AP News Summary at 7:19 a.m. EST

Fox libel defense at odds with top GOP presidential foes

NEW YORK (AP) — A $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News for its coverage of false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election isn’t the only thing putting pressure on the standard for U.S. libel law. Two politicians popular with Fox’s audience, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have advocated for the Supreme Court to revisit the libel standard that has protected media organizations for more than half a century. Current libel law requires plaintiffs to prove that a news organization acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Fox is using that standard to defend its actions that promoted false claims of voter fraud.

Snow has been a no-show for some traditionally wintry cities

BOSTON (AP) — For much of the Eastern United States, winter has been a bust. Snow totals are far below average from Boston to Philadelphia and warmer temperatures have often resulted in more spring-like days that blizzard-like conditions. The warm weather has left fans of cross-country skiing and sledding lamenting a lost winter while businesses like snow plow drivers and small ski resorts have struggled financially. There has been an upside. There have been more days to get outside and play tennis or bike and some big cities have saved millions of dollars on snow removal.

In Selma, Biden says right to vote remains under assault

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — President Joe Biden is using the searing memories of 1965’s “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, to recommit to securing voting rights. The president was among those commemorating Sunday’s anniversary of the brutal attack by authorities on peaceful civil rights demonstrators as they marched along the city’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. In his remarks, Biden said, “On this bridge, blood was given to help redeem the soul of America.” As president Biden has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress, and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law.

Lynyrd Skynyrd founding member Gary Rossington dead at 71

Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday at the age of 71. The band wrote on Facebook, “It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today.” Rossington cheated death more than once, Rolling Stone reported. He survived a car accident in 1976. A year later, he survived a plane crash that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines. In later years he underwent numerous heart surgeries. No cause of death was given.

Iran’s top leader says suspected poisonings ‘unforgivable’

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader says that if a series of suspected poisonings at girls’ schools are proven to be deliberate, the culprits should be sentenced to death for committing an “unforgivable crime.” Monday’s remarks were the first time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, has spoken publicly about the suspected poisonings. The incidents began late last year and have reportedly sickened hundreds of children. Iranian officials only acknowledged them in recent weeks and have provided no details on who may be behind the attacks or what chemicals — if any — have been used. Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists targeting women’s education.

Many kids are struggling in school. Do their parents know?

BOSTON (AP) — It’s widely known from test scores that the pandemic set back students across the country. But many parents don’t realize that includes their own child. Opportunities to catch up are plentiful in some places, thanks to federal COVID aid, but won’t last forever. It will take better communication with parents to help students get the tutoring and other support they need, experts say. Cindi Williams is a co-founder of Learning Heroes, a nonprofit dedicated to improving communication between public schools and parents about student progress. She says: “Parents can’t solve a problem that they don’t know they have.”

How common is transgender treatment regret, detransitioning?

Lawmakers often cite concerns about young people regretting irreversible body-altering transgender medical treatment, but studies suggest regret is uncommon. Surgery to undo transgender treatment also seems rare, though strong evidence is lacking. Guidelines say patients should be told about the possibility of regret during psychological counseling, before treatment is begun. Some doctors worry that a shortage of mental health specialists may lead to inadequate psychological evaluations for gender-questioning youth and an increase in those who eventually detransition. Experts also note that some teens who detransition don’t regret their treatment and see it as a way of understanding their gender-related care needs.

Manafort, US government settle civil case for $3.15 million

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts. Prosecutors allege that Manafort failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened. The settlement was detailed in court documents filed in February in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In 2018 Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for financial crimes, including several related to his political consulting work in Ukraine. Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman in the final weeks of his presidency.

Russia steps up effort to take elusive prize of Ukraine city

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The fate of Bakhmut appears to be hanging in the balance as Russian forces continue to encroach on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city. But its defenders are still denying the Kremlin the prize it has sought for six months and cost thousands of lives. Intense Russian shelling targeted the Donetsk region city and nearby villages on Monday as Moscow deployed more resources there in an apparent bid to finish off Bakhmut’s resistance. Local officials say civilians are fleeing the region. Russian forces that invaded Ukraine just over a year ago have been bearing down on Bakhmut for months. That has put Kyiv’s troops on the defensive but unable to deliver a knockout blow.

Latest Ohio derailment poses no public risk, officials say

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Authorities in Ohio say there is no indication of any risk to public health from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern cargo train between Dayton and Columbus, the second derailment of a company train in the state in a month. Norfolk Southern said 28 of the 212 cars on the southbound train, including two empty tanker cars, derailed shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday in Springfield Township near a business park and the county fairgrounds. Residents living within 1,000 feet were asked to shelter in place as a precaution, but officials early Sunday said there was “no indication of any injuries or risk to public health at this time.”

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