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

A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

After a Boston appeals court declined to immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.

Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in.

The food program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes.

US airlines cancel 1,000 flights while complying with shutdown order

Anxious travelers across the U.S. felt a bit of relief Friday as airlines mostly stayed on schedule while still cutting more than 1,000 flights largely because of the government shutdown.

Plenty of nervousness remained, though, as more canceled flights are coming over the next week to comply with the Federal Aviation Administration’s order to reduce service at the nation's busiest airports.

The order is in response to air traffic controllers — who haven't been paid in nearly a month as the shutdown drags on — calling out of work in higher numbers as they deal with financial pressure.

While it's left some passengers making backup plans and reserving rental cars, the flights canceled Friday represented just a small portion of overall flights nationwide.

Passengers still faced last-minute cancellations and long security lines at the 40 airports targeted by the slowdown including major hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Republicans swat down Democratic offer to end shutdown as impasse continues into 38th day

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly swatted down a Democratic offer to reopen the government and extend expiring health care subsidies for a year, calling it a “nonstarter” as the partisan impasse over the shutdown continued into its 38th day.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the offer to reopen the government on Friday as Republicans have refused to negotiate on demands to extend health care subsidies. It was a much narrowed version of a broad proposal Democrats laid out a month ago to make the health tax credits permanent and reverse Medicaid cuts that Republicans enacted earlier this year.

Schumer offered Republicans simultaneous votes to end the government shutdown and extend the expiring health care subsidies, along with a bipartisan committee to address Republican demands for changes to the Affordable Care Act.

“All Republicans have to do is say yes,” Schumer said.

But Republicans quickly said no, and Thune reiterated that they would not trade offers on health care until the government is reopened. “That’s what we’re going to negotiate once the government opens up,” Thune said after Schumer made his proposal on the floor.

UPS and FedEx grounding MD-11 planes following deadly Kentucky crash

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — UPS and FedEx said they are grounding their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 planes “out of an abundance of caution” following a deadly crash at the UPS global aviation hub in Kentucky.

The crash Tuesday at UPS Worldport in Louisville killed 14 people, including the three pilots on the MD-11 that was headed for Honolulu.

MD-11 aircrafts make up about 9% of of the UPS airline fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet, the companies said.

“We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer,” a UPS statement said late Friday. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees and the communities we serve.”

FedEx said in an email that it will be grounding the aircrafts while it conducts “a thorough safety review based on the recommendation of the manufacturer.”

Pakistan says peace talks with Afghanistan are deadlocked despite mediation

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Peace talks in Istanbul between Pakistan and Afghanistan were at a deadlock on Friday, a day after both sides accused each other of mounting border clashes that risked breaching a ceasefire brokered by Qatar.

The update on the talks by Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar came after an Afghan official said four Afghan civilians were killed and five others wounded in clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces along their shared border despite the joint negotiations.

Pakistan's state media reported that the Pakistan delegation is leaving for the airport to return home. Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also told Pakistan's independent Geo news channel that “as we speak, the talks are over.”

Asif said the ceasefire will remain intact until there is no breach of it from the Afghan side.

In a statement thanking Turkey and Qatar for mediating the talks, Tarar maintained that the Afghan Taliban has failed to meet pledges it made with the international community about curbing terrorism under a 2021 Doha peace accord.

Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

Denmark’s government on Friday announced an agreement to ban access to social media for anyone under 15, ratcheting up pressure on Big Tech platforms as concerns grow that kids are getting too swept up in a digitized world of harmful content and commercial interests.

The move would give some parents — after a specific assessment — the right to let their children access social media from age 13. It wasn't immediately clear how such a ban would be enforced: Many tech platforms already restrict pre-teens from signing up. Officials and experts say such restrictions don't always work.

Such a measure would be among the most sweeping steps yet by a European Union government to limit use of social media among teens and younger children, which has drawn concerns in many parts of an increasingly online world.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Caroline Stage, Denmark's minister for digital affairs, said 94% of Danish children under age 13 have profiles on at least one social media platform, and more than half of those under 10 do.

