Brignone closes gap on super-G leader Gut-Behrami in race won by Germany's Aicher

LA THUILE, Italy (AP) — Federica Brignone closed the gap to leader Lara Gut-Behrami in the World Cup super-G standings to 45 points in a race on a shortened course won by German prodigy Emma Aicher on Thursday.

Earning her second career win, Aicher edged Sofia Goggia by 0.06 seconds.

Racing close to her Italian hometown in the Aosta Valley, Brignone had a wild ride to finish third, 0.39 behind Aicher but 0.08 ahead of fourth-placed Gut-Behrami.

Lauren Macuga, the American bronze medalist from last month's world championships, was 0.55 back in fifth.

Brignone almost lost her balance early on but got upright again using her left hand in the snow, then hooked a gate with her right arm later.

The Italian was seen cooling her right hand with ice in the finish area.

“I wanted too much … in front of my crowd,” said Brignone, who knew she “had no speed” after her near-fall.

“I tried even harder to go wild. And, actually, the mistake with the gate, it went really good because it could have been really worse for me. I don’t know how I didn’t crash.”

Gut-Behrami still led Brignone at the final split but lost 0.17 on the Italian in the finish section.

The Swiss standout criticized organisers for staging the race on a softened course after days of heavy snowfall.

“Everyone is just trying to have a race, the condition doesn’t matter or how the slope is. In the end, not the best race to watch and not the best race to ski,” Gut-Behrami said.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit hypocrite, because everyone is talking about safety and then we race in these conditions."

There are two super-Gs remaining this season: One on Friday, followed by the season-ending race at the finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, on March 23. A race win is worth 100 points.

Gut-Behrami has won five career World Cup super-G season titles, including three of the last four in a series interrupted only by Brignone in 2022.

Brignone, who is close to wrapping up her second career overall World Cup title, has finished in the top five in the last 16 World Cup races she completed, though she had two DNFs in giant slaloms in that period.

Lindsey Vonn fell early in her run but appeared unhurt. The American lost balance on her inside ski in a left turn, slid through a gate and lost her left ski, but stood up after a few seconds and later skied down the hill.

Vonn returned to World Cup racing this season at 40 with a titanium knee after six years away from the circuit.

Aicher's victory came less than two weeks after the all-event skier triumphed in a downhill in Norway.

Aicher had only one previous top-10 finish in a super-G this season, and her win on Thursday was the first for a German skier in a super-G in six years.

“Better than I thought it was going to be,” Aicher said about her season.

The German was the third starter in the race and said she benefited from racing early.

“I was a bit lucky with the bib, because it’s dark and soft and slow now,” Aicher said. “The bib was a big help today.”

A downhill race initially scheduled for Thursday was canceled after the mandatory training runs could not be held as the upper part of the 3 Franco Berthod course was unusable following the snowfall.

The super-G used a reserve start point lower down the mountain, reducing run times to around 58 seconds for the fastest racers.

The race was interrupted for half an hour after Brignone’s run as a course worker needed medical attention and was lifted off the hill by helicopter.

Cornelia Huetter had a nasty tumble when her left ski seemed to catch a bump, causing the Austrian to twist around, lose balance and slide into the safety netting. Huetter, who is the defending World Cup downhill champion, got up quickly and seemed to have avoided injury.

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Italy's Federica Brignone reacts after completing an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Italy's Federica Brignone reacts after completing an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

From left, second placed Italy's Sofia Goggia, the winner Germany's Emma Aicher and third placed Italy's Federica Brignone celebrate after an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

The winner Germany's Emma Aicher celebrates after an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Italy's Sofia Goggia speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Piermarco Tacca)

Germany's Emma Aicher speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Germany's Emma Aicher speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Piermarco Tacca)

Switzerland's Lara Gut Behrami speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Piermarco Tacca)

Switzerland's Lara Gut Behrami speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Piermarco Tacca)

Italy's Federica Brignone speeds down the course of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Piermarco Tacca)

Germany's Emma Aicher reacts after completing an alpine ski, women's World Cup super G race, in La Thuile, Italy, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

President Donald Trump hosts NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. The leader of the 32-member transatlantic military alliance meets Trump at a key moment for Europe and NATO, with Trump’s apparent pivot toward Russia leaving members uneasy. Trump meanwhile threatened 200% tariffs on European wine, champagne and spirits if the EU goes forward with a retaliatory tariff on American whiskey on April 1. And the Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law used to prosecute smugglers.

Here's the latest:

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A coalition including 20 states and the District of Columbia says the Trump administration’s sweeping Education Department layoffs are illegally dismantling an agency created by Congress.

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The federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Massachusetts says the layoffs make it impossible for the department to comply with its statutory requirements, will result in lost or delayed federal funding for public schools and leave the agency unable to administer college financial aid or enforce civil rights laws.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya once famously clashed with officials at the National Institutes of Health. Now he’s up for a full Senate vote with the approval of the Senate’s health committee.

Bhattacharya, who holds a medical degree but is not a practicing physician, was an outspoken critic of COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine policies.

He sidestepped committee questions about drastic funding cuts and mass firings, and vowed to focus attention on chronic diseases and encourage scientific dissent at the $48 billion agency, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research.

Dr. Marty Makary is on track to become the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

The Republican-controlled Senate health panel voted 14-9 to advance his nomination to the Senate floor. Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and John Hickenlooper of Colorado joined Republicans in favor.

Makary — a surgeon, author and researcher — is known for his contrarian views and is closely aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on many issues. Both are highly critical of food additives, ultraprocessed foods and the overprescribing of drugs.

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Top diplomats from the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are gathering as the bloc’s once-solid unity is thrown into disarray by Trump’s trade and foreign policies.

