AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Missile kills at least 52 at crowded Ukrainian train station

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A missile hit a train station in eastern Ukraine where thousands had gathered Friday, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive, Ukrainian authorities said.

The attack, denounced by some as yet another war crime in the 6-week-old conflict, came as workers unearthed bodies from a mass grave in Bucha, a town near Ukraine’s capital where dozens of killings have been documented after a Russian pullout.

Photos from the station in Kramatorsk showed the dead covered with tarps, and the remnants of a rocket with the words “For the children” painted on it in Russian. About 4,000 civilians had been in and around the station, heeding calls to leave before fighting intensifies in the Donbas region, the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who says he expects a tough global response, and other leaders accused Russia’s military of deliberately attacking the station. Russia, in turn, blamed Ukraine, saying it doesn’t use the kind of missile that hit the station — a contention experts dismissed.

Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in his nightly video address Friday that efforts would be taken “to establish every minute of who did what, who gave what orders, where the missile came from, who transported it, who gave the command and how this strike was agreed to.”

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Cheers for Jackson, who declares, ‘We’ve made it, all of us’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tearfully embracing a history-making moment, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said Friday her confirmation as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court showed the progress of America, declaring, ?We’ve made it — all of us.”

Jackson delivered emotional remarks on the sunny White House South Lawn a day after the Senate approved her nomination, saying, it was a development the entire country could be proud of.

“We have come a long way toward perfecting our union,” she said. “In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

President Joe Biden, who made his own history by nominating her, stood by her side for Friday’s event, celebrating her confirmation as “a moment of real change in American history.” On Jackson’s other side: Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to attain her high office.

Jackson will take the bench later this year, filling the seat of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on a court that was made up entirely of white men for almost two centuries, that declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.

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Whitmer kidnap plot: 2 men acquitted, hung jury for 2 more

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury acquitted two men of all charges in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmerbut couldn’t reach verdicts against the two alleged leaders, a stunning defeat for the government after a weekslong trial that centered on a remarkable FBI sting operation just before the 2020 election.

Whitmer did not immediately comment on Friday’s outcome, though her chief of staff was critical, saying Americans are “living through the normalization of political violence.”

The result was announced on the fifth day of deliberations, a few hoursafter the jury said it had been strugglingto find unanimity on charges in the 10-count indictment. The judge told the panel to keep working, but jurors emerged again after lunch to say they still were deadlocked on some counts.

Daniel Harris, 24, and Brandon Caserta, 33, were found not guilty of conspiracy. In addition, Harris was acquitted of charges related to explosives and a gun.

The jury could not reach verdicts for Adam Fox, 38, and Barry Croft Jr., 46, which means the government can put them on trial again for two conspiracy charges. Croft also faces a separate explosives charge. They’ll remain in custody.

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Trans kids fear Alabama laws targeting medicine, bathrooms

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Ninth grader Harleigh Walker, 15, spends her time after school like many girls her age: doing homework, listening to Taylor Swift, collecting records and hanging out with friends.

But this year, her spring break also included trying to persuade members of the state House and Senate to reject legislation banning gender-affirming medications for transgender kids like her under 19.

She was unsuccessful. On Thursday, Alabama lawmakers passed the measure, andGov. Kay Ivey signed it into law on Friday, meaning Harleigh’s doctor would face prison time if she continued to prescribe her testosterone-blocking drugs.

“Honestly, I’m a little scared now,” Harleigh said Thursday after learning the bill had passed. “But we’re still going to fight, no matter what.”

She said she is holding out hope the bill will be blocked by a court.

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Will Smith gets 10-year Oscars ban over Chris Rock slap

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The motion picture academy on Friday banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years following his slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

The move comes after a meeting of the academy’s Board of Governors to discuss a response to Smith’s actions.

“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage,” the academy said in a statement.

“I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” Smith said in response. He pre-emptively resigned from the academy lastweek during the run-up to the meeting, calling his actions “shocking, painful, and inexcusable.”

Smith will keep the Oscar he won after the slap, and he will remain eligible to be nominated for and to win more of them in the 10-year period, though he can’t show up to accept them.

