At the US Open, tennis stars shine under dark sky-friendly outdoor lights

NEW YORK (AP) — When the court lights flicker on at the U.S. Open, tennis stars shine under illumination designed to cut light pollution.

The wedge-shaped lamps around the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows direct light onto the players without spewing it into the surrounding skies.

The stadium complex is the only professional sports venue certified by a group that's trying to preserve the night sky around the world. Across North America and Canada, schools and local parks have also swapped out their lights on baseball fields, running tracks and other recreation grounds to preserve their view of the stars and protect local wildlife.

Night lights can disrupt bird migration and confuse nocturnal critters like frogs and fireflies. Lights on sports fields are especially bright and cool, and often cast their glare into neighborhoods.

In renovations over the past decade, the U.S. Tennis Association swapped metal halide bulbs for shielded LED lights. The complex’s 17 tournament courts — including Arthur Ashe Stadium — and five practice courts were approved as dark sky-friendly last year.

USTA officials wanted the best lighting possible on their courts, which also happened to be friendly to dark skies. Their lighting company suggested striking a balance that would satisfy crowds and TV crews while cutting down spillover into the surrounding environment.

“This is an international event that has an impact on the community,” said the USTA’s managing director of capital projects and engineering Chuck Jettmar. “Let's minimize that and make sure that everybody's happy with it.”

U.S. Open qualifying matches this week were punctuated by players grunting, crickets chirping and audiences cheering. Rows of lights stood like sentries above, adorned with flat visors that guided the glow onto the action.

The lights at Flushing Meadows glow at a quarter of their brightness when the courts are rented for play during the year. They're approved by DarkSky International, a nonprofit that gives similar designations to cities and national parks. The group widened its focus to include sports arenas in recent years and has certified over 30 venues since 2019 — including high school football fields and youth soccer fields.

“We live in a world where we need to engage with one another in the nighttime environment, and that’s OK,” said DarkSky spokesperson Drew Reagan. “That’s a beautiful thing and there’s a way to do that responsibly.”

The organization typically approves proposals at sports fields before any light fixtures are installed or replaced. Once construction is complete, a representative measures the glow and glare against a set of guidelines that benefit the night.

Renovating a field with dark skies in mind can cost about 5% to 10% more than traditional sports lighting, according to James Brigagliano, who runs DarkSky’s outdoor sports lighting program. Venues may require a few extra fixtures since the light shining from them is more targeted.

Most arenas make the change during scheduled maintenance and renovation, working with sports lighting company Musco. The company lights over 3,000 venues a year including college football stadiums, tennis courts and rail yards.

At Superstition Shadows Park in Apache Junction, Arizona, kids play T-ball and baseball in the evenings, when the darkness offers a brief respite from the summer heat. The city’s parks and recreation department replaced its already-aging lights with shielded, dark sky-friendly fixtures last year with federal and local government funding.

People venture to Apache Junction partly because “they can get out of the city and still see stars,” said the city's parks and recreation director Liz Langenbach. The city is at the edge of the Phoenix metro area, bordered by rolling mountains and sweeping deserts.

“The choices we make on lighting, I think, affect all of that,” Langenbach said.

At Université Sainte-Anne in Canada, students run on a new track and soccer field outfitted with lights that DarkSky approved last year. Researchers at the university study native, nocturnal animals like the northern saw-whet owl.

The lights are "good for everyone,” said university spokesperson Rachelle LeBlanc. “For tourism, for our students, for our neighbors, for the animals that we share our campus with.”

Night lights harm the surrounding environment no matter how shielded they are. DarkSky-approved fields still allow a small fraction of their light to be pointed up since it's necessary to keep track of flying balls.

“You can have the absolute best, most carefully designed stadium lighting in the world, and you’re still creating light pollution,” said Travis Longcore, an urban light pollution expert at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The U.S. Open courts are side-by-side with bright lights from Manhattan and Queens — so they can only darken a slice of the sky. But DarkSky says every light fixture makes a difference, and one professional arena can influence others.

“I’m not saying we as humans have to turn all the lights off,” said Longcore. “I think you have to make improvements from where you are.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

People watch a tennis match during the U.S. Open tennis championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Shielded LED lights, approved by DarkSky International, illuminate the courts during the U.S. Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

People walk on the pathway illuminated by Shielded LED lights during the U.S. Open tennis championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Shielded LED lights, approved by DarkSky International, illuminate a court during the U.S. Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

Shielded LED lights shine over the tennis courts during the U.S. Open tennis championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to Minneapolis to enforce his administration's massive immigration crackdown.

The threat comes a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger that has radiated across the city since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good in the head.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law, to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors. In 2020, for example, he threatened to use the act to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post.

Presidents have invoked the law more than two dozen times, most recently in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to end unrest in Los Angeles. In that instance, local authorities had asked for the assistance.

“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said on X.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he would challenge any such action in court. He's already suing to try to stop the surge by the Department of Homeland Security, which says officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since Nov. 29 as part of an immigration operation in the Twin Cities called Metro Surge.

The operation grew when ICE sent 2,000 officers and agents to the area early in January. ICE is a DHS agency.

In Minneapolis, smoke filled the streets Wednesday night near the site of the latest shooting as federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd. Protesters responded by throwing rocks and shooting fireworks.

Demonstrations have become common in Minneapolis since Good was fatally shot on Jan. 7. Agents who have yanked people from their cars and homes have been confronted by angry bystanders demanding they leave.

“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of three people who said they were questioned or detained in recent days. The lawsuit says two are Somali and one is Hispanic; all three are U.S. citizens. The lawsuit seeks an end to what the ACLU describes as a practice of racial profiling and warrantless arrests. The government did not immediately comment.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in Los Angeles and Chicago and despite seeing initial success, have tended to fizzle in the face of appeal. In Chicago, for example, last year a judge ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to brief her nightly following a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who said agents used too much force during demonstrations. But three days later, an appeals court stopped the updates.

Homeland Security said in a statement that federal law enforcement officers on Wednesday stopped a driver from Venezuela who is in the U.S. illegally. The person drove off then crashed into a parked car before fleeing on foot, DHS said.

Officers caught up, then two other people arrived and the three started attacking the officer, according to DHS.

“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said. The confrontation took place about 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers) from where Good was killed.

Police chief Brian O’Hara said the man who was shot did not have a life-threatening injury. O’Hara's account of what happened largely echoed that of Homeland Security, which later said the other two men were also in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela.

The FBI said several government vehicles were damaged and property inside was stolen when agents responded to the shooting. Photos show broken windows and insults made with paint. A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information. The FBI’s Minneapolis office did not immediately reply to messages seeking more details.

St. Paul Public Schools, with more than 30,000 students, said it would begin offering an online learning option for students who do not feel comfortable coming to school. Schools will be closed next week until Thursday to prepare for those accommodations.

Minneapolis Public Schools, which has a similar enrollment, is also offering temporary remote learning. The University of Minnesota will start a new term next week with different options depending on the class.

Madhani reported from Washington, D.C. and Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporters Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Rebecca Santana in Washington; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester throws back a tear gas canister during a protest after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez, second from left, blows a whistle with other activists to warn people of federal immigration officers Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Tear gas surrounds federal law enforcement officers as they leave a scene after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A child and family are escorted away after federal law enforcement deployed tear gas in a neighborhood during protests on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester holds an umbrella as sparks fly from a flash bang deployed by law enforcement on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Monica Travis shares an embrace while visiting a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A protester yells in front of law enforcement after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Tear gas surrounds federal law enforcement officers as they leave a scene after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters shout at law enforcement officers after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Law enforcement officers stand amid tear gas at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)