Prince William spotlights environmental solutions in Rio de Janeiro with Earthshot Prize awards

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian and foreign celebrities joined Prince William for the Earthshot Prize awards in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, the centerpiece of William's three-day environment-focused trip to the Brazilian megalopolis before the heir to the British throne heads to the United Nations Climate Summit COP30.

The ceremony began with the sound of samba and featured musical performances from Anitta, Gilberto Gil, Shawn Mendes, Kylie Minogue and Seu Jorge, who interpreted David Bowie's song Heroes.

Applause and shouts rang across the auditorium in the Museum of Tomorrow in downtown Rio as the winners were announced. Winners included Brazilian startup re.green, which restores forests with the help of artificial intelligence, and Bangladeshi non-profit organization Friendship, which assists vulnerable communities across the country prepare for natural disasters.

Other winners included Colombia's capital, Bogota, for its clean air policies; Lagos Fashion Week, which promotes sustainable, craft-based clothing-makers to counter the wave of fast-fashion rejects that literally wash up on African shores; and the United Nations High Seas Treaty, which seeks to protect marine environments outside of national jurisdictions.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that they are the world’s true action heroes,” William said in a speech. “Their work is the proof we need that progress is possible. Their stories are the inspiration that gives us courage.”

The Earthshot Prize awarded $1.3 million in grants to the five winners out of fifteen finalists for their sustainable, eco-friendly innovations.

Set up through William’s Royal Foundation, the Prince of Wales created the prize in 2020 to encourage inventors and entrepreneurs to develop technologies to combat global warming and mitigate its impact.

Rio marks the halfway point for the venture, as he has committed himself to it for 10 years.

“The Earthshot Prize is a platform, not just to share a message, but to find investors and to scale up their solutions,” former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told The Associated Press before the ceremony.

“You scale up the impact for the planet: the amount of CO2 removed, waste removed, land and ocean put into protection... it's all significant,” said Ardern, who is a trustee of the prize.

Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, which pushed for the treaty, said the prize money would help the coalition of organizations and groups to support countries in their efforts to ratify the treaty and prepare them for its rapid implementation by providing support and advice.

The High Seas Treaty’s potential “to create huge global change for the ocean has been acknowledged and that’s really wonderful,” Hubbard told journalists after the ceremony.

William began his trip to Rio on Monday. Since then, he has met with former soccer player Cafu in Maracana stadium, played volleyball on Copacabana Beach and visited Sugarloaf Mountain.

Aside from visiting the city's iconic sites, William’s engagements have focused on climate change and conservation. He attended a global wildlife summit and took a boat to the Guapimirim mangrove area in Guanabara Bay, where he took part in a planting activity.

William also met with Earthshot Prize finalists at the Christ the Redeemer statue, as he took the annual awards ceremony to Latin America for the first time this week.

Earthshot is one of William’s signature ideas, the type of project he may focus on when the time comes to ascend to the throne. His trip to Brazil is the latest installment in the monarchy’s drive to portray the prince as a statesman ready to be king.

After the awards, William will travel to the COP30 summit of world leaders in the Amazon city of Belem where politicians, environmental campaigners and community organizations will debate ways to accelerate efforts to cut the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Britain's Prince William, right, meets the finalists of the Earthshot Prize Award at Christ the Redeemer statue, in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Eduardo Anizelli/Pool via AP)

Australian singer Kylie Minogue poses for photos on the green carpet before the Earthshot Prize award ceremony at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern poses for photos on the green carpet before the Earthshot Prize award ceremony at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Britain's Prince William, left, shakes hands with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes on the green carpet before the Earthshot Prize award ceremony at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Britain's Prince William, left, and Brazilian singer Seu Jorge chat on the green carpet before the Earthshot Prize award ceremony at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three fired FBI agents sued on Tuesday to try to get their jobs back, saying in a class action lawsuit that they were illegally punished for their participation in an investigation into President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The federal lawsuit adds to the mounting list of court challenges to a personnel purge by FBI Director Kash Patel that over the last year has resulted in the ousters of dozens of agents, either because of their involvement in investigations related to Trump or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to the Republican president's agenda.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington was technically filed on behalf of just three agents but may have much broader implications given that its request for class action status could open the door for agents fired since the start of the Trump administration to get their jobs back.