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CNN: Trump Jr. text shows ideas to overturn 2020 election

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows two days after the 2020 presidential election with strategies for overturning the result if Trump’s father lost, CNN reported Friday.

The text was sent two days before Joe Biden was declared the winner, according to CNN. It reportedly laid out strategies that then-President Donald Trump’s team pursued in the following months as they disseminated misinformation about election fraud and pressured state and federal officials to assist in that effort.

The cable news network reported that Trump Jr.’s text made “specific reference to filing lawsuits and advocating recounts to prevent certain swing states from certifying their results.” It also suggested that if those measures didn’t work, lawmakers in Congress could dismiss the electoral results and vote to keep President Trump in office.

Trump Jr.’s lawyer Alan S. Futerfas, in a statement Friday to CNN, said: “After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded.”

CNN said the Trump Jr. text had been obtained by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. In the last week, the committee has interviewed former President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Their virtual testimonies are the closest lawmakers have gotten to the former president.

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State Department: WH gift records for Trump, Pence missing

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it is unable to compile a complete and accurate accounting of gifts presented to former President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials by foreign governments during Trump’s final year in office, citing missing data from the White House.

In a report to be published in the Federal Register next week, the department says the Executive Office of the President did not submit information about gifts received by Trump and his family from foreign leaders in 2020. It also says the General Services Administration didn’t submit information about gifts given to former Vice President Mike Pence and White House staffers that year.

The State Department said it sought the missing information from National Archives and Records Administration and the General Services Administration, but was told that “potentially relevant records” are not available because of access restrictions related to retired records.

The State Department’s Office of Protocol reported the situation in footnotes to a partial list of gifts received by U.S. officials in 2020. The office publishes such lists annually in part to guard against potential conflicts of interest. A preview of the 2020 report was posted on the Federal Register website on Friday ahead of its formal publication on Monday.

The report notes that the lack of gift information could be related to internal oversights as the protocol office neglected to “submit the request for data to all reporting agencies prior to January 20, 2021,” when the Trump administration ended and the Biden administration began. However, it also noted that there had been a “lack of adequate recordkeeping pertaining to diplomatic gifts” between Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump took office, and his departure from the White House four years later.

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Jackson’s speech highlights US race struggles, progress

“In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

With those words, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson acknowledged both the struggles and progress of Black Americans in her lifetime.

Her words, delivered from the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, one day after her historic Senate confirmation, were a tribute to generations of Black Americans who she said paved the way for her elevation to the nation’s highest court.

“I have now achieved something far beyond anything my grandparents could have possibly ever imagined,” Jackson said, noting they had gained only grade school educations before starting their family and later sending their children to racially segregated schools.

“The path was cleared for me, so that I might rise to this occasion,” she said. “And in the poetic words of Dr. Maya Angelou, I do so now.”

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EXPLAINER: BA.2 variant takes over. What’s known about it?

In the latest battle of the coronavirus mutants, an extra-contagious version of omicron has taken over the world.

The coronavirus version known as BA.2 is now dominant in at least 68 countries, including the United States.

The World Health Organization says it makes up about 94% of sequenced omicron cases submitted to an international coronavirus database in the most recent week. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it was responsible for 72% of new U.S. infections last week.

Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, said he’s seen BA.2 quickly become dominant in his medical system. At the end of last week, the variant was responsible for more than three-quarters of cases in Houston Methodist hospitals. Less than two weeks earlier, 1% to 3% of cases were caused by BA.2.

“It’s not terribly surprising because it is more contagious” than the original omicron, Long said.

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Live Updates | Scheffler fires 67, leads Masters by 5

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The Latest on the Masters (all times local):

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7:30 p.m.

Scottie Scheffler left a birdie putt short on the final hole Friday but still shot a 5-under 67 to take a five-shot lead into the weekend at the Masters.

The world’s No. 1 player bogeyed two of his first three holes but did little else wrong to finish 36 holes at 8-under 136. Charl Swartzel, Sungjae Im, Shane Lowry and Hideki Matsuyama were tied for second at 3 under.