SEOUL >> South Korea added several North Korean groups and individuals to its sanctions list Sunday in a largely symbolic move that is part of efforts to cut off funding for the North’s weapons programs.

The government said those added were 20 North Korean groups, including several banks and companies, and 12 individuals.

Seoul is among the first to respond to North Korea’s Nov. 29 missile launch with fresh sanctions. While the move is largely symbolic because all transactions between two Koreas have been banned for years, the government said it hopes its move will prompt the international community to do likewise.

The measure will “remind the international community of the risks of doing transactions with the groups and individuals,” Baek Tae-hyun, South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman, said during a media briefing.

The blacklist includes Rason International Commercial Bank and Korea Zinc Industrial Group. Individuals are North Korean officials who work for the country’s banks or companies based in China, Russia, Vietnam and Namibia.

President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador has been urging the world to cut trade and diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

Last month, North Korea has test-fired its most powerful missile ever, an ICBM that may be able to target the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Separately, South Korea, the United States and Japan started two-day missile tracking drills in response to North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats.

PARIS >> Baby milk maker Lactalis and French authorities have ordered a global recall of millions of products over fears of salmonella bacteria contamination.

The French company, one of the world’s largest dairy groups, said it was warned by health authorities in France that 26 infants have become sick since Dec. 1.

According to a list published on the French health ministry’s website, the recall affects customers in countries around the world, including: Britain and Greece in Europe, Morocco and Sudan in Africa, Peru and Colombia in South America and Pakistan, Bangladesh and China in Asia. The United States, a major market for Lactalis, is not affected.

Company spokesman Michel Nalet told The Associated Press today that the “precautionary” recall involves “several million” products made since mid-February.

Lactalis said in a statement that the 26 cases of infection were linked to products branded Picot SL, Pepti Junior 1, Milumel Bio 1 and Picot Riz.

It said it is “sincerely sorry for the concern generated by the situation and expresses its compassion and support to the families whose children fell ill.”

The symptoms of salmonella infection include abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever. Most people recover without treatment.

The company said a possible source of the outbreak has been identified in a tower used to dry out the milk at a production site. Disinfection and cleaning measures have been put in place at the suspected site in western France.

The health scare started earlier this month when Lactalis was told that 20 infants under six months of age had been diagnosed with salmonella infection. The company ordered a first recall that has been extended to more products at the request of French authorities following new reports of infections.

Lactalis is a privately held company headquartered in Laval, western France. It has 75,000 employees in 85 countries and annual revenues of about 17 billion euros ($20 billion). Its other notable brands include President and Galbani cheeses and Parmalat milk.

LOS ANGELES >> Firefighters kept a wall of flames from descending mountains into coastal neighborhoods after a huge and destructive Southern California wildfire exploded in size, becoming the fifth largest in state history.

Thousands remained under evacuation orders today as the fire churned west through foothill areas of Carpinteria and Montecito, seaside Santa Barbara County towns about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. Much of the fire’s rapid new growth occurred on the eastern and northern fronts into unoccupied areas of Los Padres National Forest, where the state’s fourth largest fire burned a decade ago.

The blaze, which had already destroyed more than 750 buildings, burned six more in Carpinteria on Sunday, officials said. It’s just 10 percent contained after charring nearly 360 square miles (930 square kilometers) of dry brush and timber.

“We’re still anxious. I’m not frightened yet,” Carpinteria resident Roberta Lehtinen told KABC-TV. “I don’t think it’s going to come roaring down unless the winds kick up.”

Forecasters predicted that dry winds that fanned several fires across the region for a week would begin to lose their power today. But the possibility of “unpredictable” gusts would keep firefighters on edge for days, Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Mike Eliason said.

Santa Ana winds have long contributed to some of the region’s most disastrous wildfires. They blow from the inland toward the Pacific Ocean, speeding up as they squeeze through mountain passes and canyons.

Containment increased on other major blazes in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties. Resources from those fires were diverted to the Santa Barbara foothills to combat the stubborn and enormous fire that started Dec. 4.

Fires are not typical in Southern California this time of year but can break out when dry vegetation and too little rain combine with the Santa Ana winds. Though the state emerged this spring from a yearslong drought, hardly any measurable rain has fallen in the region over the past six months.

“This is the new normal,” Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown warned Saturday after surveying damage from the deadly Ventura fire. Brown and experts said climate change is making wildfires a year-round threat.

High fire risk is expected to last into January.

The air thick with acrid smoke, even residents of areas not under evacuation orders took the opportunity to leave, fearing another shutdown of U.S. 101, a key coastal highway that was closed intermittently last week. Officials handed out masks to residents who stayed behind in Montecito, the wealthy hillside enclave that’s home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges and Rob Lowe.

“Our house is under threat of being burned,” Ellen DeGeneres tweeted at midday Sunday. “We just had to evacuate our pets. I’m praying for everyone in our community and thankful to all the incredible firefighters.”

Ojai experienced hazardous levels of smoke at times, and officials warned of unhealthy air for large swaths of the region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District urged residents to stay indoors if possible and avoid vigorous outdoor activities.

Despite the size and number of wildfires burning in the region, there has only been one confirmed death: The death of a 70-year-old woman, who crashed her car on an evacuation route, is attributed to the fire in Santa Paula, a small city where the Thomas Fire began.

Most of last week’s fires were in places that burned in the past, including one in the ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air that burned six homes and another in the city’s rugged foothills above the community of Sylmar and in Santa Paula.

CHICAGO >> Children’s injuries and deaths from window blinds have not stalled despite decades of safety concerns, according to a new U.S. study that recommends a complete ban on blinds with cords.

Nearly 17,000 young children were hurt by window blinds between 1990 and 2015, and though most injuries were minor, almost 300 died, the study shows. Most deaths occurred when children became entangled or strangled by the cords.

Injuries continued even after manufacturers adopted voluntary safety standards including warning labels. The industry now has a plan in the works to make cordless blinds the only option at retail stores and online.

The study “should be a huge wake-up call to the public, to the retailers, to the manufacturers and to parents all over the nation to really see how hazardous the cords on the blinds are,” said Linda Kaiser of St Louis. Her 1-year-old daughter died in 2002 from strangulation when she pulled a looped hidden cord from a blind and put it around her neck. Kaiser later formed the advocacy group Parents for Window Blind Safety.

While study’s data analysis doesn’t show an up or down trend in injuries and deaths, the fact that they’re still occurring shows that safety standards have been inadequate, said lead author, Dr. Gary Smith, who directs injuries research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Paul Nathanson, spokesman for the Window Covering Manufacturers Association, said a soon-to-be adopted industry standard drafted with input from the Consumer Product Safety Commission will make corded blinds unavailable in stores and online, although consumers could buy them through custom orders.

