WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservation and historical organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America’s national parks.
A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change.
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New York politicians and activists prepare to raise a rainbow flag on a pole in Christopher Park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York, a few days after it was removed by the National Park Service to comply with guidance from the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A protestor stands outside the Stonewall Inn National Monument Visitor Center after New York politicians and activists raised a rainbow flag on a pole in Christopher Park across the street, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York, a few days after it was removed by the National Park Service to comply with guidance from the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - A person views posted signs on the locations of the now removed explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at President's House Site in Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
FILE - Demonstrators gather to protest removal of explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at the President's House Site in Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
Separately, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and historic preservationists sued the park service Tuesday for removing a rainbow Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument, the New York site that commemorates a foundational moment in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The changes at exhibits came in response to a Trump executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. It directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Burgum later directed removal of “improper partisan ideology” from museums, monuments, landmarks and other public exhibits under federal control.
The groups behind the lawsuit said that a federal campaign to review interpretive materials has escalated in recent weeks, leading to the removal of numerous exhibits that discuss the history of slavery and enslaved people, civil rights, treatment of Indigenous peoples, climate science, and other “core elements of the American experience.”
The suit was filed by a coalition that includes the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists. It comes as a federal judge on Monday ordered that an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia.
The park service removed explanatory panels last month from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital. The judge ordered the exhibits restored on Presidents Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington’s legacy.
Besides the Philadelphia case, the park service has flagged for removal interpretive materials describing key moments in the civil rights movement, the groups said. For example, at the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, officials have flagged about 80 items for removal.
The permanent exhibit at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Kansas has been flagged because it mentions “equity," the lawsuit says. Signage that has disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park said settlers pushed Native American tribes “off their land” for the park to be established and “exploited” the landscape for mining and grazing. At Glacier National Park in Montana, Park Service officials ordered removal of materials describing the effect of climate change on the park and its role in driving the disappearance of glaciers, the suit said.
“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,” said Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the parks conservation association.
“National parks serve as living classrooms for our country, where science and history come to life for visitors,” Spears added. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”
The Interior Department said Tuesday it has appealed the court’s ruling in the Philadelphia case.
“The National Park Service routinely updates exhibits across the park system to ensure historical accuracy and completeness. If not for this unnecessary judicial intervention, updated interpretive materials providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall would have been installed in the coming days,'' an Interior spokesperson said in an email.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that all materials from the Philadelphia exhibit must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal's legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that explain the history differently.
Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written order with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and compared the Trump administration to the book’s totalitarian regime called the Ministry of Truth, which revised historical records to align with its own narrative.
The lawsuit over the Stonewall flag calls its removal “the latest example in a long line of efforts by the Trump administration to target the LGBTQ+ community for discrimination and opprobrium.”
The Pride flag was installed in 2022, becoming the first such banner to fly permanently on federal land. After the banner vanished this month, the park service cited a Jan. 21 memo that largely limits the agency to displaying Interior and POW/MIA flags, although exemptions include providing “historical context.”
The lawsuit argues the rainbow flag provided such context and says the park service continues to make exceptions for other banners, including Confederate ones, that help explain certain sites’ history. New York politicians and activists raised their own Pride flag at the Stonewall monument on Thursday.
The Interior Department responded to the lawsuit by repeating past criticisms of New York City and its Democratic officeholders, who aren’t party to the suit.
Jeff Mow, who retired in 2022 as superintendent at Glacier, said the park service “has always taken great pride in its scholarly research, its focus on telling the truth and being very straightforward about that.” He called Trump's order a ”disservice" to the public, "and it makes it very hard for those that are trying to do their jobs and being storytellers and speaking the truth.”
“You cannot tell the story of America without recognizing both the beauty and the tragedy of our history," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal organization that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the advocacy groups.
