By MATTHEW BROWN (Associated Press)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials on Friday said they will make it easier for scientists to relocate plants and animals outside their historical ranges as a last resort to save species threatened with extinction by climate change.

Relocations of species struggling because of climate change have been carried out on a limited basis to date, including in Hawaii where researchers have raced to move seabirds to new islands to save them from rising ocean waters.

A change in federal regulations published Friday by the Biden administration would allow similar relocations for some of the most imperiled plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.

It also allows for relocations when a species is being crowded out by nonnative plants or wildlife. This summer officials plan to introduce Guam kingfishers on the Palmyra Atoll south of Hawaii, after brown tree snakes accidentally brought to Guam around 1950 decimated their population. The birds are extinct in the wild but maintained in zoos.

Moving species into new areas was long considered taboo because of the potential to disrupt native ecosystems and crowd out local flora and fauna. The practice is gaining acceptance among many scientists and government officials as climate change alters habitats around the globe.

Federal officials said the impacts of climate change had not been fully realized when they adopted previous rules preventing endangered species relocations. As global warming intensifies, habitat changes are “forcing some wildlife to new areas to survive, while squeezing other species closer to extinction,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

She said allowing relocations would strengthen conservation efforts and help protect species for coming generations.

Republicans in Western states — where gray wolves were reintroduced two decades ago over strong local objections — opposed the proposal. Officials in Montana, New Mexico and Arizona warned relocations could wreak ecological havoc as “invasive species” get purposefully introduced.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s spokesperson, Jack O’Brien, said state officials would review the changes but expressed disappointment federal officials announced them heading into a holiday weekend.

Examples abound of ecological disasters caused by species introduced to new areas — from Asian carp spreading through rivers and streams across the U.S., to starlings from Europe destroying crops and driving out songbirds.

Other state wildlife officials were supportive of the change and along with outside scientists have suggested species that could benefit. Those include Key deer of southern Florida, desert flowers in Nevada and California and the St. Croix ground lizard in the Virgin Islands.

Patrick Donnelly with the Center for Biological Diversity said he was concerned the rule could be abused to allow habitat destruction to make way for development. His group has fought plans for a Nevada lithium mine where an endangered desert wildflower is found. The developer has proposed transplanting the Tiehm’s buckwheat and growing new plants elsewhere.

“The Tiehm’s buckwheat situation has raised the specter of a mining company intentionally destroying an endangered species’ habitat and then attempting to create new habitat elsewhere as compensation,” Donnelly said. “It’s troubling that this new rule doesn’t contain an explicit prohibition on such an arrangement.”

The new species relocation rule follows recent steps by the Biden administration to reverse major changes to the endangered species program during the Trump administration. Industry groups lobbied for those earlier changes, but they were heavily criticized by environmentalists.

The Fish and Wildlife Service last week said it would reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened. Officials also said they would no longer consider economic impacts when deciding if animals and plants need protection.

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Follow Matthew Brown: @MatthewBrownAP

Whether it’s as the Tides or Red Stockings, Norfolk keeps on winning baseball games.

Joey Ortiz drew a game-ending, bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning Friday night to boost Norfolk to a 5-4 triumph over the Charlotte Knights before 8,535 fans.

Playing in charcoal-colored Red Stockings uniforms on Harbor Park’s Negro Leagues tribute night, the Tides improved to 3-0 in the International League’s second half and 51-26 for the season despite leaving 16 runners on base.

Both starters gave their teams solid outings on an 83-degree night. Charlotte left-hander Garrett Davila yielded three runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out five. Norfolk’s Justin Armbruester, in just his second Triple-A start, lasted 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) and six hits, striking out seven.

Heston Kjerstad’s sacrifice fly and Josh Lester’s RBI double off the right-field wall in the first put Norfolk ahead 2-0.

Yolbert Sanchez’s sacrifice fly cut the Knights’ deficit to 2-1, and they went ahead 3-2 in the fourth when Nate Mondou hit an RBI double after Oscar Colas homered off the right-field foul pole.

Lester doubled home Ortiz in the fifth, but Colas slugged another homer in the seventh to put Charlotte ahead 4-3.

But as they have done so often in Tides uniforms, the Red Stockings responded in the ninth. With one out against Bryan Shaw, who has appeared in 753 major league games, Kjerstad singled to center field and Ortiz doubled to right, putting runners at second and third.

