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.

Survivors of the flash floods in August this year in Nepal, gather at their temporary shelter in a holding center in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Sep. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Prisoners sit inside cells at the prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, during a tour for Costa Rican President Laura Fernandez. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Supporters of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, watch singer Caetano Veloso perform during a rally one week before the presidential runoff election in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A policeman helps an elderly woman to walk out from a residential building damaged by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Prominent student leader Neha Bora, center crouching, is detained by the police during a youth demonstration demanding the resignation of the country's election chief Gyanesh Kumar, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vipin)

Israeli soldiers stand beside a wounded Palestinian man lying on a road after soldiers shot him following a settler attack on Palestinians harvesting olives in the occupied West Bank village of Abu Falah, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Ryosuke Doi, of Japan, competes in the rings during the men's qualifications at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Children place flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)

Iranian actors perform the Yamal puppet show about the Shajareh Tayyebeh school that was destroyed by a deadly U.S. airstrike in the southern city of Minab, at the Tehran-Mobarak 21st International Puppet Festival in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Truist Arena, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, in Highland Heights, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Firefighters work to douse a fire on house in flames during the Norte Fire on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A man sets up a roof cover at a makeshift camp set up by protesters demanding stronger laws to protect renters in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A protester reacts as riot police take cover behind their shields during an anti-government demonstration in Tirana, Albania, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Pope Leo XIV leaves Rome's Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, after Tuesday's surgery to remove lung cancer. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A car burns at Republique square during a protest against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Photos of former Presidents Raúl Castro, right, and his late brother Fidel Castro cover a front door in Havana, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Homeland Security Investigations task force officers escort a suspect accused of illegally registering to vote during a federal operation in Commerce, Calif., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday questioned the Trump administration’s claims surrounding its efforts to redevelop a historic Washington golf course, challenging its contention that a recent tree-cutting spree did not indicate work was moving forward on the project, which is temporarily blocked by a court order.

“There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during a hearing over the fate of a project that has emerged as the latest legal flashpoint in President Donald Trump's campaign to leave his personal imprint on the nation's capital.

Reyes last week ordered a halt to the golf course's redevelopment plans until at least Oct. 26 after scolding the government for starting a large-scale tree removal at the course over a holiday weekend while providing little notice to the court or the plaintiffs trying to stop the makeover.

Then, on Sunday, Trump announced plans on social media to close the golf course for 15 months, starting on Nov. 15, and redevelop the 106-year-old park and course despite a court challenge by the D.C. Preservation League and two golfers. In a post on Monday, Trump said the work would start immediately.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys challenging the golf course renovation work have asked Reyes to extend her order that temporarily paused the work. They say the work is inflicting irreversible damage and that the redevelopment would violate the congressional act that created the park where the course is located.

The hearings on the century-old golf course have grown increasingly tense and on the eve of Monday’s hearing, Reyes rejected the administration’s request for her to recuse herself from the case. The government questioned her impartiality and accused her of engaging in “egregious” behavior from the bench during last week’s emergency hearing for the case.

Trump, a Republican, referred to Reyes as a “crazed lunatic” in his social media post on Monday.

"The United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course, and make it into a great, safe, and prestigious golf course. They have an absolute right to do so. It’s as simple as that!” Trump wrote.

Reyes, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the government has failed “by any objective measure” to demonstrate the need for her recusal from the case.

"It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion. But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record,” she wrote.

Trump has pledged to turn the course into a world-class golf venue — part of his grand vision for Washington, D.C., where he has torn down storied structures, remade or renamed others and deployed the National Guard for more than a year.

While it has been open to Washingtonians of all income levels, opponents of Trump’s plans for the golf course have argued it will alter the character of the space and make it less affordable to people.

Monday’s hearing started with a tense confrontation between Reyes and Justice Department official Stanley Woodward, when the judge asked if other any government attorneys in the room “as officers of the court” were willing to certify that everything within a Sunday filing was truthful and legally sound under federal rules of civil procedures.

In that filing Woodward argued that there were no final plans for the park.

“First, the plan is not final because the Park Service has not completed its review and the details of the proposal are subject to change during the review process,” the filing said.

Much of the hearing revolved around Trump’s social media posts over the weekend and his appearance last June at the golf course, accompanied by golf course architects and members of the administration and why there was such a sense of urgency for the cutting of the trees.

The witnesses at the hearing, Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, and acting National Park Service director Jessica Bowron both acknowledged that they had only learned of the National Park Service Cultural Landscape Report in September that led to the tree cutting. That NPS report was from 2019.

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed.

A golfer walks near log sections cut from trees at the East Potomac Golf Links, in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Golfers walk near log sections cut from trees at the East Potomac Golf Links, in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

People wait line outside the Federal Courthouse, Monday, October.19, 2026, in Washington, before the start of a hearing in the lawsuit challenging the President Donald Trump administration's tree removal and redevelopment plans at East Potomac Golf Links, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The trunks of large trees are wrapped in caution tape at the East Potomac Golf Links, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)