AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST

Russia strikes Ukraine’s capital despite US peace push

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv early Tuesday, striking residential buildings and energy infrastructure, according to video footage and local authorities.

A residential building in the central Pechersk district and another in Kyiv’s eastern district of Dniprovskyi were badly damaged, Mayor Vitalii Kitschko said.

Video footage posted to Telegram showed a large fire spread through multiple floors of the nine-story building in Dniprovskyi. At least four people were injured, the head of Kyiv city administration, Tymor Tkachenko, said.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said that energy infrastructure had been hit, without specifying what type or the extent of the damage.

The Russian attack followed talks between U.S. and Ukraine representatives in Geneva on Sunday about a U.S.-Russia brokered peace plan.

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Judge dismisses Comey, James indictments after finding that prosecutor was illegally appointed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

The rulings from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie halt at least for now a pair of prosecutions that had targeted two of the president’s most high-profile political opponents and amount to a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s legal maneuvering to install an inexperienced and loyalist prosecutor willing to file the cases.

The orders do not concern the substance of the allegations against Comey or James but instead deal with the unconventional manner in which the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was named to her position as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Defense lawyers said the Trump administration had no legal authority to make the appointment. In a pair of similar rulings, Currie agreed and said the invalid appointment required the dismissal of the cases.

“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment,” including securing and signing the indictments, “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside,” she wrote.

A White House spokeswoman said the rulings will “not be the final word on the matter,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed at an unrelated news conference that the Justice Department would pursue an “immediate appeal.” Prosecutors may also try to refile the changes, a possibility left open by the judge’s orders.

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Pentagon says it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly over video urging troops to defy ‘illegal orders’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon announced Monday it is investigating Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over possible breaches of military law after the former Navy pilot joined a handful of other lawmakers in a video that called for troops to defy “illegal orders.”

The Pentagon’s statement, posted on social media, cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court martial or other measures.

It is extraordinary for the Pentagon, which until President Donald Trump’s second term had usually gone out of its way to act and appear apolitical, to directly threaten a sitting member of Congress with investigation. It comes after Trump ramped up the rhetoric by accusing the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days after the video was released last week.

In its statement Monday, the Pentagon suggested that Kelly’s statements in the video interfered with the “loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces” by citing the federal law that prohibits such actions.

“A thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures,” the statement said.

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Trump administration plans to review refugees admitted under Biden, memo obtained by The AP says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained Monday by The Associated Press, in the latest blow against a program that has for decades welcomed people fleeing war and persecution into the country.

The review is likely to sow confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during that period. It is likely to face legal challenges from advocates, some of whom said the move was part of the administration’s “cold-hearted treatment” of people trying to build new lives in the U.S.

The memo, signed by the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, and dated Friday, said that during the Biden years “expediency” and “quantity” were prioritized over “detailed screening and vetting.” The memo said that warranted a comprehensive review and “re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025.”

The memo indicated that there will be a list of people to re-interview within three months.

Advocates of the refugee program say that refugees are generally some of the most vetted of all people coming to the United States and that they often wait years to be able to come.

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Thousands of arrests by Trump’s crime-fighting task force in Memphis strain crowded jail and courts

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A task force ordered by President Donald Trump to combat crime in Memphis, Tennessee, has made thousands of arrests, compounding strains on the busy local court system and an already overcrowded jail in ways that concerned officials say will last months or even years as cases play out.

Since late September, hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel tied to the Memphis Safe Task Force have made traffic stops, served warrants and searched for fugitives in the city of about 610,000 people. More than 2,800 people have been arrested and more than 28,000 traffic citations have been issued, data provided by the task force and Memphis police shows.

The task force, which includes National Guard troops, is supported by Republican Gov. Bill Lee and others who hope the surge reduces crime in a city that has grappled with violent crime, including nearly 300 homicides last year and nearly 400 in 2023.

On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi traveled to Memphis to meet with officers and tout the task force’s success in taking suspects and illegal guns off the street. Bondi and other law enforcement leaders later served food to officers to thank them for their work.

Asked about the strain on the local criminal justice system, U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces Serralta said authorities are bringing as many cases as they can in federal court. He said federal officials are open to working with state prosecutors to find ways to speed up prosecutions.

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A guide to Thanksgiving travel after the government shutdown

The turbulence caused by the longest U.S. government shutdown may still be fresh on the minds of travelers this Thanksgiving, but experts say preparing for the usual holiday crush of winter weather, heavy traffic and crowded airports can help ease the jitters.

“I think the shutdown at this point is history for air travel. The airlines understand this time of year so well. They know exactly what they need to do,” said Sheldon H. Jacobson, an airport and airlines operations expert. “The real challenge is making sure travelers can help themselves.”

Here’s a guide to navigating the busiest travel week of the year:

Travel forecasts point to packed airports, roads and trains.

