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WASHINGTON (AP) — In another era, the scene would have been unremarkable. But in PresidentDonald Trump'sWashington, it's become increasingly rare.

Governors Economic Club

Sitting side by side on stage were Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat. They traded jokes and compliments instead of insults and accusations, a brief interlude of cordiality in a cacophony of conflict.

Stitt and Moore are the leaders of the National Governors Association, one of a vanishing few bipartisan institutions left in American politics. But it may be hard for the organization, which is holding its annual conference this week, to maintain its reputation as a refuge from polarization.

Trump has broken with custom by declining to invite all governors to the traditional White House meeting and dinner. He has called Stitt, the NGA's chair, a "RINO," short for Republican in name only, and continued to feud with Moore, the group's vice chair, by blaming him for asewage spillinvolving afederally regulated pipeline.

The break with tradition reflects Trump's broader approach to his second term. He has taken a confrontational stance toward some states, withholding federal funds or deploying troops over the objections of local officials.

With theRepublican-controlled Congressunwilling to limit Trump's ambitions, several governors have increasingly cast themselves as a counterweight to the White House.

"Presidents aren't supposed to do this stuff," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said about the expansion of executive power in recent administrations. "Congress needs to get their act together. And stop performing for TikTok and actually start doing stuff. That's the flaw we're dealing with right now."

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Cox, a Republican, said "it is up to the states to hold the line."

Moore echoed that sentiment inan interview with The Associated Press.

"People are paying attention to how governors are moving, because I think governors have a unique way to move in this moment that other people just don't," he said.

Still, governors struck an optimistic tone in panels and interviews Wednesday. Stitt said the conference is "bigger than one dinner at the White House." Moore predicted "this is going to be a very productive three days for the governors."

"Here's a Republican and Democrat governor from different states that literally agree on probably 80% of the things. And the things we disagree on we can have honest conversations on," Stitt said while sitting beside Moore.

Tensions over the guest list for White House events underscored the uncertainty surrounding the week. During the back-and-forth,Trump feuded with Stittand said Moore and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis were not invited because they "are not worthy of being there."

Whether the bipartisan tone struck Wednesday evening can endure through the week — and beyond — remains an open question.

"We can have disagreements. In business, I always want people around me arguing with me and pushing me because that's where the best ideas come from," said Stitt. "We need to all have these exchange of ideas."

Theavalanche that killed at least eight peopleon Feb. 17 in California marked the deadliest natural disaster of its kind in the United States in nearly a half century.

A group of 15 skiers were caught in the avalanche in the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Six members of the group survived and were rescued. One skier was still missing as of Feb. 18 and is presumed dead, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said.

It was the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in almost 45 years, according to theColorado Avalanche Information Center(CIAC), which tracks avalanches across the nation. Eleven people were killed in an avalanche on June 21, 1981, while attempting to climb Mount Rainier in Washington state.

More recently,six climbers died in an avalancheon Mount Rainier on May 28, 2014. On April 20, 2013,five snowboarders were killedin an avalanche near Colorado's Loveland Pass.

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In the U.S., avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives annually over the last 10 years, according to the CAIC.

What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?

The deadliest recorded avalanche in U.S. history occurred March 1, 1910, in Wellington, Washington, when a wall of snow swept two trains into a gorge near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range, killing 96 people,according to the Seattle Times.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?

NEW YORK − Construction on thenation's largest infrastructure projectcan resume after a court orderedthe Trump administrationto release funding it had withheld to gain leverage over congressional Democrats from New York.

On Feb. 18,New York Attorney General Letitia Jamesannounced the U.S. Department of Transportation released nearly $130 million in funding for the$16 billion Gateway tunnel projectin an ongoing lawsuit. The rail tunnel project, under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York, is meant to bolster tunnels along the Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail line in the United States.

The funding resuming is a blow toPresident Donald Trump, who had vowed to terminate the project in a budget fight with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.

