Fiery Air India crash kills 241 people aboard, leaving 1 survivor, airline says

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — An Air India plane bound for London crashed in a residential area of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board, the airline said. One passenger who was thrown from the plane survived.

An unknown number of people on the ground were killed in the crash, including medical students in a college hostel when the plane hit the building and burst into flames, said Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwestern city.

“Most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition,” she said.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that he met the sole survivor at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.

“He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. “But he seems to be out of danger.”

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Homeland Security secretary pledges to carry on with Trump's immigration crackdown despite unrest

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged Thursday to carry on with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown despite waves of unrest across the U.S., while in Texas thousands of National Guard troops were on standby in case more trouble breaks out.

The moves unfolded as cities nationwide braced for major demonstrations against President Donald Trump over the weekend, and their leaders pleaded with residents to protest peacefully.

Noem said the immigration raids that fueled the protests will move forward, saying agents have thousands of targets.

“This is only going to continue until we have peace on the streets of Los Angeles,” she said during a news conference that was interrupted by shouting from U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who was forcibly removed from the event.

Noem spoke hours before President Donald Trump's use of troops to help carry out immigration raids faced its biggest challenge yet as a federal judge began weighing a request from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to put an emergency stop to the practice.

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Gov. Abbott deploys over 5,000 Texas National Guard troops ahead of planned 'No Kings' protests

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday he has ordered the deployment of more than 5,000 Texas National Guard troops, along with more than 2,000 state police, to help local law enforcement manage protests against President Donald Trump and the ongoing federal immigration raids.

Abbott's announcement did not detail where the troops were sent, but some were seen at a protest Wednesday night in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo. That protest drew hundreds of demonstrators but did not erupt into violence.

More protests are planned on Saturday in San Antonio and across Texas in cities such as Houston, Austin and Dallas as part of the national “No Kings” movement.

Protests earlier this week in Austin and Dallas led to brief clashes with police who used chemical irritants to disperse the crowds. About a dozen were arrested.

“Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles in response to President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law,” Abbott said. “Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law.”

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Iran announces a new nuclear enrichment site after UN watchdog censure

VIENNA (AP) — Iran said it has built and will activate a third nuclear enrichment facility, ratcheting up tensions with the U.N. on Thursday immediately after its atomic watchdog agency censured Iran for failing to comply with nonproliferation obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this political resolution,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Organization said in a joint statement.

The censure by the International Atomic Energy Agency, its first in 20 years over Iranian non-compliance, could set in motion an effort to restore sanctions on Iran later this year.

U.S. President Donald Trump had previously warned that Israel or America could launch airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiators failed to reach a deal on Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. A sixth round of Iran-U.S. talks is scheduled to begin Sunday in Oman, and as tensions simmer some American government staffers deemed nonessential have begun leaving the Gulf region.

Trump said Thursday he is still urging Iran to negotiate a deal, but that he is concerned a “massive conflict” could occur in the Middle East if it does not.

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Weinstein case judge declares mistrial on remaining rape charge as jury foreperson won’t deliberate

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s sex crimes retrial came to a disjointed end Thursday as the jury foreperson declined to deliberate and the judge declared a mistrial on a remaining rape charge, a day after a split verdict on other charges in the landmark #MeToo-era case.

The outcome positions the ex-studio boss for a third New York trial — prosecutors said they're ready to retry the rape count — even as he faces a new sentencing on his sexual assault conviction.

Weinstein, 73, denies all the charges. The Oscar-winning movie producer had a blank, drained expression as court officers escorted him out Thursday in his wheelchair.

His lawyer said he plans to appeal.

“What happened in that jury room was absolutely improper,” attorney Arthur Aidala said outside court.

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyer complains about trial secrecy as a famous rapper's name goes unmentioned

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs protested the rising tide of secrecy at the hip-hop icon’s federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial on Thursday after Combs and the public were excluded from lengthy arguments over whether another famous rapper's name could be disclosed.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo complained to Judge Arun Subramanian after Combs was left out of an hour-long meeting in a private room outside the courtroom where lawyers and the judge discussed a hotel room “event” in January 2024.

