The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Wednesday that its research activity had fallen 10% over the past year following cuts by the Trump administration.

Last year, MIT was the first school to publicly reject the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” a 10-point memo sent to nine institutions that proposed broad campus changes.

Among the proposed changes were limiting foreign student enrollment to 15%, freezing their effective tuition rates for five years, posting the earnings of graduates with certain majors, and expanding opportunities for service members.

After MIT declined the proposal, the Trump administration sought to cut the school’s funding, though most efforts were blocked in court.

MIT also said a higher federal tax on endowments was weighing on the school, which reported a $27.4 billion endowment last year.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it will need fewer air traffic controllers than it projected last year to reach full staffing.

Under its 2026-28 Workforce Plan, the agency said it will require 12,563 certified professional controllers, down from the 14,633 it forecast in 2024.

“We can’t continue to operate the same way and expect better results,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. “We’re changing how we hire, train and schedule our controller workforce – and providing them with the state-of-the-art tools they need to succeed,”

The revised target remains above the roughly 11,000 certified controllers now employed nationwide. The FAA said about 4,000 trainees are in the pipeline, though it can take up to two years for a newly hired controller to become fully certified. Not all trainees complete the process, and controllers must retire at 56.

Controller shortages have affected the FAA for years, contributing to mandatory overtime and flight delays as traffic is reduced to match available staffing.

In its 2024 workforce plan, the FAA said it was about 4,000 controllers short of full staffing. That year, 2.2 million hours of overtime cost taxpayers $200 million, according to a National Academies of Sciences report.

The new plan said the agency will use automated scheduling tools to reduce overtime and a data-driven staffing model to assess when controllers are available for operations. It also said it will review hours at some facilities “to ensure controller deployment better matches periods of high traffic demand.”

In September, the Department of Transportation said it had met its hiring goals for the year. But after last fall’s government shutdown left controllers unpaid for weeks, some quit for more stable jobs.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier this year that he would “supercharge” hiring through pay increases and a streamlined hiring process. He also said he wants to build a “brand new air traffic control system” to improve efficiency and redundancy and help attract new controllers.

The FAA said it will need to recruit 2,200 candidates in 2026, 2,300 in 2027, and 2,400 in 2028 to stay on track.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin asked Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford to explain why updated airplane evacuation testing is nearly two years overdue and why the agency has allowed some airlines to reduce minimum flight attendant staffing on certain widebody flights.

In a letter obtained by CBS News, the Democrats said some approvals could leave more emergency exit doors than flight attendants during an evacuation. “Without a certified Flight Attendant positioned at every dual-aisle floor-level exit, passengers could be left vulnerable at precisely the moment they must rely on skilled, decisive guidance and rapid action from highly trained and certified Flight Attendants,” they wrote.

The senators said American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines had received Federal Aviation Administration approval to reduce staffing on some aircraft under rules requiring one flight attendant for every 50 passengers. They wrote that one flight attendant could be responsible for two doors as far as 19 feet apart.

The Federal Aviation Administration told CBS News it would respond directly to the lawmakers. The agency has said staffing requirements are based on maximum seating capacity and that airlines must complete evacuation demonstrations for each seating configuration.

Last year, the agency certified American’s 787-9P configuration with a minimum of seven flight attendants, though the plane has eight exit doors. American said it still assigned eight to 10 flight attendants depending on flight length, but the lower minimum allowed flights to operate if a crew member became unavailable during a trip.

The senators also sought an update on evacuation testing that Congress ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to complete within one year of the 2024 reauthorization law. That deadline passed in May 2025. The new testing was intended to replace 2019 tests that did not include scenarios involving carry-on luggage, children, older passengers, or disabled passengers.

“Almost two years after enactment, the report is still not complete,” the senators wrote.

Federal rules require aircraft to be evacuated within 90 seconds, though actual evacuations can take longer. After Japan Airlines Flight 516 collided with a coast guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in 2024, passengers and crew took between 11 and 18 minutes to evacuate, according to the airline and the Japan Transport Safety Board.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it had completed the initial phase of its study and was working with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on research into seat pitch and seat width before finishing the report.

Minority Veterans of America sued the Trump administration over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ decision to reinstate restrictions on abortion services and counseling for veterans and their dependents in some cases.

The nonprofit filed the case on behalf of members affected by the policy, including one pregnant member identified anonymously in the complaint. She said she felt “terrified” after learning she was pregnant because of multiple chronic health conditions and prior pregnancy complications. The lawsuit said her first-trimester pregnancy had already worsened some conditions and that there was “a substantial risk” she might need to terminate the pregnancy to protect her health.