Charlotte issued Lester an intentional walk to load the bases, but on an 0-2 count, Daz Cameron avoided a double play on his grounder to second as Kjerstad scored, extending the game.

The Knights couldn’t advance their gifted runner beyond second base starting the 10th as Tides reliever Joey Krehbiel (1-0) induced a pop fly, strikeout and groundout, completing his two hitless innings.

The Tides’ gifted runner was Maverick Handley, and Shayne Fontana bunted him to third. Charlotte reliever Nicholas Padilla intentionally walked Colton Cowser and Connor Norby to set up forces at every base, then retired Kjerstad on a pop fly to second. But on a 3-2 count to Ortiz, Padilla threw a breaking ball far outside and low, forcing Handley home with the winning run.

The six-game series continues with a 6:35 p.m. game Saturday. Chris Vallimont (2-5, 5.02 ERA) is scheduledto pitch against the Tides against left-handerJohn Parke (1-4, 7.00),

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — By the time Martin DuPain got back home from a short walk Thursday afternoon, he was covered with a smattering of tiny flying critters. They were in his hair, on his shirt and in his nose.

When he sneezed, the bugs came flying out.

As if the smoke and haze sweeping in from wildfires in Canada weren’t enough, New York City has been invaded in recent days with plumes of flying insects that have become both a nuisance and a source of fascination — what were they, where’d they come from and will they ever go away? Another unwanted Canadian export?

At first, DuPain, who lives in Queens, thought it might have been wind-driven ash, but he soon found out otherwise. Some were alive and flying. He quickly jumped in the shower.

The startling scene was nothing short of a “gnatural disaster,” quipped a post on Twitter, which has been abuzz with reports of swarms in some neighborhoods, while others remain bug-free.

As they entered clouds of bugs, some people tried to wave them away. Others covered their mouths and noses. Others put on surgical masks before venturing outdoors.

Professor David Lohman, an entomologist at the City University of New York, hadn’t seen any of the insects himself, but he concluded from photos and videos circulating on social media that they were winged aphids — not gnats, as amateur bugologists assumed.

Aphids are common all over the United States, even in New York City. They are small, pear-shaped insects that come in a variety of colors, from green, red and yellow to black, brown and gray.

While he is not an aphid expert — there are very few — Lohman said the swarms are unusual, given that aphids don’t usually come out in New York City until after summer. He theorized that warm winter temps might have contributed by causing the bug’s biological clock to go off-kilter.

On Friday, Lohman went in search of aphid experts who could chime in.

“Aphids fly at all times of the growing season,” Natalie Hernandez, who specializes in aphids, wrote in an email to Lohman. “If a colony gets too large, too dense, it will produce winged morphs to disperse.”

The wildfires in Canada and extreme temperatures “could be messing with them too,” she added.

That theory sounded plausible to Andy Jensen, another aphid researcher.

“The smoke might be allowing aphids to remain abundant longer into summer than normal,” Jensen said. “Many aphids slow down or stop reproduction in the heat of summer.”

Whatever the cause, the city’s Public Health Department said, there was nothing to be alarmed about.

“While this may be annoying, these insects do not present a known public health risk,” the department said in a statement Friday. “We are looking into these bugs and will share any important health information.”

The bug experts say the swarms shouldn’t last much longer, which is a relief to Jeremy Cohen, who was riding his bike in Brooklyn when he felt as if he was being pelted by bits of hail.

At times, he steered his bicycle with one hand and used the other to cup his mouth and nose.

“I knew the air quality was bad so I just assumed it was debris from the wildfires just flying around — which I thought would have been crazy,” said Cohen, a professional photographer. “Then I slowly realized there was a swarm of bugs flying around.”

While some saw the insects as annoying, the presence of so many bugs delighted Lohman.

“The appearance of all these aphids signal something great: New York is organic!” he said. “If pesticide use was widespread, there wouldn’t be this many aphids.”

By SYLVIE CORBET, JOHN LEICESTER and LEWIS JOLY (Associated Press)

NANTERRE, France (AP) — Young rioters clashed with police and looted stores overnight Friday in a fourth night of unrest in France triggered by the deadly police shooting of a teen, piling more pressure on President Emmanuel Macron after he appealed to parents to keep children off the streets and blamed social media for fueling violence.

While the situation appeared to be somewhat calmer compared to previous nights, turmoil gripped several cities across the country.

Firefighters in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, where the shooting occurred Tuesday, extinguished the blazes set by protesters that left scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets. In the neighboring suburb Colombes, protesters overturned garbage bins and used them for makeshift barricades.