The safety commission says windows and window blinds are among the top five hidden hazards in U.S. homes and in a statement, it called the draft standard “a major step forward in protecting children.”

That standard is awaiting approval by the American National Standards Institute and is expected to take effect by late 2018, Nathanson said.

Smith said 20 percent are custom blinds and a total ban on corded blinds is needed.

The study was published today in the journal Pediatrics.

His research team analyzed 26 years of U.S. government data on emergency room treatment and fatal injuries. The study notes that the dangers have been addressed in medical journal articles as far back as a 1945 report on two accidental hangings in children who survived.

“Seventy years ago we recognized that this was a product that was killing kids,” Smith said. “We should put child safety first.”

PITTSBURGH >> Ben Roethlisberger’s record-setting day finished with a carry just as valuable as any of the franchise-record 66 passes he threw.

As the Pittsburgh Steelers poured onto the Heinz Field turf to celebrate a frantic 39-38 victory over Baltimore that wrapped up their third AFC North title in four years, Roethlisberger grabbed the familiar No. 50 jersey of injured linebacker Ryan Shazier and joined in the party.

An emotionally draining week for the Steelers ended with Shazier recovering from spinal surgery in a nearby hospital but still very much in the middle of things. Just like always.

“We love our brother,” Roethlisberger said. “We wanted to get this one for him, and I’m glad we did.”

Barely.

The Steelers (11-2) blew an early 14-point lead and found themselves trailing by 11 going into the fourth before exploding for 19 points over the final 15 minutes, the last three coming on Chris Boswell’s 46-yard field goal with 42 seconds left.

“I think championship teams find ways to win,” Roethlisberger said.

Having an offense that is starting to peak after a sleepy start certainly helps. Roethlisberger threw for 506 yards and two scores to become the first player in NFL history to go over 500 yards passing three times in his career. Antonio Brown caught 11 passes for 213 yards to fuel an MVP candidacy that no longer feels so far-fetched, including gains of 57 and 34 yards in the fourth to spark Pittsburgh’s comeback and running back Le’Veon Bell finished with 125 total yards and three scores.

“It’s an amazing feeling, especially for Ryan Shazier,” Brown said. “One of our brothers couldn’t be out here today. Obviously, he is watching.”

Shazier suffered his injury in the first quarter of a victory over Cincinnati last Monday. He underwent surgery on Wednesday and Roethlisberger visited him on Thursday.

“When you walk in and see him and see the smile and give him a huge, it really has taken that weight off and let us breathe a little easier,” Roethlisberger said.

The Steelers have done their best to let Shazier know is very much a part of their run. Linebacker James Harrison borrowed a page from Shazier’s pregame routine and warmed up shirtless even with the temperature hovering around freezing. Shazier’s helmet and jersey spent the game on the bench and several Steelers wore cleats with a special design featuring Shazier’s face and the popular #Shalieve hashtag.

“It was very emotional,” linebacker Arthur Moats said. “Any time you can bring something to him that brings him some type of joy, some type of happiness, that’s good. At the end of the day we’re just trying to make sure he’s good.”

RAVENS ROCKED

Baltimore (7-6) meanwhile, saw its surge back to contention blunted after its defense spent the fourth quarter fruitlessly chasing Brown from one side of the field to the other.

“This is going to sting for a while,” Ravens safety Eric Weddle said. “Especially the guys on defense because we care so much and we hold ourselves to a high standard.”

The Ravens certainly didn’t meet it after giving up 545 yards to the Steelers. Pittsburgh scored on its last four possessions. It’s not like the Steelers were taking advantage of a short field. All eight of their scoring drives went at least 50 yards, including two of 80 or more.

“I think in the fourth quarter the defense dropped the ball tonight,” linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “That’s kind of been our thing all year, consistency.”

SUPER SHOWDOWN

The win sets up the AFC game of the year next Sunday when Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots visit. New England beat the Steelers twice last season, including a lopsided 36-17 blowout in the AFC title game.

“We’re going to give respect where respect is due now,” Pittsburgh center Maurkice Pouncey said. “But they’re not Superman. They lost this season, right?”

ALL-AROUND EFFORT

Brown, Bell and Roethlisberger hardly did it alone. Boswell has hit four game-winning field goals in the final minute in four of Pittsburgh’s past five games. Tight ends Jessie James and Vance McDonald combined for 14 receptions for 149 yards. Even fullback Roosevelt Nix got in on the act, scoring his first career touchdown on a 1-yard reception in which he basically pulled the ball off Baltimore safety Tony Jefferson’s chest as they tussled in the end zone.

“AB is gonna do what he do, I’m going to do what I do, Ben’s gonna do what he do,” Bell said. “But it’s the guys who don’t get the credit always that are the ones making the plays.”

UP NEXT

Baltimore: Needs to win out if it wants to reach the postseason. The good news? Their final three opponents are a combined 8-34, including the 0-13 Cleveland Browns, who the Ravens visit next Sunday.

Pittsburgh: The Steelers have beaten Brady at Heinz Field just once in his career, a victory in the 2011 regular season.

MIAMI >> A Florida newspaper reports that comedian Hannibal Buress was arrested on a disorderly intoxication charge after an encounter with a police officer.

The Miami Herald first reported that 34-year-old Buress was booked into Miami-Dade jail at 1:57 a.m. Sunday and posted bail just before 6 a.m.

A video circulated on social media showed Buress handcuffed against a Miami patrol car.

According to the paper, Buress asked officers why he was being arrested. One officer said, “trespassing,” but he wasn’t charged with that.

A police report obtained by the Herald said Buress asked an officer to call him an Uber, and when the officer refused, Buress became loud and belligerent.

Miami Police did not respond to calls and an email requesting to release the report on Sunday.

A call to his agent and an email to his attorney weren’t immediately returned Sunday.

PHILADELPHIA >> Carson Wentz threw a touchdown pass a few plays after suffering an injury that could ruin a special season for the Philadelphia Eagles, and then stuck around to greet teammates and celebrate a division-clinching victory with them.

It’s always team-first for No. 11.

Two sources familiar with the injury said that doctors believe Wentz tore his left anterior cruciate ligament in a 43-35 comeback win over the Rams on Sunday and will miss the rest of the season and playoffs.

Wentz, a favorite in the NFL MVP race, will have an MRI today to confirm the severity of the injury. Both people spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

After the game, Wentz’s left knee was wrapped in a brace. He was driven in a cart up the tunnel at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and then hobbled to one of the team buses.