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▶ Read more on the G7 meetings in Canada

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Chinese commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian confirmed Thursday that ministry officials had reached out to Walmart following reports that the giant U.S. retailer was seeking price cuts from its Chinese suppliers to offset the cost of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

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By Zeke Miller and Mike Stobbe

▶ Read more on developments involving Trump and the CDC

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▶ Read more about Witkoff’s rise in Trump’s foreign policy apparatus

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▶ Read more on producer prices and inflation

Trump issued his threat on social media, saying he’d impose a 200% tariff on European wine, champagne and spirits if the European goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey on April 1.

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▶ Read more on Trump’s trade wars

It’s not clear when job cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency will show up in the weekly layoffs report, though some analysts expect them to surface in data in the coming weeks.

Those layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Senior U.S. officials set the government downsizing in motion weeks ago via a memo dramatically expanding President Donald Trump’s efforts to scale back the workforce. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now the Republican administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

▶ Read more about U.S. unemployment numbers

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have remained mostly in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

U.S. jobless claims filings fell by 2,000 to 220,000 for the week ending March 8, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s fewer than the 226,000 new applications analysts forecast.

The four-week average, which evens out some of the week-to-week swings, ticked up by 1,500 to 226,000.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 1 fell by 27,000 to 1.87 million.

The U.N. humanitarian chief says more than 300 million people across the globe need humanitarian support and many will die because funding from the United States and others is drying up.

Tom Fletcher told a U.N. news conference that the cuts have caused “a seismic shock.”

The Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. aid agency, USAID, and terminated 83% of its programs.

Across the humanitarian community, he said, programs have been stopped and staff have been laid off including about 10% in February from nongovernmental organizations doing humanitarian work.

Fletcher said that in December global experts estimated that 300 million people needed help in 2025, and the U.N. prioritized 190 million it was aiming to reach, which would cost $47 billion.

That number increased to 307 million in recent days, he said, but with the funding cuts, he can’t say with confidence that the U.N. will get anywhere near $47 billion. Now, U.N. colleagues in Geneva are trying to identify how to prioritize saving 100 million lives and how much that would cost.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio disembarks from a military airplane upon arrival at Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec, Canada, March 12, 2025, as he travels to a G7 Foreign Ministers meeting. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may be walking into unusually unfriendly territory this week when he meets his counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies — strong American allies stunned by President Donald Trump’s actions against them.

Just hours after Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs kicked in — prompting responses from the European Union and Canada and threatening to ignite full-scale trade wars with close U.S. partners — Rubio arrived at the scenic Quebec town of La Malbaie on the St. Lawrence River for two days of talks starting Thursday with the top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. All of them have been angered by the new American president’s policies.

Rubio will likely be hearing a litany of complaints about Trump’s decisions from once-friendly, like-minded countries in the G7 — notably host Canada, to which Trump has arguably been most antagonistic with persistent talk of it becoming the 51st U.S. state, additional tariffs and repeated insults against its leadership.

▶ Read more about Rubio’s G7 meeting

Mark Rutte, who heads the 32-member transatlantic military alliance, will meet with Trump at a pivotal moment for Europe and NATO.

Administration officials are pressing ahead with talks with Moscow to sign off on a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Trump believes could usher in a permanent end to Europe’s biggest land-war since World War II.

Thursday’s talks also come as Trump’s rhetoric on the alliance continues to leave members uneasy.

Trump last week suggested that the U.S. might abandon its commitments to the alliance if member countries don’t meet defense spending targets, a day after his pick for NATO ambassador assured senators that the administration’s commitment to the military alliance was “ironclad.”

The U.S. president also expressed doubt that NATO would come to the United States’ defense if the country were attacked. However, the alliance did just that after Sept. 11 — the only time in its history that the defense guarantee has been invoked.

The Education Department’s civil rights branch is losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration’s layoffs, effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands of complaints from students and families across the nation.

Among a total of more than 1,300 layoffs announced Tuesday were roughly 240 in the department’s Office for Civil Rights, according to a list obtained and verified by The Associated Press. Seven of the civil rights agency’s 12 regional offices were entirely laid off, including busy hubs in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Despite assurances that the department’s work will continue unaffected, huge numbers of cases appear to be in limbo.

The Trump administration has not said how it will proceed with thousands of cases being handled by staff it’s eliminating. The cases involve families trying to get school services for students with disabilities, allegations of bias related to race and religion, and complaints over sexual violence at schools and college campuses.

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▶ Read more about how layoffs are impacting the civil rights branch

An hours-long outage Wednesday on StudentAid.gov, the federal website for student loans and financial aid, underscored the risks in rapidly gutting the Department of Education, as Trump aims to dismantle the agency.

Hundreds of users reported FAFSA outages to Downdetector starting midday Wednesday, saying they were having trouble completing the form, which is required for financial aid at colleges nationwide. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, a group of people who handle colleges’ financial aid awards, also received reports of users experiencing technical issues and having trouble completing the FAFSA.

The developers and IT support staff who worked on the FAFSA form were hard hit in the Education Department’s layoffs Tuesday, along with staff buyouts and the termination of probationary employees. In all, the Education Department has reduced its staff by half, to roughly 2,000, since Trump took office.

▶ Read more about the layoffs at the Education Department

This combo of pictures show President Donald Trump, left, addressing a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025, and a handout of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attending a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis - Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Steel workers work at the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel plant in Hamilton, Ont., on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.(Nathan Denette /The Canadian Press via AP)

A construction crew works at a site in San Bruno, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, along with his son X Æ A-Xii, speak to reporters near Tesla vehicles on South Lawn of the White House Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (Pool via AP)