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CIA releases dozens of presidential daily briefs on bin Laden and al-Qaida before Sept. 11
Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified Friday, the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, detail intelligence government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security.
The documents illustrate security analysts' tracking of bin Laden's movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to U.S. targets. They also detail officials' understanding of his network in the United States and other countries, including how his operations were financed.
Proclaiming it "an act of exceptional transparency," CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the documents were the agency's single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs -- the highly classified briefings prepared by the nation's intelligence community for the government's most senior leaders.
The documents range from a February 1998 file -- prepared for then-President Bill Clinton -- titled "Terrorists seeking WMD capability" and mentioning bin Laden and other Islamic extremists to a Sept. 12, 2001, report in which a source indicated the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol.
An April 1998 document described the Taliban's unwillingness to hand over bin Laden, at the time seen as their "guest" in Afghanistan, noting their "gratitude for his assistance during the Soviet occupation" was making them "reluctant to alienate him by monitoring or controlling his activities."
Briefers in July 1998 called it "plausible that Bin Ladin places a high priority on conducting attacks in the United States" and noted his "interest in conducting attacks with chemical and biological agents."
Two months later, a briefer wrote that bin Laden's "preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington," and that al-Qaida "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city."
Potential hijackings were also discussed in December 1998, when a briefer described how conspirators "had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport," and "some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training."
Other documents detail bin Laden's pursuit of materials for making "dirty bombs," conventional weapons infused with radioactive material. By June 1999, according to intelligence officials, his operatives had conducted such experiments with explosives to "increase their energy output."
Federal court rejects Trump order keeping Michigan coal plant open
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal court on Friday ruled that the Energy Department exceeded its authority when it forced a Michigan coal-fired power plant to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region, and he used emergency powers to keep it operating. Environmental groups and three states -- Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota -- went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law.
The section of the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders "is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop," Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. Use of emergency authority "is triggered only when there is a need for immediate, essentially last-resort action and the circumstances require action by DOE in particular, as opposed to action by the state or states responsible for resource adequacy," she added.
Reversing the Campbell plant's "long and carefully planned retirement" is "disruptive," Pillard wrote.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she was relieved the appeals court "threw out DOE's order that had zero basis in reality."
Nessel, a Democrat, said her office "has been fighting this unlawful political stunt at every turn, and this ruling proves what we have been saying all along: this administration does not get to invent fake emergencies to bypass the rule of law against the best interests of Michigan residents."
The Michigan case is one of several legal disputes that have emerged across the country as the Trump administration uses emergency powers to force a half-dozen coal-fired plants to remain open.
The orders, which also apply to plants in Indiana, Colorado, Florida and Washington state, are raising ratepayer bills and adding air and water pollution that could have been avoided, critics say. An oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania was also ordered to keep its turbines running as a hedge against electricity shortages in the mid-Atlantic grid.
President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency in a January 2025 executive order, citing demand increases from artificial intelligence and data center growth.
US officials declare an end to record-setting cyclospora outbreak, but its origin is still unknown
NEW YORK (AP) -- The largest cyclospora food poisoning outbreak in U.S. history is over, U.S. health officials said Friday.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they are confident that all recalled iceberg lettuce related to this specific outbreak is off the market.
Nearly 13,000 reported cyclospora cases were tied to the multistate outbreak, federal officials say. They represent the bulk of an unprecedented surge in the parasitic diarrheal illness this year.
Even with the outbreak deemed over, several questions remain, including about its origin. The parasite is spread through human feces, and it still isn't clear how sewage could have contaminated enough food to sicken so many people.
"This contamination can happen if produce is grown in soil or comes into contact with water that has been contaminated," said Ellen Shumaker, director of outreach for a North Carolina State University food safety program, Safe Plates.
Since May 1, the government has received reports of nearly 20,000 lab-confirmed cases, or more than 16 times the number reported during the same period last year. More than 6,100 suspected cases also have been reported.
The worst previous year in the U.S. for infections was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported nationally.
This year's surge in cases was dominated by an outbreak in 21 states linked to iceberg lettuce. But there are thousands of other cases that have not been linked to that outbreak.
Michigan was the hardest hit state, with the most reported cases and the two U.S. deaths tied to the outbreak.
Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea "with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements," according to the CDC. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.
The illness, called cyclosporiasis, is less common than foodborne illnesses caused by other germs, including salmonella and E. coli. Many cases are never linked to a specific food or other source.
Convicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina
A pastor kicked off a recent campaign stop for Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for Senate, with a prayer that asked God to bestow "integrity and honesty" upon the event and to right wrongs "hammered down on the conservative movement."
The prayer was hardly unusual by North Carolina political standards. What was surprising was the man who delivered it. Pastor Daimon L. King is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children, according to state and court records.