LOS ANGELES >> As part of the crew digging a subway extension under the streets of Los Angeles, Ashley Leger always keeps her safety gear close by.

When her phone buzzes, she quickly dons a neon vest, hard hat and goggles before climbing deep down into a massive construction site beneath a boulevard east of downtown.

Earth-movers are diverted, and Leger gets on her hands and knees and gently brushes the dirt from a spot pointed out by a member of her team. Her heart beats faster because there’s a chance she’ll uncover what she calls “the big find.”

Leger is a paleontologist who digs for fossils in the middle of a city rather than an open plain or desert. She works for a company contracted by Los Angeles transportation officials to keep paleontologists on hand as workers extend a subway line to the city’s west side.

“They’re making sure that they’re recovering every single fossil that could possibly show up,” Leger said of her team of monitors. “They call me anytime things are large and we need to lead an excavation.”

Since work on the extension began in 2014, fossilized remains have routinely turned up from creatures that roamed the grasslands and forests that covered the region during the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.

They include a partial rabbit jaw, mastodon tooth, camel foreleg, bison vertebrae, and a tooth and ankle bone from a horse.

But the discovery that still makes Leger shake her head in disbelief came about a year ago, shortly after construction began on the project’s second phase. She was at home getting ready for bed when a call came in from one of her monitors.

“It looks big,” he told her.

The next morning, Leger knelt at the site and recognized what appeared to be a partial elephant skull.

It turned out to be much more. After 15 hours of painstaking excavation, the team uncovered an intact skull of a juvenile mammoth.

“It’s an absolute dream come true for me,” said Leger, who spent the previous decade at a South Dakota mammoth site with no discoveries even close to the size of the one in Los Angeles. “It’s the one fossil you always want to find in your career.”

California’s stringent environmental laws require scientists to be on hand at certain construction sites.

Paleontologists have staffed all L.A. subway digs beginning in the 1990s, when work started on the city’s inaugural line, said Dave Sotero, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Paying for the paleontologist staff from Cogstone Resource Management is factored into the project’s cost, he said. When scientists are brought in to see what crews might have unearthed, work on the project continues, albeit in a different location.

“Our crews try to be as mindful as possible to help them do their jobs. We get out of their way,” Sotero said, adding that when the mammoth skull was uncovered, construction workers helped deliver it to the mouth of the site.

From there, the skull was hauled a mile or so to Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, home to one of America’s most fossil-rich sites.

Assistant curator Dr. Emily Lindsey called it a “pretty remarkable find,” noting that while thousands of dire wolf and saber-toothed cat remains have been uncovered in L.A., there have been only about 30 mammoths.

A few hundred pounds and the size of an easy chair, the skull is especially rare because both tusks were attached. It’s being studied and is available for public viewing inside the museum’s glass-walled Fossil Lab.

With a nod to Hollywood, the 8- to 12-year-old Colombian mammoth was named Hayden, for the actress Hayden Panettiere, featured in the TV series “Nashville” and “Heroes.”

The Cogstone monitor at the construction site had been watching her on television before spotting the speck of bone that turned out to be the intact skull.

Similar endeavors have turned up subterranean treasures during digs in other cities.

Workers at a San Diego construction site found fossils including parts of a mammoth and a gray whale and multiple layers of ancient seashells.

Last year, crews working on a development near Boston’s seaport uncovered a 50-foot (15-meter) wooden boat possibly dating as far back as the late 18th century.

Lindsey praised California’s efforts to ensure science and urban development overlap, while bemoaning what bygone treasures may have been lost before the regulations went into place in the early 1970s.

“Most of the past is below the ground, so you’re only going to find it when you dig,” she said. “As the city grows, I’m sure we’ll find more exciting fossil material.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani submitted a $337 billion draft budget to parliament that earmarks about $100 billion for public service programs that would create jobs, address a banking crisis and introduce a new social security program.

Rouhani told lawmakers that the budget was based on oil prices forecast at $55 a barrel, according to an advance text of the speech, delivered on state TV. He said banks need to “withdraw from business dealings” and return to traditional lending services, and pledged more than $3 billion to shore up the sector, which has been beset by bad loans and unauthorized credit lenders.

The draft, which is to be debated, revised and approved by lawmakers, is for the new Iranian year starting March 21. It introduces significant increases to various fees and duties including car registration and the departure tax.

Rouhani said Iran would continue to abide by its nuclear deal with world powers and “will not be the first to violate” the accord, which President Donald Trump refused to certify in October, asking lawmakers to toughen it through legislation. The multiparty agreement, which came into effect early 2016, has helped to bring Iran “tens of billions of dollars” of credit lines from Asian and European banks to Iran, he said.

Rouhani said next year’s budget will address unemployment and seek to bring all poor families to a minimum standard of living through a new social security program.

NEW YORK >> Some women, and men, worry the same climate that’s emboldening women to speak up about sexual misconduct could backfire by making some men wary of female colleagues.

Forget private meetings and get-to-know-you dinners. Beware of banter. Think twice before a high-ranking man mentors a young female staffer.

“I have already heard the rumblings of a backlash: ‘This is why you shouldn’t hire women,’” Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a recent post.

“So much good is happening to fix workplaces right now. Let’s make sure it does not have the unintended consequence of holding women back,” said Sandberg, author of the working women’s manifesto “Lean In.”

Ana Quincoces, a Miami-based attorney and entrepreneur who owns her own food line, says her business and its success involves working mostly with men, and sales and other activities are often concluded over lunch or drinks. Those opportunities, she says, are dwindling, because many of the men she knows through her business “are terrified.”

“There’s a feeling of this wall that wasn’t there that is suddenly up because they don’t know what’s appropriate anymore — it’s disconcerting,” Quincoces said. “I feel that they’re more careful, more formal in their relationships with co-workers. And I can’t say I blame them, because what’s happened is pervasive. Every day there’s a new accusation.”

She said many of the men she knows are now avoiding one-on-one social occasions that were normal in the past.

“This is going to trickle down into all industries. … It’s going to become the new normal,” Quincoces said. “It’s a good thing because women are not afraid anymore, but on the other side, it’s a slippery slope.”

Americans were already edgy about male-female encounters at work: A New York Times/Morning Consult poll of 5,300 men and women last spring found almost two-thirds thought workers should be extra careful around opposite-sex colleagues, and around a quarter thought private work meetings between men and women were inappropriate.