That meeting added a two-hour delay to the start of the sixth and final day of testimony from a woman identified in court only by the pseudonym “Jane,” who dated Combs from 2001 until his arrest last September.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that carry a potential prison sentence of 15 years to life in prison if he is convicted. Prosecutors say he used his fame, fortune, violence and threats to manipulate girlfriends into sex with paid sex workers in multi-day events that they later said they regretted.

Defense attorneys say the government is trying to prosecute consensual sex between adults.

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Democratic governors defend immigration policies before Republican-led House panel

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump spars with California's governor over immigration enforcement, Republicans in Congress called other Democratic governors to the Capitol on Thursday to question them over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sat in front of large, full-color posters showing men who they said were in the country without legal permission when they were arrested for crimes in Illinois, Minnesota and New York — home of the governors testifying before the committee.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer began the hearing by introducing the family of a young woman killed in a hit-and-run traffic crash in Illinois, suggesting its sanctuary policies had facilitated the illegal presence of the driver of the other vehicle.

“Sanctuary polices do not protect Americans, they protect criminal illegal aliens,” Comer said.

Republican Congress members clashed repeatedly with the Democratic governors, often recounting descriptions of violent crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in the U.S. illegally who were not previously detained by local police.

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At least 4 dead and 2 missing in San Antonio after heavy rains flood parts of Texas

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Heavy rains in San Antonio rapidly flooded roads, swept away submerged cars and sent some people scrambling up trees to escape fast-rising waters Thursday while firefighters made dozens of rescues across the nation’s seventh-largest city. At least four people died and two were still missing, authorities said.

The deaths all occurred in the northeast part of the city, where authorities found over a dozen vehicles in the water. Photos and video showed smashed and overturned vehicles submerged in a creek.

Some of the people rescued in that area said they were swept off an interstate access road by “sudden fast rising water,” San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Joe Arrington said in an email. He said floodwaters swept vehicles into a creek and carried them downstream.

Crews were bringing in search dogs Thursday afternoon to help find missing people, Arrington said.

By afternoon, crews could be seen pulling heavily damaged vehicles out of the creek.

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At least 78 dead in South Africa floods as official says rescue attempts were 'paralyzed'

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The death toll in floods in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces rose to at least 78 on Thursday as a top official said rescue attempts in the first hours after the disaster had been “paralyzed” by a lack of resources.

Rescue teams spent a third day working through debris and floodwater to find missing people and retrieve bodies after heavy rain caused a river to burst its banks in the predawn hours of Tuesday. The worst floods hit the town of Mthatha and surrounding areas, sweeping away victims along with parts of their houses and cars.

Oscar Mabuyane, the premier of Eastern Cape province, said the floods struck while many people were asleep. The water was 3-4 meters (10-13 feet) high in places when it flowed out of a river and into nearby communities, he added.

“It’s a terrible situation,” Mabuyane told state TV broadcaster SABC. “It happened at the wrong time."

Mabuyane said local authorities struggled to launch an effective rescue effort as the disaster happened in what he described as a region lacking resources.

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Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Mike Love and Elton John react to the death of Brian Wilson

Notable reaction to the death of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson at age 82.

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“I have no words to express the sadness I feel right now. My Father @brianwilsonlive was every fiber of my body. He will be remembered by millions and millions until the world ends. I am lucky to have been his daughter and had a soul connection with him that will live on always. I’ve never felt this kind of pain before, but I know he’s resting up there in heaven ... or maybe playing the piano for Grandma Audree his Mom. I will post something else soon but this is all my hands will let me type. I love you Daddy....I miss so much you already.” — Wilson's daughter, Carnie Wilson, on Instagram.

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“Our journey together was filled with moments of brilliance, heartbreak, laughter, complexity and most of all, LOVE . Like all families, we had our ups and downs. But through it all, we never stopped loving each other, and I never stopped being in awe of what he could do when he sat at a piano or his spontaneity in the studio.” — Mike Love, Beach Boy and Wilson cousin, on Instagram.