In the lawsuit, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the group argued that the Department of Veterans Affairs violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which bars federal agencies from acting “arbitrarily or capriciously,” by restoring limits on abortion services for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or when continuing the pregnancy could jeopardize a patient’s health.

According to the complaint, the counseling ban also prevented Department of Veterans Affairs medical providers from discussing “the full range of options available to her during the course of her pregnancy.”

The policy took effect last year after a Justice Department memorandum concluded that a Biden administration rule allowing limited abortion services through the Department of Veterans Affairs was invalid. The memo allowed the agency to make the change weeks earlier than the standard regulatory process typically would have.

The Department of Veterans Affairs began providing abortions in limited circumstances in 2022, after the Biden administration changed policy following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision.

The complaint also said the agency did not address its 2022 findings that limited abortion services were needed to protect veterans’ health. The Trump administration has said the Department of Veterans Affairs still permits abortions in life-threatening emergencies, including ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, but the lawsuit argued the regulation did not formally provide that exception for veterans themselves and applied it only to dependents.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentence of Tina Peters on May 15 after an appeals court found her roughly nine-year prison term had improperly considered her free speech.

Peters was convicted in a Colorado case tied to tampering with election machines. She was the first election official charged in a security breach after the 2020 presidential election.

Prosecutors said she allowed access to data as part of an effort to prove election denial claims.

“I think it’s important to send a message that no matter what your beliefs are and what your speech is, you’ll be sentenced fairly under the law, and that’s really what was called into question in this case,” Polis told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview.

A trial judge had been preparing to resentence Peters before Polis issued the commutation. She will be released on parole June 1 after serving more than four years in prison.

Wholesale electricity prices on PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. power grid, nearly doubled over the past year, according to a report published yesterday by Monitoring Analytics, the grid’s independent market monitor.

Prices for one megawatt-hour of electricity rose to $136.53 from $77.78 a year earlier, according to the report.

Monitoring Analytics said rising demand from data centers, along with PJM’s handling of that growth, drove the price increase.

In 2022, as data center construction increased, PJM paused applications for new generating sources because of a yearslong backlog. It only recently began accepting new requests again. PJM’s grid includes Northern Virginia, a major data center hub.

Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old from Georgia, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in November to soliciting hate crimes and distributing information about making bombs and ricin.

Prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili, who used the nickname “Commander Butcher,” led the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group they said promoted neo-Nazi ideology and violence through Telegram channels and a document called the “Hater’s Handbook.”

In 2023, prosecutors said,  Chkhikvishvili solicited an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee to carry out bombings and arsons targeting racial minorities, Jewish people, and others.

In 2024, prosecutors said, he directed the undercover employee “to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison” and sent manuals on making and mixing lethal poisons and gases, including ricin. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said Chkhikvishvili also tried to recruit a supposed associate to dress as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to minority children.

Prosecutors said the group’s solicitations and the “Hater’s Handbook” appeared to have inspired multiple killings, including a 2024 school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, that killed a 16-year-old student.

In a letter to the judge last month, Chkhikvishvili wrote: “I acknowledge that my actions have brought harm by spreading hatred and violence and I’m truly sorry for that.” He also wrote, “I’m very ashamed authoring Haters Handbook, hoping one day it will disappear, I wish I never wrote it.”

His lawyer, Zachary Taylor, had asked for a five-year sentence, citing Chkhikvishvili’s mental health struggles since his teenage years, his exposure to extremist content on social media, and what Taylor described in a letter to the judge as harsh conditions during Chkhikvishvili’s nearly yearlong confinement in Moldova after his 2024 arrest on an international warrant.

The U.S. is taking steps toward indicting Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, in connection with the 1996 downing of planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Any indictment would require grand jury approval.

The move came as the Trump administration increased pressure on Cuba. It threatened heavy tariffs on countries that export oil to Cuba, contributing to energy shortages as oil shipments were largely cut off. President Donald Trump also pressed for major reforms in Cuba and floated a “friendly takeover” of the country.

Pressure on Cuba increased in January after the U.S. military removed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power and flew him to New York to face drug charges. Venezuela had been a key partner of Cuba.

Castro, 94, formally stepped down as leader of Cuba’s Communist Party in 2021, but remained widely viewed as influential. His grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “Raulito,” was seen as a representative of the elder Castro and a key contact between the U.S. and Cuba.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe met with the younger Castro on Thursday, after an earlier U.S. visit last month. Ratcliffe delivered Trump’s message that the U.S. is “prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,” a CIA official said. The official added that Cuba can “no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.”

Federal prosecutors in Miami launched a broader initiative several months ago targeting Cuban communist leaders, CBS News previously reported. The effort involved federal and local law enforcement, and the Treasury Department, and focused on alleged economic crimes, drugs, violent crimes, and immigration violations.