But in a season of outcry over sexual misconduct, some men are suddenly wondering whether they can compliment a female colleague or ask about her weekend. Even a now-former female adviser to the head of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party suggested on Facebook that men would stop talking to women altogether because of what she portrayed as overblown sexual misconduct claims.

Certain managers are considering whether to make sure they’re never alone with a staffer, despite the complications of adding a third person in situations like performance reviews, says Philippe Weiss, who runs the Chicago-based consultancy Seyfarth Shaw at Work.

Philadelphia employment lawyer Jonathan Segal says some men are declaring they’ll just shut people out of their offices, rather than risk exchanges that could be misconstrued.

“The avoidance issue is my biggest concern, because the marginalization of women in the business world is at least as big a problem as harassment,” Segal says. A recent report involving 222 North American companies found the percentage of women drops from 47 percent at the entry level to 20 percent in the C suite.

Vice President Mike Pence has long said he doesn’t have one-on-one meals with any woman except his wife and wants her by his side anywhere alcohol is served, as part of the couple’s commitment to prioritizing their marriage. The guidelines have “been a blessing to us,” the Republican told Christian Broadcasting Network News in an interview this month.

Employment attorneys caution that it can be problematic to curb interactions with workers because of their gender, if the practice curtails their professional opportunities. W. Brad Johnson, a co-author of a book encouraging male mentors for women, says limiting contact sends a troubling message.

“If I were unwilling to have an individual conversation with you because of your gender, I’m communicating ‘you’re unreliable; you’re a risk,’” says Johnson, a U.S. Naval Academy psychology professor.

Jessica Proud, a communications professional and Republican political consultant in New York City, said it would be wrong if this national “day of reckoning” over sexual misconduct resulted in some men deciding not to hire, mentor or work with women. She recalled a campaign she worked on where she was told she couldn’t travel with the candidate because of how it might look.

“I’m a professional, he’s a professional. Why should my career experience be limited?” she said. “That’s just as insulting in a lot of ways.”

NEW YORK >> The New York Knicks are still trying to learn how to make winning plays down the stretch, no matter the opponent.

For starters, how to hold big leads in the fourth quarter. Or to make sure not to foul 3-point shooters. Or to limit easy opportunities at the free throw line.

They did none of this Sunday night and still escaped with a win over one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points, Doug McDermott added 23 off the bench and the Knicks withstood a late push from the Atlanta Hawks for a 111-107 victory.

New York coach Jeff Hornacek stopped short of feeling relieved, one night after a road loss to the NBA-worst Chicago Bulls. His team managed to hold off a fourth-quarter rally by the Hawks, who have the second-worst record in the league.

“It’s never easy to win in the NBA no matter what the other team’s record is,” Hornacek said. “We’re still trying to learn things. I thought the end of the game was a good learning lesson for us.”

The Knicks appeared to have the game put away after three straight points from Jarrett Jack and Porzingis gave them a 101-92 lead with 3:46 left.

The Hawks then scored five consecutive points, including three free throws from Marco Belinelli, who was fouled as he attempted to hoist a 3-pointer, to make it 103-100 with 1:40 remaining. Porzingis answered with a quick basket at the other end to extend the Knicks’ lead 105-100 before Ersan Ilyasova’s layup drew Atlanta within three with 1:18 to play.

But the Knicks allowed the Hawks to make it interesting.

Jack was able to hit only one of two free throws, making it 109-106 with seven seconds left. Isaiah Taylor brought up the ball up the court and lost control of it near halfcourt before Kent Bazemore recovered. Bazemore was fouled with three seconds to go. After making the first free throw, he purposely missed the second one, but Porzingis sealed it with two free throws of his own.

“We made that game a lot more interesting down the stretch than we should have,” Jack said. “You know, we should have been able to close that thing out with two minutes to go and kind of been able to walk out of there kind of comfortable, feeling good and ready to move on to the next one.”

Jack scored a season-high 19 points for a Knicks team that had lost six of eight, including a 116-104 defeat at Atlanta on Nov. 30.

Despite sitting out the last eight minutes of the game, Dennis Schroder scored 21 points to lead Atlanta. Ilyasova added 20 for the Hawks, who are 3-11 away from home. Taurean Prince had 17 points and eight rebounds.

“Tough loss on the road,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ve just got to keep competing for more of the 48 minutes and stay together . and find a way to win on the road in a tough environment.”

The Hawks led 75-71 after Miles Plumlee’s jumper with 1:28 left in the third quarter.

Porzingis answered with a pair of free throws that sparked an 11-0 run during a four-minute span. It ended with two free throws from Lance Thomas that increased New York’s lead to 82-75 with 10:33 remaining in the fourth.

Atlanta missed six shots and committed two turnovers during that stretch before Schroder’s layup with 9:53 left. The Hawks outscored the Knicks 7-2 to cut the margin to 84-82 with 9:04 to go.

TIP-INS

Hawks: Rookie power forward John Collins, who has been out due to a left shoulder strain sustained on Nov. 30, worked out before the game at Madison Square Garden. The 20-year-old first-round pick from Wake Forest was averaging 11.5 points and 7.1 rebounds and had started four straight games before going down with the injury.

Knicks: Porzingis had eight rebounds. … Ron Baker, who has fallen down the depth chart at point guard, logged a season-high 31 minutes, giving the Knicks a nice lift as they went with a small lineup down the stretch. The fan favorite scored nine points, including four free throws during 10 minutes of play in the final period.

30-30 CLUB

The Knicks improved to 7-2 when Porzingis scores 30 or more points.

ON SECOND THOUGHT

The Hawks are winless in the second game of a back-to-back, going 0-6 so far this season. Atlanta has eight more sets of back-to-back games on its schedule.

UP NEXT

Hawks: At the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.

Knicks: Host the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.

BOSTON >> The intensifying legal tussle over whether a struggling Massachusetts museum should be allowed to auction 40 works of art, including two by Norman Rockwell, has raised questions about when — if ever — it’s appropriate to unload the collection.

A look at the arguments for and against, and why the case against the Berkshire Museum has aroused such anger:

WHY IS THE MUSEUM SELLING THE ART?

In simple terms, the Pittsfield museum says it needs to sell the art for its very survival.

The museum, founded in 1903, says it has been running an operating deficit that in the past 10 years has averaged more than $1 million annually, and will close within eight years without an infusion of cash. If it closes, all the art will be lost, museum officials have argued.

The art sale “would allow us to protect our most important asset: our open doors,” Elizabeth McGraw, president of the museum’s board of trustees, wrote in an op-ed piece in The Berkshire Eagle.

