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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said it killed three people Monday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of theTrump administration's monthslong campaignagainst alleged traffickers.

Monday's attack brought the death toll to at least 151 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in early September.

As with most of the military's statements on the more than 40 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs but posted a video on X that showed a small boat with outboard engines being destroyed.

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"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command stated in a post on X. "Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action."

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and hasjustified the attacksas a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing "narcoterrorists."

Criticshave questioned the overall legalityof the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S.over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

The boat strikes alsodrew intense criticismfollowing the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers andlegal experts saidthe killings were murder, if not a war crime.

NEW YORK (AP) —A massive snowstormpummeled the northeastern United States from Maryland to Maine on Monday, forcing millions of people to stay home amid strong wind andblizzard warnings, transportationshutdowns, and school and business closures.

Meteorologists saidthe stormis the strongest in a decade, dumping more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in parts of the metropolitan Northeast, shattering accumulation records in places, immobilizing transit and even leading the United Nations to postpone a Security Council meeting. Officials declared emergencies, schools closed, including in New York City, which had its first "old-school" snow day in six years, andpeople grappled with power failures.

Even as the snow moved northward and tapered off in other areas, the National Weather Service said it is tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.

The weather service referred to Monday's storm as a "classic bomb cyclone/nor'easter off the Northeast coast." Abomb cyclonehappens when a storm's pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.

While it was paralyzing and potentially dangerous for millions along the Eastern Seaboard, meteorologists found themselves rhapsodizing over the combination of power and beauty.

The storm hit the "Goldilocks situation" of just the right temperature for wet, heavy snow: Any warmer and its precipitation wouldn't have fallen as snow, any colder and there wouldn't have been as much moisture in the air to feed that snowfall, said Owen Shieh, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

People begin digging out even as snowfall continues

In Lower Manhattan, snow shovelers appeared to outnumber commuting office workers, and pedestrians walked freely in streets normally blocked by morning traffic.

"It's very quiet, except for the howling winds," said Luis Valez, a concierge at a residential tower just off Wall Street, as he cleared the sidewalk. "A couple of residents have gone out to get their essentials. Other than that, there's nothing."

Matthew Wojtkowiak, 57, an attorney, was also shoveling in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

"I'm from the Midwest, so this is in the zone," he said. "Not too bad, not too easy, either."

Schools were closed, and he said he hoped people would get out and enjoy the snow.

"We have sleds at the ready," he said.

Karen Smith and Adele Bawden are tourists visiting New York from the United Kingdom.

"We've been dancing in Times Square this morning in the middle of the road in rush hour," Bawden said. "We've just been dancing and not believing we could do it."

Ingrid Devita said she liked to patrol the Lower East Side on skis, checking on people who might need help.

"I find people fall in the snow and they can't get up," she said.

Central Park in New York City recorded 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow. Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeded 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. The highest wind gust of 83 mph (133 kph) was recorded in Nantucket, with hurricane-force gusts seen all over Cape Cod.

In Connecticut, crews at the Mystic Seaport Museum prepared to clear snow from a fleet of historic ships, including the 113-foot-long Charles W. Morgan, a wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet.

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Shannon McKenzie, vice president of watercraft operations and preservation, said shipyard staff will clear the snow by hand using rubber or plastic shovels because machinery or metal shovels could damage the boats.

Storm fuels power outages and disrupts flights

New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.

More than 5,600 flights in and out of the United States were canceled Monday, and a further 2,000 flights scheduled for Tuesday were grounded, according to the flight tracking websiteFlightAware. Most of the cancelations involved airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston. Almost 2,500 flights were delayed.

Rhode Island's T.F. Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily ending all airport operations. The Weather Service reported that the facility got nearly 38 inches (96.5 centimeters) of snow, breaking a record set in 1978.

Public transit ground to a halt in some areas, while DoorDash suspended deliveries in New York City overnight into Monday.

Meteorologists said strong winds and heavy, wet snow are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages.

More than 450,000 utility customers nationwide remained in darkness Monday evening, according toPowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

Snow slows commuter transport and forces snow days

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday evening that subway lines are mostly operational after earlier delays, with the exception of the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, where rail service remained suspended. Delays would likely continue on lines that run outdoors.

Commuter rail service to suburbs to the north and east of the city were expected to resume limited service ahead of the Tuesday morning commute, the MTA said. Bus commuters should also expect long wait times.

Outreach workers meanwhile tried to coax homeless New Yorkers into shelters and warming centers.

Various landmarks and cultural institutions were closed Monday, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Broadway shows were canceled Sunday evening.