The episode occurred with two months to go in a marquee Senate race that could help decide which party controls the chamber after the November elections. It risks undermining one of Whatley's central campaign arguments -- that his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, is soft on crime. And it could feed into an advertising blitz by Democrats that has targeted the Republican candidate's association with another convicted sex offender, a former GOP official.
King did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Whatley's campaign declined to make him available for an interview. In a statement, campaign spokesman DJ Griffin said Whatley did not know King and the event "was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests."
He emphasized that King had been "invited by the hosts," which he identified as the Craven County Republican Party.
Officials with the county party could not be reached for comment.
Whatley served as chairman of the North Carolina GOP from 2019 until Trump elevated him in 2024 to lead the Republican National Committee, a post he stepped down from to pursue the Senate seat at the president's urging.
King's prayer and Whatley's association with the former GOP official Harvey L. West Jr., the other convicted sex offender, could prove particularly problematic as the Republican Senate candidate seeks to shore up support from hard-right conservatives, said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University who is not related to the former governor.
Anger in Trump's base over the government's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case pressured the president to sign legislation to release the records.
The documents, which detailed the deceased sex offender's interactions with prominent figures in politics and business, pushed suspicions about powerful people and institutions that had circulated for years on the political right into a much broader public debate.
"The far right has not coalesced behind (Whatley) and these kinds of revelations will make that problem even greater," Cooper said.
Pastor prayed at event featuring Whatley and a top Trump administration official
15-year-old rescued after clinging to capsized boat for days in Alaska's Bering Sea
A 15-year-old boy survived on top of an overturned skiff in Alaska's frigid Bering Sea for roughly two days, losing his older brother and then his cousin to the ocean after the boat capsized while they were out fishing.
The teen, identified by a relative as Derek Parker Aghnaanga, was finally hoisted to safety Monday by a fishing boat near St. Lawrence Island -- a remote Alaskan island closer to Russia than it is to the United States. The bodies of his cousin and brother were also recovered.
The cousin had held onto the overturned boat for a while too, but did not survive until the rescue, the teen told one of the rescuers.
The captain of the fishing boat that came to his aid said Aghnaanga clung to the skiff through darkness and water temperatures around 50 degrees.
"That's one tough kid," Adam White, captain of The Northwest Explorer, told KTUU-TV in Anchorage.
"Through the teeth chattering, he had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff," White said. "And then he said that, in the previous night, before our rescue, that his cousin had slipped away."
U.S. Coast Guard planes and helicopters began searching for the skiff Monday morning after family members reported the three missing the night before.
The group left the village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island on Friday and planned to return early Sunday, the Coast Guard said.
Halibut fishing is a part of the culture and important to survival in the village where there are about 800 residents and jobs are hard to come by, said Collen Walker, an aunt of the two brothers. Residents often share their catch with family and neighbors, she said.
"That's how we do it in our community. We take care of one another," she said Friday. "We still live a traditional way of life even if the world is changing."
Aghnaanga, the teen rescued, often went fishing with his 35-year-old brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, and looked to him as a father figure ever since their own father died when they were younger, Walker said.
GOP and Democratic officials in Nashville unite over renaming airport for Dolly Parton
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- In Nashville, Tennessee, the Republican-dominated state government and Democrat-controlled city government are engaged in an ugly battle for control of the city's airport.
But there's one thing the two sides can agree on: Nashville International Airport should be renamed to honor Tennessee's favorite daughter, Dolly Parton. The change would make Parton the first woman whose name adorns one of America's 50 busiest airports.
Lydia Popovich, a Parton superfan who started a petition for the name change in 2025, said on Friday that Parton had gracefully batted down the idea of naming the airport after her, as she did with many other proposed honors during her lifetime. That includes a bill brought by Tennessee lawmakers in 2021 to place a statue of her on the Capitol grounds.
Parton asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill but expressed a hope that it might happen "somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I'm gone if you still feel I deserve it."
After Parton's death two weeks ago, the airport naming idea seemingly caught fire, with Popovich's petition reaching more than 175,000 signatures -- not that the officials competing to run the airport needed the push.
At a meeting Friday of the state-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, a motion directing the airport CEO to begin the renaming process was unanimously approved by board members praising Parton to the heavens. Airport officials said the change could take a year or more and involves working with Parton's estate to determine how they might split profits from merchandise sales, among other things.
There are two Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authorities: one run by the state and the other controlled by the city, a bifurcated regulatory system that was created in 2023 amid a partisan dispute between the GOP-run state and the Democratic-run city. Who actually controls the airport has been in dispute ever since, with competing boards taking the reins only to be deposed as courts rule and are overturned.
Despite the acrimony, Nashville's Democratic Mayor Freddie O'Connell and the competing, city-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority are also in support of the name change, according to O'Connell spokesman Alex Apple.
"The FAA's going to get two votes from two boards, both in favor," Apple said.