AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT

Zelenskyy: Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has begun

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine’s east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war.

“The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a “significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive.”

The Donbas is Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia.

In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive.

“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” Zelenskyy vowed. “We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.”

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Live Updates | Russians fight in streets of Ukrainian town

KVIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. That’s one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles.

Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nation’s Olympic team trains was targeted.

Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after “leveling everything to the ground,” so his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. “It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy,” he said.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

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Florida judge voids US mask mandate for planes, other travel

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings.

The judge’s decision freed airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements, resulting in a mix of responses.

The major airlines switched to a mask optional policy, with some eliciting cheers from passengers when the changes were announced over loudspeakers. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement, and airports in Houston and Dallas almost immediately did away with their mandates after the TSA announcement.

Los Angeles International Airport, the world’s fifth-largest by passenger volume, also dropped its mandate but the Centers for Disease Control continued to recommend masking on transportation “and I think that’s good advice,” LAX spokesman Heath Montgomery said.

Sleepy passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean.

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Second arrest made in South Carolina mall shooting

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of a second man in connection with Saturday’s shootout inside a busy shopping mall in South Carolina’s capital, one of two mass shootings that rocked the state over the Easter holiday weekend.

Marquise Love Robinson, 20, was taken into custody overnight and authorities are also seeking a third suspect, Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith, Columbia Police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook said during a news conference. Both men face charges of attempted murder and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery.

Nine people were shot and another six injured in the rush to exit Columbiana Centre in Columbia, authorities said, with no fatalities reported. Holbrook said one person remained in the intensive care unit Monday.

Police said they did not believe the shooting was a random attack and that the three identified suspects knew each other. Holbrook said the men brought guns into the mall, with police seizing two handguns believed to be used in the shootout.

“Emotions took over, you had firearms that were introduced into the dispute, gunfire was exchanged and innocent people got injured in the crossfire,” Holbrook said.

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Migrant crossings spike as US plans to lift curb on asylum

WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at the highest level in two decades as the U.S. prepares for even larger numbers with the expected lifting of a pandemic-era order that turned away asylum seekers.

Immigration authorities stopped migrants 221,303 times along the Southwest border in March, a 33% increase from a month earlier, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Monday.

The new figures were disclosed as the Biden administration comes under increasing pressure over the looming expiration of a public health order that enabled U.S. authorities to turn back most migrants, including people seeking asylum from persecution.

The number of migrant encounters has gone up nearly every month since President Joe Biden took office, becoming fodder for political opponents who point to the increase as evidence that this administration is weaker on border security than its predecessor.

A backlog of people waiting outside the country to seek asylum, as well as dire economic and political conditions in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, is partially responsible for the increase in migrants. Administration critics blame Biden, arguing his administration’s moves to roll back Trump-era policies has encouraged people to come.

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Patrick Lyoya shooting raises issue of officer name release

Patrick Lyoya’s father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man.

But the police chief in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he will only do so if the officer is charged in the April 4 shooting that followed a brief foot chase and a struggle over the officer’s Taser.

Eric Winstrom’s department is among those across the U.S. that have faced scrutiny for withholding identities of officers in cases where Black people were wounded or killed during interactions with police. Some have said it’s to protect the officers from retribution. Others, like Grand Rapids, point to policies that prohibit the release of an officer’s name before charges are filed.

“I’m asking for the law to release his face, his image and his identification because I would love to know the person who has killed my son. I have the right,” Peter Lyoya said through a translator during an emotional news conference after video of the shooting of his son was released last week.

Andrew Shannon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Peninsula Chapter and vice president for the SCLC Virginia State Unit, said police departments should treat officers who are under investigation like they would anyone else.

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Parents charged in Michigan school shooting seek lower bond

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The parents of a Michigan teen who is accused of a fatal school shooting are asking a judge to lower their bond and help release them from jail.

James and Jennifer Crumbley have been locked up since Dec. 4, unable to come up with $500,000 each to leave custody and await trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.

In a court filing, lawyers said the Crumbleys are not a risk to the public and would wear electronic monitoring devices. Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews will hear arguments Tuesday on a request to lower bond to $100,000 each.

Ethan Crumbley, who turns 16 next week, is charged with murder and other crimes. Four students were killed and more were injured during a shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30.

The parents are accused of failing to keep a gun secure at home and failing to reasonably care for their son when he showed signs of mental distress. They have pleaded not guilty.

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Judge rules Amazon must reinstate fired warehouse worker

A judge has ruled Amazon must reinstate a former warehouse employee who was fired in the early days of the pandemic, saying the company “unlawfully” terminated the worker who led a protest calling for Amazon to do more to protect employees against COVID-19.

The dispute involving Gerald Bryson, who worked at an Amazon warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, has stretched on since June 2020, when Bryson filed an unfair labor practice complaint with The National Labor Relations Board, claiming Amazon retaliated against him.

Later that year, the NLRB said it found merit in Bryson’s complaint that Amazon illegally fired him for workplace organizing. Amazon didn’t accept the findings, and the federal board filed a formal complaint against the company, triggering a lengthy administrative court process.

On Monday, administrative law judge Benjamin Green said Amazon must offer Bryson his job back, as well as lost wages and benefits resulting from his “discriminatory discharge.”

Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment sent.

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Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel as tensions soar

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank.

Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year’s Eve.

Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, targeting a “weapons manufacturing site” for Hamas, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries.

Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli “violations” in Jerusalem.

Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago “can’t silence us from what’s happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.”

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EXPLAINER: What does Infowars’ bankruptcy filing mean?

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Alex Jones’ company Infowars has filed for bankruptcy protection after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation lawsuits over his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas and told his listeners Monday he was “totally maxed out” financially. He urged his audience to contribute money or buy products off his Infowars website.

Attorneys for Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets as juries later this year are set to determine how much he should pay in damages.

Here’s what to know:

WHAT DOES ALEX JONES CLAIM?

The Associated Press