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.

Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia stand at Sidi Embarek Cemetery, where people who died at sea on July 30 and 31 are buried, during their visit to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernández)

Wildfires burn in the municipality of Autazes, Amazonas state, Brazil, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)

A riot police officer detains an injured protester during clashes near the Ministry of Education in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, joining a demonstration organized by the Flamingo protest movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

A young child looks through a truck's windshield as displaced families prepare to leave al-Talayi camp in Hassakeh, Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Around 450 families are returning to the Ras al-Ayn countryside, seven years after a Turkish military offensive forced them to flee. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)

Mourners carry the body of Moamen Alay, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral in Gaza City Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Villarreal's Santiago Mourino celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during their Champions League opening phase soccer match between Villarreal and Napoli, in Villarreal, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A student checks her smartphone in front of the Helene Boucher high school blockaded with garbage bins during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

Medical Director Andrea Cambieri, right, greets Pope Leo XIV as he arrives at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, where doctors expect to operate to remove a lung nodule. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

An ammo case rests on a gun on a U.S. Coast Guard boat patrolling the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Victoria Deineko holds her daughter Mia while standing in front of a multi-story residential building damaged in a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year after National Guard members began patrolling the streets of the nation's capital, a federal appeals court on Wednesday opened a hearing by asking the government if there were any limits on a president's authority to call up the guard in D.C.

The hearing began with the three-judge panel collectively questioning the government’s attorney, Eric McArthur. Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard asked how the government's argument about an administration's authorities was “not federalization and therefore running up against" the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 U.S. law forbidding the use of the federal military for domestic law enforcement unless authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

The hearing comes months after the court paused a lower court’s ruling that President Donald Trump's deployment of the guard was illegal.

Trump deployed the guard in August 2025 as part of what he said was a crime-fighting mission in Washington, D.C. The force, which rose to a peak of about 5,000 troops over the summer, has supported arrest operations, patrolled city streets and neighborhoods and participated in cleanup efforts.

Trump's Republican administration says the deployment has contributed to a decrease in crime in the city, where crime was already on the decline before the National Guard arrived. Officials and activists in the overwhelmingly Democratic city say the deployment is a waste of taxpayer money and has normalized the militarization of a major American city.

The three judges on the panel were nominated by Democratic presidents: Pillard by Barack Obama, Bradley Garcia by Joe Biden and Judith Rogers by Bill Clinton.

At the heart of the court case, brought by D.C.'s attorney general, is whether the president has the authority to deploy the National Guard to the city, which, as a federal district, has limited autonomy over its own affairs. The U.S. Constitution gives federal lawmakers authority over the District of Columbia, while the Home Rule Act of 1973 lets residents elect a mayor, a council and neighborhood commissioners.

The city has argued that the mobilization is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

Last December, the three-judge panel that paused the lower court's ruling said Trump might prevail in his argument that the president “possesses a unique power” to mobilize the guard in Washington.

The court went on to say in a unanimous 32-page ruling that other factors also favored the Trump administration, including the “disruption to the lives of thousands of service members,” as well as what it said was the president’s interest “in the protection of federal governmental functions and property within the nation’s capital.”

The judges found that the district “has not identified any ongoing injury to its statutory interests.”

Even if D.C. wins at the appeals court level, the Trump administration will undoubtedly go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already shown deference to the president in a number of cases.

Syracuse law professor William Banks said D.C. might have a slim argument under its home rule, questioning whether National Guard units can be deployed to the city when it isn’t authorized by local law.

But, he said, outside of that argument “there is no overarching federal principle that would bail out the district in this case."

Because D.C. is not a state and because the president is commander in chief, there’s a "tremendous amount of leeway and discretion for the president” to control or delegate control of the local National Guard and out-of-state units, Banks said.

Margaret Hu, a professor at the William and Mary School of Law, said one issue to look for was raised by states supporting the deployment in court briefs. They argued the president was reacting to an emergency. Hu said the open-ended manner of the deployment might allow a challenge to that.

“Some argue that the indefinite nature of the deployment means that there’s no emergency justification here,” she said.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded last November that Trump’s military takeover in Washington illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district.

Cobb found that while the president does have authority to protect federal functioning and property, he can’t unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he sees fit or call in troops from other states. Cobb, who was nominated by Biden, put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the appeal by the Trump administration.

The appeals court stayed the order and has allowed the guard to remain in place while the case is pending.

The mobilization, extended until January 2029 by the Defense Department, has taken on a sense of permanence, despite the court case.

The federal government awarded a $292 million contract to a private company to provide members of the Joint Task Force-D.C. with apartments. The numbers have grown as well, ballooning to around 5,000 during the height of the semiquincentennial celebration. As of last week, that number had dropped to about 2,900.

Members of the National Guard walk past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where some water can be seen, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)