The goal of the auction is to raise $50 to $60 million to boost the endowment by about $40 million and fund renovations. The museum is pivoting away from art and more toward natural history and science to fill a currently empty niche in a region known for its world-class museums and cultural institutions.

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIONS?

The decision to sell the art , announced publicly in July, was made after two years of meetings. It drew immediate condemnation from national museum groups as well as area residents who said selling the collection to pay the bills violates a cardinal rule of museums.

The sale of the two Rockwell pieces struck a nerve because the famed illustrator lived in nearby Stockbridge for the last 25 years of his life and gave the oil paintings to the museum as gifts. One of them, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” could fetch as much as $30 million at auction.

Opponents of the sale say the museum’s contentions about its dire financial condition are vastly overstated.

A Williams College economist who looked at the museum’s finances determined that all it needs is an infusion of about $11 million to its current $8 million endowment to operate in the black, according to Michael Keating, a lawyer for several parties — including Rockwell’s three sons — who went to court to block the sale.

The museum has consistently stood behind its financial assertions.

WHAT IS THE LEGAL BATTLE ABOUT?

The auction of the first seven of the 40 works, including the Rockwell pieces, was scheduled for Nov. 13.

But Rockwell’s sons and others went to court in October to halt the sale . The Rockwell pieces were gifts to the museum from Rockwell himself, made with the understanding that they would be kept as part of the museum’s permanent collection, Keating said. Many of the other pieces on the auction block came to the Berkshire Museum from the now defunct Berkshire Athenaeum and are subject to a state law that said they should not be taken out of Pittsfield.

Although the Superior Court judge denied that request to halt the sale, the attorney general’s office, which has jurisdiction over public charitable trusts including museums, asked for and received from the state Appeals Court an injunction to allow for the completion of an investigation into whether the sale is legal.

That injunction was supposed to expire Monday but the attorney general’s office has asked for an extension until Jan. 29. The judge did not immediately rule pending a response from the museum’s lawyers due Tuesday.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Museum officials and trustees repeatedly have said there are no legal barriers to the auction.

William Lee, a lawyer for the museum, has asked for an expedited trial due to the institution’s “precarious financial position.”

But the endgame for the legal wrangling could be months away. Ultimately, it could be decided by the Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court.

NEW YORK >> A seismic rumble. Lightning-flash strobes. A walloping kick-drum beat topped by a buzzing bass tone and hissing pink noise. Video screens pulsating in black, white and red. And at center stage of what looked like a Nine Inch Nails concert was Taylor Swift.

It was the New York City rollout for the new image — grown-up and nearly invulnerable — that goes with Swift’s latest pop blockbuster, “Reputation,” which sold more than 1 million copies in its first week of release in late November. She headlined Z100’s annual Jingle Ball, a marathon of pop hitmakers, at Madison Square Garden on Friday night (and a similar iHeartRadio show Dec. 1 in Los Angeles). At this time of year, even the biggest stars pay obeisance to the “contemporary hit radio” stations that are still a gateway to mass attention.

The lineup also included Sam Smith, the Chainsmokers, Halsey, Demi Lovato and many others, all greeted with happy screams from a young audience. It represented some, though by no means all, of what “hit radio” delivered in 2017: hardheaded women and eagerly importunate men in the eternal strivings of young love. But after a year in which a song in Spanish, “Despacito,” was ubiquitous and when hip-hop (and YouTube) generated ideas and attitudes, the concert was an oddly homogeneous look back at 2017.

Lately, Swift has geared herself to the hit radio format. Singing, rapping, striking poses and trying dance steps alongside her four backup singers and dancers, she looked back no further than her 2014 album, “1989.” Although she strummed an acoustic guitar and sang “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (originally a 2016 movie anthem) like the country singer she was on her early albums, for the rest of her mini-set Swift was a celebrity citizen of current pop, flaunting her “big reputation” over booming electronic tracks. Ed Sheeran joined her to add his rap on “Endgame,” a song that longs for lasting romance after high-profile flings.

Sheeran had opened the concert more than four hours earlier, alone with an acoustic guitar and using loops to construct complex tracks on the spot. He was the first of the night’s many nice guys, offering flattery and supportive, long-term devotion.

The night’s most affecting performance came from one of those nice guys: Sam Smith, who let the soul and gospel underpinnings of his new songs “Too Good at Goodbyes” and “Pray” infuse loneliness and longing with spiritual fervor.

On the more unctuous side, there were two former members of One Direction now trying different paths: Niall Horan, with ardent ballads leaning toward arena-country, and Liam Payne, whose seductive songs draw on R&B. A newish boy band, Why Don’t We, paced its choreographed come-ons to electronic dance music.

The piano-playing crooner Charlie Puth provided a few more plot twists; his songs refused the blandishments of an ex who only wanted “Attention” and tried desperately to apologize for straying in “How Long.” The rapper Logic, whose suicide-prevention song “1-800-273-8255” has a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year, was a different kind of nice guy; he delivered snippets of his songs amid an ongoing spiel promoting self-esteem.

But in the Jingle Ball universe, women are the ones allotted emotional complexity, self-assurance and retaliation. Lovato proclaimed herself “Confident” and “Sorry Not Sorry” about asserting herself. Camila Cabello flaunted her desirability in “OMG” and, in the concert’s only nod to Latin culture, hinted at salsa and homesickness in “Havana”; Cabello was born in Cuba. Julia Michaels, though she squandered too much of her brief set on excerpts from hits she has written for others, drew an arena-wide singalong on “Issues,” another Song of the Year nominee, which finds romantic potential in complementary neuroses.

Halsey smiled her way through a set of downtempo songs that juggled desire and ambivalence: “Bad at Love,” “Strangers” (a song about female lovers, sung with Lauren Jauregui from Fifth Harmony, that Halsey dedicated to “the LGBT community”) and the more hopeful “Him & I,” joined by the rapper G-Eazy. Halsey also provided some sorely needed stage charisma when she sang “Closer” with the Chainsmokers: a team of songwriters and producers who dedicate themselves fully to halfheartedness, using dance-music effects to animate songs that wrestle with self-doubt and low expectations.

In a night of well-groomed, often partly canned pop, the odd band out was Fall Out Boy, the long-running, punk-rooted band from the Chicago suburbs whose lyrics take literary twists. It had loud electric guitars and blasts of pyrotechnics, and it wasn’t going to acquiesce to current pop fashion. Its opening song, “Centuries,” insisted, “We’ll go down in history.”

A 26-year-old man and a 46-year-old man suffered minor injuries Sunday morning when a 52-year-old man allegedly assaulted them in their Kaneohe home during an argument, police said.