Looters during the evening broke into a gun shop and made off with weapons, and a man was later arrested with a hunting rifle, police said, and in the southern Mediterranean port city of Marseille, officers arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters lit cars on fire and broke store windows to take what was inside.

Buildings and businesses were also vandalized in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said. Authorities reported fires in the streets after an unauthorized protest drew more than 1,000 people earlier in the evening.

By about 3 a.m., Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told cable news channel BFMTV that 471 arrests were made during the night.

The fatal shooting of the 17-year-old, who has only been identified by his first name, Nahel, was captured on video, stirring up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Nahel’s burial is scheduled for Saturday, according to Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry, who said France needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Despite repeated government appeals for calm and stiffer policing, Friday saw brazen daylight violence, too. An Apple store was looted in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where police fired tear gas, and the windows of a fast-food outlet were smashed in a Paris-area shopping mall, where officers repelled people trying to break into a shuttered store, authorities said.

Violence was also erupting in some of France’s territories overseas.

Some 150 police officers were deployed Friday night on the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, authorities said, after protesters set garbage bins ablaze, threw projectiles at police and damaged cars and buildings. In French Guiana, a 54-year-old was killed by a stray bullet Thursday night when rioters fired at police in the capital, Cayenne, authorities said.

In the face of the escalating crisis that hundreds of arrests and massive police deployments have failed to quell, Macron held off on declaring a state of emergency, an option that was used in similar circumstances in 2005.

Instead, his government ratcheted up its law enforcement response. Already massively beefed-up police forces were boosted by another 5,000 officers for Friday night, increasing the number to 45,000 overall, the interior minister said. Some were called back from vacation. The minister, Darmanin, said police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone and noted their young age — 17 on average. He said more than 300 police officers and firefighters have been injured.

It was unclear how many protesters have been injured in the clashes.

Darmanin on Friday ordered a nationwide nighttime shutdown of all public buses and trams, which have been among rioters’ targets. He also said he warned social networks not to allow themselves to be used as channels for calls to violence.

“They were very cooperative,” Darmanin said, adding that French authorities were providing the platforms with information in hopes of cooperation identifying people inciting violence.

“We will pursue every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts,” he said.

Macron, too, zeroed in on social media platforms that have relayed dramatic images of vandalism and cars and buildings being torched, saying they were playing a “considerable role” in the violence. Singling out Snapchat and TikTok, he said they were being used to organize unrest and served as conduits for copycat violence.

Macron said his government would work with technology companies to establish procedures for “the removal of the most sensitive content,” adding that he expected “a spirit of responsibility” from them.

Snapchat spokesperson Rachel Racusen said the company has increased its moderation since Tuesday to detect and act on content related to the rioting.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors for the summer Olympic Games. Organizers said they are closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the Olympics continue.

The police officer accused of killing Nahel was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide, which means investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial. Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon wasn’t legally justified.

Prache said officers tried to pull Nahel over because he looked so young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates in a bus lane. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid being stopped and then got stuck in traffic.

The officer said he feared he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car as Nahel attempted to flee, according to the prosecutor.

Nahel’s mother, identified as Mounia M., told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer but not at the police in general. “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life,” she said, adding that justice should be “very firm.”

“A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives,” she said.

Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, although 13 people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year. This year, another three people, including Nahel, died under similar circumstances. The deaths have prompted demands for more accountability in France, which also saw racial justice protests after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.

Race was a taboo topic for decades in France, which is officially committed to a doctrine of colorblind universalism. In the wake of Nahel’s killing, French anti-racism activists renewed complaints about police behavior in general.

This week’s protests echoed the three weeks of rioting in 2005 that followed the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna, who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois.

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Corbet and Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Schaeffer and Aurelien Morissard in Nanterre; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Frank Jordans in Berlin; and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

By JAKE BLEIBERG (Associated Press)

CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — A man accused of killing five neighbors in Texas after some of them complained that gunfire was keeping a baby awake was indicted Friday for capital murder of multiple persons, which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Prosecutors said they do not yet know whether they will seek the death penalty against Francisco Oropeza, 38, who is a Mexican national and had been deported multiple times in the years prior to the April attack outside Houston. He was already charged in May with five counts of murder.

“I think it’s a little too early for us to make that call,” San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said.

Oropeza is scheduled to appear in court in August. Anthony Osso, his attorney, said his client will plead not guilty.

