President Donald Trump’s executive order to halt foreign aid threatens to freeze a U.S. program supporting security forces inside a notorious camp in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families, Syrian and U.S. officials said.

The order has also wreaked havoc on another U.S. organization in Syria that was forced to briefly stop operations inside the camp, known as al-Hol, where the large concentration of Islamic State members is seen as a security threat.

Concerns over an Islamic State comeback have been rising, with Syria in a state of flux as its new leaders try to solidify control over a nation still fragmented after rebels ousted its authoritarian leader, Bashar Assad.

The Trump administration has argued that the funding freeze, set to last for 90 days, was needed to ensure U.S. funds were not being wasted. But its impact highlights the risk posed to operations seen as critical to preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State group, a jihadi organization that once controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq and launched deadly attacks in Europe and the United States before it was decimated by a U.S.-led international coalition.

U.S. troops still maintain a presence in northeastern Syria, supporting a local U.S. ally, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in the coalition’s fight against the Islamic State group. The SDF not only controls northeastern Syria, but a constellation of prisons and refugee camps in the territory holding Islamic State fighters and their families, who are mostly from Syria and Iraq but also dozens of other countries.

Drone strike kills six in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine >> A Russian drone blasted a hole in an apartment building in northeastern Ukraine during a nighttime attack, killing at least six people and wounding nine others, officials said Thursday.

The Shahed drone blew out a wall and surrounding windows in the building in Sumy, a major city, just after 1 a.m., the Sumy regional administration said. Four people were rescued from the rubble, and a child was among the wounded, it said, adding that 120 people were evacuated.

The dead were three older married couples, Sumy Regional Prosecutors’ Office said. The regional administration announced two days of mourning in the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime.”

The full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, which began nearly three years ago and shows no signs of ending, has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.

Civilians have also endured hardship caused by Russian attacks on the power grid that have denied them heating and running water. Many have been evacuated from areas along the roughly 600-mile front line where Ukrainian defenses are straining to hold the bigger Russian army at bay.

Russian forces have started using Shahed drones with an increased payload of 200 pounds of explosives and metal shrapnel to “increase the number of casualties,” the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, said on Telegram.

Ugandan nurse dies of Ebola

KAMPALA, Uganda >> A nurse in Uganda has died of Ebola in the first recorded fatality since the country’s last outbreak of the disease ended in early 2023, a health official said Thursday.

The 32-year-old male nurse was an employee of Mulago Hospital, the main referral facility in the capital, Kampala, Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of the health ministry, told reporters Thursday.

After developing a fever, he was treated at several locations in Uganda before multiple lab tests confirmed he had been suffering from Ebola. The man died Wednesday and the Sudan strain of Ebola was confirmed following postmortem tests, Atwine said.

At least 44 contacts of the victim have been identified, including 30 health workers and patients at Mulago Hospital, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Health.

The health authorities are “in full control of the situation,” Atwine said, while also urging Ugandans to report any suspected cases.

Tracing contacts is key to stemming the spread of Ebola, and there are no approved vaccines for the Sudan strain of Ebola.

Uganda’s last outbreak, discovered in September 2022, killed at least 55 people before it was declared over in January 2023.

Trump considers halting N.Y. congestion pricing

The Trump administration is considering a move to halt New York City’s congestion pricing program, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The Department of Transportation is discussing whether to withdraw a key federal authorization that the tolling plan received from the Biden administration last year. Such a move would almost certainly touch off a legal battle between the state and federal governments and could effectively kill congestion pricing in its infancy.

No final decision has been made, but President Donald Trump had vowed to halt congestion pricing once he entered office, saying it was harmful to the city’s economy. The program’s opponents have urged Trump to reexamine it, with Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey calling it “a disaster for working- and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents” in a letter to Trump last week.

The tolling program started Jan. 5 after surviving a number of lawsuits seeking to block it and a last-minute suspension by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York in June.

There is little precedent for the reversal of a transportation project of this magnitude, transit experts said. New York’s congestion pricing plan, an idea that first took shape in the state more than six decades ago, is the first such program in the country. Legal experts said the federal government’s maneuver could flout the law and would undoubtedly face resistance in the courts.

Tour boat captain gets prison after deaths

The captain of an unauthorized tour boat that capsized in the Hudson River, killing a woman and a 7-year-old child, was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison, prosecutors said.

Richard Cruz, 33, pleaded guilty in October to a misconduct and neglect charge specific to boating. Court papers show he admitted that he overloaded his boat — called Stimulus Money — and didn’t have the Coast Guard credentials needed to take paying customers aboard.

The boat flipped over and plunged all 13 people aboard into the water near Manhattan’s West Side on July 12, 2022, prosecutors said. The woman, 48, and the boy died after being trapped underneath the vessel.

Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said in a statement that the case shows commercial boat captains “that there will be consequences when they fail to follow the federal regulations and safety protocols that exist to keep passengers safe.”

Judge extends migrant children’s monitoring

A federal judge extended a court agreement on Thursday ensuring safe and sanitary conditions for migrant children in federal custody a day after U.S. Customs and Border Protection was set to begin self-monitoring.

The agreement originally ended Wednesday, but District Judge Dolly M. Gee in California decided to extend it by 18 months.

“CBP is not yet capable of wholly fulfilling its responsibilities under the 2022 Settlement and the FSA (Flores Settlement Agreement) without the additional support provided by the JCM (Juvenile Care Monitor) and the Court,” the judge wrote in her order.

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A court-appointed monitor will continue to visit and report on conditions for children in custody at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, Texas.

Deportation flights head to Guatemala

A U.S. Air Force jet with migrants bound at their wrists and ankles departed Texas for Guatemala on Thursday, carrying 80 deportees in another deportation flight that reflects a growing role for the armed forces in helping enforce immigration laws.

The flight from Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, was scheduled to take about seven hours, nearly twice as long as a direct route, because the military plane could not fly over Mexico, said U.S. Border Patrol spokesperson Orlando Marrero. Eight children were aboard.

“The message that we have for those people is that if you cross the border illegally, we are going to deport you to your country of origin in a matter of hours,” Marrero said.

The Trump administration has used military aircraft to deport people to Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia, a departure from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s previous practice to employ charter and commercial planes.

On Sunday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro refused two U.S. military planes with migrants, prompting Trump to announce 25% tariffs on Colombian exports. Colombia backed off and said it would accept the migrants but fly them on Colombian military flights that Petro said would guarantee them dignity.

Some hospitals pause gender-affirming care

Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and the nation’s capital said Thursday they have paused gender-affirming care for young people as they evaluate President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting federal support for such care.

Denver Health in Colorado has stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries for people under age 19, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, in order to comply with the executive order and continue receiving federal funding. It is unclear whether the hospital will continue providing other gender-affirming care for youth, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond said they have suspended gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures for those under 19 years old.

In Washington, D.C., Children’s National Hospital said the hospital had “paused prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to comply with the directives while we assess the situation further.”

Trump’s order, signed Tuesday, is part of a push to reverse Biden administration policies meant to protect transgender people and their care.

— From news services