The top photos of the day by AP's photojournalists

From front-page news to powerful moments you may have missed, this gallery showcases today’s top photos chosen by Associated Press photo editors.

An "Epstein Reading Room" studio backdrop is set up at a rebuttal to President Donald Trump's State of the Union hosted by Defiance.org, the Portland Frog Brigade and COURIER at the National Press Club in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

A passing car splashes water from a puddle onto a camera lens as photos are taken of the Palace of Parliament illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, to mark the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Relatives of those killed during the Russian occupation react at the Wall of Remembrance during a ceremony to mark the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A man sleeps on a street in Havana, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. left, gestures beside broadcast journalist Rico Hizon at the ASEAN Editors and Economic Opinon Leaders Forum in Makati, Philippines, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Beachgoers gather around the carcass of a sperm whale that washed ashore on Zikim Beach near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman attends a demonstration marking the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court, in London, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A Muslim attends afternoon prayer during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Firefighters recover a body from the site where homes collapsed during heavy rains and severe flooding in the Parque Burnier neighborhood of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

National Guards patrol a highway near Aguililla, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, after the Mexican army killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho." (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

Nyayual Chuol, right, watches her 18-month-old grandson Kool Gatyen Pajock, who was shot during the conflict-hit state, receive treatment at the Akobo County Hospital in South Sudan, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Florence Miettaux)

Subway trains are parked in a depot as employees of the public traffic are on strike in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Tetiana Khimion 47, now a sniper in the Ukrainian army, poses with a photograph of herself as a dance teacher taken before Russia's full-scale invasion, in a park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People make their way near piles of plowed snow a day after a winter storm on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is suing the University of California over allegations that UCLA failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that roiled the campus in 2023 and 2024.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to punish top universities that it says have been soft on antisemitism. The suit accuses the University of California, Los Angeles of failing to discipline those who were involved in protests, including dozens who were arrested in 2024 for failing to leave a campus encampment.

Trump officials previously determined that UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, and last year UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university. The new lawsuit alleges the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees “goes much deeper” than the situations that settlement addressed.

“The United States will now do what UC has thus far failed to do: protect Jewish and Israeli employees” from antisemitic harassment, the suit said.

UCLA said Tuesday it has taken “concrete and significant steps” to strengthen campus security, enforce policies and combat antisemitism. It did not mention the federal government's lawsuit.

“Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or elsewhere,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in the statement.

Much of the federal complaint focuses on the 2024 protest encampment that federal officials say blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and included antisemitic signs and chants. One night, counterprotesters attacked the encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

The 81-page lawsuit alleges UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and accuses the university of failing to discipline any students, faculty or staff over antisemitic behavior.

“UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees,” the Justice Department alleges in the lawsuit.

The suit asks a judge to force UCLA to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies and to “award damages,” without specifying an amount, to Jewish employees at UCLA who faced a hostile work environment.

The university has said it has taken numerous steps toward improving campus safety and inclusivity, including the creation of an Office of Campus and Community Safety and new policies to manage protests on campus. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled to Mexico to escape Nazi Germany and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.

“We stand firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community,” Osaka said in the university's statement.

The Trump administration has primarily focused on elite private universities in its campaign to win obedience from campuses it accuses of liberal and antisemitic bias. UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted in that effort.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE - Children play outside Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)