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
New York politicians and activists prepare to raise a rainbow flag on a pole in Christopher Park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York, a few days after it was removed by the National Park Service to comply with guidance from the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A protestor stands outside the Stonewall Inn National Monument Visitor Center after New York politicians and activists raised a rainbow flag on a pole in Christopher Park across the street, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York, a few days after it was removed by the National Park Service to comply with guidance from the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - A person views posted signs on the locations of the now removed explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at President's House Site in Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
FILE - Demonstrators gather to protest removal of explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at the President's House Site in Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
Lawmakers and the White House offered no signs of compromise over the holiday weekend in their battle over oversight of federal immigration officers that has led to a pause in funding for the Department of Homeland Security. A partial government shutdown began Saturday after congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump ’s team failed to reach a deal on legislation to fund the department through September.
Democrats are demanding changes to how immigration operations are conducted after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis last month.
Unlike the record 43-day shutdown last fall, the closures are narrowly confined, affecting only agencies under the DHS umbrella, including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But the work of ICE and CBP will mostly continue unabated, thanks to billions in funding from Trump’s 2025 tax and spending cut law.
The latest:
The vice president, who is also serving as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, was set to headline a Manhattan fundraiser for the GOP Tuesday night. The event was expected to raise more than $2 million, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Vance is set to headline another RNC fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, in March, according to the person.
By Michelle L. Price
The vice president was asked several times in the interview Tuesday about the 2028 presidential election, including whether he would like to run for president and whether he wants Trump’s endorsement, but Vance repeatedly brushed off the questions with pronounced laughter.
“Why don’t I do as good of a job as I can on in this job. We’ll worry about the next job sometime in the future,” Vance said.
He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is perceived as Vance’s biggest potential GOP rival in 2028, is his “closest friend in the administration” and praised the work he’s doing.
“The media wants to create this conflict where there isn’t any conflict,” Vance said.
As the Homeland Security shutdown continues, the administration and congressional Democrats remain “still pretty far apart” on a deal that would place some guardrails on federal immigration agents.
That’s the assessment of a White House official who was granted anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.
Democratic leaders submitted their latest offer to the White House late Monday. But the prospect of a deal this week, particularly as lawmakers are out of Washington, remain dim.
The official said the White House is still interested in good-faith negotiations to end the shutdown of DHS, which affects agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Security Administration. Meanwhile, the president has stressed that any agreement has to protect law enforcement officials.
By Seung Min Kim
In a post on X, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised McLaughlin’s performance on the job, which she’s held since the beginning of the Trump administration.
“Tricia McLaughlin has served with exceptional dedication, tenacity, and professionalism,” Noem said.
During her time as spokesperson, McLaughlin took on a high-profile public role defending the administration’s contentious immigration policies on television and social media.
Noem did not say why McLaughlin was leaving but said the department was sad to see her leave and wished her well.
The change comes at a tumultuous time for Noem and the department after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis led to calls for Noem to step down.
McLaughlin said Pretti approached Customs and Border Protection officers with a handgun and he “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him — a claim that was contradicted by bystander videos.
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Tuesday afternoon on Fox News Channel that he spoke to Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier in the day about the negotiations.
Vance said the U.S. made it clear where its red lines are, including blocking Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, and while it would prefer a diplomatic solution, “the president has all options on the table.”
The vice president said of the negotiations, “In some ways, it went well,” noting the sides agreed to meet again. But, he said, “in other ways, it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not willing to actually acknowledge and work through.”
He did not elaborate.
“We’re going to keep on working it,” he said as he went on, “But, of course, the president reserves the ability to say, when he thinks that diplomacy has reached its natural end—we hope we don’t get to that point—but if we do, that will be the president’s call.”
Police said the man dropped his weapon and complied when “challenged” by U.S. Capitol police officers.
Congress was not in session when the arrest occurred.
Earlier, Capitol Police had urged people to avoid the area, saying that “our officers just arrested a person with what appears to be a gun.”
The Trump administration is throwing its support behind the prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket in a critical legal battle between the growing prediction market industry and states that wish to ban these platforms.
Michael Selig, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says states cannot ban these markets because federal law gives the CFTC control.
Several states have accused the platforms of running unlicensed casinos. The most notable of the lawsuits comes from Nevada, where a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Kalshi from operating in the state.