“We expected the capital indictment so there’s no surprise,” Osso said. “We have been contacted by many people in support of Mr. Oropeza’s character. He was extremely well regarded in this neighborhood and often helped others with all types of tasks around their homes. He was a go-to kind of guy for help.”

Police say Oropeza stormed into his neighbor’s house on April 28 after being asked by his neighbors to stop firing his AR-style rifle because a baby was trying to sleep. All five victims were from Honduras, including a 9-year-old boy. One neighbor who lived down the street from said that a few months before the shooting, Oropeza threatened to kill his dog after it got loose and chased the pit bull in his truck.

The shooting happened in the rural town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. Police say Oropeza fled the neighborhood after the shooting, setting off a widening manhunt that came up empty for days despite more than 250 officers, drones and scent-tracking dogs searching and $80,000 in reward money being offered.

Oropeza was eventually arrested near Conroe, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the home where the shooting took place.

Oropeza’s domestic partner and one of his friends have also been charged with hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon.

By ALI SWENSON and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination courted conservative women at the Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia on Friday, elevating a group that has gained substantial influence within the GOP with its fierce opposition to instruction related to race and gender identity in the nation’s classrooms.

Both former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared eager to out-flank the other as they labeled gender-affirming care “mutilation” and talked up their efforts to eliminate critical race theory. DeSantis vowed to “fight the woke,” while Trump blasted what he called “the toxic poison of gender ideology” and “sick creed of woke communism.”

While the graphic rhetoric resonates with the most active part of the GOP base, as evidenced by the enthusiastic reception both received, it could turn off more moderate voters in a general election.

The group, which was founded in Florida in 2021 to fight local COVID school mask mandates and quarantine requirements, has quickly become a force in conservative politics. But it has also been accused of preaching hate, with the Southern Poverty Law Center recently labeling it an “extremist” organization for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans.

The conference, being held at a downtown hotel, nonetheless drew a handful of leading Republican presidential candidates.

DeSantis praised the group for “coming under attack by the left,” saying it was “a sign that we are winning this fight.” He ran through his efforts in Florida to ban discussions of race and sexual identity in classrooms as well as certain books from school libraries. And he pledged to “fight the woke” as president.

“I think what we’ve seen across this country in recent years has awakened the most powerful political force in the country: Mama bears. And they’re ready to roll,” he said, predicting moms would be “the key political force for this 2024 cycle.”

“2024 is going to be the year when the parents across the country finally fight back,” he said.

Trump, too, accused the “radical left” of “slandering Moms for Liberty as a so-called hate group.”

“But Moms for Liberty is no hate group,” he said. “You are joyful warriors, you are fierce, fierce patriots. You’re not a threat to America.”

Trump told them that if he wins a second term he would sign an executive order to cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”.” He called for the direct election — and firing — of school principals by parents.

Like DeSantis, he was deeply critical of gender-affirming care. He vowed to sign an executive order instructing federal agencies “to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age.” He said hospitals and health care providers who provide gender-affirming care for minors should be deemed in violation of federal health and safety standards and lose federal funding, and said he would call on Congress to ban it in all 50 states.

After his speech, Trump made a stop at Pat’s King of Steaks, a local Philadelphia institution, where he posed for photos and signed autographs for fans.

The high interest in the event among GOP hopefuls underscores the influence of Moms for Liberty, which has made connections with powerful GOP organizations, politicians and donors to become a major political player. The group has said it doesn’t plan to endorse any presidential candidate in the primary election.

The group has transformed from three Florida moms opposing COVID-19 mandates in 2021 to claiming 285 chapters across 45 states. Along the way, it has found a close ally in DeSantis, who was presented with a “liberty sword” at the group’s first annual meeting last year and has signed multiple bills that Moms for Liberty supported.

Beyond remarks from the candidates and other speakers, the summit features strategy sessions on such topics as “protecting kids from gender ideology” and “comprehensive sex education: sex ed or sexualization.”

Summit attendees said they liked what they were hearing so far.

“I love Moms for Liberty,” said Debbie McGinley, who is running for the school board in Methacton School District outside Philadelphia. As a parent of three kids who lost her business as a hairdresser during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she appreciated that the group is “fighting for our kids.”

Lucy Reyna, a treasurer for a Moms for Liberty chapter in Indiana, said she traveled to the conference to learn more about the national organization.

“What am I a part of? I need to know those things,” Reyna said, adding that if the group leaned too partisan in one direction, it would make her reconsider her participation.