An Organization of American States report found the Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down outside Cuban airspace and said Cuba violated international law by firing without warning and without evidence it was necessary. Cuban officials said the shootdown was justified because the group had violated Cuban airspace and sought sabotage.

At the time, Fidel Castro led Cuba, and Raúl Castro led the armed forces. Fidel Castro later told “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather that the military acted on his “general orders” to stop planes from entering Cuban airspace.

Gerardo Hernandez was convicted in the U.S. of murder conspiracy in the case and sentenced to life in prison. He was returned to Cuba in a 2014 prisoner swap.

Florida officials also renewed attention to the case this year. The state attorney general said in March that he was reopening a closed state investigation, and Republican Sen. Rick Scott and other Florida lawmakers called on the Justice Department to charge Castro.

Former Coldwater, Kansas, Mayor Joe Ceballos was detained Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a meeting at an agency office in Wichita, according to his attorney, Jess Hoeme.

Ceballos, 55, was born in Mexico and is a legal permanent U.S. resident. Hoeme said Ceballos now feared he could be deported.

Hoeme said Ceballos disclosed the voting during a 2025 citizenship interview, saying he did not know green card holders were not eligible.

In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly election conduct in a deal with the Kansas attorney general. Hoeme said the offense was similar to disturbing the peace.

In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said Ceballos, who received a green card in 1990, “falsely claimed he was a US citizen” on voter registration forms and “again committed a felony by lying on his naturalization application that he had never claimed to be a US citizen.”

“Thinking what could happen — it’s just kind of crazy,” Ceballos told reporters before entering the federal building in Wichita. “Obviously nervous. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know where they’re going to take me and what I can and can’t do inside there.”

Hoeme said Ceballos was brought from Mexico to the United States at age 4 and was encouraged to register to vote during a school field trip to the Comanche County courthouse when he was 18. Ceballos has said in past interviews that he voted for Republicans.

Ceballos was twice elected mayor of the town of about 700 people and also served on the City Council. He won another term in November before resigning.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Texas from enforcing key parts of a law that would let state officials arrest and deport people suspected of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin issued a preliminary injunction in a class action brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups on behalf of thousands of people who could be subject to the law.

Ezra, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said the law was preempted by federal law and improperly challenged the federal government’s authority over immigration, naturalization, and deportation.

“At the broadest level, SB 4 conflicts with federal immigration law because it provides state officials the power to enforce federal law without federal supervision,” Ezra wrote.

The lawsuit was filed last week to stop parts of the 2023 law from taking effect after a federal appeals court in April overturned an earlier injunction issued during President Joe Biden’s administration that had blocked the Republican-backed measure, known as SB 4.

President Donald Trump’s administration dropped a case the Biden administration had brought challenging the law. Immigrant-rights groups that also sued continued their case, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled they lacked legal standing.

The new lawsuit sought to address that issue by suing on behalf of noncitizens who could be subject to four key provisions of the law, which is set to take effect Friday.

Those provisions include making it a state crime for someone to reenter the United States after deportation, even if they have federal permission to do so or have since obtained a green card, and giving Texas magistrate judges the power to issue deportation orders.

A rare, very strong El Niño may be more likely in late 2026, according to a National Weather Service forecast released Thursday.

The agency said there is an 82% chance El Niño will develop by July, up from 61% in the previous outlook, and a 96% chance it will last through winter. It said the chance of a “super El Niño” between November 2026 and January 2027 rose to 37% from 25% last month. The odds of a strong El Niño overall are about two in three.

El Niño is a natural climate cycle in which weaker-than-normal Pacific trade winds allow warm water to shift toward the Americas. That warmer water can push the Pacific jet stream south, changing weather patterns in the United States and elsewhere. La Niña is the opposite, with stronger trade winds, cooler water, and a more northward jet stream.

El Niño and La Niña typically occur every two to seven years and last nine to 12 months. Meteorologists classify El Niño by how much sea-surface temperatures rise in part of the equatorial Pacific. The threshold for a weak El Niño is 0.5 degrees Celsius. To qualify as a “super” or “very strong” El Niño, temperatures would need to rise by 2 degrees Celsius.

A super El Niño has occurred only four times since 1950: 2015-16, 1997-98, 1982-83, and 1972-73, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Its effects vary. NOAA said Monday that 2026 is “very likely” to be one of the five hottest years on record, even without accounting for El Niño. A strong event can also suppress hurricanes in the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic while increasing activity in the central and eastern Pacific. Winter often trends warmer in northern North America and cooler and wetter across the southern half, especially the Southeast and Gulf Coast.