The suspect also allegedly threatened them with an unidentified dangerous weapon at 11:25 a.m. Sunday.

He was later arrested at 2:44 p.m. for investigation of first-degree terroristic threatening, two counts of third-degree assault, a criminal warrant and three traffic warrants, police said.

The victims declined treatment for their injuries, police said.

LOS ANGELES >> In advance of the highly anticipated “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opening Friday, the weekend’s box office remained virtually unchanged, with Disney’s “Coco” maintaining the top spot for the third weekend in a row.

Despite losing 239 locations, “Coco” raked in an estimated $18.3 million, a relatively small decline of 34 percent, for a cumulative gross of $135.5 million, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore.

Only three other films have maintained a box office hold for three consecutive weeks in 2017: “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” (which reigned over a sleepy August box office), “The Fate of the Furious” and “Split.”

Senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian credits a slow marketplace for “Coco’s” longstanding reign.

“For a movie like ‘Coco’ to remain No. 1 after three weeks shows that there hasn’t really been a big newcomer — until ‘The Last Jedi’ later this week,” he said. “There’s an incredible array of films that have really benefited from a fairly quiet marketplace over the past couple of weeks.”

Also unchanged, Warner Bros.’ “Justice League” came in second place again, earning $9.6 million, a 42 percent drop, for a cumulative gross of $212 million.

Now in its fourth week, the latest effort from DC Comics earned mixed reviews, with a B-plus rating on CinemaScore and a 40 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After coming in soft and failing to recoup the estimated $300 million it cost to make the film, Jon Berg, the Warner Bros. film executive in charge of production on the studio’s DC superhero films, is stepping down. The next live-action DC film on the Warner Bros. schedule is “Aquaman,” set for a December 2018 release.

Lionsgate’s “Wonder” maintained the No. 3 spot, surpassing $100 million and becoming the studio’s highest-grossing film since “La La Land.”

The film brought in an additional $8.5 million in its fourth week, only a 30 percent decline, for a cumulative average of $100.3 million. Produced by Lionsgate, Participant Media, Walden Media and Mandeville Films for $20 million, the film stars Jacob Tremblay (“Room”) and Julia Roberts.

It’s been a good week for A24 with two films that have been generating Oscar buzz ranking among the top 10: “Lady Bird” maintained its hold despite dropping two spots to No. 9 after six weeks in theaters, and comedy “The Disaster Artist” rose to No. 4 after expanding nationally into 840 theaters from just 19.

Piggybacking off the success of the studio’s best-picture win for “Moonlight” last year, A24 is one to watch in the upcoming awards season deliberations, starting with the announcement of Golden Globe nominees Monday morning. The studio’s critically acclaimed “The Florida Project” is also generating awards buzz.

Now in its second week, “The Disaster Artist,” which chronicles the making of Tommy Wiseau’s cult-classic “The Room,” earned $6.4 million, a 431 percent increase, for a cumulative $8 million in earnings.

The film’s success — paired with that of “Wonder,” “Lady Bird,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Shape of Water” and “Call Me By Your Name” — disproves the notion that Oscar contenders generally don’t perform well at the box office and marks a particularly auspicious year for indie films (while several big-budget blockbusters have disappointed).

“I think that this is a terrific crop of specialized films, many of which have enjoyed great success as they expand into more and more theaters,” said Dergarabedian. “It’s become a land of opportunity for these Oscar awards season films that might otherwise be overshadowed by a stream of big, wide releases. It’s an incredible time not only for the indie movies but also to be a moviegoer interested in these more introspective, character-driven, smaller budgeted films that are the bread and butter of the awards season.”

Directed by and starring James Franco, “The Disaster Artist” earned a 95 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Dave Franco and Seth Rogen also star.

Rounding out the top five was Disney’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” now in its sixth week, which made $6.3 million this past weekend, a 36 percent decline, for a cumulative $301 million in earnings. The film, which cost $180 million to make, also stars Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum and Tessa Thompson.

The only wide release to debut this week, Broad Green Pictures’ action comedy “Just Getting Started,” premiered at No. 10 and earned $3.2 million.

The film, which reviewer Kimber Myers said “lacks precision in every aspect but its on-the-nose dialogue” earned bad reviews across the board with a C-rating on CinemaScore and a 9 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Ron Shelton (“Bill Durham”), it stars Tommy Lee Jones, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo and George Wallace.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s Oscar-bait “The Shape of Water,” now in its second weekend, added 39 theaters and brought in $1.1 million, an impressive per-screen average of $26,829, for a cumulative total of $1.3 million.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning lady working in a high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. “The Shape of Water,” which earned a 95 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, took the most honors at the previous weekend’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.

Sony Classics’ “Call Me By Your Name,” also in its third weekend, earned $291,101 across nine locations for a strong per-screen average of $32,345 and a cumulative gross of $1.4 million. Starring Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet and directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film was voted best picture at the L.A. Film Critics Association Awards.

Neon and 30WEST opened the Margot Robbie-led “I, Tonya” in four theaters this past weekend with $245,602 (a killer per-theater average of $61,400). The true story of American figure skater Tonya Harding, the film chronicles one of the biggest scandals in sports history and earned a 90 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In its third weekend, Focus Features’ “Darkest Hour” expanded into 53 theaters and added $777,000 to its earnings for a per-screen average of $14,664 and a cumulative gross of $1.2 million. The film stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill as he attempts to unite Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany as Hitler’s army rampages across Europe in 1940. John Hurt, Ben Mendelsohn and Lily James also star.

Next week, Fox premieres animation “Ferdinand” and Disney debuts the highly anticipated “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Magnolia Pictures opens the comedy “Permanent” in limited release.

NEW YORK >> Guillermo del Toro’s Cold War-era fairytale “The Shape of Water” swam away with a leading seven nominations from the Golden Globes, while the HBO drama “Big Little Lies” led television nominees with six nods.

In what’s being viewed as a wide-open Oscar race so far, several films followed closely behind “The Shape of Water,” including Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers drama “The Post,” with six nominations, including best actress for Meryl Streep and best actor for Tom Hanks. Martin McDonagh’s revenge drama “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” also got a major boost in the nominations announced today in Beverly Hills, California, with six nods, including best actress for Frances McDormand and supporting actor for Sam Rockwell.

But as the most prominent platform yet in Hollywood’s awards season to confront the post-Harvey Weinstein landscape, the Globes also enthusiastically supported Ridley Scott’s J. Paul Getty drama “All the Money in the World.” Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey in the film, was nominated for best supporting actor. Scott was also nominated for best director and Michelle Williams for best actress.