Outside, roughly 100 parent activists and LGBTQ+ advocates gathered to protest, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of the group as an “anti-government extremist” organization. They chanted, “Not in our city” and “Let’s say gay” while holding signs that read, “Hate is not patriotic” and “Philly is the LGBTQest city.”

Some protesters said specific incidents prompted their activism, including an Indiana Moms for Liberty chapter publishing an Adolf Hitler quote in its newsletter before apologizing and removing it, and a Tennessee chapter complaining about lessons on Black civil rights figures Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges.

“I think they stand for fear. And that turns into hate very quickly,” said Molly Roses, a Philadelphia resident who joined the protest.

In the days before the conference, several historical associations, state senators, activists and employees at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution had pleaded unsuccessfully with the museum to cancel a welcome event for the conference Thursday night. The event went on as planned.

The museum told The Associated Press that “because fostering understanding within a democratic society is so central to our mission, rejecting visitors on the basis of ideology would in fact be antithetical to our purpose.”

In her remarks, Moms for Liberty National Director of Engagement Tia Bess rejected claims that the group is racist.

“Do I look like a racist to y’all?” Bess, who is Black, told the overwhelmingly white audience.

Tiffany Justice, one of the group’s co-founders, responded sarcastically to the SPLC’s “extremist” label onstage Friday, referring to herself as “the face of domestic terrorism, apparently.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, another GOP candidate who appeared Friday, said that, “When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization … I said well then count me as a Mom for Liberty.”

Though Moms for Liberty says it is nonpartisan, it has overwhelmingly drawn conservative support. The group also has fought to elect conservative candidates to school boards around the country.

While the group’s status as a 501(c)4 nonprofit means it doesn’t have to disclose its funders, its public donors include conservative powerhouses such as the Heritage Foundation and the Leadership Institute, a national political training organization.

Patriot Mobile, a far-right Christian cellphone company paying to sponsor Trump’s remarks at the conference, has a political action committee that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to take charge of Texas school boards.

Mom for Liberty’s Florida-based PAC also has received a $50,000 donation from Julie Fancelli, a Republican donor whose family owns Publix grocery stores and who helped fund Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, according to House Jan. 6 committee findings. Fancelli didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and video journalist David R. Martin in Philadelphia contributed reporting.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Friday effectively killed President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans. But he declared, “This fight is not over.”

The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan, and it left borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume in the fall.

The court held that the administration needed Congress’ endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with national emergencies, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed.

Biden, who once doubted his own authority to offer student loan forgiveness, said later Friday he would push ahead with a new debt relief plan while blaming Republican “hypocrisy” for the decision that wiped out his original effort.

The president said he would work toward a new path for student debt relief, using the Higher Education Act, which he called “the best path that remains to provide for as many borrowers possible with debt relief.” He also moved to create an “on ramp” that would help ease the risk of default for students who fail to make payments when the current pause ends.

The president said he would work under the authority of the Higher Education Act to begin a new program designed to ease borrowers’ threat of default if they fall behind over the next year.

The Supreme Court ruling was blunt in rejecting Biden’s first plan.

“Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

Justice Elena Kagan, wrote in a dissent, joined by the court’s two other liberals, that the majority of the court “overrides the combined judgment of the Legislative and Executive Branches, with the consequence of eliminating loan forgiveness for 43 million Americans.” Kagan read a summary of her dissent in court to emphasize her disagreement.

Roberts, perhaps anticipating negative public reaction and aware of declining approval of the court, added an unusual coda to his opinion, cautioning that the liberals’ dissent should not be mistaken for disparagement of the court itself. ”It is important that the public not be misled either. Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and our country,” the chief justice wrote.

Biden blame Republican officials for causing the dispute that led to Friday’s ruling.

They “had no problem with billions in pandemic-related loans to businesses. … And those loans were forgiven,” Biden said. “But when it came to providing relief to millions of hard-working Americans, they did everything in their power to stop it.”

Loan repayments will resume in October, although interest will begin accruing in September, the Education Department has announced. Payments have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than three years ago.

The forgiveness program would have canceled $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, would have had an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.

Twenty-six million people had applied for relief and 43 million would have been eligible, the administration said. The cost was estimated at $400 billion over 30 years.

Advocacy groups supporting debt cancellation condemned the decision while demanding that Biden find another avenue to fulfill his promise of debt relief.

