Astronauts say space station’s ultrasound machine was critical during medical crisis

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts evacuated last week from the International Space Station say a portable ultrasound machine came in “super handy” during the medical crisis.

During their first public appearance since returning to Earth, the four astronauts refused Wednesday to say which one of them needed medical attention and for what reason. It was NASA’s first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight.

NASA’s Mike Fincke said the crew used the onboard ultrasound machine once the medical problem arose Jan. 7, the day before a planned spacewalk that was abruptly canceled. The astronauts had already used the device a lot for routine checks of their body changes while living in weightlessness, “so when we had this emergency, the ultrasound machine came in super handy.”

It was so useful that Fincke said there should be one on all future spaceflights. “It really helped,” he said.

“Of course, we didn’t have other big machines that we have here on planet Earth,” he added. “We do try to make sure that everybody before we fly are really, really not prone to surprises. But sometimes things happen and surprises happen, and the team was ready … preparation was super important.”

The space station is set up as well as it can be for medical emergencies, said NASA’s Zena Cardman, who commanded the crew’s early return flight with SpaceX. She said NASA “made all the right decisions” in canceling the spacewalk, which would have been her first, and prioritizing the crew’s well-being.

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui said he was surprised how well all the preflight training paid off in dealing with the health concerns.

“We can handle any kind of difficult situation,” Yui said. “This is actually very, very good experience for the future of human spaceflight.”

Joining them on what turned out to be a 5 1/2-month mission — more than a month shorter than planned — was Russia’s Oleg Platonov. They launched last August from Florida and splashed down in the Pacific off the San Diego coast last week.

Welcoming them back to Houston were their replacements, who aren’t due to launch until mid-February. NASA and SpaceX are working to move up the flight.

“We were hoping to give them hugs in space, but we gave them hugs on Earth,” Fincke said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats had planned to campaign in the midterm elections on affordability and health care, two issues where Americans are particularly unhappy with President Donald Trump.

But the aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, including the killing of Renee Good during a confrontation with federal agents, has scrambled the party’s playbook.

Now Democrats are trying to translate visceral outrage into political strategy, even though there’s little consensus on how to press forward on issues where the party has recently struggled to earn voters’ trust.

Some Democrats want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a proposal that echoes “defund the police” rhetoric from Trump’s first term, and impeach administration officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Others have taken a different approach, introducing legislation intended to curb alleged abuses by federal agents. But those ideas have been criticized by activists as insufficient, and there is mounting pressure to obstruct funding for deportations.

“We’re Democrats. I’m sure we’re going to have 50 different ideas and 50 different ways to say it,” said Chuck Rocha, a party strategist who is advising several House and Senate candidates on immigration this year.

If Democrats fail to strike the right balance, they could imperil their efforts to retake control of Congress and statehouses around the country. They could also hamper a chance to rebuild credibility with voters whose dissatisfaction with border enforcement under Democratic President Joe Biden helped return Trump, a Republican, to the White House.

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and Biden’s former domestic policy adviser, believes the party can thread the needle.

“It’s not too much to ask that we have a government that can produce a secure border, that can deport people who are not legally here, and that can also respect people’s civil and human rights,” she told The Associated Press. “This country has done that before, and it can do it again.”

Immigration crackdowns have spread from city to city since Trump took office, but the latest operation in Minnesota has generated some of the most intense controversy.

Good, 37, was fatally shot by a federal agent earlier this month, prompting protests and angry responses from local Democratic leaders. Administration officials accused Good of trying to hit an agent with her car, an explanation that has been widely disputed based on videos circulating online.

“I think the party is very unified in our disdain and concern of the actions certainly of DHS and ICE,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “We should campaign on fairness and due process for all people,” Garcia added, “which is being violated every single day by ICE and DHS. We should be aggressive in that posture.”

But pushing back on the administration requires Democrats to step onto difficult political terrain.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults trusted Republicans more to handle immigration, according to a Washington Post/Ipsos poll from September, higher than about 3 in 10 who said the same about Democrats.

On the issue of crime, Republicans also held the advantage. About 44% thought Republicans were better, compared with 22% for the Democrats.

Republicans feel confident that their intertwined messages on crime and immigration will resonate with voters in the midterms. They frequently highlight violent criminals detained or deported, downplaying examples of nonviolent migrants who have been swept up.

“If Democrats want to make 2026 a referendum on which party stands for strong immigration policies and protecting public safety, we will take that fight any day of the week,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar.

Some Democrats are more interested in using the issue as a way to pivot back to core messages about health care and the cost of living.

“I want everybody to understand, the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for ICE to be doing this,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said last week. “The cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this.”

Democratic strategists have circulated the clip as an example of a potentially effective pitch, particularly after Trump slashed funding for some safety net programs during his first year in office.

The president’s approval may be slipping on the issue of immigration.

His approval rating on the issue has fallen since the start of his term, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling, from 49% in March to 38% in January.

Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Hispanic civil rights group in the U.S., said crackdowns have hurt Trump politically.

“Republican members of Congress are really uncomfortable with these agencies and their existing tactics, because they know it’s going to hurt them back at home come election cycle,” he said.

Proaño said he had been disappointed with how Democrats had accommodated the Trump administration on immigration in the last year, but he praised changes in the party’s strategy since Good’s death was captured on video.

“I think everyone just gasped at that, and I think there has been a marked shift since then,” he said.

Some people who have vocally supported Trump in the past, like podcast host Joe Rogan, have expressed reservations.

“Are we really going to be the Gestapo?” he asked recently.

But Trump has not shown any sign of backing down. The administration has ramped up the number of federal agents deployed to Minnesota and the Justice Department issued subpoenas to the state’s Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded enforcement operations.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who used to lead the party in his home state of Minnesota, said “there’s a lot of pain and anguish.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s chilling to think that this is the United States of America, what is supposed to be a beacon for democracy and freedom.”