AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

The order by three judges — all of whom were nominated to the bench by GOP presidents — didn't rule on changes made last month to the 1st Congressional District that are designed to unseat Democratic Rep. Don Davis in 2026.

That alteration, completed at the urging of President Donald Trump as part of an ongoing national mid-decade redistricting fray, is still being considered by the panel. The judges heard arguments on Wednesday in Winston-Salem but didn't immediately rule on whether they would block now the use of the 1st District and the adjoining 3rd District for next year's election while more legal arguments are made. Candidate filing for the 2026 elections is set to begin Dec. 1.

Many allegations made by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters cover both 2023 and 2025 changes, in particular claims of voter dilution and racial discrimination violating the U.S. Constitution and Voting Rights Act.

The 2023 map helped turn a 7-7 North Carolina delegation into one in which Republicans won 10 of the 14 seats in 2024. Three Democrats chose not to seek reelection, saying it was essentially impossible to get reelected under the recast lines.

Trump administration announces plan for new oil drilling off the coasts of California and Florida

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.

The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas, including Southern California and off the coast of Florida, as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because of concerns about oil spills. California has some offshore oil rigs, but there has been no new leasing in federal waters since the mid-1980s.

Since taking office for a second time in January, Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to pursue what the Republican calls U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Trump, who recently called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” created a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up already record-high U.S. energy production, particularly fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.

Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.

The drilling proposal drew bipartisan pushback in Florida, where a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Trump administration should reconsider and Republican Sen. Rick Scott said the state’s coasts “must remain off the table for oil drilling.” California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump critic, called the administration’s plan “idiotic.”

Ukraine's president is under growing pressure. Here are 5 things to know

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The president of Ukraine is facing a confluence of crises testing his ability to lead an increasingly weary nation nearly four years into a devastating full-scale invasion by Russia.

For more than a week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has struggled to contain the fallout from a $100 million corruption scandal implicating top officials and other associates. The pressure on Zelenskyy has ratcheted up as the United States pushes a proposal it drew up with Russia that would require major concessions from Ukraine — and seemingly few from Russia — to bring an end to the war.

All this is playing out as Russia makes slow but steady advances across parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and relentlessly bombs Ukraine's power plants, causing severe electricity shortages as colder weather sets in.

Here are five things to know about the growing pressures confronting Zelenskyy:

Zelenskyy has been facing a rebellion from lawmakers in his own party since the country's corruption watchdogs revealed that $100 million had been embezzled from the energy sector through kickbacks paid by contractors.

Justice Department is examining handling of mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is examining the handling of the mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff, including the potential involvement of people who claimed to be acting at the behest or direction of two Trump administration officials who have been pushing the probe of the California Democrat, according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.

Federal authorities involved in the Schiff investigation in Maryland interviewed a Republican congressional candidate on Thursday who has promoted the mortgage fraud allegations against the lawmaker and quizzed her about any communications she may have had with Justice Department official Ed Martin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. The interview came after the woman received a subpoena seeking information about communications she may have had with people claiming to be working at the direction of Pulte and Martin.

Christine Bish, a real estate agent who is running for a congressional seat in California, told the AP that she was prepared to speak to investigators about her own yearslong effort to draw attention to mortgages held by Schiff, who has homes in California and Maryland. But authorities instead were focused on potential interactions she has had with Pulte and Martin, Bish said.

“I expected to be asked questions, a lot of questions, about, ’How did you come about investigating Adam Schiff and what were your findings?” Bish said. “What they wanted to know was if I was in communication with Ed Martin or Director Pulte — and I was not.”

Bish said she kept trying to return to the Schiff allegations, but that the officials “are trying to, in my opinion, investigate the investigators.”

FAA gives $10K bonuses only to controllers and technicians with perfect attendance during shutdown

Only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.

A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month and they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn't afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.

President Donald Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven't publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.

Thousands of FAA technicians also had to work during the shutdown to maintain the equipment that air traffic controllers rely on. At least 6,600 technicians were expected to work throughout the shutdown but more than 3,000 others were subject to be recalled to work.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of these few workers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown. In a post on X he described it as “Santa's coming to town a little early.”