New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia switched to online learning. Districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs said they would cancel school for a second day on Tuesday.

But New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said class would be back in person.

Officials in one of the city's Republican strongholds criticized the Democratic mayor's move. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said schools should remain closed because roads are impassable and sidewalks are blocked. The teacher's union, the United Federation of Teachers, advised its members to be cautious and put their safety first when deciding whether to report to work.

Spokespersons for Mamdani didn't respond to an email seeking comment but his schools chief defended the decision on social media.

Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the district "couldn't be 100% certain" that every student would have access to the devices they needed for remote learning, despite school officials' "best efforts" to distribute them ahead of the storm.

"We are confident in our decision to reopen," hewrote on X. "Our schools and city are ready to welcome students and staff back tomorrow."

Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York, and Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Kennedy and Mike Sisak in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Philip Marcelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed.

Hours after the U.S. military dropped more than a dozen heavy bunker-busting bombs and Tomahawk missiles on three ofIran's major nuclear facilitiesin June, President Donald Trump declared the operation a "spectacular military success."

"Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said in an address to the nation.

The Pentagon backed up Trump's assessment.

Trump considering initial limited strike against Iran, source says

"It's delayed by one to two years. I think we're thinking probably closer to two years," chief spokesperson Sean Parnell told reporters in July.

Now, eight months later, the president is once again weighing military strikes against Iran with the administration providing shifting explanations on the goals. In recent weeks, Trump has said he wanted to stop Tehran's recentdeadly crackdown on protestors-- which he said ended at his behest -- as well to curb Iran's ballistic missile arsenal and its nuclear program.

Last week, Trump gave Iran 15 days to cut a deal that would prohibit Iran from enriching uranium. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi refused, saying the country has the right to a nuclear program, which he says is for peaceful purposes.

This weekend, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested the urgency has to do with Iran being dangerously close to obtaining enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb.

"They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that's really dangerous. So, [we] can't have that," Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Saturday.

But analysts and international inspectors say Iran's access to highly enriched uranium has been a concern for several months already, along with satellite imagery suggesting that Iran is trying to rebuild. An exact picture of Iran's nuclear program is unclear because Iran blocked international inspectors from accessing the sites after the June bombing.

2nd US carrier group heads toward Middle East amid Iran tensions

When asked why the president is focusing on cutting an urgent deal on a nuclear program he says he obliterated months ago, a White House official said "the President has been clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or the capacity to build them, and that they cannot enrich uranium."

Last summer, an early classified assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded the three nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. weren't completely destroyed, leaving much of the materials buried but intact.

Likewise, Rafael Grossi, head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a February interview with the French television network TFI that he believes much Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium likely remains at the sites bombed by the U.S.

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According to a translation, Grossi said "some of it [the enriched uranium] may be less accessible, but the material is still there."

The IAEA estimates that some 972 pounds of highly enriched uranium remained unaccounted for following the U.S. bombing.

Analysts say a more critical question about Iran is whether the regime has made a decision on how quickly to move toward trying to build a bomb.

In arecent analysis,the Institute for Science and International Security estimated the current probability that the Iranian regime would decide to build a nuclear weapon at 40 to 50 percent.

If Iran decides to move ahead, the group says, its success in building a weapon would probably be even lower -- less than 15% in a short period of time, and 42% over a longer timeframe.

"The war saw the destruction of its gas centrifuge program and much of its nuclear weaponization facilities," according to the group's analysis.

"Nonetheless, important remnants and knowledge remain that could form the core of small gas centrifuge enrichment and nuclear weaponization capabilities," the report added.

How bunker-busters and B-2 stealth bombers struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear program

ABC News confirmed last week that among the options Trump is considering is a limited strike against Iran to force its hand negotiating. If that doesn't work, Trump could pursue a possible sustained military operation intended to topple the regime -- a campaign that could last weeks and pose risks to the 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops stationed in the region, experts say.

Trump pushed back Monday against media reports that his top military adviser, Gen. Dan Caine, privately cautioned that a lack of munitions and support from allies could pose risks to U.S. troops.

"General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won," Trump posted on his social media platform.

According to a U.S. official, Tehran was expected to offer a new nuclear proposal by Tuesday ahead of another round of negotiations in Geneva led by Witkoff on Thursday. The meeting would be the second round of indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran, with Omanis and Qataris passing notes between the delegations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Iran during a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warning the Iranian ayatollah if Iran strikes Israel, "we will respond with a force they cannot even imagine," according to remarks of his speech google translated from Hebrew to English.