Natalia Abrams, president and founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center, said the responsibility for new action falls “squarely” on Biden’s shoulders. “The president possesses the power, and must summon the will, to secure the essential relief that families across the nation desperately need,” Abrams said in a statement.

The loan plan joins other pandemic-related initiatives that faltered at the Supreme Court.

Conservative majorities ended an eviction moratorium that had been imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and blocked a plan to require workers at big companies to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing and wear a mask on the job. The court upheld a plan to require vaccinations of health-care workers.

The earlier programs were billed largely as public health measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19. The loan forgiveness plan, by contrast, was aimed at countering the economic effects of the pandemic.

In more than three hours of arguments last February, conservative justices voiced their skepticism that the administration had the authority to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions.

Republican-led states arguing before the court said the plan would have amounted to a “windfall” for 20 million people who would have seen their entire student debt disappear and been better off than they were before the pandemic.

Roberts was among those on the court who questioned whether non-college workers would essentially be penalized for a break for the college educated.

In contrast, the administration grounded the need for the sweeping loan forgiveness in the COVID-19 emergency and the continuing negative impacts on people near the bottom of the economic ladder. The declared emergency ended on May 11.

Without the promised loan relief, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer told the justices, “delinquencies and defaults will surge.”

At those arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her fellow justices would be making a mistake if they took for themselves, instead of leaving it to education experts, “the right to decide how much aid to give” people who would struggle if the program were struck down.

The HEROES Act — the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act — has allowed the secretary of education to waive or modify the terms of federal student loans in connection with a national emergency. The law was primarily intended to keep service members from being hurt financially while they fought in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biden announced the program last August and legal challenges quickly followed.

The court majority said the Republican-led states had cleared an early hurdle that required them to show they would be financially harmed if the program had been allowed to take effect.

The states did not even rely on any direct injury to themselves, but instead pointed to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a state-created company that services student loans.

Nebraska Solicitor General James Campbell, arguing before the court in February, said the Authority would lose about 40% of its revenues if the Biden plan went into effect. Independent research has cast doubt on the financial harm MOHELA would face, suggesting that the agency would still see an increase in revenue even if Biden’s cancellation went through. That information was not part of the court record.

A federal judge initially found that the states would not be harmed and dismissed their lawsuit before an appellate panel said the case could proceed.

In a second case, the justices ruled unanimously that two Texans who filed a separate challenge did not have legal standing to sue. But the outcome of that case has no bearing on the court’s decision to block the debt relief plan.

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Associated Press writers Collin Binkley, Colleen Long and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court

A 14-year-old boy was wounded after being shot Friday afternoon in Hampton.

Police responded to a report of an individual showing up to a hospital with a gunshot wound at about 3 p.m. Officers met the teen, whose injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Investigators believe the shooting occurred in the 1800 block of West Queen Street in the Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood. The boy was taken to the hospital by a family member.

No further information about the circumstances of the shooting has been made available.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, [email protected]

ESPN was expected to lay off 20 people on Friday, including household names like former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, boxing expert Max Kellerman, NFL sideline reporter Suzy Kolber and NBA star Jalen Rose.

Kolber confirmed she’s one of the on-air personalities The Hollywood Reporter said was on the chopping block. “Today I join the many hard-working colleagues who have been laid off,” she tweeted Friday. “Heartbreaking – but 27 years at ESPN was a good run.”

Kolber expressed gratitude for the decades she spent with the cable sports channel and said she was “especially proud” to have accomplished that as a woman largely covering men’s sports.

Former Jets receiver Keyshawn Johnson was also reportedly handed his pink slip Friday.

“Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries, and that process has begun,” ESPN said in a statement. “This exercise will include a small group of job cuts in the short-term and an ongoing focus on managing costs when we negotiate individual contract renewals in the months ahead.”

The company called its cuts “an extremely challenging process” that was “based more on overall efficiency than merit.”

Kolber appeared to be first to publicly address ESPN’s cuts on social media. Colleagues and supporters including ESPN’s senior NFL analyst Adam Schefter expressed support for the 59-year-old pro.

“Suzy Kolber is a pioneer and a legend,” Shefter tweeted. “She, like others laid off today, always will be remembered and missed.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in March the entertainment company, which owns ESPN, would begin laying off workers in multiple stages to cut costs. ESPN soon after informed employees the company would be impacted by those changes, according to the Associated Press. It was reported that a round of dismissals impacting on-air talent would take place over the summer in the form of buyouts, cuts and contracts not being renewed.

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