"This funding freeze was unlawful from the start," James, who hasherself been targeted for legal retribution by Trump, said in a statement. "We took swift action in court, and now every dollar that was illegally withheld has been released."

The Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney's Office, representing federal officials in court, declined to comment. Neither the White House nor the U.S. Department of Transportation immediately responded to requests for comment.

Construction had already started at several sites before federal officials abruptly pulled funding. Around $2 billion had already been spent on the project, New York officials said.

The project would create nine miles of new passenger rail tracks with a two-tube tunnel, and it would fix the existing 116-year-old tunnels, currently used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains, that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Just one tunnel failing could cost the nation's largest regional economy billions of dollars annually, equivalent to over 30,000 jobs, according to the non-profitRegional Planning Association.

Trump, a former New York real estate mogul who has called himself the "builder president" but hasfailed to passan infrastructure investment bill, put the project to a halt in the fall during the federal government shutdown. On the first day of the shutdown, on Oct. 1, federal officials withheld grants to the Gateway project and the Second Avenue Subway construction, in Manhattan, citing New York City'sDisadvantaged Business Enterprise program, an equity initiative meant to expand participation in federally assisted contracts.

"I'm cutting the project," Trump toldFox News.

"The project is going to be dead," he said. "It is pretty much dead right now."

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Trump had also reportedly wantedNew York's Penn Station and Virginia's Dulles International Airport renamed after him in order to drop his freeze on billions of federal dollars on the Gateway project.Trump later saidhis staff floated the idea, not him.

In early February, the project stopped, affecting about 1,000 workers, due to lack of funding.

On Feb. 3, New York and New Jersey attorneys general sued the administration to release funding. U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas then issued a temporary restraining order in Manhattan federal court, and later required funds be released with updates on payment of all present and future disbursements.

The federal government owed about $230 million, according to James' office. On Feb. 13, officials released $30 million, followed by an additional $77 million released Feb. 17, James' office said. The Gateway Development Commission, the joint corporation between New Jersey and New York overseeing the project, received the remaining funds, about $127 million, via wire the morning of Feb. 18.

Tom Prendergast, CEO of the commission, said in a Feb. 18 statement that contractors would be notified in the afternoon that work will resume next week. The project now has more than $205 million available to fund work, he said.

A day earlier, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat,stood alongside union leaders and workersat a project worksite in New York City. She said Trump's halt put thousands of jobs at risk.

"Today's progress is significant, but we need certainty that Gateway funding will remain in place for the duration of the project," Hochul said in a Feb. 18 statement. "The federal government has a legal obligation to fully fund Gateway, and New York will accept nothing less."

The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, which represents workers on the project, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Northeast Corridor serves about 800,000 passenger trips daily, the commission said. The section of the project, between New Jersey and Manhattan, is the busiest portion of the corridor.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email atemcuevas1@usatoday.comor on Signal at emcuevas.01.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Gateway project to resume after Trump DOT ordered to release funds

Theavalanche that killed at least eight peopleon Feb. 17 in California marked the deadliest natural disaster of its kind in the United States in nearly a half century.

A group of 15 skiers were caught in the avalanche in the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Six members of the group survived and were rescued. One skier was still missing as of Feb. 18 and is presumed dead, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said.

It was the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in almost 45 years, according to theColorado Avalanche Information Center(CIAC), which tracks avalanches across the nation. Eleven people were killed in an avalanche on June 21, 1981, while attempting to climb Mount Rainier in Washington state.

More recently,six climbers died in an avalancheon Mount Rainier on May 28, 2014. On April 20, 2013,five snowboarders were killedin an avalanche near Colorado's Loveland Pass.

Advertisement

In the U.S., avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives annually over the last 10 years, according to the CAIC.

What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?

The deadliest recorded avalanche in U.S. history occurred March 1, 1910, in Wellington, Washington, when a wall of snow swept two trains into a gorge near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range, killing 96 people,according to the Seattle Times.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?