Investigators say UPS plane that crashed in Kentucky, killing 14, had cracks in engine mount

Federal investigators released dramatic photos Thursday of an engine flying off a doomed UPS cargo plane that crashed two weeks ago in Kentucky, killing 14 people, and said there was evidence of cracks in the left wing's engine mount.

A series of six photos showed the rear of the engine starting to detach before it flew up and over the wing as flames erupted. The next image shows the wing engulfed by fire as the burning engine flies above it. The last image shows the plane starting to get airborne.

But the MD-11 plane only got 30 feet (9.1 meters) off the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said, citing the flight data recorder in its first formal but preliminary report about the Nov. 4 disaster in Louisville, Kentucky.

Three pilots on the plane were killed along with 11 more people on the ground near Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The NTSB said the plane was not due yet for a detailed inspection of key engine mount parts that had fractures. It still needed to complete nearly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings. It was last examined in October 2021.

$54.7M sale of Frida Kahlo self-portrait breaks auction record for female artists

A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for $54.7 million and became the top-selling work by any female artist at an auction.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed — titled “El sueño (La cama)” or in English, “The Dream (The Bed)” — surpassed the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1," which sold for $44.4 million in 2014.

The sale at Sotheby's in New York also topped Kahlo's own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1949 painting “Diego and I,” depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9 million in 2021. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The self-portrait is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument. Her works in both public and private collections within the country cannot be sold abroad or destroyed.

The painting comes from a private collection, whose owner has not been disclosed, and is legally eligible for international sale. Some art historians have scrutinized the sale for cultural reasons, while others have raised concern that the painting — last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s — could again disappear from public view after the auction. It has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in cities including New York, London and Brussels.

What to know about the Justice Department's Jeffrey Epstein files

NEW YORK (AP) — The clock is ticking for the U.S. government to open up its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

After months of rancor and recriminations, Congress has passed and President Donald Trump has signed legislation compelling the Justice Department to give the public everything it has on Epstein — and it has to be done before Christmas.

But even that might not be enough for the curious and the conspiracy-minded.

While there’s sure to be never-before-seen material in the thousands of pages likely to be released, a lot of Epstein-related records have already been made public, including by Congress and through litigation.

And don’t expect a “client list” of famous men who cavorted with Epstein. Though such a list has long been rumored, the Justice Department said in July that it doesn’t exist.

Charlotte immigration crackdown goes on, Homeland Security says, despite sheriff saying it ended

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal immigration crackdown centered around North Carolina’s largest city of Charlotte appeared to be tapering off Thursday, local law enforcement leaders said, but a Homeland Security official insisted the arrests would not let up.

The North Carolina operation that began last weekend was the most recent phase of Republican President Donald Trump 's aggressive mass deportation efforts that have sent the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities — from Chicago to Los Angeles.

“The operation is not over and it is not ending anytime soon,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Both the local sheriff and police department said earlier in the day that the crackdown, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests, appeared to be over less than a week after it began. Federal officials have offered few details about those arrested, or when and where agents will show up next.

But even as confusion swirled over whether Operation Charlotte’s Web was on or off in North Carolina, immigration enforcement actions are taking place nationwide, often with far less media attention than the Border Patrol surges. In one example, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested roughly 3,500 people over a six-week span in Houston.

Coast Guard reverses course on policy to call swastikas and nooses 'potentially divisive'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard has released a new, firmer policy addressing the display of hate symbols like swastikas and nooses just hours after it was publicly revealed that it made plans to describe them as “potentially divisive" — a term that prompted outcry from lawmakers and advocates.

“Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” the latest Coast Guard policy, released late Thursday, declared before adding that this category included “a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups.”

“This is not an updated policy but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols,” an accompanying Coast Guard press release said.

The late-night change came on the same day that media outlets, led by The Washington Post, discovered that the Coast Guard had written a policy earlier this month that called those same symbols “potentially divisive." The term was a shift from a years-long policy, first rolled out in 2019, that said symbols like swastikas and nooses were “widely identified with oppression or hatred” and called their display “a potential hate incident.”

The latest policy that was rolled out Thursday night also unequivocally banned the display of any divisive or hate symbols from all Coast Guard locations. The earlier version stopped short of banning the symbols, instead saying that commanders could take steps to remove them from public view and that the rule did not apply to private spaces outside of public view, such as family housing.