A rough cut of the film was screened for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes. Scott is quickly reediting the movie to eradicate Spacey, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous men.

“It must have been a herculean effort, because Christopher Plummer is all the way through the movie,” said Meher Tatna, president of the press association. “He really pulled off the impossible.”

Notably left out were frequent Globes-nominees “House of Cards” and “Transparent,” two of the TV shows affected by the cascading fallout of sexual harassment allegations in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s ouster. As usual, the nominations were partly announced on NBC’s “Today” show, where Matt Lauer was recently fired following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Along with “The Shape of Water,” ”Three Billboards” and “The Post,” the nominees for best drama were the tender young romance “Call Me By Your Name” (which also landed nods for stars Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer) and Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic “Dunkirk.”

But setting itself apart from the pack was the monster fable “The Shape of Water,” which stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a captive amphibious creature. No film was more widely celebrated, with nods including del Toro’s directing and Alexandre Desplat’s sumptuous score.

“I believe in magic and this is a magical thing,” said Hawkins.

The best picture comedy or musical category was led by a handful of Oscar favorites — Greta Gerwig’s mother-daughter tale “Lady Bird,” Jordan Peele’s horror sensation “Get Out” — as well as a handful of others: James Franco’s making-of “The Room” comedy “The Disaster Artist,” the upcoming musical “The Greatest Showman” and the Tonya Harding comic-drama “I, Tonya.”

Despite considerable backlash, “Get Out” ended up on the comedy side of the Globes after being submitted that way by Universal Pictures. Peele himself slyly commented on the controversy, calling his social critique of latent racism “a documentary.” The Globes passed over Peele’s script, but newcomer Daniel Kaluuya was nominated for best actor in a comedy.

Though some predicted and feared an acting field lacking diversity, the nominees were fairly inclusive. Denzel Washington (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.”), Mary J. Blige (“Mudbound”), Hong Chau (“Downsizing”) and Octavia Spencer (“The Shape of Water”) were among the 30 film acting nominees.

But the best director category remained all-male, as it has for most of Globes and Academy Awards history. Many hoped for a different story in a year where a parade of sexual harassment scandals have laid bare Hollywood’s gender imbalances. But contenders like Gerwig, Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) and Dee Rees (“Mudbound”) were overlooked for a group of Spielberg, del Toro, Nolan, McDonagh and Scott.

The morning’s biggest surprise, aside from the success of “All the Money in the World,” might have been the complete omission of the romantic comedy “The Big Sick,” penned by real-life couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. Another Oscar underdog, “The Florida Project,” emerged with only one nomination, for Willem Dafoe’s supporting performance as the manager of a low-rent motel.

In the television categories, the Emmy-winning “Big Little Lies” earned a host of acting nods (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard, Laura Dern) as well as best limited series. (HBO recently announced a second season for “Big Little Lies,” which will change its category in other awards shows.)

FX’s Bette Davis and Joan Crawford chronicle “Feud: Bette and Joan” landed four nominations, including nods for Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon. Amazon’s just-debuted “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” scored two nods, including best comedy series. Also with multiple nominations were Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and NBC’s “This Is Us.” HBO’s “Game of Thrones” received a nod for best drama series, but nothing for its cast.

Gary Oldman, nominated for best actor for his Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour,” said the sexual misconduct scandals have cast an unusual pall over an awards season where Weinstein was for decades a dominant force.

“How should we celebrate? Well, I don’t think any of it’s funny, so I guess that people will stay away from it in the ceremony,” said Oldman by phone today. “It’s evolution, and it’s good that we sort of start to check ourselves about what we do and what we say and how we do it and how we say it to people, so I think it’s ultimately a good thing. But I can’t see too much of this coming up in (the show), up there on the platform, as it were, on the podium.”

The Globes haven’t traditionally predicted the Oscars, but they did last January. The Globes best-picture winners — “Moonlight” and “La La Land” — both ultimately ended up on the stage for the final award of the Oscars, with “Moonlight” emerging victorious only after the infamous envelope flub. The press association, which has worked in recent years to curtail its reputation for odd choices, is composed of approximately 90 freelance international journalists.

The last Globes broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, averaged 20 million viewers, an upswing of 8 percent, according to Nielsen. This year, Seth Meyers, will host the January 7 ceremony. He will have his hands full trying to keep a famously frothy show light amid such dark scandals for the movie industry.

Last year’s Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement honoree, Streep, spoke forcefully against then President-elect Donald Trump, shortly before his inauguration. Trump the next day criticized the actress as “overrated.” This year, Streep — along with Spielberg and Hanks — return with a pointed and timely drama about the power of the press to counter lies emanating from the White House.

Said Streep in a statement: “I’m thrilled for the movie, for Steven and Tom, and for the incredible ensemble of actors who made this movie need its moment in history.”

Associated Press’ Lindsey Bahr, Sandy Cohen and Ryan Pearson contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

BATON ROUGE, La. >> A Louisiana private investigator pleaded guilty today to misusing Donald Trump’s Social Security number in repeated attempts to access the president’s federal tax information before his election last year.

Jordan Hamlett, 32, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine following his guilty plea in federal court.

Authorities have said Hamlett failed in his attempts to get Trump’s tax information through a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website.

Trump has refused to release his tax returns, bucking an American tradition honored by every president since Jimmy Carter.

A court document accompanying Hamlett’s plea agreement says he used Trump’s Social Security number and other personal information to open an online application for federal student aid on Sept. 13, 2016. After obtaining a username and password, he tried to use an Internal Revenue Service data retrieval tool to obtain Trump’s tax information, the document says.

“The defendant made six separate attempts to obtain the federal tax information from IRS servers, but he was unsuccessful,” says the document. It doesn’t specify how much of Trump’s tax information could have been retrieved with the online tool.

Hamlett, a Lafayette resident, was indicted in November 2016. His trial had been scheduled to start this week, but the judge originally assigned to the case died on Saturday after a brief illness. U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles, who inherited the case, didn’t immediately schedule Hamlett’s sentencing hearing.

Defense attorney Michael Fiser had argued Hamlett didn’t have any “intent to deceive” and simply tried “out of sheer curiosity” to discover whether Trump’s tax information could be accessed through the government website.

After Hamlett’s guilty plea, Fiser said his client “still has a long road ahead” as he awaits sentencing.

“We felt like, under the circumstances, it was time to accept full responsibility and move forward to get closure,” Fiser said.

Federal agents confronted Hamlett two weeks before last November’s election and questioned him in a Baton Rouge hotel lobby. At the time, the agents didn’t know if Hamlett had been successful, and they feared a public release of Trump’s tax returns could influence the election, according to a transcript of court testimony earlier this year.

