AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

London’s Heathrow slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe’s busiest airport

LONDON (AP) — A fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Heathrow Airport for most of Friday, forcing Europe’s busiest hub to shut down for roughly 18 hours, causing widespread cancellations and rerouting headaches, and stranding roughly 200,000 passengers.

The blaze started just before midnight on Thursday at a substation about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the airport and took firefighters around seven hours to bring under control. Authorities said they found no evidence that it was suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the electrical distribution equipment at the substation.

The fire knocked out power to Heathrow and thousands of homes in the area. It affected at least 1,350 flights to and from the airport, according to flight tracking service FlightRadar 24, and the impact was expected to last several days, as passengers try to reschedule their trips and airlines work to reposition their planes and crews.

After power was restored, a British Airways jet touched down just before sunset on Friday after Heathrow lifted its closure order. Further arrivals followed, including a short flight from Manchester in northwest England.

A British Airways flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia departed from Heathrow just before 9 p.m. (2100GMT). British Airways says it will run eight long-haul flights on Friday night. The airport plans to operate full schedule on Saturday.

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What we know about the fire that brought London’s Heathrow Airport to a standstill

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of flights to and from London’s Heathrow Airport were canceled on Friday after a fire at a nearby substation knocked out power to Europe’s busiest airport, disrupting travel plans for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

After a day of chaos, Heathrow began reopening in the evening, with the first plane of the day landing at about 6 p.m. local time. That was just the start of what is expected to be a dayslong process of getting stranded passengers to their destinations and displaced aircraft into the proper locations.

Here’s a look at what happened and its impact on air travel.

A fire at an electrical substation in west London, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the airport, knocked out power to Heathrow Airport late on Thursday.

The “significant power outage” initially forced officials to announce that the airport would be closed until 11:59 p.m. on Friday “to maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues.” By late afternoon, the airport said its crews had “worked tirelessly” to restore service, allowing flight operations to restart on Friday evening.

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Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza and destroy its only cancer hospital

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip on Friday and blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory, as Israeli leaders vowed to capture more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.

The hospital was located in the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza in two and was controlled by Israeli troops for most of the 17-month-long war. Israel moved to retake the corridor this week shortly after breaking the ceasefire with Hamas. The truce delivered relative calm to Gaza since late January and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.

The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which was inaccessible to doctors and patients during the war, because Hamas militants were operating in the site. Turkey, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.

Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said a medical team visited the facility during the ceasefire and found that, while it had suffered damage, some facilities remained in good condition.

“I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that served as a lifeline for so many patients,” he said in a statement issued by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.

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Under threat from Trump, Columbia University agrees to policy changes

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University agreed Friday to put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline, acquiescing to an extraordinary ultimatum by the Trump administration to implement those and other changes or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding.

As part of the sweeping reforms, the university will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand “intellectual diversity” by staffing up its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to a letter published Friday by the interim president, Katrina Armstrong.

The announcement drew immediate condemnation from some faculty and free speech groups, who accused the university of caving to President Donald Trump’s largely unprecedented intrusion upon the school’s academic freedom.

“Columbia’s capitulation endangers academic freedom and campus expression nationwide,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in research grants and other funding over the university’s handling of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. As a precondition to restoring those funds — along with billions more in future grants — federal officials last week demanded the university immediately enact nine separate reforms to its academic and security policies.

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A federal lawsuit says the Trump administration has unlawfully shuttered the Voice of America

A lawsuit filed late Friday accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully shutting down the Voice of America and asks a federal court to restore the outlet that for decades has supplied news about the United States to nations around the world — including many that lack a free press of their own.

The case, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, was brought by Voice of America reporters, Reporters Without Borders and a handful of unions against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, the failed Arizona candidate who is President Trump’s representative there.

“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the lawsuit said.

Lake has described the broadcast agency as a “giant rot” that needs to be stripped down and rebuilt.

Voice of America dates to World War II as a source of objective news, often beamed into authoritarian countries. Funded by Congress, it is protected by a charter that guarantees its product pass muster for journalistic rigor.

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Trump acknowledges concerns over Musk’s business interests and says he shouldn’t get war plans

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that war plans should not be shared with his adviser Elon Musk because of his business interests, a rare suggestion that the billionaire entrepreneur’s expansive role in the administration will face limits.

Trump made the comments during an Oval Office meeting on developing a new fighter jet, and he rejected reports that Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China.

“Elon has businesses in China,” the Republican president said. “And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that.”

Trump praised Musk as a patriot. However, the reference to his businesses — which include Tesla, an electric vehicle manufacturer trying to expand sales and production in China — is an unusual acknowledgement of concerns about Musk balancing his corporate and government responsibilities.

Trump had previously brushed off questions about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, simply saying that he would steer clear when necessary.

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Homeland Security revokes temporary status for 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

MIAMI (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month.

The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022. They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

The new policy impacts people who are already in the U.S. and who came under the humanitarian parole program. It follows an earlier Trump administration decision to end what it called the “broad abuse” of the humanitarian parole, a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there’s war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the U.S.

During his campaign President Donald Trump promised to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally, and as president he has been also ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S. and to stay.

DHS said parolees without a lawful basis to stay in the U.S. “must depart” before their parole termination date.

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Trump has ordered the dismantling of the US Education Department. Here’s what that means

President Donald Trump’s order calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department has complex implications.

The Republican president has argued the federal office hasn’t improved student outcomes and is unnecessary in a country where states and local districts primarily control education from funding to hiring and curriculum.

For decades, right-wing activists have called for eliminating the agency, which was created by Congress in 1979. As Trump remakes the federal government, he has assailed the department as wasteful and responsible for spreading “woke” ideas such as programs to support diversity, equity and inclusion and protections for transgender students.

The department has been largely responsible for oversight, enforcing discrimination laws and distributing aid money for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities. Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets, roughly 14%.

In the short term, students, teachers and parents likely won’t see much impact. Long term, it’s harder to predict.

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Russian drones strike Ukrainian city of Odesa, underlining challenges for even limited truce

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow’s intention to pursue aerial strikes even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities.

The head of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the city suffered “local emergency power outages” in three of its districts, an indication that the energy infrastructure of the city could have been damaged.

Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “joint pressure on Russia, strengthening sanctions and defense support for our state … is the way to stop such terror and Russia’s prolongation of the war.”

“We expect real pressure on Russia from the U.S., Europe and all our partners,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram. “This is what will allow diplomacy to work.”

Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of blowing up a gas facility in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have launched an incursion, in violation of the ceasefire deal. Ukraine denies the accusations.

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Sudan’s military says it has retaken Khartoum’s Republican Palace, seat of country’s government

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan ’s military on Friday retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting.

The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, was a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — though it likely doesn’t mean the end of the war as the RSF holds territory in Sudan’s western Darfur region and elsewhere.

Social media videos showed Sudanese soldiers inside the palace, giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, which corresponds to Friday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement in the video and confirmed the troops were inside the compound.

The palace appeared to be in ruins, with soldiers’ stepping on broken tiles. Troops carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!”

Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s information minister, said the military had retaken the palace in a post on the social platform X.

The Associated Press