WASHINGTON (AP) — Air traffic controllers missed their paychecks Tuesday because of the ongoing government shutdown, and that has Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the head of the controllers’ union concerned that flight delays could multiply as increasingly stressed-out controllers call out sick.

Recent absences have led to a number of isolated delays around the country because the Federal Aviation Administration was already extremely short on controllers prior to the shutdown. The FAA restricts the number of flights landing and taking off at an airport anytime there is a shortage of controllers to ensure safety.

There’s no way to predict when or where delays might happen because even a small number of absences can disrupt operations at times. Sometimes the delays are only 30 minutes, but some airports have reported delays more than two hours long — and some have even had to stop all flights temporarily.

So far, most of the delays have been isolated and temporary. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that normally about 20% of all flights are delayed more than 15 minutes for a variety of reasons.

The data Cirium tracks shows there has not been a dramatic increase in the total number of delays overall since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. Nearly 80% of the flights at a sample of 14 major airports nationwide have still been on time this month.

Though a two-hour-long staffing-related ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport made national news on Sunday, a major thunderstorm in Dallas that day had a bigger impact on flights when only about 44% of flights were on time. Cirium said 72% of the flights out of LAX were still on time Sunday.

But Duffy and the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Nick Daniels have continued to emphasize the pressure that controllers are feeling. They say the problems are likely to only get worse the longer the shutdown continues.

“Air traffic controllers have to have 100% of focus 100% of the time,” Daniels said Tuesday at a news conference alongside Duffy at LaGuardia Airport in New York. “And I’m watching air traffic controllers going to work. I’m getting the stories. They’re worried about paying for medicine for their daughter. I got a message from a controller that said, ‘I’m running out of money. And if she doesn’t get the medicine she needs, she dies. That’s the end.’”

Controllers gathered outside 20 airports nationwide Tuesday to hand out leaflets urging an end to the shutdown as soon as possible. Worrying about how to pay their bills is driving some to take second jobs to make ends meet.

The number of controllers calling in sick has increased during the shutdown both because of their frustration with the situation and because controllers need the time off to work second jobs instead of continuing to work six days a week like many of them routinely do. Duffy has said that controllers could be fired if they abuse their sick time, but the vast majority of them have continued to show up for work every day.

Air traffic controller Joe Segretto, who works at a regional radar facility that directs planes in and out of airports in the New York area, said morale is suffering as controllers worry more about money.

“The pressure is real,” Segretto said. “We have people trying to keep these airplanes safe. We have trainees — that are trying to learn a new job that is very fast-paced, very stressful, very complex — now having to worry about how they’re going to pay bills.”

Duffy said the shutdown is also making it harder for the government to reduce the longstanding shortage of about 3,000 controllers. He said that some students have dropped out of the air traffic controller academy in Oklahoma City, and younger controllers who are still training to do the job might abandon the career because they can’t afford to go without pay.

“This shutdown is making it harder for me to accomplish those goals,” Duffy said.

The longer the shutdown continues, pressure will continue to build on Congress to reach an agreement to reopen the government. During the 35-day shutdown in President Donald Trump’s first term the disruptions to flights across the country contributed to the end of that disruption. But so far, Democrats and Republicans have shown little sign of reaching a deal to fund the government.

NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA, in reaction to the arrests of Miami guard Terry Rozier and Portland coach Chauncey Billups last week for their alleged role in gambling schemes, has started a review of how the league can protect not just the integrity of the game but its players and coaches as well.

The league made those revelations in a memo sent to all 30 teams, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

“Given the spread of legal betting to the majority of U.S. states, the recurrence of integrity issues across sports, and the emergence of novel betting formats and markets, this is an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans,” read the memo, sent by the NBA’s legal department.

Meanwhile, the quest for answers has reached lawmakers in Washington with the Senate on Monday following a request from a House committee last week in asking the NBA for information.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on that panel, want information “about how the NBA investigated and handled these allegations as well as what steps the Association is taking to maintain the public’s trust.”

Their specific questions revolve around why the league’s probe of Rozier and the events surrounding a March 23, 2023 game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets.

“This Committee needs to understand the specifics of the NBA’s investigation and why Rozier was cleared to continue playing basketball,” Cruz and Cantwell wrote. “This is a matter of Congressional concern. The integrity of NBA games must be trustworthy and free from the influence of organized crime or gambling-related activity. Sports betting scandals like this one may lead the American public to assume that all sports are corrupt.”

They asked Commissioner Adam Silver to provide answers by Nov. 10.

Two indictments were unsealed last week and nearly three dozen people — most notably, Billups and Rozier — were arrested by federal officials.

Rozier was arrested because federal officials allege he conspired with associates to help them win bets based on his statistical performance in that March 2023 game. The charges are similar to what former Toronto player Jontay Porter faced before he was banned from the league by Silver in 2024.

Sportsbooks detected unusual patterns of wagers on the Charlotte game in question — prop bets involving Rozier were flagged and immediately brought to the NBA’s attention — and the league probed the matter but did not find enough evidence to conclude that Rozier broke any rules.

“While the unusual betting on Terry Rozier’s ‘unders’ in the March 2023 game was detected in real time because the bets were placed legally, we believe there is more that can be done from a legal/regulatory perspective to protect the integrity of the NBA and our affiliated leagues,” the league told its teams. “In particular, proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.”

