russia. The U.S. did not have advance notice of the operation, according to the White House, a point Trump emphasized during the call with Putin, according to Putin’s foreign affairs adviser.

Trump tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit and leave 10.9 million more uninsured, CBO says

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s big bill in Congress would unleash trillions in tax cuts and slash spending, but also spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade and leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance, raising the political stakes for the GOP’s signature domestic priority. Republican leaders in Congress, determined to muscle the sweeping package forward, had little to say after the analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. GOP senators spent more than an hour at the White House in what they called a robust afternoon discussion with Trump. “We’re committed to making a law that will make the lives of the American people better,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said afterward.

Judge says migrants sent to El Salvador prison must get a chance to challenge their removals

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must give more than 100 migrants sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador a chance to challenge their deportations. U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said that people who were sent to the prison in March under an 18th-century wartime law haven’t been able to formally contest the removals or allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He ordered the administration to work toward giving them a way to file those challenges. The judge wrote that “significant evidence” has surfaced indicating that many of the migrants imprisoned in El Salvador are not connected to the gang “and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.” Boasberg gave the administration one week to come up with a manner in which the “at least 137" people can make those claims, even while they’re formally in the custody of El Salvador.

A US judge halts the deportation of the Egyptian family of the Boulder firebombing suspect

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. U.S. immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday. Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday’s attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody.

Man charged with supplying explosive chemicals to bomber of Palm Springs fertility clinic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities arrested a man they say collaborated with the bomber of a fertility clinic in May, alleging that he supplied chemicals used to make explosives and traveled to California to experiment with them in the bomber’s garage months before the attack. The two men connected in fringe online forums over their shared beliefs against human procreation, authorities told reporters Wednesday. The blast gutted the fertility clinic in Palm Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, with officials calling the attack terrorism and possibly the largest bomb scene ever in Southern California. The clinic was closed, and no embryos were damaged.

Trump promised to welcome more foreign students. Now, they feel targeted on all fronts

To attract the brightest minds to America, President Donald Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” Trump said during a podcast interview last June. “That is going to end on Day One.” That promise never came to pass. Trump’s stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically. International students have found themselves at the center of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming as his administration merges a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education.

Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the US

Childhood vaccination rates against measles fell in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic in nearly 80% of the more than 2,000 U.S. counties with available data — including in states that are battling outbreaks this year. A Johns Hopkins University study, published in JAMA this week, illustrates where more vulnerable communities are located. The results mirror trends established at state and national levels: Routine childhood vaccination rates are dropping. “When you look at the state level or national level ... you really don’t see those drastic drops. Those are there. They’re real and they’re really problematic,” said Lauren Gardner, an expert in infectious disease modeling at Johns Hopkins University who is the paper’s senior author.

Draisaitl scores in OT, Oilers beat the Panthers in overtime in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Leon Draisaitl scored on the power play in overtime, Stuart Skinner made 29 saves and the Edmonton Oilers erased a multigoal deficit to beat the defending champion Florida Panthers 4-3 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final rematch on Wednesday night. After Tomas Nosek’s penalty for putting the puck over the glass, Draisaitl’s goal 19:29 into OT sent the home fans into a frenzy and made sure the Oilers would not start this series like they did a year ago, when they fell behind three games to none. For a while, it looked like they would at least start out trailing.