Selig argues these contracts act like futures, not sportsbook bets. While customers can bet on anything, roughly 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume goes toward wagers on sports.
Any friendly decision the CFTC makes on this industry could end up financially benefiting the president’s family as well. President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has invested in Polymarket through his venture capital firm and is a strategic advisor for Kalshi.
▶ Read more about prediction markets
Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.
The issue came just hours before early voting opened Tuesday in Texas’ primary elections, which feature hotly-contested Senate nomination races in both parties.
Colbert says the network also told him not to mention the change, but Colbert discussed it on air and pointed viewers to the full interview posted on YouTube. Talarico also posted a clip, calling it the “interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.”
The FCC guidance warns talk shows to treat candidates like other broadcast programs. Colbert says the rule does not apply to streaming. Neither CBS nor the FCC commented Tuesday.
▶ Read more about the interview
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government has declined to join the U.S.-led group overseeing the Gaza ceasefire plan because of the lack of Palestinian representation on the board.
She said her country would instead act as an observer and send Mexico’s ambassador to the U.N., following encouragement from U.S. authorities.
“Given that we recognize Palestine as a state, it’s important that both states, Israel and Palestine, participate. It isn’t set up that way,” she said on Tuesday.
In Latin America, countries that have accepted the U.S. invitation are largely right-wing Trump allies, including Argentina, El Salvador and Paraguay.
Sheinbaum’s rejection comes at a time when the leader has walked a political tightrope with Trump, trying to maintain a strong relationship with him while also standing up for deeply held principles by the Mexican government.
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its escort of three destroyers are now in the mid-Atlantic after being ordered to depart the Caribbean for the Middle East last week, a Navy official confirmed Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive ship movements, said that the Ford, along with the destroyers USS Mahan, Bainbridge, and Winston Churchill, are in the mid-Atlantic and no longer with the U.S. Southern Command’s area of operations.
Given its current location, the Ford and its escorts are likely more than a week away from reaching the waters off the coast of Iran.
By Konstantin Toropin
The “Bookmark Design Challenge: Celebrating America’s 250th,” done in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, asks students to create an original, hand-drawn bookmark depicting what America means to them.
The contest is open to students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
The second lady will choose three national winners — one each from grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 — whose designs will be featured during events commemorating the July 4 anniversary. The winners will also be invited to Washington to participate in some events.
Applications are due at the NEA website, arts.gov/bookmarks, by 5 p.m. EST on March 31.
Usha Vance, who is married to Vice President JD Vance, said she hopes the winning bookmarks will “inspire kids to pick up a book and learn something new about our country.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family. By mistake, he was deported there anyway in March.
▶ Read more about the case
Conservation and historical organizations have sued the Trump administration over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America’s national parks.
A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change.
The suit was filed Tuesday by a coalition that includes the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists. It comes as a federal judge on Monday ordered that an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit
Betsy Nicholas, president of the Potomac River Keeper Network, a conservation group that has monitored the river, said the organization welcomes the recent White House interest in the health of what she called “the nation’s river.”
“We’re glad to be getting that kind of attention for restoring the river,” she said.
She said it was her understanding that the federal government has been involved since the leak occurred last month, working with Maryland, Washington and DC Water to oversee the repairs. She also noted the organization is working closely with the others to test the water.
“Here is what the federal government can do: funding,” she said. “This happened because of underinvestment in repairing old infrastructure. Sixty-year-old pipe burst.”
DC Water, a utility based in Washington, said the EPA’s assistant administrator for water toured the site last week and was briefed on the repairs.
The U.S. military has killed 11 people in strikes on three boats that were allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Southern Command said in a statement Tuesday.
Like most of the military’s statements on the 40-plus strikes over the past year, Southern Command said they targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes late Monday. Southern Command said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean.
The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs, but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.
The president kept up his drumbeat against leaders in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia over a sewage spill in the Potomac River that could be one of the largest in U.S. history.