"No one knows what the day will bring. We are vigilant, we are prepared for any scenario," Netanyahu said.

ABC News' Shannon Kingston and Jordana Miller contributed to this report.

SYDNEY (AP) — An alumni group representing former Australian women'ssoccerplayers says Football Australia is trying to silence former Matildas players by instituting a membership program that limits criticism of the sport's governing body.

With theWomen's Asian Cuphosted by Australia set to start this weekend, Football Australia is facing questions over the introduction of a platform called "Matildas FC" which provides former players with complimentary tickets.

The former players had previously received free tickets for internationals with no need to sign up to any platform.

Matildas Alumni, which represents former national team players, has raised concerns with the rules they must agree to in order to become members of Matildas FC and access complimentary tickets.

"The imposed code of conduct attached to the platform functions as a silencing mechanism, restricting Alumni from expressing views that may be critical of FA," a Matildas Alumni spokesperson said in a statement.

"Alumni are left cornered: refuse to join and lose access to benefits, or join and surrender freedom of expression. Either path diminishes agency and dignity."

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Matildas FC's code of conduct says members must "refrain from making public comments and/or statements that bring or may bring Football Australia" into disrepute.

The code of conduct adds that failure to comply "may result in forfeiture of benefits or revocation of membership."

In a statement to Australian Associated Press, Football Australia said its code of conduct "sets out basic expectations" for members.

"The code of conduct operates in the same way as the terms and conditions of any membership program," a Football Australia spokesperson said. "It sets out the basic expectations that accompany the benefits of Matildas FC and Socceroos FC membership."

Australia led by captainSam Kerrmeets the Philippines in Perth, Western Australia, on Sunday in the opening match of the 12-team Women's Asian Cup.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Charles Bediako isn't giving up on his quest to play for No. 17 Alabama again this season.

Bediako asked the Alabama Supreme Court to give him "interim injunctive relief" so that he can play the rest of the season with the Crimson Tide,weeks after a judge ruled he was ineligibleto continue playing with the program.

Bediako had already filed an appeal to that ruling with the state's top court. Monday's request asks that the court allow him to continue to play with the team, as the regular season is almost over and his request would "become moot without interim relief." Bediako has been helping the Crimson Tide as a scout team member ever since he was deemed ineligible.

"We understand that Charles is pursuing an appeal in his case against the NCAA, and ultimately, he must do what he considers to be in his best interest," Alabama said in a statement,via ESPN. "The University continues to support Charles as he works toward completing his degree."

The Crimson Tide hold a 20-7 record and sit second in the SEC standings entering Wednesday's game against Mississippi State. They have four games left in the regular season, which will end with a rivalry matchup against Auburn on March 7.

Charles Bediako's saga continues

Bediako filed a lawsuit against the NCAA earlier this year in order to return to Alabama, where he had last played during the 2022-23 campaign. Bediako entered the NBA Draft after that season, but was not selected. He then spent the last few seasons in the G League, playing in six games for the Motor City Cruise this season.

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Bediako wasgranted a temporary restraining orderin January, which allowed him to play with Alabama again after the NCAA had initially denied the request. Bediako ended up appearing in five games with the Crimson Tide, and averaged 10 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per contest over that span. Alabama went 3-2 with him.

[Get more Crimson Tide news: Alabama team feed]

But then earlier this month,aTuscaloosa judge overruled the temporary restraining orderthat Bediako was granted. The judge who had originally granted that order to allow him to play was removed from the case after revelations that he was an active donor to Alabama athletics. The new ruling then made Bediako ineligible once more, and Alabama has been playing without him since.

The NCAA praised the decision, and said that "common sense won a round." SEC commissionerGreg Sankey argued against granting Bediako eligibilityin an affidavit, saying that it could fuel "disruption in college sports."

Bediako is one of several former professional players trying to make their way into the college ranks again.Baylor signed former NBA Draft pick James Nnajiin December, though he never played in an NBA game and instead was with FC Barcelona since 2020. Two other G League players are set to play for programs next season.

"There's a reason ... there's a lot of G League players trying to come back to college," Alabama head coach Nate Oatssaid after Bediako was ruled ineligible again. "The money's a lot better. The development is a lot better. You get a full-time dietician, full-time strength coach, you're not traveling on commercial flights, spending all your time in airports, not being able to develop.

"Charles actually has lost weight since he went to the G League. His development wasn't what you would think being a pro. You're more of a professional able to focus on getting your body right in college. He's here. He's in school. We're going to help him try to gain weight back he's lost since he was in the G League. We're going to continue to help his basketball development. We're going to continue to help his development as a student, as a student-athlete."