When President Donald Trump convenes the inauguralmeeting of his Board of Peaceon Thursday, he is expected to run it like one of his Cabinet meetings, a US official told CNN.

Instead of his Cabinet officials, however, he will be joined by representatives from countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Hungary and even Belarus, which is a member of the board despite being under US and European sanctions for supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. However, several key allies are still staying away from membership.

In addition to Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner; US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz; US special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sits on the executive committee for the Board; and High RepresentativeNickolay Mladenov, who serves as the key link between the board and the Palestinian technocratic committee, are all expected to speak, along with other attendees, according to a senior US official.

Two sources familiar with the matter said the countries attending the meeting as members were told they will have two minutes each to speak, but another source said Wednesday that allotment was now expected to be 90 seconds. According to the US official, Trump may ask specific countries for updates or opinions. There are expected to be updates on issues of security, humanitarian efforts and the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to run Gaza, the senior US official said.

Trump has previewed big announcements for the meeting, including billions of dollars to support the reconstruction of Gaza and personnel for the stabilization force there.

But there are lingering questions about the broad mission of the Board of Peace, its effectiveness and the broader future of Gaza.

There is some concern in the international community that Trump has established the body as a counterweight to the United Nations, of which he has been a sharp critic.

In remarks on Monday, Trump confirmed that he thinks the Board is "going to go far beyond Gaza," but said "we're working in conjunction with the United Nations."

Trump, who could serve indefinitely as chair of the board, has been eager to tout his credentials as a peacemaker and has argued he was snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize last year. The meeting is happening at the US Institute of Peace, which Trump has recently renamed for himself.

The meeting – and the board itself – are a clear example of Trump pursuing a foreign policy goal without collective buy-in from America's closest allies: Most of the US' traditional European allies have rejected membership. As such, they will not attend or will only send representatives as observers for Thursday's meeting.

Many Middle Eastern countries will be present after having decided to join the Board, but it is unclear which, if any, of those countries will make the steep fiscal commitment of $1 billion to become permanent members. And many are sending their foreign ministers, rather than their heads of state, in part because the conference coincides with the start of Ramadan.

According to a senior Trump administration official, the following countries are expected to send representatives to the meeting either as observers or to represent a member state: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Iran looms over meeting

The inaugural meeting comes as the US military buildup in the Middle East is growing, and the specter ofpotential US military action against Iranis expected to loom large over the meeting. Trump has threatened that the US could strike Iran if a nuclear deal is not agreed to in the coming weeks.

"You can't disassociate Iran from the Middle East or the Middle East from Iran," one diplomat said.

Countries in attendance are expecting to discuss the Iran situation on the sidelines, with plans to reiterate that miliary action against Iran should be avoided.

"It's not anybody's preference to see a military action taking place in a region where we have at least 30% of the world's oil concentrated, and around a place that is a basic passage of traffic for international trade," the diplomat noted.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 20 countries are expected to attend. The senior US official said the number includes countries participating as observers.

However, according to sources and public statements, many of the nations are not sending leaders to the meeting. Instead, they will be represented by foreign ministers or lower-level officials.

Israel, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Hungary and Belarus have all signed on as members of the board and are among the nations expected to have representation at the meeting.

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At least five countries that have not joined the Board of Peace as members, including Italy and Romania, are expected to send representatives as observers. The European Union will be represented by Dubravka Šuica, the commissioner for the Mediterranean, to the meeting, a spokesperson said.

Many European countries have said they will not become members of the board, amid concerns about its broader mission, and its members. Russia and China were both invited to join but have not done so.

Chance for progress on Gaza's future

On the whole, Thursday's conversation is viewed by participants as "exploratory," said one diplomat from a member nation. And while most countries attending the meeting know very little about what to expect from the meeting, some say that it represents the best chance to drive progress in Gaza.

There is an acknowledgement among some diplomats that Trump is best positioned to pressure the parties, particularly the Israeli government.