Treasury Department Special Agent Samuel Johnson testified in March that Hamlett immediately took credit for his “genius idea” to seek Trump’s tax returns from the financial aid website.

Johnson noted that an internet hacking group calling itself Anonymous had targeted Trump.

“At that time, Anonymous had been established as people that have released some of President Trump’s personal identifying information and things of that nature,” Johnson testified.

Federal prosecutors had asked Judge James Brady to bar Hamlett’s lawyer from presenting a trial defense that that he was acting as a benevolent “white hat” hacker. Brady, a senior federal judge who died Saturday at a Baton Rouge hospital, ruled last month that Hamlett couldn’t testify that he had a “good purpose” in attempting to test security flaws in the website.

Fiser said Hamlett had tried to call and notify the IRS about the flaws last September, on the same day he tried to electronically access Trump’s tax records.

Fiser said Hamlett liked to test security systems for weaknesses in his spare time and would notify system administrators if he found a system vulnerable to a security breach. Hamlett once discovered a security flaw that allowed for public access to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office’s “raw” reports on open investigations and exposed personal information about police officers.

“Hamlett tipped the sheriff’s office to the flaw and was met with thanks and appreciation, not an arrest,” his attorney wrote in a recent court filing.

After his indictment, Hamlett was arrested again in August for allegedly violating conditions of his pretrial release. Prosecutors said he committed “numerous violations,” including hacking into email and social media accounts of a man at the request of the man’s wife.

WASHINGTON >> Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said today, as President Donald Trump’s ordered ban suffered another legal setback.

The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand earlier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.

Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban and on Monday a federal court judge denied a government request to set aside the January start date for enlistment.

In October, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the Trump administration from proceeding with its plan to exclude transgender people from military service. Part of the effect of the ruling was that the military would be required to allow transgender people to enlist beginning Jan. 1.

The government had asked Kollar-Kotelly to put the Jan. 1 date on hold while they appealed her full ruling but she declined Monday, reaffirming the Jan. 1 start date. Department of Justice spokeswoman Lauren Ehrsam said this evening that the department will ask a federal appeals court to put on hold the Jan. 1 requirement “as we evaluate next steps.”

Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that could make it difficult for them to join the armed services.

Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the enlistment of transgender recruits will begin next month and proceed amid legal battles. The Defense Department also is doing a review, which is expected to carry into 2018.

Eastburn told the Associated Press today that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they’ve been clinically stable in the preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.

Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy must be stable on their medication for 18 months.

The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Barack Obama’s administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.

“Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,” Eastburn said.

Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center, an independent institute that has conducted research on sexual minorities in the military, said the 18-month timeline is fair.

“It’s a good standard because the Pentagon is treating gender dysphoria according to the same standards that are applied to all medical conditions,” he said.

However, Elaine Donnelly, president for the Center For Military readiness, said Trump “has every right to review, revise, or repeal his predecessor’s military transgender policies, which would detract from mission readiness and combat lethality.” Court judges, she said, are not qualified to run the military.

The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.

“The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it’s going to be on what terms,” said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration’s decisions. “That’s really where the controversy will lie.”

Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but “under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.” Carson, who worked for Carter as the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.

“It doesn’t have any basis in science,” he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. “But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that’s a reasonable position and defensible.”

Sarah McBride, spokeswoman for Human Rights Campaign, praised the court’s ruling, saying that it affirms “there is simply no legitimate reason to forbid willing and able transgender Americans from serving their country.”

NEWARK, N.J. >> Mario Batali has surrendered oversight of daily operations at his restaurant empire following reports of sexual misconduct by the celebrity chef over a period of at least 20 years.

The online site Eater New York, part of Vox Media, reported today that the incidents involve at least four women, three of whom worked for Batali. One of the women, none was named in the story, said that Batali groping her chest after wine had spilled on her shirt. Another said he grabbed her from behind and holding her tightly against his body.

In a prepared statement sent to The Associated Press, Batali said that the complaints “match up” with his past behavior.

“I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family,” Batali said.

A spokesperson for Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group says an employee reported inappropriate behavior by Batali in October. The company told Eater it was the first formal complaint against Batali and that he was reprimanded and required to attend training.

Batali will also take leave from his ABC cooking show, “The Chew.”

“We have asked Mario Batali to step away from The Chew while we review the allegations that have just recently come to our attention,” the network said today. “ABC takes matters like this very seriously as we are committed to a safe work environment. While we are unaware of any type of inappropriate behavior involving him and anyone affiliated with the show, we will swiftly address any alleged violations of our standards of conduct.”

A wave of sexual misconduct allegations have upended the political scene and embroiled Hollywood, gaining momentum after shocking allegations of abuse and assault by Harvey Weinstein.

The #metoo movement has brought down Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, and led to resignations in the U.S. House and Senate. There are new calls for President Donald Trump to address sexual misconduct allegations that he’s faced. Last week Time magazine named the “silence breakers,” those that have shared their stories about sexual assault and harassment, as Person of the Year.

The 57-year-old Batali was well known in culinary circles, taking jobs early in his career as a sous chef at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

His career took off after opening Po in New York City in the early 1990s, and he skyrocketed to fame with the airing of “Molto Mario,” a show that ran on the Food Network for eight years, until 2004. It was there that his signature look, a fleece vest, shorts, and orange Crocs, became instantly recognizable to most people.

The Food Network, which was planning to relaunch “Molto Mario,” said today that it was placing its plans on hold. “Food Network takes matters like this very seriously,” it said.

Batali also co-owns restaurants in a handful of cities. The Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group owns or operates several restaurants, including Babbo in New York, Carnevino Italian Steakhouse in Las Vegas and Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles. It’s also a partner in Eataly, an Italian food hall and grocer, which has locations in New York, Chicago and Boston.

Batali has long been socially active. The Mario Batali Foundation advocates child nutrition. He has come out forcefully against hydraulic fracturing, a method used to extract oil and gas.

Joseph Pisani in New York contributed to this report.

The National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory for most isles until 6 p.m. this evening.

The high surf advisory is in effect for north- and west-facing shores of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu and Molokai, with waves and for the north-facing shores of Maui and Hawaii island, with waves of 10 to 18 feet. For the west-facing shores of Oahu, waves are expected to reach 7 to 12 feet.

A northwest swell will continue to decline gradually today. Expect strong, breaking waves, shore break and strong rip currents, making swimming difficult and dangerous, weather officials said.

A small craft advisory for windward Maui and Hawaii island is also in effect until 6 p.m. today.