“The amount of time they spend online — the amount of violence, self-harm that they are exposed to online — is simply too great a risk for our children,” she said, while praising tech giants as “the greatest companies that we have. They have an absurd amount of money available, but they’re simply not willing to invest in the safety of our children, invest in the safety of all of us.”

Typhoon Kalmaegi rampages across Vietnam as the Philippines prepares for a new storm

DAK LAK, Vietnam (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam on Friday, killing at least five people, flattening homes, blowing off roofs and uprooting trees. In the Philippines, where the storm left at least 204 dead earlier in the week, survivors wept over the coffins of their loved ones and braced for another typhoon.

As the storm moved on, recovery work began in battered towns and villages in both countries. Across central Vietnamese provinces, people cleared debris and repaired roofs on their homes.

Jimmy Abatayo, who lost his wife and nine close relatives after the typhoon unleashed flooding in the central Philippine province of Cebu, was overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt as he ran his palm over his wife’s casket.

“I was able to swim. I told my family to swim, you will be saved, just swim, be brave and keep swimming,” said Abatayo, 53, pausing and then breaking into tears. “They did not hear what I said because I would never see them again.”

In Cebu, 141 people died, mostly in floodings. Villagers on Friday gathered to say goodbye to their dead, including at a basketball gym turned funeral parlor where relatives wept before a row of white coffins bedecked with flowers and small portraits of the deceased.

Cornell University to pay $60M in deal with Trump administration to restore federal funding

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the agreement on Friday, saying it upholds the university’s academic freedom while restoring more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations. He said the government’s funding freeze had stalled research, upended careers and threatened the future of academic programs.

The university agreed to pay $30 million directly to the U.S. government along with another $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers.

The agreement is the latest struck between President Donald Trump's administration and elite colleges he has accused of tolerating antisemitism and promoting far-left ideas. Trump is still locked in a standoff with Harvard, the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, and lately has tried an incentive-based approach by offering preferential access to federal funding for other schools that sign onto his political agenda.

Kotlikoff said the agreement revives the campus’ partnership with the federal government “while affirming the university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence, and institutional autonomy that, from our founding, have been integral to our excellence.”

Kendrick Lamar leads 2026 Grammy nominations, followed by Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Cirkut

NEW YORK (AP) — Not like us? More like him: Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy Award nominations, announced Friday.

The rapper is up for nine trophies at February’s ceremony: record, song and album of the year — marking the third time he’s had simultaneous nominations in those big categories — as well as pop duo/group performance, melodic rap performance, rap song and rap album. He’s also nominated twice in the rap performance category.

Lamar, who is riding the success of last year’s blockbuster “GNX” album, has 22 Grammy career wins and 66 nominations. “GNX” is his fifth consecutive studio album to be nominated for album of the year, something no other artist has ever done. If it wins, it will be his first win in the category. And it will be only the third rap album to win the top prize, following Outkast in 2004 for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” and Lauryn Hill in 1999 for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.

Lady Gaga is up for song, record and album of the year — her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously. She could also score potential wins in the pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop recording and traditional pop vocal album categories.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, has died at age 97

James D. Watson, whose co-discovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953 helped light the long fuse on a revolution in medicine, crimefighting, genealogy and ethics, has died. He was 97.

The breakthrough — made when the brash, Chicago-born Watson was just 24 — turned him into a hallowed figure in the world of science for decades. But near the end of his life, he faced condemnation and professional censure for offensive remarks, including saying Black people are less intelligent than white people.

Watson shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a double helix, consisting of two strands that coil around each other to create what resembles a long, gently twisting ladder.

That realization was a breakthrough. It instantly suggested how hereditary information is stored and how cells duplicate their DNA when they divide. The duplication begins with the two strands of DNA pulling apart like a zipper.

Even among non-scientists, the double helix would become an instantly recognized symbol of science, showing up in such places as the work of Salvador Dali and a British postage stamp.