"Trump now has a big role and wants this to happen and he can control Bibi if he wants," another source said, referencing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Indonesia is expected to highlight its announcement in recent days that it is readying about 1,000 troops – and possibly thousands more – to possibly be part of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza, according to two sources familiar with the matter. However, a final decision, to be made by the Indonesian president, has not yet been made.

A pledge of troops to the ISF would be a victory for the Trump administration, which has been working to secure troop commitments for months, even before the Board of Peace was officially launched.

However, as of now, there have been no public final commitments from governments to send troops to serve as part of the ISF. And the timeline for the deployment of the troops and whether or how they will be involved in demilitarization of Hamas – one of the biggest hurdles – remains unclear.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said the Board "will announce that Member States have pledged more than $5 BILLION DOLLARS toward the Gaza Humanitarian and Reconstruction efforts and have committed thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force and Local Police to maintain Security and Peace for Gazans."

Trump did not provide further details about the planned announcements. No country has publicly announced funding for the reconstruction effort.

On the issue of reconstruction, one source noted there are concerns about funding reconstruction only for Israel to bomb Gaza again, which has continually happened. US officials have offered private assurances that this won't happen, the source said, and there is a belief among some that Trump will keep the Netanyahu government from doing so.

The source noted that many countries who will not commit troops to the ISF will be willing to give large amounts of money to support reconstruction.

The ISF, backed by the UN mandate, is a key component of the Trump administration's peace plan. It is meant to deploy to Gaza in order to support a Palestinian police force and allow Israel to begin withdrawing from the territory it still occupies.

An Israeli official says the US is planning for 20,000 soldiers to be part of the ISF.

One of the thorniest parts of the Trump administration's peace plan – the demilitarization of Hamas – has not yet been resolved.

One of the sources noted that there may be parallel tracks of deploying troops and beginning reconstruction while working on the issue of demilitarizing Hamas. Regional allies do not want Israel to use the lack of progress on phase two as an excuse, the source said, and there is an understanding by US officials and regional allies that demilitarization will be a long-term process.

The senior US official said they are under no illusions on the challenges regarding demilitarization but have been encouraged by what the mediators have reported back.

CNN's Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional details.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

NEW YORK − Construction on thenation's largest infrastructure projectcan resume after a court orderedthe Trump administrationto release funding it had withheld to gain leverage over congressional Democrats from New York.

On Feb. 18,New York Attorney General Letitia Jamesannounced the U.S. Department of Transportation released nearly $130 million in funding for the$16 billion Gateway tunnel projectin an ongoing lawsuit. The rail tunnel project, under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York, is meant to bolster tunnels along the Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail line in the United States.

The funding resuming is a blow toPresident Donald Trump, who had vowed to terminate the project in a budget fight with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.

"This funding freeze was unlawful from the start," James, who hasherself been targeted for legal retribution by Trump, said in a statement. "We took swift action in court, and now every dollar that was illegally withheld has been released."

The Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney's Office, representing federal officials in court, declined to comment. Neither the White House nor the U.S. Department of Transportation immediately responded to requests for comment.

Construction had already started at several sites before federal officials abruptly pulled funding. Around $2 billion had already been spent on the project, New York officials said.

The project would create nine miles of new passenger rail tracks with a two-tube tunnel, and it would fix the existing 116-year-old tunnels, currently used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains, that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Just one tunnel failing could cost the nation's largest regional economy billions of dollars annually, equivalent to over 30,000 jobs, according to the non-profitRegional Planning Association.

Trump, a former New York real estate mogul who has called himself the "builder president" but hasfailed to passan infrastructure investment bill, put the project to a halt in the fall during the federal government shutdown. On the first day of the shutdown, on Oct. 1, federal officials withheld grants to the Gateway project and the Second Avenue Subway construction, in Manhattan, citing New York City'sDisadvantaged Business Enterprise program, an equity initiative meant to expand participation in federally assisted contracts.

"I'm cutting the project," Trump toldFox News.

"The project is going to be dead," he said. "It is pretty much dead right now."