A week after lifting the unprecedented flight restrictions it placed on commercial airlines during the shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is preparing for its busiest Thanksgiving in 15 years, with more than 360,000 flights scheduled between Monday and next Tuesday. That’s more than 17.8 million people who will be screened at airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

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US-backed aid company in Gaza shutters operations as Israel’s military and defense minister clash

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, set up to distribute aid to Gaza as an alternative to the United Nations but which Palestinians said endangered the lives of civilians as they tried to get food, said Monday it would shutter operations.

The foundation had already closed distribution sites after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect six weeks ago in Gaza. It announced Monday that it was permanently shutting down, claiming it had fulfilled its mission. “We have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” GHF director John Acree said in a statement.

The operations of the GHF were shrouded in secrecy during its short time in operation, and the group never revealed its sources of funding and said little about the armed contractors who operated the sites.

It said its goal was to deliver aid to Gaza without it being diverted by Hamas.

Palestinians, aid workers and health officials have said the system forced aid-seekers to risk their lives to reach the sites by passing Israeli troops who secured the locations. Soldiers often opened fire, killing hundreds, according to witnesses and videos posted to social media. The Israeli military says it only fired warning shots as a crowd-control measure or if its troops were in danger.

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One of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre’s last survivors, Viola Ford Fletcher, dies at age 111

DALLAS (AP) — Viola Ford Fletcher, who as one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma spent her later years seeking justice for the deadly attack by a white mob on the thriving Black community where she lived as a child, has died. She was 111.

Her grandson Ike Howard said Monday that she died surrounded by family at a Tulsa hospital. Sustained by a strong faith, she raised three children, worked as a welder in a shipyard during World War II and spent decades caring for families as a housekeeper.

Tulsa was mourning her loss, said Mayor Monroe Nichols, the first Black leader of Oklahoma’s second-largest city. “Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose.”

She was 7 years old when the two-day attack began on Tulsa’s Greenwood district on May 31, 1921, after a local newspaper published a sensationalized report about a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. As a white mob grew outside the courthouse, Black Tulsans with guns who hoped to prevent the man’s lynching began showing up. White residents responded with overwhelming force. Hundreds of people were killed and homes were burned and looted, leaving over 30 city blocks decimated in the prosperous community known as Black Wall Street.

“I could never forget the charred remains of our once-thriving community, the smoke billowing in the air, and the terror-stricken faces of my neighbors,” she wrote in her 2023 memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.”

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Jimmy Cliff, reggae giant and star of landmark film ‘The Harder They Come,’ dead at 81

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Cliff, the charismatic reggae pioneer and actor who preached joy, defiance and resilience in such classics as “Many Rivers to Cross,” “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and “Vietnam” and starred in the landmark movie “The Harder They Come,” has died at 81.

His wife, Latifa Chambers, confirmed his death Monday. Chambers and Cliff’s three children also posted a message on his social media sites that he died from a “seizure followed by pneumonia.” Additional information was not immediately available.

“”To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career,” the announcement reads in part. “He really appreciated each and every fan for their love.”

Cliff was a native Jamaican with a spirited tenor and a gift for catchphrases and topical lyrics who joined Kingston’s emerging music scene in his teens and helped lead a movement in the 1960s that included such future stars as Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert and Peter Tosh. By the early 1970s, he had accepted director Perry Henzell’s offer to star in a film about an aspiring reggae musician, Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, who turns to crime when his career stalls. Henzell named the movie “The Harder They Come” after suggesting the title as a possible song for Cliff.

“Ivanhoe was a real-life character for Jamaicans,” Cliff told Variety in 2022, upon the film’s 50th anniversary. “When I was a little boy, I used to hear about him as being a bad man. A real bad man. No one in Jamaica, at that time, had guns. But he had guns and shot a policeman, so he was someone to be feared. However, being a hero was the manner in which Perry wanted to make his name — an anti-hero in the way that Hollywood turns its bad guys into heroes.”

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a rare Superman comic book! And it fetched $9.12M!

A copy of the first Superman issue, unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother’s attic, netted $9.12 million this month at a Texas auction house which says it is the most expensive comic book ever sold.

The brothers discovered the comic book in a cardboard box beneath layers of brittle newspapers, dust and cobwebs in their deceased mother’s San Francisco home last year, alongside a handful of other rare comics that she and her sibling had collected on the cusp of World War II.

She had told her children she had a valuable comic book collection hidden away, but they had never seen it until they put her house up for sale and decided to comb through her belongings for heirlooms, said Lon Allen, vice president of comics at Heritage Auctions. The brothers uncovered the box of comics and sent a message to the auction company, leading Allen to fly out to San Francisco earlier this year to inspect their copy of “Superman No. 1” and show it to other experts for appraisal.

“It was just in an attic, sitting in a box, could have easily been thrown away, could’ve easily been destroyed in a thousand different ways,” Allen said. “A lot of people got excited because it’s just every factor in collecting that you could possibly want all rolled into one.”

The “Superman No. 1” comic, released in 1939 by Detective Comics Inc., is one of a small number of copies known to be in existence and is in excellent condition. The Man of Steel was the first superhero to enter pop culture, helping boost the copy’s value among collectors, alongside its improbable backstory, Allen said.