A January pipe rupture sent sewage into the river that runs through the nation’s capital region. Trump demanded in a social media post Tuesday that local leaders “must get to work, IMMEDIATELY” to clean up the spill.
“If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed,” Trump said. “The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it.”
Trump is blaming local leaders despite a D.C.-based water authority and the federal government having jurisdiction over the broken pipe. It’s under the oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump also used the spill to blame Democrats for the ongoing partial shutdown, even though the EPA is fully operational. The president has said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is affected by the shutdown, will play a key role in coordinating the response.
It’s hard to predict whether, when or where security screening snags might pop up. Transportation Security Administration officers are expected to work without pay while lawmakers remain without an agreement on DHS’ annual funding.
But even a handful of unscheduled TSA absences could quickly lead to longer wait times at smaller airports, for example, if there’s just a single security checkpoint. Shortages of TSA officers also could slow the screening of checked luggage behind the scenes.
Experts say flight delays are also possible even though air traffic controllers are not affected by the shutdown.
What can travelers do to prepare?
▶ Read more about the partial government shutdown and air travel
In guidance issued last week to all U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, the State Department said it “strongly objects” to the proposal being discussed by the U.N. General Assembly and that its adoption “could pose a major threat to U.S. industry.”
The draft resolution sponsored by Vanuatu is being circulated among the 193-member General Assembly and stems from a landmark advisory opinion by the U.N.’s top court last July.
The International Court of Justice said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations.
The proposal includes adopting a national climate action plan to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius; phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel exploration, production and exploitation; and urging those in violation to “provide full and prompt reparation for damage.”
▶ Read more about the proposal
The partial government shutdown began Saturday, with Congress scheduled to be out of Washington until Feb. 23, as Democrats and the White House remain dug in over funding for DHS.
Late Monday, Senate Democrats delivered their latest counteroffer to the White House and Republicans, according to a spokesperson for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. No additional details were released.
The move follows a White House counterproposal earlier this month that Schumer dismissed as not being serious, offered in response to Democrats’ own 10-point plan outlining their priorities for a funding agreement.
The pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting, he said.
He did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for reconstruction or would contribute personnel to the stabilization force.
Rebuilding the Palestinian territory will be a daunting endeavor. The United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimate that reconstruction of the territory will cost $70 billion. Few places in the Gaza Strip were left unscathed by more than two years of Israeli bombardment.
The ceasefire deal calls for an armed international stabilization force to keep security and ensure disarmament of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel. Thus far, few countries have expressed interest in taking part in the proposed force.
The Oct. 10 U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians near military-held zones.
It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace will attend the first meeting.
▶ Read more about the Board of Peace and its upcoming meeting
It was the first time Iran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes, since the U.S. began threatening Iran and rushing military assets to the region. It marks a further escalation in a weekslong standoff that could ignite another war in the Middle East.
As the talks began, Iran’s state media announced that it had fired live missiles toward the Strait and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”
Iranian state TV later said the talks wrapped up after almost three hours.
Iranian state TV reported earlier that negotiations would be indirect and would focus only on Iran’s nuclear program and not domestic policies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over the killing of protesters.
▶ Read more about the talks between Iran and the US
The partial shutdown began Saturday after congressional Democrats and the White House failed to reach a deal on legislation to fund DHS through September.
Congress is on recess until Feb. 23, and both sides appear dug into their positions. The impasse affects agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Democrats want changes to how immigration operations are conducted after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers last month. They also want to require immigration agents to wear body cameras and mandate judicial warrants for arrests on private property.
White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration was unwilling to agree to Democrats’ demands that federal officers clearly identify themselves, remove masks during operations and display unique ID numbers.
The work at ICE and CBP goes on unabated because Trump’s tax and spending cut law from 2025 provided billions more to those agencies that can be tapped for deportation operations.
▶ Read more about what’s happening with the shutdown
Trump remembered Jackson in a social media post, calling him a “good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’”
The Republican president also described Jackson as “very gregarious -Someone who truly loved people!”
“He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed! Trump wrote.
The U.S. Capitol is seen Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
