The Trump administration has again acknowledged in court documents that it terminated $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wight and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars. Democrats and environmental groups seized on the latest court filing, saying the administration had “weaponized” the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families.

Authorities have recovered the bodies of 13 workers trapped inside a collapsed hydropower tunnel in India. The government of the Himalayan state of Sikkim says rescue operations concluded Thursday after coordinated efforts by multiple agencies. The death toll rose to 25 in the four days after a gas explosion ripped through the tunnel on Monday at the 500-megawatt Teesta Hydroelectric Project in Sikkim. The project is about 40 kilometers south of the state capital Gangtok. Construction accidents are not uncommon in India, where rapid infrastructure growth often collides with fragile geology, construction lapses, extreme weather and safety standards.