Monday’s moves comes on the heels of several developments last week, including the NFL reminding players of its gambling policy, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred saying that baseball is moving “as fast as we can” on a probe of two players in that sport, and a Congressional committee asking Silver for a briefing by the end of this week to discuss topics including how “gaps, if any, in existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur.” Silver has said many times he would prefer federal regulation on sports betting instead of the current state-by-state approach.

It was not clear Monday if Silver would appear before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which requested the briefing in a letter signed by six members of Congress.

Among the things the league said Monday it will take a look at: injury reports. The league publishes an injury report every hour, and teams are required to disclose statuses of players within certain windows of time before their next game. The NBA added the injury report several years ago in the interest of transparency.

The injury statuses can be used by bettors to decide which wagers to make — and if gamblers get that information before the rest of the public, it’s tantamount to insider trading. Former NBA player Damon Jones now faces charges because officials said he tipped off bettors about the health status of two Los Angeles Lakers players. The details in that indictment clearly show that Jones was discussing the availability of LeBron James and former Lakers center Anthony Davis with bettors before their statuses for certain games was known publicly. There is no indication that James or Davis had any knowledge of what Jones was alleged to be doing.

There were other examples of such tipping with other clubs, federal officials said.

“With sports betting now occupying such a significant part of the current sports landscape, every effort must be made to ensure that players, coaches, and other NBA personnel are fully aware of the dire risks that gambling can impose upon their careers and livelihoods; that our injury disclosure rules are appropriate; and that players are protected from harassment from bettors,” the memo said.

The league also said it is seeking input from teams, if they have any ideas on how to best proceed going forward.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A trade deal between the United States and China is drawing closer, officials from the world’s two largest economies said Sunday as they reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting.

Any agreement would be a relief to international markets even if it does not address underlying issues involving manufacturing imbalances and access to state-of-the-art computer chips.

Beijing recently limited exports of rare earth elements that are needed for advanced technologies, and Trump responded by threatening additional tariffs on Chinese products. The prospect of a widening conflict risked weakening economic growth worldwide.

China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters the two sides had reached a “preliminary consensus,” while Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said there was “a very successful framework.”

Trump also expressed confidence that an agreement was at hand, saying the Chinese “want to make a deal and we want to make a deal.” The Republican president is set to meet with Xi on Thursday in South Korea, the final stop of his trip through Asia.

Bessent told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the threat of additional higher tariffs on China was “effectively off the table.” In interviews on several American news shows, he said discussions with China yielded initial agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the U.S., and that Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earths.

When asked how close a deal was, Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said on “Fox News Sunday” that “it’s really going to depend” on the two presidents.

Meanwhile, Trump reiterated that he plans to visit China in the future and suggested that Xi could come to Washington or Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida.

The progress toward a potential agreement came during the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in Kuala Lumpur, with Trump seeking to burnish his reputation as an international dealmaker.

Yet his way of pursuing deals has meant serious disruptions at home and abroad. His import taxes have scrambled relationships with trading partners while a U.S. government shutdown has him feuding with Democrats.

Trump attends ceasefire ceremony between Thailand and Cambodia

At the summit, Thailand and Cambodia signed an expanded ceasefire agreement during a ceremony attended by Trump. His threats of economic pressure prodded the two nations to halt skirmishes along their disputed border earlier this year.

Thailand will release Cambodian prisoners and Cambodia will begin withdrawing heavy artillery as part of the first phase of the deal. Regional observers will monitor the situation to ensure fighting doesn’t restart.

“We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” Trump said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet called it a “historic day,” and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace.”

The president signed economic frameworks with Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, some of them aimed at increasing trade involving critical minerals. The United States wants to rely less on China, which has used limits on exports of key components in technology manufacturing as a bargaining chip in trade talks.

“It’s very important that we cooperate as willing partners with each other to ensure that we can have smooth supply chains, secure supply chains, for the quality of life, for our people and security,” Greer said.

Trump reengages with a key region of the world

Trump attended this summit only once during his first term, and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed unfamiliar with ASEAN during his confirmation hearing in January.

This year’s event was a chance for Trump to reengage with nations that have a combined $3.8 trillion economy and 680 million people.

“The United States is with you 100%, and we intend to be a strong partner and friend for many generations to come,” Trump said. He described his counterparts as “spectacular leaders” and said that “everything you touch turns to gold.”

Trump’s tariff threats were credited with helping spur negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia. Some of the worst modern fighting between the two countries took place over five days in July, killing dozens and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The president threatened, at the time, to withhold trade agreements unless the fighting stopped. A shaky truce has persisted since then.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim praised the agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, saying at the summit that “it reminds us that reconciliation is not concession, but an act of courage.”

Tariffs are in focus on Trump’s trip

Trump in Kuala Lumpur met Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was also attending the summit. There has been friction between them over Brazil’s prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, the country’s former president and a close Trump ally. Bolsonaro was convicted last month of attempting to overturn election results in his country.

During their meeting, Trump said he could reduce tariffs on Brazil that he enacted in a push for leniency for Bolsonaro.

“I think we should be able to make some good deals for both countries,” he said.

While Trump was warming to Lula, he avoided Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The president is angry with Canada because of a television advertisement protesting his trade policies, and on his way to the summit announced on social media he would raise tariffs on Canada because of it.

One leader absent from the summit was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although he was close with Trump during Trump’s first term, the relationship has been more tense lately. Trump caused irritation by boasting that he settled a recent conflict between India and Pakistan, and he has increased tariffs on India for its purchase of Russian oil.