Advertisement

Trump had also reportedly wantedNew York's Penn Station and Virginia's Dulles International Airport renamed after him in order to drop his freeze on billions of federal dollars on the Gateway project.Trump later saidhis staff floated the idea, not him.

In early February, the project stopped, affecting about 1,000 workers, due to lack of funding.

On Feb. 3, New York and New Jersey attorneys general sued the administration to release funding. U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas then issued a temporary restraining order in Manhattan federal court, and later required funds be released with updates on payment of all present and future disbursements.

The federal government owed about $230 million, according to James' office. On Feb. 13, officials released $30 million, followed by an additional $77 million released Feb. 17, James' office said. The Gateway Development Commission, the joint corporation between New Jersey and New York overseeing the project, received the remaining funds, about $127 million, via wire the morning of Feb. 18.

Tom Prendergast, CEO of the commission, said in a Feb. 18 statement that contractors would be notified in the afternoon that work will resume next week. The project now has more than $205 million available to fund work, he said.

A day earlier, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat,stood alongside union leaders and workersat a project worksite in New York City. She said Trump's halt put thousands of jobs at risk.

"Today's progress is significant, but we need certainty that Gateway funding will remain in place for the duration of the project," Hochul said in a Feb. 18 statement. "The federal government has a legal obligation to fully fund Gateway, and New York will accept nothing less."

The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, which represents workers on the project, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Northeast Corridor serves about 800,000 passenger trips daily, the commission said. The section of the project, between New Jersey and Manhattan, is the busiest portion of the corridor.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email atemcuevas1@usatoday.comor on Signal at emcuevas.01.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Gateway project to resume after Trump DOT ordered to release funds

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of days when theweather gets hot, dry and windy — ideal to sparkextreme wildfires— has nearly tripled in the past 45 years across the globe, with the trend increasing even higher in the Americas, a new study shows.

Climate Wildfire Weather

And more than half of that increase is caused byhuman-caused climate change, researchers calculated.

What this means is that as the world warms, more places across the globe are prone to go up in flames at the same time because of increasingly synchronous fire weather, which is when multiple places have the right conditions to go up in smoke. Countries may not have enough resources to put out all the fires popping up and help won't be as likely to come from neighbors busy with their own flames, according to the authors of a study in Wednesday's Science Advances.

In 1979 and for the next 15 years, the world averaged 22 synchronous fire weather days a year for flames that stayed within large global regions, the study found. In 2023 and 2024, it was up to more than 60 days a year.

"These sorts of changes that we have seen increase the likelihood in a lot of areas that there will be fires that are going to be very challenging to suppress," said study co-author John Abatzoglou, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced.

The researchers didn't look at actual fires, but the weather conditions: warm, with strong winds anddry air and ground.

"It increases the likelihood of widespread fire outbreaks, but the weather is one dimension," said study lead author Cong Yin, a fire researcher at University of California, Merced. The other big ingredients to fires are oxygen, fuel such as trees and brush, and ignition such as lightning or arson or human accidents.

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This study is important because extreme fire weather is the primary — but not only — factor in increasing fire impacts across the globe, said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in Canada, who wasn't part of the study. And it's also important because regions that used to have fire seasons at different times and could share resources are now overlapping, he said.

Abatzoglou said: "And that's where things begin to break."

More than 60% of the global increase in synchronous fire weather days can be attributed to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Yin said. He and his colleagues know this because they used computer simulations to compare what's happened in the last 45 years to a fictional world without the increased greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

The continental United States, from 1979 to 1988, averaged 7.7 synchronous fire weather days a year. But in the last 10 years that average was up to 38 days a year, according to Yin.

But that is nothing compared to the southern half of South America. That region averaged 5.5 synchronous fire weather days a year from 1979 to 1988; over the last decade, that's risen to 70.6 days a year, including 118 days in 2023.

Of 14 global regions, only Southeast Asia saw a decrease in synchronous fire weather, probably because it is getting more humid there, Yin said.

The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.