The three agents — Michelle Ball, Jamie Garman and Blaire Toleman — were fired last October and November in what they say was a “retribution campaign” targeting them for their work on the investigation into Trump. The agents had between roughly eight and 14 years of “exemplary and unblemished” service in the FBI and expected to spend the remainder of their careers at the bureau but were abruptly fired without cause and without being given a chance to respond, the lawsuit says.

“Serving the American people as FBI agents was the highest honor of our lives,” they said in a statement. “We took an oath to uphold the Constitution, followed the facts wherever they led, and never compromised our integrity. Our removal from federal service — without due process and based on a false perception of political bias — is a profound injustice that raises serious concerns about political interference in federal law enforcement.”

The investigation the agents worked on culminated in a 2023 indictment from special counsel Jack Smith that accused Trump of illegally scheming to undo the results of the presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

Smith ultimately abandoned that case, along with a separate one accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after Trump won back the White House in 2024, citing Justice Department legal opinions that prohibit the federal indictments of sitting presidents.

The lawsuit notes that the firings followed the release by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of documents about the election investigation — known as Arctic Frost — that he said had come from within the FBI. Those records i ncluded files showing that Smith's team had subpoenaed several days of phone records of some Republican lawmakers, an investigative step that angered Trump allies inside Congress.

The complaint names as defendants Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing them of having orchestrated the firings despite being “personally embroiled” either as witnesses or attorneys in some of the legal troubles Trump has faced.

Patel, for instance, was subpoenaed in 2022 to appear before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's retention of classified documents and had his phone records subpoenaed, while Bondi was part of the legal team that represented Trump at his first impeachment trial, which resulted in his acquittal.

“And now, by virtue of presidential appointment to the pinnacle of federal law enforcement, Defendants are abusing their positions to claim victories that eluded them on the merits,” the lawsuit states.

Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Patel and Bondi have said the fired agents and prosecutors who worked on Smith's team were responsible for weaponizing federal law enforcement, a claim that was also asserted in their termination letters but that the plaintiffs call defamatory and baseless.

Dan Eisenberg, a lawyer for the agents, said in a statement that his clients were fired without any investigation, notice of charges or chance to be heard.

“This lawsuit seeks to reaffirm fundamental constitutional protections for FBI employees, ensuring they can perform their duties without fear or favor. We all benefit when law enforcement officers' only loyalty is to facts and the truth,” said Eisenberg, who's with the firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “We all benefit when law enforcement officers' only loyalty is to facts and the truth.”

The lawsuit asks for the agents to be reinstated to their positions and for a court declaration affirming that their rights had been violated. It also seeks to represent the dozens of agents and employees who have been fired since Jan. 20, 2025, or will be. Those agents also stand to recover their jobs in the event the case is successful and the class is certified.

Other fired employees who have sued include agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in 2020; an agent trainee who displayed an LGBTQ+ flag at his workspace; and a group of senior officials, including the former acting director of the FBI, who were terminated last summer.

The firings have continued, with Patel last month pushing out a group of agents in the Washington field office who had been involved in investigating Trump’s hoarding of classified documents. Trump has insisted he was entitled to keep the documents when he left the White House and has claimed without evidence he had declassified them.

Follow the AP's coverage of the FBI at https://apnews.com/hub/us-federal-bureau-of-investigation.

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Committee on Intelligence hearing to examine worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Attorney General Pam Bondi listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FBI Director Kash Patel, listens during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing to examine worldwide threats, Thursday, March 19, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi talk before President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on public safety at a Tennessee Air National Guard Base, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - The FBI seal is pictured in Omaha, Neb., Aug. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)